Selling Books » Networking

Ready, Set, Conference!

Loni Emmert — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:00:38 +0000

For the past five years I have told myself that I was going to attend the Romance Writers of America (RWA) conference. For the past five years I have lied to myself. There was always a reason that I could not attend, either financially, work was too busy, or vacation plans made it impossible. Last winter I promised myself that I would attend the RWA Conference in Nashville in July 2010. I stuck to my guns and as soon as registration opened up I booked myself, along with my writing partner and sister, P.I. Barrington, as conference attendees. I haven’t been to Nashville since ’97 and thought it might be fun to add a week for vacation after the conference was over to see some old friends and tour around the southern states.

The devastating floods this past spring that destroyed the first floor of our Nashville hotel, not to mention many homes and other businesses, forced the RWA to swiftly find another conference destination. Many of us waited anxiously to see where—city, state, region—we would be visiting. The amazing professionals at RWA that oversee the conference worked their magic and quickly booked us into Orlando, Florida, in the Walt Disney World resort area. It filled me with mixed emotions to get this news: I was elated for the chance to visit Orlando (I’m still taking a week off for vacation after the conference), but it was also sad to know that so many in Nashville will continue to suffer the effects of the flood long after we return home from the conference.

As my travel date nears, I find myself energized by the excitement of the event and also a little overwhelmed. I have taken a peek at some of the workshop offerings and, to be honest, they all appear so enticing I find myself in need of a clone that I can send as backup so that I don’t miss a thing. As it is my first RWA conference I want to experience everything that I can, so I also signed up as a volunteer. I want to meet many fellow writers and really understand how this amazing conference comes together every year.

Since I am a newbie to the RWA conference I don’t know everything that I can anticipate but have listened to other romance authors speak with great enthusiasm and respect for this gathering and, with only forty-six or so days left before I travel to Orlando, the anticipation builds. As a writer, I know that the knowledge I gain and my encounters with other writers will be experiences that I will carry with me throughout my writing career, and that I will be the better for them, both a as writer and as a person.

Loni Emmert is the co-author of BUTTON HOLLOW CHRONICLES #1: THE LEAF PEEPER MURDERS available August 2010 from Mainly Murder Press. She is a member of SinC, RWA and writes articles on writing, reading and other related topics. (http://thewordmistresses.com)

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Why Social Networking Your Way Won’t Build Your Business

Joanne Black — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Believe it or not, social networking isn’t the next best thing… You are! It’s the personal connection that still seals the deal.

The Internet, social networking, and other breakthroughs in technology have fundamentally changed the way we do business. New technology drives communications, messaging, and information access at warp speed, and our clients expect immediate access. This pattern of ever-increasing speed and sophistication not only creates an intensely competitive marketplace, but places further demands on us to act and react quickly.

The rise of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and LinkedIn have lured many sales pros into scaling back their personal interactions and relying on social media to get more “qualified leads.”

It’s time to get real!

Social Media Is a Powerful Tool for Three Things and Three Things Only

1. Search engine optimization: Use your key words and raise your presence on the web.

2. Find out who people are: Learn about a person’s background and your connections.

3. Find out who people know: Look for close connections that you can leverage

Some salespeople tell me they actually get clients through social media. Well, maybe if you have a commodity business.

Could it happen?

Yes.

Do I rely on it?

Absolutely not! I only count on what I bring about-through a proactive, intentional, referral strategy with personal introductions.

Why Social Networking Your Way Won’t Bring You More Leads and Sales

The most important business decisions are still based on personal relationships. There is significant research about why customers make buying decisions. Bottom line: It’s because they like and trust the salesperson and his organization. Think about it. We’re selling services, investments, systems, products… we’re asking for people’s time and money! Why would they work with someone who hasn’t been referred?

There’s a saying in sales: Clients buy with emotion and justify with fact. If our clients don’t like us or don’t feel comfortable with us, they won’t buy from us. You can wow your clients with technology know-how now and try to win them over later, once they find out you’re honest and reliable. But the reality is you need people to start liking you within the first few seconds of your relationship. You need to start off on the right foot. Fancy gizmos won’t make that happen. But a trusted referral and a personal connection will.

