I didn’t wanna do it, I didn’t wanna do it… Being old and married, I didn’t really think that Facebook had anything to offer me. I was wrong.

It’s true that most traffic in social media is just that – social. I can’t host an open author-training Skypecast without somebody asking me what colour underwear I’m wearing.  But I’m obviously part of huge-and-growing marketing and business sector that is using these services. The third item in the top menu bar at Skype is now labelled “Business“, right after “Download” and “Use Skype”. And I’m still discovering new stuff on Facebook everyday.

It’s very important to know that when one is creating groups, events, inviting friends, writing on walls, and adding applications that the key thing to remember is to keep it a very soft sell. People don’t want to be oversold on anything – to offer them something of genuine benefit may have a cost associated with it. But that’s still cheaper than trying to sell something to someone who doesn’t want to buy it.

what if i wrote an entire post without any capitalization punctuation or any other type of formatting would you read it without having eye pain or would you navigate to another page right away

what do we really need as a minimum for communication to work for example if there was a sudden natural disaster and we relied entirely on text messaging to enable ourselves to get back up and running quickly what could we do without for a day

perhaps this is an interesting test as an exercise in simplicity and to avoid the typical complications that we impose on ourselves have we evolved communication into a selfdefeating exercise or have we instead evolved our own expectations of what communication must entail in order to become effective such as in the case of giving detailed and contextual instructions

sorry theres no final question mark here today to avoid falsely inflating the importance of my final impact statement

One of the things I love the most about my job is that I get to become very involved in the lives of my clients. All of my clients are very interesting and complex individuals, and as a student of human nature, I’m always enthused by the idea of getting to know an interesting person on a very deep level, a level that perhaps not many others have. Over the course of the project, we do seem to develop a relationship that resembles that of a tightly-knit family.

Whether it’s stories about whacky things that happen to nurses, the worst thing that somebody has ever found on a previously-believed “dead” hard drive, or the moment when a client asks themselves a profound question that shapes their writing for years to come, I enjoy being there to hear all of it. It shapes my own writing, and my impressions of the world around me.
Editing is really about objective observation. We see the errors in grammar and punctuation that writers don’t, because we’re not emotionally invested in the material. (Or at least, we shouldn’t be emotionally invested.) When I realize I’m really starting to like a client and become friends with them – a difficult thing to avoid – I start to lose my objectivity. I’m then on dangerous ground, because I can best be an advocate for my client when I can see their faults, and help to correct those faults before the manuscript goes public.

But like any solid family, it’s interesting that we are usually able to find a solution that perhaps takes some compromise, but makes everyone happy in the end. The basis of a relationship that supports that is trust. I work hard to earn the trust of my authors. I offer them support in any way that I can – and I am always looking for support on their behalf. I want to be the best editor I can be for them, because they are doing their best to write a great book for their readers.

I have been on a diet for most of my adult life, but I’ve only been practicing social media marketing for less than a year. I’ve decided I like doing the marketing part more, not only because the results are quicker, but because it’s almost as rewarding as chocolate at midnight.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how I’m conducting a marketing experiment on a client of mine, Jeri-Lyn McCrea. Jeri is a perfect candidate for social media marketing (SMM) for several reasons. She’s beautiful, clever, and is also now a published author. (Did I mention she’s single, guys?) It’s easy to talk about her and her lovely book online, because the book demonstrates a number of things we all have in common: hope, struggles, stress, and believing in ourselves. You don’t need to be in the same room with someone to understand these universal themes.

I’ve been using the five major techniques from that post, and several minor ones, to tackle the job of creating a “buzz” about her book. Until a few days ago, I didn’t know if it was working. But just like that morning when you step on the scale and see yourself a pound less than you were yesterday, the effects are starting to add up.

One of the so-called minor efforts we’ve been making has been to use a handy-dandy SMM tool that’s been around for a relatively long time in online terms, Meetup.com. We setup a meetup.com meeting for Jeri, called the Words in Action Meetup Group, and linked it to the Facebook group for Jeri, which is now getting attention by capitalizing on the friend networks that both she and I already have there.

The first meeting is meant to be a very casual “meet the author” sort of thing, at a local coffee house. It makes sense that the group could be a really strong regular thing after that time, because journaling is an activity that often benefits from a bit of support. Setting goals, keeping them in your sights, and constantly working towards them is very, very hard work. All the Meetup.com group really needs to be self-sustaining is a regular clique of people who want to attend. There isn’t even a cost involved, because we’ll keep paying the fees.

