After you’ve told everyone, including your barista, and you even have some tentative dates for author events, what next?  I’m going to assume this is your first book, you’re new to this like I was, and you’ll be having some books shipped to your home. Here are ten things I learned:

1.            Decide if you want to recover any expenses you have incurred. My husband and I chose to donate all proceeds to nursing scholarships where I used to teach.  That makes promotion fun.

2.            Start a blog at least six months before your book’s release date. Instead of repeating myself when setting up author events, I can refer prospective hosts to my blog for more information.

3.            Be selective in your social media. I joined groups that I could contribute to as well as benefit from. Too many groups or “friends” will take up too much time.

4.            Be prepared for mailings. I bought the right-sized envelopes online; found out the book rate for postage so I could advertise the mailing rate along with the book cost on my blog; ordered return address labels, business cards, and promo postcards (to use as bookmarks); and had my mailing station set up on my kitchen bar when the initial onslaught of orders arrived.

5.            Order a stamp to use for people writing checks at your author events. I notice that buyers standing in line are surprised to have a professional-looking stamp that speeds up their wait.

6.            Buy a jazzy looking roller bag to roll into author events. I almost had to go to my first event with books in a red picnic basket, but found a chic black and white case just in time.  The case holds thirty books, change purse (cosmetic bag), stamp, postcards, business cards, and pens.

7.            Order a PO Box if convenient. I didn’t want my home address on my blog, so I could direct orders to the PO Box.

8.            Set up a separate e-mail address for book-related correspondence. I find it much easier to keep my other accounts separate.

9.            If your publisher will not be giving you a media kit, write one up of your own and post it on your blog. It’s convenient to have this information readily available for inquirers.

10.          Determine the number of books you want to give away. I gave copies to all persons who were helpful to me along the way, plus to venues like libraries and colleges that sponsored me.

Finally, when your books arrive, throw yourself a party. Invite EVERYONE. You deserve every accolade that comes your way!

Lois Roelofs longed to fly the friendly skies but in 1968 minister’s daughters did not become stewardesses. They chose practical careers like teaching or nursing. For the entire first year of nursing school, Lois made weekly calls home to beg her parents to let her come home. Then her instructors decided she had a “bad attitude”. Despite her lukewarm feelings about a nursing career Lois set out to prove those cranky old instructors wrong.

Lois’s attitude, as well as her feelings about nursing, changed radically during her over 30 year career. She retired in the year 2000 as professor emerita from Trinity Christian College with Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in nursing. But even that wasn’t enough classroom time for Lois. She recently completed three years of the University of Chicago Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults. She now spends her days writing and being a happy grandma. Lois is the author of Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor’s Journey of Faith and Self

Lois’s website: http://loisroelofs.com/

Caring Lessons’ excerpts: http://loisroelofs.com/excerpts-3/

We can look both inside and outside.

Inside, what prevents us from doing effective marketing are various “constrictive mindsets.” “I don’t have the time; nobody will be interested; if I have to market myself, my services must be substandard; I’ll just get rejected; I can’t start until I know I can do it perfectly.” – Ad nauseum.

So we can work on our mindsets. Very good idea.

But there’s also something outside that prevents us from marketing and it can be just as debilitating. It can stop us cold, keep us confused and prevent any kind of marketing productivity.

I call it “Marketing Randomness.”

Here are the dictionary definitions of randomness:

1. Having no definite aim, purpose or direction; 2. No specific goal or destination; 3. No particular methodology or plan; 4. Haphazard and disorganized in execution.

And if that isn’t an exact description of most people’s marketing, I don’t know what is!

So the antidote to randomness is just the opposite:

1. Having a definite aim, purpose and direction; 2. Having a specific goal or destination; 3. Having a proven methodology and plan; 4. Having an organized, structured way of getting things done.

You might say this is the purpose of my business, Action Plan Marketing:

“To help Independent Professionals attract more of their ideal clients by having a purpose, goal and direction, with a proven methodology in an organized way.”

