Nonfiction Ink

By Penny Sansevieri. Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

You know, I used to laugh at the “Christmas in July” ads until I promoted my first Christmas-related book. We actually started the promotion in July and it was the perfect time. Why? Well, maybe no one is buying or thinking about December in July, but the holiday buying season is tough. In order to make any kind of headway you must start early, not just to capture the December sales but also to get in front of any early shoppers. Once those Christmas in July ads start to hit radio and TV, consumers (those who like to shop early) start to gather ideas for their own shopping lists.

When is it too late to start thinking about the holiday market? November is definitely much too late, October is iffy, but if you’re staring September in the face and haven’t done a lick of marketing towards holiday sales, that might be your last chance. Better to start early – mid to late summer is always great. Here are some tips to help you get a head start on the holiday buying season.

Events: start early. If you’d like to do events in December, I suggest you start calling stores now. Many stores don’t do in-store events after Thanksgiving, but if you have local connections or some independent stores they might be open to this. Speaking at non-bookstore venues falls under the same category: start early.

Promos: start planning your promos in the fall. I recommend starting the promo roll-out right after Thanksgiving and planning a succession of promotional announcements all the way through late December. If you need to get special pricing on books or if you’re going to bundle your book with some other items this will give you plenty of time to plan for that.

Website: now is the time to make sure your website is ready for your holiday marketing. As you begin planning your promos make sure your web designer is ready to go to make any changes your site might need.

Targets: definitely define your target markets as soon as you can, the earlier the better. If you don’t have a good, solid idea of who you’re marketing to yet don’t use your holiday campaign to test this. Test market early. You’ll be glad you did. Don’t waste a holiday promo if you don’t have to. Knowing who you are going after will save you in costly marketing mistakes (and this goes for any time you are marketing).

E-books: I suspect with all the e-readers that have hit the market in the last 12 months, and with both Target and Best Buy carrying e-book readers, you’re going to see a lot of promo for this over the holidays. Make sure your book is keyed into this market, what I mean is: if you had planned to get your book converted to an e-book, now is the time. Also, you might want to offer a special promo, if someone buys your e-book have them forward you the receipt for an additional special holiday bonus.

Social media: if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter now is the time, and even if you are, this is a great time to maximize your efforts and plan how you’ll use your social media to enhance your holiday promos. Will you offer specials to your social media “tribe” only? Will you have exclusives just for them? Consider early on what your social media strategy will be.

Exposure: if your exposure online is minimal, now is the time to ramp it up. Contacting blogs, websites, doing article syndication, participating in blogs, doing guest blogging – all of these are great ways to gain exposure online. Remember, it’s not just about the holiday promos, it’s about making sure you are searchable online. Meaning that if someone searches on what you’re offering you’ll come up in the results. This will help you capture holiday shoppers who haven’t been exposed to you or your message yet.

The key to a successful holiday promotion is planning, and enough advanced marketing that you’re not spinning your wheels in the Fall wondering why you’re not making any traction. If you’re ready to explode your holiday market, start early, it’s the best way to make sure you have a spot waiting for you when the busiest shopping season of the year comes around again!

This weekly list covers prescriptive nonfiction books. For more details on publishing deals – including agents, editors, publishers, and book descriptions – visit PublishersMarketplace and subscribe to the Deals Report

COOKBOOKS

THE BY HAND KITCHEN
Alana Chernila

OPEN RANGE: A Civilized Guide to Steaks, Chops, and other Tender Hunks from a Happy Montana Carnivore: New West Cooking from Montana’s Famed Mint Bar & Cafe
Jay Bentley and Patrick Dillon

PURE BEEF
Lynne Sampson

INSANEWICHES: 101 Way to Think Outside the Lunchbox
Adrian Fiorino

SCANDINAVIAN CLASSIC BAKING
Pat Sinclair

QUICK AND EASY VEGAN BAKE SALE
Carla Kelly

VEGGIE ENTREES EVERY WHICH WAY
Lukas Volger

HEALTH/FITNESS/DIET

MFT’s THE EATING DISORDER RECOVERY BOOK: Stories, Meditations, and Exercises for Health and Freedom
Joanna Poppink

THE FOREVER FIX: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It
Ricki Lewis

SALT, SUGAR, FAT, an inside look at processed food
Michael Moss

REAL MOMS LOVE TO EAT: How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food and Still Look Fabulous!
Beth Aldrich, CHC, AADP with Eve Adamson

SELF-HELP/ADVICE/RELATIONSHIPS

NEVER LONELY AGAIN
Patricia Love, EdD, and Jon Carlson, Psy.D., EdD’s,

CHEAT ON YOUR HUSBAND (with your husband)
Andrea Syrtash

THE LIFEBOARD
Sue Shifrin-Cassidy, Linda Blum Huntington, and Eva Adrienne Anderson