That’s why Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, in his commencement address to the graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania in May 2009, urged college graduates to step away from the virtual world and make human connections. “Turn off your computer. You’re actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us.”

That said, a social media presence is a must-have in today’s world-but you need to change the way you’re social networking.

3 Ways to Get More Leads and Sales with Social Networking and Referral Marketing

1. Develop a social media strategy: Like a sales plan or a marketing plan, write your social media plan. What is your goal? Who is your audience? What do you want to communicate? Leverage social media as part of your go-to-market strategy. How does your strategy link to your customer’s needs and your business priorities?

2. Establish relationships: Take the time to build your personal connections, pick up the phone and talk to people. Just because you have a name in hand, doesn’t mean you have a relationship.

3. Communicate useful information: Social sites are not for selling. They are for establishing connections, identifying ways to collaborate, and providing value. What tips can you provide? Link to other sites you strongly recommend. Get recognized as the expert and build your web presence. Be a resource.

To Trust You Paves the Way

The most energizing and exciting part of our work is the relationships with our clients-the interaction. We enjoy learning about our client’s business and matching our solutions to their needs. In an era dominated by ever-expanding technology and social media pressures, always remember that personal connections, referrals, and earning trust count most.

America’s leading authority on referral selling and founder of No More Cold Calling®, Joanne Black helps salespeople, sales teams, and business owners get more referrals and attract business fast without increasing the cost of sales. Discover how to turn prospects into clients more than 50 percent of the time in any economy with her No More Cold Calling sales programs at http://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/products.html.

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How Authors Can Use Their Networks

Barbara Ardinger — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:36:38 +0000

Remember when networking was so popular there were networking groups everywhere you turned? I was living in Orange County, California, during those days and I belonged to networking organizations like Women In Management and breakfast clubs in which members gave each other job leads and I gave speeches on creativity to a dozen different kinds of groups in the OC business community. I got leads for small companies that needed someone to write brochures and manuals for them. I got connected with people I could help and who could help me. Thanks to Women In Management, I learned the value of networking.

But there’s one benefit to networking that I didn’t learn right away. We can turn to the people we meet and pick their brains. We can learn how things work. Yes, we can Google and read web sites, but I’d rather sit down and talk to someone and ask questions.

In the mid-90s, when I was writing my novel Quicksilver Moon, which is extremely realistic, except for the vampire, the story came to a point where I had to find out about certain police procedures. What does a police report look like? How does a cop really, truly write? What goes at the top of the report? What do the police do when they find twenty-two homeless women warehoused in a one-bedroom apartment? When they find vampire victims?

Who did I know who could answer those questions? Now I could easily phone the English department at one of the universities and get a list of 19th century books about vampires with some commentary. (Remember, this was before the days of Google and Wikipedia.) Aha—a few years earlier, I edited the memoir of a retired chief of police of the city of Anaheim. We’d become good friends, too. His name was Harold, and so was my father’s name, and the chief had a daughter named Barbara. He had been chief of police when Disneyland opened and had known Walt Disney. He’d also been part of the police protection of a band of acrobats from the Soviet Union. This was at the height of the cold war, and the police department was worried about the safety of the acrobats.

So I called the chief. He invited me to his house and told me to bring my manuscript. He read the chapters in question and dictated the police reports to me, with the proper numbering system and the verbs cops prefer to use. (They like “move” and they like the passive voice.) The chief even told me which social service agencies they’d call for those twenty-two women and what would happen to the women once they were treated. He wasn’t sure about vampires, but he did tell me what a homicide report would properly look like.

To this day, I cherish my network. Do I want to know something about astrology? I can ask a dozen friends. About rescuing stray cats? More friends. The diagnosis and treatment of cancer? More friends. Nearly anything I’m likely to put in a book or column, I can find someone to help me look smarter.

This is what I tell the authors whose books I edit. Don’t just guess about the subway system in New York City. Do some Google research, but also ask someone who’s actually been to New York. Do your research on plate tectonics, but also find someone who explain what happens in plain English so you can write about it in plain, accessible English. When you’re writing about farm machinery, ask a farmer what happens if you try to drive up a very steep hill.

We’re all more social via the Internet than we could be before it was built. We’re all building up our networks. As authors, let’s use our connections to make what we write more interesting and more accurate.

