The Maps of Gettysburg book trailer

Our second Spring book trailer, this one for The Maps of Gettysburg in full color, hardcover is out. Enjoy, and please share the link with whoever you know who enjoys quality military history titles. (We received some advanced copies of the book in the office and they look amazing.)

An Interview with Author Jim Hessler

Our first Spring 2010 book off the press was the paperback edition of Sickles at Gettysburg. The hardcover edition sold very well in Gettysburg and is also a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation's book award. In honor of our first Spring book rolling off the line, we asked author Jim Hessler some questions about Sickles and his book marketing efforts.

Q: I know you live in Gettysburg, PA. How is it helpful to live near the battlefield that you wrote a book about? What opportunities arise that might not otherwise?

A: It is enormously helpful. Terrain drives battles and you can't write these books without understanding: 1) the terrain and 2) what the battle participants could actually see (to the best that we can re-create today). By living near Gettysburg, I can visit the field weekly as opposed to only a few times a year. As a Battlefield Guide, I also get the opportunity to interact with interested members of the public who sometimes provide their own unique perspective on the battle.

Q: What's the best opportunity that has come from the many book signings you have done in bookstores throughout Gettysburg?

A: Meeting people in general has provided numerous opportunities. I've made connections with prominent authors, historians, and retailers that did not exist before I wrote the book. Each one of those relationships leads to more potential word of mouth and referrals down the road. I can't say that one stands out over any others, because they may all lead to something positive, but certainly meeting fellow Savas Beatie authors JD Petruzzi and Steve Stanley, along with the (former) crew of the American History Store (Jim Glessner and Eric Lindblade) clearly paid dividends for me this year. And hopefully these are relationships that will continue into the future.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I am still promoting the Sickles book, both in hardcover and the new paperback edition just released. Officially I am not presently working on anything else; but unofficially I am researching a little bit of this and that. Having tackled many of the problems within the Army of the Potomac, I feel my next book (should there be one) would have to tackle comparable problems within Lee's army.

Q: What's the best marketing tip that you would give a new author?

A: Get out there and meet people. People are not going to buy a Civil War book in large numbers just because we think the topic is endlessly fascinating. You need to meet people to get those incremental sales.

Q: Thanks, Jim. We appreciate your time.

A: You're welcome.

Making Surveys Work for You

Here’s a great tip from author J.D. Petruzzi. He is using Survey Monkey to ask Civil War enthusiasts which book they would like to see next in the “Complete Guide” series, following his popular book The Complete Gettysburg Guide.

It’s a free service and easy to use. J.D. posted the link widely, on Civil War sites, his social networking accounts, and on The Complete Gettysburg Guide Amazon discussion page. The number of votes and comments have been overwhelming, sometimes surprising, and many people are taking the time to write some thoughtful suggestions for the series that J.D. and cartography Steve Stanley are taking into consideration.

Feedback is very important to us too. We appreciate every email we receive about customer service, every suggestion we get on how we could improve our monthly newsletter, and thoughts on what titles our readers want to see. Stay tuned for our first survey question in an upcoming newsletter.

Authors, what survey question could you ask around your new or upcoming book? And don’t forget to cast your vote on J.D. Petruzzi’s question.

The Maps of Chickamauga Book Trailer

This is the newest Savas Beatie book trailer, for the newest book in the Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series. We were very pleased with how it came out, and designer David Van Dusen did a great job. Producing these trailers is a great way to create an "ad" for our books that we can use again and again, for different purposes and in different ways.

We will be working with David to create a trailer for The Maps of Gettysburg (the full color, hardcover edition) next. Stay tuned for trailers for our other Spring 2010 releases in the coming months.

Radio Interview Channel on YouTube

Here’s a good tip for radio hosts, regardless of if you have a show on an AM/FM station or internet radio: Post recorded audio interviews with your guests on your YouTube channel for additional exposure. Recently we started working with KBMW and host Doug Groff does this. They upload interviews to the radio show’s YouTube channel after accompanying the audio with some simple visual elements. As you listen to the interview, you see photos of the author, his or her book cover, additional photos, and links. You can check out their channel here.

Examples from three recent Savas Beatie author interviews:

Confessions of a Military Wife by Mollie Gross

Playing with the Enemy by Gary Moore

The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln by Larry Tagg

It’s a convenient way for the station to get more listener hits, and for the author to be able to share the link with family and friends, post on his or her website, and use as a sample to generate additional radio spots.

Getting Partners for Your Book

I listened to an interesting teleseminar offered by Steve Harrison yesterday, titled “How to Get Major Companies and Nonprofits to Sponsor the Promotion of Your Book, Product, or Service to Millions of People. . . FREE!!”

Like many of these phone calls, there is a call-to-action to sign up for a pricey seminar to get the whole package and additional info, but there are some good tips and advice that anyone can implement after listening to the free phone call.

I also watched a video featuring Brendon Burchard (who was interviewed on yesterday's call) today listing nine different areas that one can explore for sponsorship and partnership, embedded below. They are:

1. Live events
2. Educational programs
3. Corporate programs
4. Product buys/launches
5. Promotions
6. Websites
7. Services
8. Causes
9. Tours

The video gives good examples or explanations of each, and even mentions a phrase that was unfamiliar to us here until last week: “financial literacy.” Stay tuned for more on that subject, and how we are incorporating it into one of our titles this year soon . . .

Top 10 Book Promotion Strategies for 2010

Interesting press release out this month titled “Top 10 Book Promotion Strategies for 2010 Revealed by Survey.” The results go hand in hand with what I spent a lot of my week working on.

According to Smith’s late 2009 survey, here are the top 10 book promotion methods that authors and publishers plan to use this year:

1. Social networking and social media: 94 percent
2. Blogging: 84 percent
3. Seeking book reviews: 75 percent
4. Seeking testimonials and endorsements: 73 percent
5. Press releases: 68 percent
6. Ezines or email marketing: 62 percent
7. Radio and television talk shows: 62 percent
8. Speaking or teleseminars: 60 percent
9. Article marketing: 57 percent
10. Book signings: 56 percent

You can read the entire press release here.

It’s interesting because when Savas Beatie started in 2004, not every author had a website. Those who did, stood out. MySpace and Facebook existed, but weren’t used for book promotion the way they are now. And who had heard of Twitter yet? No one, because it started in 2006.

Today, we expect a lot more from our authors, and as the findings of this survey confirm, so do other publishers. This month I have been working closely with all of our Spring 2010 authors on creating and maintaining their online presence. All five new authors started (or are in the process of developing) their websites, blogs, and Facebook accounts. Even our Saratoga author who was born in 1922 started his blog today. Now that’s a dedicated author.

Before each author’s book comes out this Spring, they will have an established online presence and social networking skills. They will have followers, commentors, and a “fan base” (for lack of a better term) that looks forward to seeing their online updates and who will be interested in reading their books.