IT’S ALL IN OUR HEADS
Chris Berdik

THE SUCCESS EQUATION
Paul Tough

SHMIRSHKY: Think Inside the Box
Ellen Dolgen and Jack Dolgen

THE INTERVENTION HANDBOOK
Bellaonline’s 12-step recovery editor Kathy L

HOW-TO

BEER CRAFT
Jessi Rymill and William Bostwick

THE BED BUG SURVIVAL GUIDE
Jeff Eisenberg

SECRETS OF POWER PROBLEM SOLVING
Roger Dawson

REFERENCE/GENERAL/OTHER

SUMMER HOUSES
Terry John Woods and Kindra Clineff

AT HOME WITH PLANTS: PLANTS IN THE HOME
Tovah Martin

BUSINESS/FINANCE/INVESTMENT

THE RISE AND FALL OF WAMU
Journalist Kirsten Grind

LINCOLN’S COUNSEL: Lessons from America’s Most Persuasive Speaker
Arthur Rizer

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF INFLUENCE: Your Passport to Powerful Persuasion
Dan Seidman

THE FINANCIAL AID HANDBOOK: How to Choose, Get In, and Pay for America’s Colleges and Universities
Carol Stack and Ruth

BUILT TO LOVE
Peter Boatwright and Jonathan Cagan

PARENTING

100 NATURAL REMEDIES FOR YOUR CHILD
Dr. Jared Skowron

RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL/METAPHYSICAL

FROM PLAGUES TO MIRACLES: The Spiritual Journey of Exodus That Can Transform Your Life
Robert Rosenthal, M.D

THE HERBAL ALCHEMIST’S HANDBOOK
Karen Harrison

PAGAN EARTH: A Manual of Spiritual Ecology
John Michael Greer

WHO ARE YOU IN THE TAROT?
Mary Greer

CASTINGS: The Creation of Sacred Space
Ivo Dominguez Jr.

SCIENCE

MAD LIKE TESLA: Clean Energy Revolutionaries and Their Struggle Against Inertia
Tyler Hamilton

WHAT THE EARTH SOUNDS LIKE
Eva Everything

Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say about Stephen Markley’s latest book Publish This Book: “It doesn’t matter what problems you’ve got with Markley’s sprawling, self-referential account of his efforts to sell a book about his efforts to sell the book he’s writing at that very moment—he’s already anticipated your criticisms, from the imperfect echoes of writers like Dave Eggers and Chuck Klosterman to the preponderance of dick jokes and other forms of frat boy humor. Of course, on a basic level, the book is a stupid idea, he admits early on; later, he concedes, I’ve just been winging it, and it shows. He might have been better off cutting down some of the more self-indulgent sections, like a mini-history of his tenure as a political sex columnist for his college paper or an exploration of the fake memoir phenomenon featuring made-up conversations with Chicago drug dealers and underprivileged high school students. But there are compelling, emotionally resonant passages, too: a reflection on what it’s like to shake loose the influence of a literary mentor, for example, or a best friend’s realization of just how much an unplanned pregnancy has changed his life.”

Q: What can you tell us about your current book Publish This Book?

Publish This Book was basically a bizarre post-post-modern concept born of my frustration at trying to get a novel or non-fiction book published. I felt as if I’d been banging my head against the wall for awhile trying to get a writing career off the ground, and so it was my way of venting some of that frustration. Or at least, at first it was because it grew into something far different. It’s a book not only for writers but anyone who has ever found him or herself at a juncture in life (especially when you’re young) that made no sense–where every route looks iffy at best. I feel as if it’s a deeply hopeful book masquerading as a cynic’s rant—which incidentally is the sanest way to approach life.

Q: Why did you pursue traditional publishing?

I definitely could never have been satisfied by self-publishing. Maybe I need the validation, but the way I look at it, self-publishing is kind of admitting that you’re not talented enough to break through. I know that sounds somewhat snobby and that there are plenty of examples of self-publishing success, but it’s like blogging: anyone can do it, so where’s the differentiation? Also, I clearly couldn’t self-publish a book called “Publish This Book” where the whole story is about me trying to attract the attention of agents and editors. Otherwise, it would have been one chapter of me sending a manuscript off to the bookbinder.

Q: What is your writing process?

PTB was unlike anything I’d ever written before because I was essentially just recording events two months after they happened. It was part diary, part literary endeavor, which at times made it incredibly complex to deal with emotionally. Most of the time when you write a memoir you have years to reflect on events and put them in some kind of context. I had to ferret out the context of a lot of things on the fly. I wrote it over the course of roughly two years, but most of the book got written in a four-month frenzy where I was staying up until two or three in the morning working on my little lawn chair or a mattress on my floor. I’d go to work the next day and be into my third cup of coffee before noon. It basically gave me a life-long sleeping disorder, I think. Don’t want to say too much, though, because this is a lot of what the book is about (with a lot more profanity).