If you have all of that you can do virtually anything successfully, and you can certainly be a more effective marketer of your services.

Let’s look at this in a very practical way. I’ll share the exact marketing approach I use to attract all the ideal clients I need.

1. Purpose: The purpose of my marketing is to attract the ideal clients to me consistently, who I can successfully serve in a way that makes a difference to them while providing me with a good income and personal fulfillment.

A purpose is a direction with a clear intention behind it. You want to always be moving in the direction of your purpose. You fulfill it every single day through accomplishing your goals, with a plan, in an organized way.

Now write yours in your own words.

2. Goal: To attract 20 ideal clients for next year’s Marketing Mastery Program.

A goal must be something very specific that fulfills your purpose. It must be “S.M.A.R.T. – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and have a Timeline.

Now write down your main marketing goal.

3. Methodology and Plan: Email messages to my list, free introductory teleclasses, in-depth letter explaining the program, application form, complimentary strategy sessions.

These are the how-to marketing activities I’ll take to accomplish my goal. This one will take more time and thought to figure out. It will often take some expert guidance and support.

Now work at creating a simple, step-by-step plan for achieving your goal.

4. Get Organized: I will have a project page with all the marketing activities I need to accomplish, with a timeline. I will write down the the priority items from the plan on a weekly list. I will then transfer items from the weekly list to a daily list and focus on completing them every day. Sometimes this will be just an item or two per day.

This is the essence of my organizational system. It stars with a very detailed plan and timeline and then gets funneled down to very specific daily actions. I use worksheets I’ve designed for this purpose and use them every day.

Now work out your system to get and stay organized.

The More Clients Bottom Line: To have marketing success, you must work consciously against randomness. With a purpose, goal, methodology/plan and an organized system to get things done it’s amazing what can be accomplished. Don’t worry about “killer marketing strategies,” instead work at getting focused and productive and you can produce extraordinary results with very simple, time-tested strategies.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

David’s one of my favorite PR LEADERS and he was racking up sales of his book to fellow attendees, even though he was a participant, not a presenting speaker, at the conference.

I asked David to share his tips for selling and serving.

How do you sell so many books?

I am asked that question more and more often. First and foremost, I drafted and put into place a multi-faceted marketing plan. As time went on, I updated the plan based on where I was in the life cycle of the book and took into consideration the results, or lack thereof, on each of the components in my plan.

My book hit the Bestseller list because I crafted an effective plan and I work it every day no matter where I am. If you have written a book, you know about Amazon Bestseller campaigns. That is not what I am talking about; that is a scheme to artificially push a book to the top of their sales list for an hour or a day just to have it fall back down to its real level.

My book has been on the Bestseller list for two entirely different months and for the entire Calendar year 2011 (even though it was only out for 7 1/2 months of the year) based on real purchases by real people, day after day after day and so on.

One of the key components of my success is that I am always selling my book no matter where I am. Our society makes that very easy, one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new is, “What do you do?” (Thank you Jesus, a soft ball right over the plate, why wouldn’t you swing?) “I am the Author of a Bestselling book” is my standard reply.

“Really what is it about?” Usually comes next. At that point I always hand them a copy of my book. That’s right, I never go anywhere without them. I suggest that they read the back cover of my book, which usually gets them to make some positive comment. “Wow I would like to read that someday, I have a brother who needs this book,” or one of many variations of a buy sign. To which I always reply, “Well I can personally autograph this copy for you at a special price, cash, check or credit cards all work just fine.”

Every meal at conferences I eat with a different group. The cover of my book is depicted on the front of my card that I pass around to introduce myself. People are always intrigued and I normally sell several books. The back of my card has directions on how to get more information on my book and a discount code for ordering your copy off my website if you failed to purchase during our meal.

There is a small pocket in the folder that the waitress brings your bill in. You know the one that you put your credit card in. Well once my bill is paid, I remove my credit card and replace it with one of my book cards…every time!

