Posts
Monday, August 25, 2008
How to Turn Media Interviews into Book Sales
We came across a great resource to help authors prepare for media interviews. It’s a free audio recording with tips for authors offered by WildFire Marketing. Their website also has some great information under Free Resources for authors, speakers, and authors who are speakers!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Author websites: Create an interactive community, Part 1
A number of our authors have great websites which they use to inform the public, provide information, and, of course, promote and sell their titles. One such website is the Basic Training website Sergeant Michael Volkin has for his books The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook and The Ultimate Interactive Basic Training Workbook, found here.
Sergeant Volkin has incorporated just about every website feature you could imagine: book sales, e-newsletter, forum, blog, articles, a radio show, and more!
One of the obstacles he faced was how to get his website higher up in search engine page rankings. (Type Basic Training into Google and you get more than 35 million hits.) Who digs through more than a few pages when looking for something? The author has done some great search engine optimization work to get his website higher in search engine results with a good outcome.
Volkin’s website and the additional content he offers are perfect examples of how to create a website community where users go (and come back to) for information.
Sergeant Volkin has incorporated just about every website feature you could imagine: book sales, e-newsletter, forum, blog, articles, a radio show, and more!
One of the obstacles he faced was how to get his website higher up in search engine page rankings. (Type Basic Training into Google and you get more than 35 million hits.) Who digs through more than a few pages when looking for something? The author has done some great search engine optimization work to get his website higher in search engine results with a good outcome.
Volkin’s website and the additional content he offers are perfect examples of how to create a website community where users go (and come back to) for information.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Upcoming Review of Once a Marine in ForeWord Magazine
For those of you not familiar with it, ForeWord magazine is a great publication that reviews books by independent publishing companies. We were pleased to hear recently that they will be reviewing Once a Marine by Nick Popaditch in their September/October issue. This is our second book to be reviewed in their publication. (They reviewed our upcoming Major League Baseball book in the Sports by the Numbers series for their baseball section in the Spring.)
If you don’t submit your books for review here, you should start. Here are their submission guidelines.
They also have an award program and ForeWord Connections where you can create a database of your titles, submit books for awards, and more.
If you don’t submit your books for review here, you should start. Here are their submission guidelines.
They also have an award program and ForeWord Connections where you can create a database of your titles, submit books for awards, and more.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Armchair General magazine interviews Ted Savas
We received a nice surprise when we opened the September issue of Armchair General magazine: an interview with Ted Savas in their “10 Questions” section. We knew it was coming, but of course it is always nice to see the final product in print form. =) In the interview, Ted Savas discusses his background and passion for history, how he entered the publishing business, the conception of Savas Beatie, and where the company is headed. You can read the full article here. Thanks to Armchair General for such a nice piece.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Author Events at Borders
I received some potentially good news about setting up author book signing events at Borders today.
In the past when setting up author book signing tours (mainly Gary Moore’s Playing with the Enemy tour) I have always preferred working with Barnes and Noble over Borders. Most Barnes and Noble stores have a Community Relations Manager (a CRM) who works in the store. I would work with this person directly to set up and publicize an event. Borders operated differently. I would have to first contact a store to find out who their District Area Marketing Manager was. This person would be in charge of events for a region. The region varied in size, anywhere from a county to multiple states. (No joke.) I would then contact this person who would approve the event, then pass the details onto the store where the event would take place. I wouldn’t work with people at the event site until just right before the event, if at all. Although we have had a few great Borders events (Folsom, CA!), many have been lackluster in attendance. I think the different chain of command influenced this.
I haven’t set up a large tour for an author for quite some time. Now I am working on one for Once a Marine author Nick Popaditch. I reluctantly called my first Borders today because the store was recommended to me. I was pleased to find out that all store events are handled by the sales manager in each particular store. DAMMs still exit, but more in an over-seeing role, according to the Borders sales manager I spoke to. I am sending her a galley of Once a Marine today and she was very interested in setting up an October event. This seems like a much more efficient way to set up an event, and I hope it will pay off in increased event attendance!
In the past when setting up author book signing tours (mainly Gary Moore’s Playing with the Enemy tour) I have always preferred working with Barnes and Noble over Borders. Most Barnes and Noble stores have a Community Relations Manager (a CRM) who works in the store. I would work with this person directly to set up and publicize an event. Borders operated differently. I would have to first contact a store to find out who their District Area Marketing Manager was. This person would be in charge of events for a region. The region varied in size, anywhere from a county to multiple states. (No joke.) I would then contact this person who would approve the event, then pass the details onto the store where the event would take place. I wouldn’t work with people at the event site until just right before the event, if at all. Although we have had a few great Borders events (Folsom, CA!), many have been lackluster in attendance. I think the different chain of command influenced this.
I haven’t set up a large tour for an author for quite some time. Now I am working on one for Once a Marine author Nick Popaditch. I reluctantly called my first Borders today because the store was recommended to me. I was pleased to find out that all store events are handled by the sales manager in each particular store. DAMMs still exit, but more in an over-seeing role, according to the Borders sales manager I spoke to. I am sending her a galley of Once a Marine today and she was very interested in setting up an October event. This seems like a much more efficient way to set up an event, and I hope it will pay off in increased event attendance!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Author Interview on Marketing History Books
Savas Beatie author Eric Wittenberg (The Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads, Plenty of Blame to Go Around, and One Continuous Fight) was recently interviewed on a subject we frequently discuss—marketing history books—from an author’s perspective. Read the interview here. It contains some great information and answers some common questions about what authors can and should do to help promote their books (websites, blogs, talks, etc.).
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Use Bookmarks to Increase Amazon Reviews
Casemate recently published a book titled Day of the Panzer: A Story of American Heroism and Sacrifice in Southern France by Jeff Danby.
Along with each copy of the book sent out as a review copy, given away by the author, or signed by the author at a book signing event, they include a business card and a bookmark. The business card includes a thumbnail of the book cover (where you typically see a business logo, on the left hand side), some brief specs on the book, and Casemate’s contact info. The bookmark includes the book cover image and the following message:
“If you enjoy this book, please consider writing a review at the following websites:”
Following are website urls for Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and brief instructions on how to pull up the book’s page on each site and review it.
I know the bookmark idea is a common one, but asking the reader to write a review of the book on the bookmark is something I hadn’t seen before. What a great idea, and a call-to-action way to increase the number of reviews for your book on websites such as Amazon! Authors, think about designing and printing something similar for your book.
Have a great 4th of July.
Along with each copy of the book sent out as a review copy, given away by the author, or signed by the author at a book signing event, they include a business card and a bookmark. The business card includes a thumbnail of the book cover (where you typically see a business logo, on the left hand side), some brief specs on the book, and Casemate’s contact info. The bookmark includes the book cover image and the following message:
“If you enjoy this book, please consider writing a review at the following websites:”
Following are website urls for Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and brief instructions on how to pull up the book’s page on each site and review it.
I know the bookmark idea is a common one, but asking the reader to write a review of the book on the bookmark is something I hadn’t seen before. What a great idea, and a call-to-action way to increase the number of reviews for your book on websites such as Amazon! Authors, think about designing and printing something similar for your book.
Have a great 4th of July.
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