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Have people read what you’re writing. Don’t sit in a basement and try to hammer out genius by yourself because it will make you tired and bitter and crazy. It will be especially daunting when someone tells you what you’ve been working on all this time is not that good because he or she is the first person to have ever laid eyes on it. This was a mistake I made early in my life as a writer and one I have since corrected with a vengeance. Join a writing group and stick with it. Don’t take criticism personally. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt to have a small, manageable drinking problem. You’ll meet all the smartest people over beers.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m always working on something. I certainly didn’t want to be a writer for the money (although, damn, that would really nice). I do it because it’s a compulsion, one that I still don’t fully understand. Because this project is still four-fifths existent entirely in my head, I’ll refrain from trying to explain. I will say that I hold out a very dim, very killable hope that PTB will be enough of a success that I can sustain myself on just writing books. That’s got to be every writer’s dream, right? To just be able to hole up in a log cabin, write whatever you want and ship it off to the presses? This is clearly stupid, but I’m going to go ahead and think of wistfully for a few more years anyway.

CONNECT WITH STEPHEN MARKLEY:
Website: http://www.stephenmarkley.com

By Susan Gilbert, America’s Focus Expert. Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

1. Make the videos viral, and spread them to as many websites as possible.

2. Use other social media sites like Twitter and Digg to post your videos.

3. Create well thought out, professional style videos that are edited properly.

4. Make sure the sound on your videos is clear and mixed and edited well so users can clearly hear it.

5. Keep content funny, engaging, and informative so viewers will watch it from beginning to end.

6. Try to keep the videos you create clean without too much controversial material.

7. Embed your logo and website into the video somehow. You can do this with text at the end or beginning, or by including your logo or URL throughout the entire video.

8. Have goals for your YouTube videos, but remember that there are thousands of videos on the site, and some have millions of hits while others only have a couple hundred. Set realistic goals.

9. Make sure you have good camera and editing equipment. If you don’t want to sink the money into these things, consider hiring a professional.

10. Keep the resolution of the video as high as possible, so it’s as clear as it can be.

11. Think about overall color schemes. Some videos may record in a yellow or red hue. This can affect viewer’s opinions subliminally, so try to keep the colors realistic.

12. Be yourself. Do not lose sight of the purpose and mission of the video. Be yourself and loosen up when speaking.

13. Remember that nothing is perfect in online videos unless you have a professional editor, so just have fun and keep the goal in mind.

14. Practice before posting the final video. Do a few dry runs before taping and publishing.

15. Create a series of ongoing videos or stories, so users will be hooked and want to learn more.

16. Do more than just talk. People don’t want to sit and watch a person just talking to the camera. Make it exciting and interesting as well as fun.

17. Try to limit the video to a couple of minutes if possible. After about two and a half minutes, users generally tend to lose interest and move onto something else.

18. Stick to a schedule if you record a series, otherwise people will just give up on the videos. Be sure to release the next ones on time.

19. Have a sign off that people will remember, then stick to it. This creates a sense of branding.

20. Ask for feedback from your viewers. Some people will not comment unless you ask them to.

21. Assemble a cast of characters. Use other people in the videos beside yourself. Recruit friends, coworkers, and family members to be actors in the videos.

22. Do not use music on your video that you do not have the rights to. This can lead to all kinds of problems, so either use your own or get permission.

23. Do not forget that the title of the video is just as important as the content.

24. Grab viewers by integrating important keywords into the title. This also helps boost the search engine results.

25. Use tags in addition to the keywords, as this also gets peoples’ attention.

26. If people post negative comments, ignore them. By “feeding the trolls” you are encouraging their bad behavior and you might say something you regret later on.

27. Use as many places as you can to embed your video, like Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Twitter, your home page, and many other places.

28. Let your email subscribers and customers know when a new video is posted.

29. Add your video to various communities and subject areas of YouTube for more exposure.

30. Be sure to thank people who post positive comments or consider themselves followers of your videos.

31. Be aware that not all videos you create will be a hit. It is a hit and miss venture, so be patient and practice making good videos.

32. Write the script in advance. While impromptu videos are fun, it’s really easy to mess up the vision when you improvise.

33. Use analytics tools like YouTube Insight to track your sources and hits.

34. Actually use the word “video” in your title, since people usually include this word, and it will get a lot more results in the search engines.

35. Do not make your video an ad. In other words, get a point across but do it without trying to sell something.

36. Choose the thumbnail wisely. YouTube actually lets users choose their thumbnails so do it carefully and thoughtfully.