Every break, I again find new attendees to meet and I sell more books. Traveling to and from each conference, I ask virtually everyone I meet, “Do you like to read?” Ticket agents, shuttle drivers, gate agents, flight attendants, pilots, hotel personnel while checking in. “Do you like to read?” as I hand them my card I share, “Well this is a book that I wrote that made the Bestseller list.”

The bottom line is if you don’t ask you won’t sell. I am not rude about it; I am not pushy. I just answer their questions and share what it is that I do. Well that’s mostly true, I am an Author. But what I really do is sell. Everywhere, every time, I do not miss an opportunity.

As I attend different conferences I see people who don’t take full advantage of their every opportunity to promote and sell themselves. Just recently, I was at a marketing conference. During a Q&A session, I saw/heard person after person get up and say; “Hi my name is Bob and my question is…” Or they would just skip their first name altogether and go straight to their question. When I am called upon, I share my name, David Koop, but I don’t stop there. “Hi my name is David Koop; I am a Bestselling author, keynote speaker and a Certified World Class Speaking Coach.” This is about marketing, why wouldn’t you? I have even been pointed out on many occasions by the speakers for doing it… “See that’s how it’s done” they say. When it is appropriate I also share my URL.

In addition to the 20 books I sold at that conference, I also booked three new coaching clients by using that simple technique. This is just one small part of the many ways that I market my book. In addition to all of the larger, far more productive ways that I sell my book, I get to add these ideas which add an extra $10,000 each to my yearly total. It all adds up, large and small. Remember you are going to be there anyway, why not spread your message and profit from it too?

If you need help marketing your book, I am happy to help. Just email me.

David A.Koop,
Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker and Certified World Class Speaking Coach
http://www.somedaygroup.com
“Cancer It’s a Good Thing I Got It! The Life Story of a Very Lucky Man”

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

Use Social Media

Social media is the most obvious marketing avenue for authors. It is one of the most popular marketing tools today, and you can get lots of exposure will relatively little effort. The trick is to know how to use these tools effectively when marketing your book.

Create a Facebook Author page first. This will help to keep your personal Facebook page and your book marketing activities separated. This is also helpful if you have multiple books you are trying to market.

Google+ is another must use social media site. It may not have as many users as Facebook but it is gaining in popularity and is a great marketing tool.

Twitter is great for driving traffic to your web site and social media pages. You can also build buzz by creating a hashtag for your book or characters.

LinkedIn is important as well. Create a professional profile that displays your published works, awards, experience, and education.

Now that you have all your social media sites set up, you need to know how to use them to create interest and encourage participation. Here are a few strategies that I have found effective.

• Ask questions. Asking questions gets your fans involved and lets them talk about themselves, which most people love to do. This creates interaction and discussions which in interesting content for fans to read. Make sure you stay involved in the conversation, you do not have to reply to every comment, but engage with your fans about your book, and you will be rewarded.

• Take polls. Again, interaction is key here. Fans will enjoy getting to weigh in with their opinion. If you give fans a say in how your next book unfolds, even if it is some trivial plot point or character trait, they will feel more connected to the story you are telling.

• Do a giveaway contest. People love the chance to win something. Offer signed advance copies of your book, a signed photo of a location in your book, or some other item specific to your story that fans will enjoy. This will help drive excitement and get people talking.

Make a Web Page

Creating a web page for your book is an important marketing strategy as well. Most web hosting companies will give you a domain for fairly cheap, but if you want to stay in the free arena, you can create a Google site as well. Your site does not have to be a masterpiece, just a picture of yourself, the cover of your book, a short bio, a synopsis, and links to your social media sites.

Send Out Advance Copies

Sending advance copies to popular bloggers is a great way to drum up buzz about your book. The right people can really get the word out before your book is released. Bloggers will be flattered that you chose them to read it first and if they like it they will sing its praises to their built in audience. Target blogs and bloggers wisely and it can do wonders for your marketing efforts.