To learn more about the editing services Dr. Barbara Ardinger offers, please visit her web site at www.barbaraardinger.com.

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Selling Books with Friendster

Michael Volkin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:10:06 +0000

I recently stumbled across a great website for book marketing called Friendster. It’s very popular in Asia, but is quickly making a presence in the U.S. The great aspect of Friendster is you can easily search for highly targeted friends. When you do a friend search, you can even group people by age category. The members on Friendster seem to be active as many members have 50+ friends.

Connecting with friends is easy on Friendster but they also have another nice feature for authors. You can add a 3D profile. Pick a landscape such as a cubicle in an office and that landscape is added to your profile. You then can customize that landscape and insert pictures of your book or any other relevant information about yourself. Then, someone can take a virtual tour of your profile in a 360 degree view.

Be sure to join the many groups they have available. If your book is on how to sell books online, as is mine, then join author groups.

For more tips and tricks on how to sell a ton of books, go to Michael Volkin‘s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

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The Best Business Card You Ever Had

Jim Donovan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:25:29 +0000

“Keep in mind Jim, this is the best business card you’ll ever have.” That was my first lesson as a new publisher and it has served me well over the years. When my first book “Handbook to a Happier Life” came back from the printer, I called my friend Terri Lonier, author of the “Working Solo” series. Terri was the only successful small publisher I knew at the time. I was in a panic. Here I sat at my desk, looking at the pile of books UPS had just deposited along my office wall. I took Terri’s suggestion to heart, and began to freely give books away.

Sometime back I was at a mid-Atlantic Publisher’s Association Meeting and mentioned this to a small group I was sitting with at lunch. Most looked at me at if I had lost my mind or perhaps did not “get it” that I was suppose to sell the darn things. They began giving me a lot of reasons why I should be selling every copy I can, after all, I’m a publisher right? There is this tendency among small publishers to hold-on tightly to their books. Sometimes, I believe, to tightly. My suggestion is to loosen up and give your books away with joy and expectation. Holding on to tightly to your books will cost you potential sales in the long run.

When “Handbook to a Happier Life” was brand new, on a lark, I sent 20 copies to the presidents of several big network-marketing companies. The result was a glowing testimonial from the president from one of the companies, along with an order for 250 books. Was it worth the cost of giving away the 20? You bet it was!

At the Mid-Atlantic Publisher’s Luncheon, I asked the group at my table what they would do in the following situation: A newly signed distributor calls you and wants you to send them 400 copies of a book so that they can give them away free. What would you do? Everyone at the table, by now convinced I was a nut, said “No way!” “Make them buy them.” “You’re getting ripped-off!”

When I told them my experience, their position changed, you see, I said “Yes” to the 400 freebies. After all, they were at that time, taking up space in my garage, collecting dust. The net result was, that distributor, that year, sold 75,000 copies of “Handbook to a Happier Life.” I like to think giving away books is planting seeds, you never know which ones will spout or when.

Many professional speakers gladly give away their $12 paperback book (for the cost of a $1.50) and receive bookings worth thousands of dollars from it. Others obtain high price consulting contracts using the book as a door opener.

If you learn to loosen your grip on your books you may be pleasantly surprised at the result. It is a cosmic law that you cannot give without receiving. Plant your books wide and far and then watch them spout.

Jim Donovan is a successful author, speaker and book coach, who guides authors through the entire process of writing, publishing and selling their books and helps them achieve the success they desire.

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Book Publishing – Three Ways to Get the Most Out of Writing Conferences

Cheryl Pickett — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:25:05 +0000

Writing conferences come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on the area, venue, and people’s budgets (both attendees and sponsors), an event may have a few hundred or a few dozen people show up. The Essence of Motown Conference, which I attended for the first time this year, was another victim of the Michigan economy-less than fifty people came.

Though I wasn’t sure what would happen at the beginning, even with such a small group, I got quite a bit out of it including meeting some great people. Whether your next conference experience is big or small, here are a few ways to benefit and make it worth putting into your budget:

1. Learn by Example

Writing conferences often include time for those who are speaking to sell their books and products. Take a look at their displays. What do they do that would make your sales better? What do they offer that you don’t? Does it seem to be helping them and why?