37. You can delete comments, so do not hesitate to get rid of negative or rude comments under your video.

38. You can release more than one video at once, so if you have several at a time, feel free to do so.

39. Be real and do not try to fake out your viewers. Most people can spot a fake video or something that isn’t sincere.

40. Have fun and focus on fun, so you’re creating something people will want to share and forward to others.

41. Aside from your logo and website, include a way for people to contact you or your business via email.

42. Watch others and learn. By viewing other videos that are related to your business, you can get a feel for what people are doing, and what others are saying about it.

43. Stick to your target audience. Don’t try to branch out too far from your purpose, or you could easily lose loyal followers.

44. Upload webcam live videos. Have a webcam located at your office, or other location, and then upload this onto your YouTube channel. It’s a fun way to get others involved in the day to day operations of what you are doing.

45. Make a channel and profile. This gives viewers a home base to look at your videos and check on any new ones.

46. Do not use cuss words or inappropriate language and behavior.

47. Use props, costumes, and other “organic” things in your video. Fancy editing does not always make for the best viewing.

48. Try to open each video with a small montage, song, or your logo, so that people easily recognize your business or who you are.

49. Utilize Yahoo Video and other sites to get your video exposed to other audiences.

50. Specify your channel type, and have a clear sense of what you’re offering on the channel’s main page.

This weekly list covers prescriptive nonfiction books.  For more details on publishing deals – including agents, editors, publishers, and book descriptions – visit PublishersMarketplace and subscribe to their Deals Report.

BUSINESS/FINANCE/INVESTMENT

BREAKING AWAY: How To Finish First Through Innovation and Leadership
Bilal Kaafarani and Jane Stevenson

LEVERAGING HR PROCESSES TO DRIVE BUSINESS OUTCOMES: A Practitioner’s Guide
Scott Mondore and Shane Douthitt

MADNESS TO METHOD: Seven Obsessions for Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs
Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry

UNTITLED
James Marshall Reilly

HEALTH/FITNESS/DIET

SIX WEEKS TO SKINNY JEANS
Amy Cotta

PARENTING

MAMA’S ON A BUDGET
Rosalyn Hoffman

THE SEVEN SINS OF PARENTING AN ONLY CHILD
Carolyn White

YOU’LL LOSE THAT BABY WEIGHT (And Other Lies About Pregnancy and Childbirth)
Dawn Meehan

REFERENCE/GENERAL/OTHER

CRAFT BOOK
Jazz Domino Holly

DISCOVER THE GIFT
Demian Lichtenstein and Shajen Joy Aziz

IN LIVING CONVERSATION
Bob Fecho

RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL/METAPHYSICAL

THROW IT DOWN: Leaving Behind the Behaviors and Dependencies that Hold You Back
Jud Wilhite

VENEER: Living Deeply in a Surface Society
Timothy Willard and R. Jason Locy

SELF-HELP/ADVICE/RELATIONSHIPS

BLAH BLAH BLAH: WHAT TO DO WHEN WORDS DON’T WORK
Dan Roam

BOYS LIE
Belisa Vranich

ENGAGEMENT CHICKEN and 99 Other Recipes to Get Everything You Want Out of Life
Cindi Leive

JAKE’S LAWS
Cindi Leive

30 THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE AND SHOULD KNOW BY THE TIME SHE’S 30
Cindi Leive

31 DATES IN 31 DAYS
Tamara Duricka

THE NUEVA LATINA’S GUIDE TO LOVE, FAMILY, SPIRITUALITY AND LA VIDA
Sandra Guzman

TRAVEL

EUROPE ON FIVE BAD IDEAS A DAY
Doug Mack

Carma Spence-Pothitt has more than 20 years experience in marketing communications, as well as writing and editing, in the fields of health care, food and wine, computers, business, television, biology and agriculture. She can research, digest and write highly technical material while making this same material comprehensible to people unfamiliar with the topic. She has built her career on helping people understand something that is new to them, taking information—from dry facts to common knowledge to scientific research—and making it sparkle with life.

Q: What can you tell us about your latest book Home Sweet Home Page?

In my business I help creative professionals build a thriving web presence. Part of that is to make sure that my clients’ websites are effective and accomplish the goals they have set for them. And what I found was that many clients were making the same, simple mistakes … mistakes that I kind of took for granted. So, I wrote the book to not only help my clients, but to also get these simple fixes out to as many people as I could.

Q: Why did you pursue self-publishing?

I chose to self-publish because it was faster and served my goal of the book being a “big business card” better. I chose to publish through Lulu because I had used them before and found the process to be fairly easy. I pretty much do all the design and layout myself and Lulu makes that easy to do.

Q: What is your writing process?

Having an outline of what the five deadly mistakes were really helped me write swiftly. The content just flowed.