Write a Press Release

Writing a press release about your upcoming book is also a great way to get the word out about it. You can send it out to news agencies and post a copy on your web site. Press releases are a more traditional form of marketing but they are important all the same, and it only takes a bit of effort to write on. Search online for a press release template and to learn press release conventions.

Author Bio: +Brian Burton is a children’s book enthusiast and online publisher for childrensbookstore.com .

Email can be an author’s best friend by helping an author reach people around the world and make contacts, ranging from finding an agent or publisher, to a publicist, or by sending out newsletters to readers. But authors carefully need to word their messages to make sure they are really communicating so they are not ignored.

Although for the past twenty years, email has been regularly used in business and by people for their private communications, people are still adjusting to how to use it properly. It is intended for quick communication, and it succeeds—you can send a message and receive a reply sometimes within a couple of minutes, and expectations are that a reply will be received within a couple of days at the longest. Frequently, however, I’ve heard authors complain about not getting responses—from literary agents, publishers (not just traditional but subsidy or print-on-demand publishers), printers, publicists, journalists, and others involved in the book publishing world.

Not receiving a response to your email message, whether or not you are an author, usually results from one of three reasons:

1. The intended recipient never received the email. (The message might have been deleted as spam or your provider may have failed to send it). In this case, it’s fine to follow-up with a second email after a few days to make sure your message was received. You might also use the “request confirmation” feature so you know the recipient received the message even if he or she isn’t able to reply at the moment.
2. The intended recipient is too busy or “out of the office” and can’t respond right away. Busy might include being swamped with emails—it’s not uncommon for people to receive 100 or more a day, and even if most are junk, it takes a lot of time to filter them despite all the tools to help; or the person may be on vacation, in which case the person should have set up an “out of the office” email response for you to receive if your business is important to him or her.
3. Your message was not communicated clearly or was not interesting enough for the intended recipient to want to respond. I’ll spend the rest of this article explaining why this situation may be the case.

While email is supposed to be fast, it is wrong to view it as informal—at least the first few times you communicate with someone. I don’t mean you necessarily have to address people as Sir or Madame, but you do want to take the time to communicate effectively in that first email and also to give a good impression. First impressions matter a lot, and when they are just words on a computer screen, they have to work harder to convey your message. Good communication is essential, but sadly, many authors don’t know how to communicate well, especially through email.

As a provider of author publicity services, I receive dozens of emails every day. I try to reply to every legitimate request—after all, I’m running a business and need to keep the customers’ happy and the employees employed. But I do feel frustration when I don’t know what an author is trying to communicate to me. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I will still make an effort because I know a lot of my potential clients are first time authors for whom publishing and promoting a book is a big learning curve. But when authors cannot communicate properly through an email, it makes me wonder whether they will be “high maintenance” and more trouble than they are worth. Worse, it makes me wonder whether the author is also a bad writer and his or her book of substandard quality.

Let me give you a few examples of author emails I’ve received over the years and why messages are unlikely to get a response (in each case, I did still respond, but I am pretty sure most publishers, agents, publicity services, etc. would not reply to these emails; some of them are real emails; others are representative of typical ones I receive regularly).

