Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tips to make your radio interview pay off

Once a Marine author Nick Popaditch is being interviewed on numerous radio stations weekly. Every host is different and without a doubt, every interview will go a different direction. Authors can prepare, though, by knowing what message they want to get across ahead of time.

We received these helpful tips for authors in a recent email. Please note the writer’s information below.

Top 10 Telephone Tips to Make Your Radio Talk Show Pay Off Handsomely --- a gift from Joe Sabah

More valuable tips and info at go to http://www.sabahradioshows.com (now with 1,000 Radio Talk Shows needing guests daily)

1. Have a glass of water handy (room temperature). When your throat is lubricated it's easier to talk. Plus the water serves as a "cough button" if needed.

2. Stand while speaking. Pretend you're presenting a seminar. Your voice will carry further. And you'll sound more animated.

3. Have a copy of their state map on your wall. Refer to cities in the radio station's surrounding area. This helps make you feel like you are "one of them." I once made the mistake of referring to South Bend as "South Bend, Indiana." The host reminded me that I was talking on a radio station in South Bend, Wisconsin. Oops!

4. Listen to their weather and traffic report. This allows you to personalize your presentation. For example: When I was being interviewed on WHIO in Dayton, Ohio I noticed during the breaks they were referring to their metro area as "the Miami Valley." So it became a natural for me to say "I believe we can help some folks in "the Miami Valley" get their perfect job this afternoon." What a difference the right words make.

5. Get your listeners involved. For example, before the last commercial break I ask them to get pencil and paper to write down the three tips I guarantee will turn every job interview into a job offer. Then they have pencil and paper ready when I later give out my 800 number.

6. For those who are driving around without writing tools handy, ask your host if the listeners can call the station for the 800 number. As soon as you're off the air, you call the station's receptionist and give her or him your 800 number plus the title of your book.

7. Give the host some quotes from your book to use as segues. I offer quotes like: "Are You Singing The Song You Came To Sing?" And "If You Do What You've Always Done, You'll Get What You've Always Gotten. Is That Enough?"

8. After the host uses these Inspirational Postcard Quotes on the air, I also offer them to listeners who order my book. Another bonus to increase orders.

9. Always thank both the host and the producer for the good job they are doing. After the show, also send each of them a handwritten note of thanks and an offer "Let's do it again."

10. You may also want to record your show by using a device available at most phone center stores, that will record both sides of the interview. Then listen to your show to see how you can improve the next one. Keep on learning.

Joe Sabah, author of How to Get On Radio Talk Shows All Across America Without Leaving Your Home or Office more valuable tips and info at go to http://www.sabahradioshows.com 303-722-7200 * Fax 303-733-2626 * 1-800-945-2488 PO Box 101330 * Denver CO 80250 * Joe@JoeSabah.com

Friday, November 21, 2008

Author website sales through Amazon

Many authors link to Amazon on their website so they get a small percentage cut of any Amazon sales that originated from their website. Our Sports by the Numbers authors recently sent out the following email to all of their family and friends. The Amazon link is part of the Amazon referral program. Perfect timing for the Christmas shopping season! Would this help your website?

Hi everyone-

If any of you are going to do X-Mas shopping through Amazon or shopping on that site at all for anything at anytime, we want you to go through our site to link over to Amazon. www.sportsbythenumbers.com

** You will NOT have to buy our books AND will be raising money for some fine charities.

If you go to our website, you will see all our current and upcoming books.

The four titles that are on the market right now are Oklahoma, Yankees, Georgia, and NASCAR.

Here is what we need you to do IF you are going to shop on Amazon anyways. Not just X-Mas, but anytime from here on out.

1. Go to www.sportsbythenumbers.com

2. Click on the link under the OU Football book cover.

3. Click on the "Add to Shopping Cart" button.

4. Click on the "Proceed to Checkout" button.

5. Then you will be directed to an Amazon checkout page. Hit the "Continue" button".

6. If you want the book, great, go to "Proceed to Checkout" or just continue shopping. If not, hit the "Delete" button on the left hand side.

7. If you hit "Delete" then you should have a "Continue Shopping" button that pops up on the next page. Go for it!!!! And now you can just shop as usual.

8. Once you check out, because you started your shopping experience from our site, we will get a referral fee from Amazon. it's that simple and of course, like most of our books, a portion will go to one of our many charities!!!!!!