The part that took the longest was after I wrote it. I did a proof read on it. My husband started to then sat on it for a few months. Then I hired a proofreader and the sat on those edits for a few months. I think I had a mental block to publishing the book.

But once I overcame that, the marketing park took over and I gave myself about four to five months to get my virtual launch party all together.

Q: What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

Be very clear on the goal you want this book to achieve. Depending on what your goal is, you could create a quick and easy book, like I did, or something more complex. Your goal sets the tone of your book, and dictates much of the process you will go through to create it. Also, knowing your goal before hand will help you evaluate it’s effectiveness once it is completed.

Q: Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I’m working on about four business books right now. The first three are based on transcripts of a teleseminar series I did about a year ago. I was supposed to have completed them by now, but again I’ve been working on blocks to the process.

The fourth book is an expansion of a blog post I wrote a few years ago that has been very popular. In the post I asked the question, “If public speakers were super heroes, what would their powers be?” I’m now interviewing several successful public speakers about their answer to that question and will be compiling them, as well as my own personal experience, into a book due out next spring.

I also intend to finish an anthology and a novel before five years is out. And, I have dreams of co-writing a celebrity biography.

CONNECT WITH CARMA

Book Website

Dragon Wyze Website

Twitter: @CarMap

Facebook

Facebook Fan Page

By Penny Sansevieri. Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

There’s a story that circulated heavily back when Van Halen was still actively touring. The story was part of the whole “aren’t they diva’s” that fan mags used to love to kvetch about. It started when Van Halen insisted that the concert venue have a bowl of M&M’s in their dressing room but remove all the brown ones. Turns out it wasn’t a diva-act at all. Eddie Van Halen was a perfectionist and the band had extensive lighting and sound requirements for each performance. Eddie knew that if he checked the bowl and there were brown M&M’s that likely the venue hadn’t read the contract and things that would directly affect the show were likely overlooked as well. Really a brilliant move. With one simple clause inserted he could be alerted to a potential problem before it affected their show. So how does this relate to book marketing? Well, my question is: what are your brown M&M’s? Or better yet, what are some key things that are in place to help you know if your marketing is working, or if it isn’t?

So often, we plod along, marketing and marketing and then when our royalty check arrives we find that our sales are paltry at best and assume that our marketing isn’t working. Measuring success in sales is not a good barometer for success. Why? If you need clarification of this you should read my piece on Why (Some) Authors Fail. Find other triggers. Let’s look at a few.

First off let’s look at some numbers. No, not book sales, other numbers. How is your Twitter account doing? How much traffic are you getting to your Facebook Fan Page? What about your website? Do you notice any trends in your work as it correlates to your traffic and/or Twitter sign-ups? Keep in mind that if you’re blogging, twittering, and using Facebook and you’re not increasing traffic then something is wrong. In other words, brown M&M’s everywhere.

What about speaking or book events? If you do these ask yourself how successful they are. Do you get lots of newsletter sign-ups when you do these? Do you make lots of sales? If not, why do you even bother? More brown M&M’s.

Your website: if you’re getting traffic, what are they doing when they land there? Nothing? You have more brown M&M’s than you know what to do with. Your website is your 24/7 sales tool and if it’s not working for you, it’s working against you.

They key focus here is that you need to find a good, solid set of triggers. If those triggers aren’t responding, or in some cases are, then you know that you have a bigger problem. Make sure that you’re doing periodic “sound checks” to make sure your marketing campaign is operating at its peak and most of all, make darned sure there are no brown M&M’s.

MEASURING RESULTS

Now, let’s look at how to measure results. It’s one thing to be aware of all of these issues, it’s quite another to figure out how to track them.

Twitter: There are a bunch of Twitter analytic tools (meaning tools that help you analyze your Twitter traffic, sign-ups, etc). My favorite is: TwitterCounter.com, but if you’re looking for a variety, here’s a great list to choose from.

Speaking events: so how do you know if your events aren’t working? Well, let’s do a quick check-in. First off, do you feel like you’re getting good leads from the event? Are people buying your book? Are you getting asked back? Does speaking help to sell other products or services? When I speak, it’s not always about selling my book, though my bookis my business card, it’s really about introducing new authors to our company. Ask yourself if you’re doing this for the fame of doing a speaking gig or if they are really paying off for you. It could also be that you’re not doing enough promotion to support the event. For example, if you’re doing an event in a bookstore you should always try and promote the event to the local media as well as any local lists you have.