1. The Two-Word Email. “How much?” Yes, those two words were the entire email. My response should have been “How much for what”? But in my reply, I made a point of listing our various publicity packages and providing the link to where all the information was on our website. The response I received was. “Okay. I’ll let you know.” Is this really an author? Authors are supposed to be writers, and good writers are good communicators. Furthermore, such abrupt messages are rude. The author apparently couldn’t be bothered to look at the information on our website, or even to thank me for taking the time to send him all that information. In short, it was a waste of my time—I never heard from the author again. If I got more emails like this one, I would quit replying to them.
2. The Pointless Life Story Email.Just as a really short email is rude and abrupt, so is a really long one. We’re all busy. I don’t need to know your life story in order to promote your book. What I need, at most, is about three paragraphs, one to tell me briefly about your book, one to tell me briefly who you are, and one to tell me clearly why you are contacting me—how you want me to help you.I think something about email makes people decide not to think clearly, to ramble, and not to give as much thought to what they write as they would with a postal letter. Remember that your intended recipient receives over 100 emails a day. He or she doesn’t have time for your life story, however interesting it is. If something about your life is relevant to your book, include it, but no other personal information is required. I’ve actually received emails so filled with life story details that one author even told me how his father bought him a prostitute when he was sixteen—too much information. Then after all this personal information, none of it related to the author’s book, he ended by asking me, “So, how about it?” How about what? I waded through about a dozen paragraphs only to have no idea what he wanted.

   Keep your email simple. As I said, tell me briefly about you, your book, and what you want me to do for you. If you feel the need, add, “If you would like more information about me or my book, please feel free to contact me” and then leave it up to the recipient whether he or she wants to know about the prostitute, your childhood abuse, your cats and dogs, the six different places you’ve lived, or what have you.

3. The Too-Friendly Email(s). Often, once I agree to provide a service to an author, I get deluged with emails from that person. Authors treat their books like they are their children, and being an author myself, I certainly understand that. But, if I’m going to review your book or provide some other service for you, give me time to do so before you send me numerous extra emails. If I want more information, I’ll ask for it. In fact, many review companies have policies that authors are not to contact the reviewers, both to avoid the author feeling pressure to give a favorable review, and to avoid a deluge of information from the author.

A lot of authors are so excited to have someone interested in their book that they want the publisher/agent/reviewer/publicist to become their new best friend. Of course, you want the human element from the person you’re working with, but you also want a professional. A friendly professional is a good thing, but asking the reviewer out to dinner or to come visit you in another state is going a bit far the first week you work together. Be friendly, but not too friendly. If the person you are working with is interested in a friendship, let him or her make the first move. Don’t forget those one hundred plus emails a day that people in the book world receive. It would be impossible for every publisher, agent, or publicist to be friends with every client he or she represents. Remember your boundaries and you’ll receive the professional care for your book you initially wanted. Be too friendly and—yes, people will quit replying to your emails.

In summary, here are the key points for authors to remember when sending emails about their books:

• Be professional
• Be polite
• Use proper spelling and grammar. You don’t have to be super formal, but abbreviations and slang may not be appropriate and may suggest you are not a good writer, thus hurting your book’s chances.
• Communicate well. State clearly why you are writing and what you want as a result of the communication.
• Give the recipient a reasonable timeframe to reply (there’s room for argument here, but one business week is reasonable).
• Politely follow-up if you don’t get a reply.
• Don’t deluge people with emails.

You can make email your friend when promoting your book by using these simple, common-sense techniques to communicate with publishers, agents, publicity services, the media, or anyone else who can help make your book a success. Then, not only will you get your foot in the door, but your emails will be answered.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Courtesy of: CreditDonkey

If a picture can tell a thousand words, then an infographic can tell 10,000 words.

If you haven’t seen the term before, an infographic is the visual display of numeric information. USA TODAY has been using infographics for years as they show results of polls or sales trends or housing sales and the like.

In the last few months, many businesses on the web have been using infographics to make information come alive.

One of the best examples comes from my client, CreditDonkey, a consumer credit card comparison and education site. Charles Tran, founder of Credit Donkey was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about how they use infographics and I’d like to share that information with you. To see great examples, go to http://www.creditdonkey.com/happy-holidays.html

Dan: Do you do the infographics in house or do outsource it? What tips do you have to manage the process?

Charles Tran: For our infographics in general: we used to outsource it, but for the last 6 months or so, we’ve done it all in-house.

Their team came up with the topic, researched it, crafted the story and designed it.