9. Most important thing is that we can not see who ordered what. It's all PRIVATE!!!!

Thanks AND please pass this email on to all your friends and family. This is a great way to raise money for the many charities we support, Mostly for kids, THON, Bob Stoops Champions Foundation, and the Denny Crum Scholarship Foundation to name a few.

Have a great day!!!

Marc

Marc CB Maxwell
www.SportsByTheNumbers.com

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Trailer for books

On Monday, the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop had James McPherson on Virtual Book Signing to discuss his book Tried by War. The Bookshop now has ads between the segments of their live discussions. Savas Beatie submitted an ad which ran live on the program. For those of you who missed it, the show will be archived on their website shortly here.

Thanks to designer David Van Dusen for creating a great ad. (David also made the Once a Marine book trailer.)

You can check out the ad, and get a sneak peek at our Spring 2009 books, on youtube here. The add will also be posted on our website soon.

We believe that high-quality video advertising, with a musical score and proper Internet distribution, is the key to success going forward. If you have a blog, website, or other access to the internet, we here at Savas Beatie--and all of our authors--would appreciate if you would take the time and trouble to share this video link with others who have similar interests.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Setting up Civil War Round Table Speaking Engagements


This is a guest post written by Savas Beatie author Larry Tagg. We are publishing his book The Unpopular My. Lincoln in May of 2009. The author has been working to set up talks to Civil War Round Tables and has had a lot of success getting bookings so far. Below are Larry Tagg’s tips on how he set up the events.

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Early on, I decided to make speaking engagements at Civil War Round Tables an important part of the publicity campaign for my book published by Savas Beatie, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln (May 2009). I looked for all the Civil War Round Tables within driving distance of my house, which in my case included the Civil War Round Tables in California, plus Las Vegas.

I am more comfortable using email than the phone (are most writers like me?), and looked around for websites that might have the email addresses of the California CWRTs. I found them at two addresses:
http://www.civilwararchive.com/RNDTABLE/webtable.htm and
http://www.civilwarriors-wsfv-ca.org/cwrtlink.html

These websites gave me a contact address for the dozen or so of CWRTs I was after (the first has links for CWRTs all over the country). I composed a generic request to each, with the subject line, “May I speak to your CWRT?” The text was the following:

Hi Mr. _____,

My name is Larry Tagg. I had a book out a few years ago, The Generals of Gettysburg. Some of your members might have seen me speak at the West Coast CWRT Conference at Harris Ranch back then.
I have a new book coming out, The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln, which will be published by Savas Beatie next May. I was wondering if we could set up a date next summer for me to talk about the book with the ________ CWRT.
The book tells the story of how reviled Lincoln was, even in the North, during his presidency. Although it is unequivocally pro-Lincoln, it runs against the grain of Lincoln-worship, of which we ought to be getting an earful in the Lincoln bicentennial year.
Savas Beatie has a video of me giving a talk on the book, and if you would like, I’m sure they would be glad to send you a copy. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
Larry Tagg

I received uniformly affirmative replies from the chairmen of the CWRTs, telling me when their CWRT met—usually a Wednesday evening once a month, but sometimes a Tuesday or Thursday. I kept a careful log of the replies, and made a folder of the CWRTs in my email “Contacts.” I committed to speaking engagements on a first-come-first-serve basis, although I tried to schedule the southern California ones—the ones farthest from my Sacramento home—so that I could do a “swing” and schedule a couple in the same week.

The one problem with this method was that the contact address listed in the online links above was obsolete for some CWRTs. In all cases, the persons I initially contacted emailed me the correct, current contact. If you would like to get a current list of the contacts for California CWRTs, you may email me at larryrtagg@yahoo.com and I will email you a current list, for a small percentage of your book sales. Ha ha, just kidding.

Photo sections on your website

Once a Marine webmaster Brian King put together a nice photo section on the book’s website with pictures from Nick Popaditch’s recent speaking engagements and events. You can view it here.

The Playing with the Enemy website also has a fantastic photo section. Gary and Arlene Moore took pictures of everyone who purchased a copy of Gary Moore’s book at bookstore events, library talks, etc. with Gary signing the book during his book tour. Gary’s wife Arlene, the photographer, wrote down names and email addresses after each photo, and told everyone to check out the Playing with the Enemy website in a couple of days to see their photos. This was a great way to get people hopping to the website, looking around, and sharing the link with their friends. “Hey, check out this picture of me at a local book signing. I think you would really enjoy the book . . .” This process set up a great feature of the website, increased website traffic, and led to more book orders.