Website: if you have analytics on your site (and you should) take a look at traffic patterns on specific days that you push content such as each time you blog, or daily as you post to Twitter. You need to look at “unique visitors” as well as where they’re coming from. An analytics report will show how and where the traffic is finding you. For example, you might read the report and see that 30% of your traffic is finding you through your Twitter account. What does this tell you? It tells you that you need to spend more time on Twitter because 30% is a very high number. Having a look at traffic will really help you understand the places you’re getting traffic from and then when you discover this, you can create a roadmap to follow in the future. You can dump the useless stuff and do more of what matters.

The Van Halen story is a great one and can be applied to virtually any industry you’re in. Setting up systems so you can be alerted to problems before they arise is always smart and will save you not only time, but valuable marketing dollars as well.

This weekly list covers prescriptive nonfiction books. For more details on publishing deals – including agents, editors, publishers, and book descriptions – visit PublishersMarketplace and subscribe to the Deals Report

ADVICE / RELATIONSHIPS / SELF-HELP

THE COURAGE COMPANION: How to Live with True Power
Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons

LOVECASTS: The Astrological Guide to Finding Lasting Love
Judi Vitale

CHANGE YOUR LIFE!: A Little Book of Big Ideas
Allen Klein

EVERY DAY LOVE: The Delicate Art of Caring for Each Other
Judy Ford

EMBRACE WHAT’S CHASING YOU
Ragini Michaels

ATONEMENT: The Next Step in Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Phil Cousineau

HOME: Or Why I Decided to Hug More, Jump More, Skip Piano Lessons, Resist Happiness Leeches, and Generally Lighten Up
Gretchen Rubin

RESTORING TRUST: The Secrets for Creating Solid Trust in Your Relationship
Mira Kirshenbaum

HOW-TO

THE WOODWORKING ANSWER BOOK
Spike Carlsen

READY, SET, NOVEL!
Staff of National Novel Writing Month

HEALTH / FITNESS / DIET

CHUBSTER
Martin Cizmar

LOVE YOUR BRAIN: A Field Guide for Women
Sondra Kornblatt

THE FOUNDATION
Dr. Eric Goodman and Peter Park

CONTROL AT LAST: The Breakthrough Diet for Diabetics, Pre-diabetics, and Anyone Concerned about Eating Healthy
Joyce Schneider and Robert Schneider, MD

REFERENCE / GENERAL / OTHER

101 REASONS TO SHOP
Jessica Waldorf

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Dr. Edward Griffor

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPACE AND ASTRONOMY
Mark Moldwin

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Dr. Marc Menetrez

PARENTING

BABY SQUARED
Jane Roper

THE BULLY ACTION GUIDE: Getting the School to Listen When Your Child is Being Bullied
Edward Dragan, PhD

RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL / METAPHYSICAL

THE CURE OF THE CHRONIC LIFE
Deanna Favre and Shane Stanford

HOW TO FIND YOUR POWER EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN CONTROL: A Practical Spirituality for Embracing Life’s Unknowns
Staci Boden

THE WEISER FIELD GUIDE TO SHAMANISM
Colleen Deatsman

BUSINESS / INVESTING / FINANCE

SUN TZU FOR WOMEN
Becky Sheetz-Runkle

THE PATH TO SUCCESS FOR HIGHLY CREATIVE WOMEN
Gail McMeekin

THE RETAIL REVOLUTION: Transformation of the World’s Biggest Industry
Michael Dart

BUSINESS LITERACY SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR HR PROFESSIONALS
Regan Garey

HOW TO BE A PRESENTATION GOD: Build, Design, and Deliver Presentations That Dominate
Scott Schwertly

SCIENCE

CLIMATE MANAGEMENT: Solving The Problem
Julie Casper

Kim Pearson is an author and ghostwriter. Her own works include Making History: How to Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life; You Can Be an Author, Even If You’re Not a Writer; Dog Park Diary: The Social Round of Goody Beagle; and Eating Mythos Soup. She has ghostwritten more than 30 nonfiction books and memoirs, which tell the stories of a wide variety of people and cover a broad range of topics. Her new program “Living as a Ghost” teaches others the fine art of ghostwriting. To learn more about her books or services, visit www.primary-sources.com.

Q:  What can you tell us about your latest book, Making History: How To Remember, Record, Interpret and Share the Events of Your Life?

Making History is based on a class I began teaching in 2000, and still teach today. I originally started teaching the class in senior centers or retirement complexes, mostly to people in their 70s. They were being pestered by their children and grandchildren to “write it down” and share stories of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. I was blown away by the complexity, wisdom, and beauty in their stories; all the humor, all the tragedy – and the courage they showed in revealing their lives and the lessons they had learned. They motivated me to share my stories of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, when I was a child and young adult. I realized that my generation, we infamous baby-boomers, were the ones my class (and later on, my book) was targeted toward. Our elders are getting ready to leave, and we ourselves are coming up on old. We need and want our elders’ stories, and we need and want to tell our own to our children’s generation. One of the most common remarks I hear when people see my book is “I wish I had this book while Grandma/Grandpa/Dad/Mom/Aunt Susie/Etc., was alive.” Because the truth is, when you die your stories die too – unless you have written them down. Making History gives you the tools you need to remember and preserve your stories for future generations.