We’ve decided to bring it all in-house as of late July. Content is too important for us to outsource and we’re all about brand journalism — a good consistent editorial voice is important to me. Plus, by having it in-house, we have more control of the research, design, copy edit, writing, etc and feel more comfortable with the data quality.

My personal recommendation, if you want to go down the outsourcing route, is to craft the story and research the data in-house… and outsource the design aspect only. Then make sure you run the infographic through an in-house attention-to-detail copy editor, as you’ll be surprised by the number of minor copy-related errors designers often introduce unintentionally (designers aren’t writers!).

My general position is that everybody should do what they do best — and for your case, you’re the storyteller… so it doesn’t make sense for you to outsource the storytelling aspect. At the same time, you’re not a designer, so it makes no sense for you to draw chicken scratch for 10 hours… as eye candy is equally important — just look at how eye-candy made USA Today into a national powerhouse.

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s can be a virtual dead zone.

I can’t tell you how many of these weeks I’ve puttered around my office, “trying” to do something but never getting far. I’m not meeting with clients and no big deadlines are looming, so it’s easy to end up browsing the web for hours, or playing the latest computer game.

After New Year’s Day you don’t feel either relaxed or fulfilled because you’ve accomplished nothing worthwhile.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Really relax and take a vacation. Sleep in late, eat at your favorite restaurants, get together with family and friends. And don’t think about work for one minute. Don’t even check your emails, and remember to ditch your smart phone.

This is what a vacation is for – to vacate! And you’ll return to work more energized and excited about the New Year than ever before.

2. Do just the opposite. Work on a huge project just by yourself and accomplish more in a week than you’d accomplish in a month. You might be working at your computer, but check your email and voice mail minimally and focus on four to six hours of solid work every single day. (Yes, you can do a little Holiday stuff in the evenings.)

What could you accomplish in this time? Here are a few:

a) Completely rewrite your website from beginning to end. You know it needs it anyway, and you keep telling yourself that you’ll do it when you have the time. Well, here’s the time.

b) Reorganize your office from top to bottom. Throw out a ton of stuff, paint, organize and trim down your paper and computer files. There’s nothing like getting the year started with a totally functional office where you can find anything you need in less than 10 seconds.

c) Do a planning retreat, perhaps with a close business associate. Brainstorm, develop big goals, write plans. And then challenge each other to think outside your respective boxes. Every evening make sure to go out or have a nice dinner and keep the conversation going more informally.

d) Write a book. As I told you last week, that’s what I’m doing this year. Yeah, it’s taking a little longer than a week, but it’s only taking about three weeks total. I got started before Christmas, even when I was meeting with clients, and then cleared my schedule for ten days to write a chapter a day.

You know what? I’ve done all of these. And I’ve also spent Christmas with my family and done no work at all. It’s your choice.

But please don’t putter your Holidays away. You’ll never get that time back.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

1. Mobile marketing will take off in ways you never imagined.
2. People will be saying, “Visit my app,” in addition to – or instead of -  “Visit my website.” The app will be the brochure, website and starting point of interactivity.
3. Small businesses on Main Street will have apps that provide basic info and coupons – even if they don’t have a website.
4. Doctors, dentists and other appointment-based businesses will rely on text messages and other mobile communications to confirm appointments so they don’t lose money on no shows.
5. Your prospects will think all types of written or spoken intellectual property –ezines, books, articles, webinars, teleseminars – ought to be free.
6. You will think that all information ought to be free – except your information, of course.
7. It will be harder and harder to convince people to pay for intellectual pr operty that is available online. They will pay for customized services specifically for them. Start planning your services menu accordingly.
8. Entrepreneurs will finally heed Michael Gerber’s mantra to work on the business, not in the business. But they will take action by HIRING outside professionals who can do the work for them instead of waiting to do the work themselves. Productivity and profits will increase while procrastination will decrease.
9. This phrase will be on everyone’s lips and t-shirts: “If you get something for free, then you aren’t the customer. You are the product.” I didn’t make this up. I wish I did. Think about it. We aren’t Google’s customer, or Facebook’s customer. We are the products they are selling to advertisers. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being considered an “eyeballs.”
10. Spam will invade social media sites in overt and covert ways, making visits to those sites less enjoyable.
11. There will be more people showing you how to sell speaking services than there will be companies who can hire speakers. Okay, that one was low.