2.Step Out of the Familiar

Most authors write most of their work in a genre’ or maybe two. While getting more education in those areas is a reason to attend a conference, why not take opportunity to check out something completely different.

For example, I don’t write fiction at all, but I sat in on a Christian Romance workshop. Why? I plan to help authors of all kinds, the more I know about various types of writing the better. In addition, several of the tips the speaker offered could easily apply to other kinds of fiction. The change of pace was refreshing in a way too.

3.Remember You’re Not Alone

If you’ve been writing for any amount of time, you may occasionally feel a little lonely. While some people revel in the solitude, others go a bit stir crazy. As long as there are at least a handful of others in attendance you can renew some social connectedness with live people who know what you do and why you do it. Not words in an email, a person with a warm hand to shake or hug to give; someone who understands. That alone may be worth the price of admission.

I now invite you to learn more about how you can publish successfully at http://publishinganswers.com/store.php/ Sign up for my free newsletter or check out the blog today!

Cheryl Pickett has been a freelance writer for nearly a decade. Her new business focuses on educating other writers and helping them achieve their publishing goals.

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It’s All About PR

Chellie Campbell — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:58:35 +0000

“After you’ve written your book, found an agent, gotten a publisher, and your book is finally in the bookstores, five percent of your work has been done.”—Jack Canfield

You learn that, in the book world, PR is everything. When you walk into a bookstore, you are walking into a treasure house of 140,000 books. Online at amazon.com, there are 2.5 million books. Somewhere in your mind, dimly, you knew that, but nothing drives it home so much as walking into a bookstore and seeing rack upon rack of beautiful books and then you go find your section and see all the racks of beautiful self-help books and then, tucked into a small shelf on the bottom left, there is your one-and-only, your own beautiful book. Ahhh, you sigh, your book, your dream, has magically materialized and actually exists in a real bookstore in real space in real time. Then your eyes widen, you look around, and you think, “Gadzooks! (or some such expletive) How am I going to get my book noticed?”

The answer is PR, PR, pr, PR, PR, PR, pr, PR, and more PR. As in public relations, press, advertising, newsletters, ezines, magazine articles, newspaper articles, radio if you’re lucky, television if you’re really lucky, etc., etc., etc. Then you put on your gold tennis shoes and do a book signing, speak at the Lions Club, the Direct Marketing Association, the Church of Religious Science, the Women’s City Club, the Society for Technical Communication, and anyone else who will book you. You go to other people’s book signings and schmooze, give copies of your book to celebrities (Marianne Williamson, Mark Victor Hansen, Martha Beck, and Suze Orman all own personally autographed copies of “The Wealthy Spirit”). You go to your six or seven regular networking meetings, National Association of Women Business Owners, Women’s Referral Service, Chambers of Commerce, NEW Women Entrepreneurs (it really helps if you like chicken).

You do all this because, when you have lunch with Michelle Anton, the producer of the Dr. Laura radio show, she tells you how she found out about your book; that she didn’t know that you were on the “Dr. Laura” television show three years ago, that she didn’t get the press release your publisher sent with your book, and she didn’t get your letter that you sent with your book. None of that mattered. What mattered was that a friend of hers told her about the book. And that’s why, when someone asks what marketing strategy has worked the best to promote your book, you say, “The twenty years I’ve been out there networking.”

Then, because book money comes three months after the end of the six-month royalty period, you make hundreds of gold calls on the gold phone because the NOW money of workshops is in the phone, where the LATER money of books is in the mail. You teach class two nights a week and enroll class every other waking moment. In your spare time, you write an article for Dr. Laura’s web site, you write your next newsletter, and you smile sweetly when people start asking you about your next book…

And you thank God every day for giving you this rich, full, high-class-quality-problem-too-busy life where you can decide what dream you want, bring a book into being, and e-zoom your thoughts and feelings into the minds and hearts of your cherished readers.

Copyright, 2006
Chellie Campbell is the creator of the Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops now taught by coaches across the country, and the author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire. She is one of Marci Shimoff’s “Happy 100” in her current NYT bestseller Happy for No Reason and is prominently quoted as a financial expert in The Los Angeles Times, Pink, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, Essence, Woman’s World and more than 35 popular books. For more information, visit her web site www.Chellie.com.

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