I think there are four main reasons it is important that we share our stories: 1) Our stories connect us to each other, to the future, and to the past. We are all a part of history; we are actors, not just reactors, and we are also witnesses. 2) Our stories pass along our wisdom; all good teachers know that the best way to teach someone is not to preach at them, but to tell them a story. 3) Our stories inspire each other – when we tell a story in which we (or someone else) acted with compassion, bravery, creativity, perseverance, dignity, etc. – then we have proved that it is possible, and we can inspire others to do the same. 4) Our stories heal each other – and ourselves – by enabling us to understand and forgive.

Making History provides a comprehensive, easy to use, fun method of finding one’s place in history. It covers: 1) how to remember one’s stories; 2) how to record stories; 3) how to interpret one’s stories; and 4) how to share stories.  Often people are daunted just by the sheer volume of their memories. To address this challenge, recent history (1930 to 1989) has been broken down into eight categories and two 30-year time periods.  A narrative describing styles and trends, plus detailed event timelines are provided in each of these categories and timeframes, which act as memory triggers. A series of questions is provided in each category, also designed to stimulate memory and a sense of time past. Many examples of stories relating to the categories are shared, from my own writing and from others.  Making History also contains a method for writing one’s stories, which non-writers and even writing-haters found fun and easy. Making History also shows how to give meaningful feedback to increase understanding and communication, and even how to conduct a class based on this book.

Making History’s purpose is to show how each individual helps to create history. Individuals are actors on the world’s stage, not just reactors. Each personal life, made up of actions, thoughts and feelings, has historical consequences. Making History asks: Where did you make a difference? What did you contribute? What did you witness?  Making History illuminates personal power. It provides an antidote to despair and apathy.

Q:  Why did you choose to pursue self-publishing?

Making History was originally written primarily but as an adjunct to my work as a ghostwriter of memoirs, and as a teacher of memoir writing. It was important to me to get the book into print as fast as possible, in order to sell it during classes, or have it as a reference in my class, and also to convince people to hire me to write their memoirs for them – in other words, as a marketing tool for my writing services.  At the time I wrote it, I did not envision it as a book that would sell elsewhere.  That is why I self-published it with Wyatt-Mackenie’s Imprint program, which has many of the benefits of self-publishing along with some benefits of working with a traditional publisher.

As it turns out, I was wrong about the book’s appeal. It has sold well to historical and genealogical societies, senior organizations, and the general public.  I’ve made some money, and the book continues to sell now, three years after it was published.

Q:  What is your writing process?

Because Making History was based on a class, it took me about 5 years to write it if I count the time I spent developing (and teaching) the class. Because Making History is not a true history book, but contains a compilation of historical events acting as memory triggers, it was not necessary for me to do a lot of in-depth scholarly research. Most of my research for the timelines was done via the internet and reading reference books, cross-checking facts, and so on. The rest of the book is based on many personal stories, my own and the participants in my classes. I taught this memoir writing class for nearly 5 years before I wrote the book based on the class, and the class itself evolved over time – more stories, more subjects, more facts gathered.

After I decided to write the book, it took about one year of intense writing of introductions, conclusions and stories. The book closely follows the structure of the class, interspersed by the personal stories my students shared during the class (and which I was smart enough – or lucky enough – to write down as I heard them.)  I devoted about 5 to 10 hours a week to writing Making History, depending on how much client work I had at the time.  I solicited feedback from other book professionals, especially publishing and marketing strategists, after the book was written – and of course a copyeditor to catch those pesky typos. (I swear they breed in the night, like maggots.)

Q:  What advice or tips can you give other entrepreneurs and experts who are considering writing a book?

When I was writing only my own “stuff,” I couldn’t make enough money to quit my day job and be a writer full time. It wasn’t until I started writing for other people that I was able to go out on my own. There’s a lesson in there somewhere – I think it is this:  “It’s not about you.”

Virtually everything I write, whether it’s my own fiction or ghostwriting non-fiction for others, is based on Story. (With a capital S.) I believe everything important is contained in our stories, and that Story is the primary vehicle for us to share ourselves with others. We tell our stories in order to discover our truth. We listen to stories for the same reason. In fact, I think we create truth by means of stories.

Even when you write your own stuff, it still isn’t about you – it’s always about your readers. If there weren’t any readers, there’d be no point in writing. Writing is just another way of communicating; but writing allows you to communicate without the restrictions of time and space. I think if you keep “it’s not about you” in front of you all the time, you can’t go far wrong.