What are your predictions?

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

Clearly, she’s had great success self-publishing her e-books. So, it was a surprise when Hocking decided to sign with St. Martin’s Press, which is a very established publishing house.

Hocking has openly explained that she suffered from depression for the vast majority of her life and turned to writing as a sort of escape. She finished her first novel at 17, titled “Dreams I Can’t Remember” and was turned down by each of the 50 agents to whom she’d sent her work.  Not long thereafter, she caught a clip on YouTube of the band Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus encouraging American youth to make their dreams come true. Hocking admits having a sort of “aha” moment and realized that she could not wait for her dreams to come true. She had to put forth the effort and make them come true.

In 2009, Hocking began to treat writing as a job rather than something she did for entertainment. She wrote a few more novels, sent them off to agents, and still received only rejections. In April 2010, Hocking uploaded her novel “My Blood Approves” to Amazon, then later to Smashwords, then directly on Barnes & Noble’s site. Hocking started selling books, first a few a day, then as she uploaded more of her work, she managed to sell 26 books in one day in May. These days, the author is selling 9,000 books a day.

Just how did she do it? Well, the stories she writes are an obvious piece of her success. Her novels combine action and romance with a dash of quirk and topped off by Hocking’s creative style of writing. Additionally, by selling e-books, Hocking was able to sell the books for far less money compared to a traditional bookstore book. Therefore, people were more inclined to spend the 99 cents or $3.00 to read her work instead of dropping upwards of $15.00 for a book off the shelf of a trendy bookstore. Hocking has a very blasé attitude in regard to her success and rapid writing. When asked just how she manages to complete her work so quickly, Hocking responds on her blog, “I don’t know. I just write a lot and drink a lot of Red Bull.”

Hocking also suggests that writing paired with reading more than she writes, was instrumental in her success. She made sure to edit her novels a great deal in order to get them just right. Learning to take criticism was useful to Hocking’s success because she was able to understand that although her books weren’t for everyone, they did have an audience.

Taking a look at her blog, Hocking describes herself as an, “Obsessive tweeter. John Hughes mourner. Batman devotee. Muppet activist. Unicorn enthusiast. Fraggin Aardvarks guitarist. Author of the USA Today Bestselling Trylle Trilogy & the upcoming Watersong series.” She actively updates her blog, so her fans always have something new to read. This past October was Hocking’s second annual “Zombiepalooza!” on her blog, which ran for the entire month of October. Hocking explains that while she especially enjoys zombies, Zombiepalooza is really a celebration of all things horror and Halloween. Throughout the month, there were guest posts, giveaways, and other fun goodies, such as the “ultimate Halloween Playlist.”

John Kremer recently mentioned Amanda Hocking in a seminar about blog tours. Amanda Hocking inspired him to name a particular type of blog tour a Blogpalooza. John got the name from Hocking, after her first Zombiepalooza in October 2010. In his seminar, John also explained a few of Amanda’s stats, which were affected dramatically by Zombiepalooza. Before Zombiepalooza, Amanda had been selling about 3,000-5,000 copies of Kindle eBooks each month. She sold about 20,000 total before October 2010. In December 2010, after Zombiepalooza, she sold 100,000 copies in the month of December alone. In January, she sold 450,000 copies of her Kindle eBook novels.

In February of 2011, she made the USA Today best-seller list. By the end of February, she had sold 900,000 copies of self-published Kindle eBooks. In March 2011, her book sales totaled over 1 million copies, and she subsequently sold the rights to four of her books to St. Martin’s Press for $2 million. Some were surprised by her decision to sell her book rights, but Hocking has explained that in order to be a billion-dollar author, she needs people to buy her books at Wal-Mart. In order to get her books onto shelves, she had to partner with St. Martin’s Press.