My other piece of advice is “Don’t give up.” I was nearly 50 when I started this new career.

Q:  Are you working on your next project and can you tell us about it?

I am busy ghostwriting two books currently, but I’m also working on my own project, another novel. It’s about the meaning of identity and how storytelling helps us define who we are. It has elements of memoir, suspense, and the traditional folktale. I hope to finish it within the next year, despite the challenge in writing that many books at once.

CONNECT WITH KIM:

Website

Primary Sources Blog

Facebook Page

Twitter: @StoryKim

By Penny Sansevieri. Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

In the past few months, I’ve come in contact with numerous bloggers who are ready to take their work from blog to book. Maybe it’s the influence of movies like Julie and Julia, it’s hard to tell, but suffice it to say the idea of selling your blog to a publisher is very appealing to a good many bloggers. But what does it really take to get your blog noticed? Here are some tips if you’re trying to raise the bar on your blog and get it noticed by a publisher:

Ironically, many of the rules of good blogging apply to this article and the first is: Blog often. If you’re a serious blogger you are likely posting daily, if you’re not, then you probably don’t have much to say. If you want to get your blog noticed, you need to be blogging daily. Why? Because it’ll not only help you look massively articulate, but it’ll really help with your traffic and search ranking, and let’s face it: If no one is finding you, how do you expect a publisher to discover your work?

Write great blog posts: OK, I know this is probably another “duh” tip, but here’s the deal: if you’re blogging every day you need to keep your writing strong. Not all your blog posts will be worthy of front page news, but your writing must remain consistently good and your blog posts should be unique, helpful, enlightening, or whatever your goal for the blog is.

Be consistent in your message: in other words, don’t change horses mid-race. If you start a blog on, let’s say, dogs, don’t start talking about guinea pigs three posts into it. You’ll have a boatload of dog people going “huh?” Keep it topical and on message always.

Educate yourself in publishing: if you’re going to compete in this market (meaning publishing) you’re going to want to get to know the industry. Go to (writers) conferences, read some of the trade publications (like Publishers Weekly) and dig into this market. If you find that what you’re blogging on is super-hot, you might want to ramp up the promotion of your blog.

See who’s buying what: there’s a site I highly recommend called publishersmarketplace.com. You can register there for either their free or paid Publishers Lunch newsletter, and with that you’ll also get Lunch Weekly, which shows you who is signing and what they’re buying. If you get a membership on the site you can also dig in and find Editors and Agents that might be interested in your topic.

Tell people you have a blog: do you have a signature file on your email? If you don’t you should, this is the first and one of the best places to promote a blog. Second, get business cards and make sure your blog address is listed there.

Get a unique URL: if you’re going to be a serious blogger get a serious domain name. Yes, you can get sallyauthor.blogspot.com but that’s not your own property. Meaning that Google still owns this. If you’re going to be a real blogger, do you really want someone else owning your blog? I don’t think so. Buy a domain name and make sure your blog is hosted there.

Brand yourself: when you’re ready and you have the budget, find someone who can turn your blog into a custom site. They’re great and super easy to do (read: not that expensive) and make a fantastic first impression.

Do some social networking on blogs: get to know your space, meaning get to know who else is doing what you’re doing and make friends. Unless you’re sitting on the most original idea on the planet, I don’t believe in competition. Get to know who else is out there and start commenting on their blog posts so they know you. There’s a great way to discover the top people in your market. Go to a blog search site like Google blog search, type in your keyword and start following the top five bloggers in your market. See what they do, learn from the pros and then thank them for their knowledge by posting helpful comments on their blog (bloggers love comments, by the way). I have a whole article on social networking on blogs that you can read here. Many of the tips will be helpful to you as you continue to cyber-schmooze online.

Market your blog: now that you have a unique URL and branding, you’re going to want to start marketing it. You can do this by getting a Twitter page and feeding your blog through your account (you can use Twitterfeed.com to do this). You should also consider getting a Facebook Fanpage (again branded to your blog) and feed your blog through that as well. Why do you want to do this? Well, it’s important to get as many access points as possible, right? Social networking sites are feeder sites. Use the content on these sites to help you dig deeper into your markets and gather new readers for your blog.

Make your blog shareable: Make sure that folks can share your blog posts to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and all the social bookmarking sites. It’s an easy widget to add and most blogs come with this pre-installed.

Social bookmarking: it’s good to social bookmark all your posts. Yes, and I do mean all of them. You should bookmark on the major sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Social Poster. You can add more to this list but those are the majors.

Keep good track of your stats: this is another reason why you want to have your own site: so you can keep track of your traffic, which you can’t do if someone else owns your domain. You’ll want to keep a close eye on your blog traffic and learn how to read the site analytics (which is a lot easier than it sounds).