Says Hocking, “I’m a writer. I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling emails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Right now, being me is a full time corporation.  I am spending so much time on things that are not writing.”

“I like writing. I even like marketing, especially when it comes to interacting with readers. And I don’t mind editing. I just don’t want to run my corporation, because that takes away from writing and everything else that I actually enjoy doing,” concludes Hocking.

After gaining so much success, Amanda has been able to seize unique opportunities. For example, she was a featured speaker at Comic Con in San Diego. Additionally, she was able to buy a life-size Han Solo figure from Star Wars, which was encased in carbonite. The life-size figure is rare and was something Hocking had her eye on for quite some time. The unique purchase was due in great part to the success of her Zombiepalooza.

The way Hocking executed Zombiepalooza is what earned her such success. She invited people to guest-post on her website, offer free copies of their books, and contribute stories to her blog. Simply put, she asked people to come to her blog and blog. Those guest bloggers, in turn, brought their fan clubs to Amanda’s website, earning Amanda’s work more exposure and causing her to gain even more fans. Zombiepalooza was an event blog tour that really got people talking and excited about the event, making it extremely effective.

In addition to her own blog, Hocking has separate blogs for her book Virtue, My Blood Approves, The Hollows series, as well as a blog dedicated to soundtracks for her various books. Hocking follows dozens of blogs herself. Having been blogging since April 2009, Hocking has had nearly 2 million page views.  Check out Amanda’s blog to learn more about her, her work, and to see release dates of her upcoming books at http://www.AmandaHocking.blogspot.com or her facebook fan page. http://www.facebook.com/amandahockingfans

The bottom line: Amanda Hocking is an incredibly talented author. She has achieved great success in her career, largely due to marketing her novels so effectively. Amanda began writing e-books and now has a multimillion dollar book deal. Her talent for both writing and knowing how to market her books has enabled her to become a wildly successful author. Amanda Hocking has helped pave the way for authors to follow in her footsteps without the traditional ‘gatekeepers’ of publishing being involved.

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few. Learn more about Westwind Communications’ book marketing approach at http://www.book-marketing-expert.com  or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist

Here are some ways you can make your book a hot gift idea for the holidays:

Hold a sale. Everyone loves a bargain, especially around the holidays. Discount your book for a limited period (e.g., a day or a week) to create excitement and a sense of urgency.

Build a gift basket. Are there other products that are a good match for your book? For example, a cookbook could be packaged with food and cooking supplies. Other how-to books could be bundled with materials and supplies readers will need to do what you teach them about. But be a little creative and you can probably come up with gift basket ideas for any type of book. Package your romance novel with a selection of teas, chocolates and other treats, or with bath products and candles.

Offer autographed books. An autographed book makes a special gift, particularly when it is personally signed to the recipient.

Combine the previous two suggestions by offering a set of autographed books. If you have a series you might offer all of your books, personally autographed of course, for one price. Even better, get a group of authors to create a package and market it to all of your fans. Not only will it help each of you to sell more books this holiday season, new fans will discover you and buy past and future titles.

Use your annual Christmas letter to remind friends and family that your books are available as gifts. Offer a special “friends and family” discount.

Think outside the bookstore. This is a good suggestion all through the year, but it can be especially effective when everyone is actively shopping in the stores. Where will the people who should be buying your books be shopping? Can you get your books in front of them there?

Are there businesses that could purchase your book as a gift for their employees or clients? Contact them to suggest your book as the answer to their gift-giving dilemma.

Set up events where shoppers will be. That means bookstores, craft shows, the mall and elsewhere.

Plan for after the holidays. Many people will be getting ebook readers as gifts, and they will be looking for ebooks to buy. Plan some book and ebook promotions for late December and January to catch these new e-readers.