Dieting is hard work. So is SMM – researching target markets and mechanisms, sending out emails (individually written for each person – no form letters, please), spending hours on the phone, sending out sample copies of the book to various people, etc. I’ve done so much of that this week that I’m working up a sweat. But that’s ok – SMM is such good exercise that I’ve already lost two pounds. That’s better than I did last time on South Beach.

Check out this great item at the Huffington Post by Catherine Specter, titled “The Way We Word”. When you’re done reading the post, check out the rather stimulating comment at the bottom, which was chosen the “HuffPost’s Pick”. (Yes, that comment was written by me – Peggy – the girl who can’t keep her mouth shut.)

I’ve had an expression for a number of years that I quote to clients, partners and affiliates as often as appropriate: “Every organization is a sales organization.”(c) This means that no matter what you are part of – your school, your company, your sports team, your scouting group, your religious assembly, your book project or anything else that you have on your plate – if it’s an organization that wants to grow, selling is how that will happen. This expression also means that every activity you undertake can and must relate somehow to your sales and marketing plan – even if it’s a stretch.

Because self-published authors are almost always also self-promoted, self-publicized, and self-sold authors, they must find ways to make a single selling activity work for them in more than one way. This means that they must have a good selling strategy, based on a big-picture view of their market, and they must constantly remind themselves of their “Grand Vision”, or what it is they are trying to achieve.

But when I talk about sales to some clients, they stumble and don’t know where to go with the topic. They don’t consider themselves “sales people”. This is confusing to me, because in fact, many of them are already quite accomplished at selling. They network, they fix things, they clarify, and they communicate. They do so by providing a solution to a clearly-identified problem, and not by pushing something on someone who doesn’t want what they have to offer. That, my friends, is the definition of quality selling.

Just like writing a quality book, quality selling begins in the research. For most of my authors, they are publishing to promote their current business or enterprise, or to raise their professional profile or that of their business. They already know who their audience is and what they want. Or do they?

One of the best all-around selling research techniques that is weirdly overlooked by most people in publishing is the Focus Group. This is fancy talk for “asking people what they think”. It is necessary to perform research by talking to your readers. This is not selling – this is asking. (Which incidentally, is great practice for selling.) By asking questions and stimulating discussion in a group of independent and completely objective people, you are getting the highest quality information that any sales person could ask for: somebody’s real and unbiased opinion.

For one client that I worked with, we did this in a very casual way, by having what we called a “One-Night-Reading-Stand”, where people came by a local coffee joint, and in exchange for a free coffee and a copy of the book, we asked them what they thought. The author was not present, so people were free to speak their mind without worrying about what the author might think. We recorded the entire event as an .mp3 so that I could analyze it later. The author never heard a word of the interview. I made a summary of what needed to be done, and delivered a to-do list to the author later. The participants were never identified publicly, and they ended up being advocates for the product in the market. Everybody left happy, including the author, because he knew what needed to be done to be a success.

This research is what enabled the author to tweak his product and message, and isn’t it funny how he sold out his first printing in 60 days, without having to “sell” anything? Research in this case was performed before the first printing, but this could easily be done at any point in the production process. By networking, fixing, clarifying, and communicating, the author tripled his anticipated sales.

The bottom line: selling more of your self-published books is the same as selling anything. Apply good research, create your own opportunities for publicity (the coffee shop took on the book as a product, and many people stopped to ask us what we were doing that night), network (all the people in the group ended up helping to sell the book – they were selected as “people of influence” for their role in the community that we wanted to target), fix and clarify (the messaging activity that took place that night helped us avoid some less-than-obvious pitfalls and develop clear marketing messages for the book), and communicate (everybody that entered the coffee shop that night left with a bookmark that had a copy of the URL on it, and a handful more to pass on to friends, plus we we turned the focus group into a marketing activity by submitting a press release to the local paper).

Successful self-sold books = a single activity, turned into multiple selling activities.

For the first time, I’ve been the victim of some nasty comments on this blog, using profanity and some harsh language. It took me by surprise because the remarks were so personal, and from someone I had never met.

Because my blog is set to hold all comments until I approve them, the comments never showed in public. I simply logged in the other day and saw them waiting for me – ready to ice the cake of my already stressful day. Using the IP address logged by our system, we were able to determine where the comments came from, and eventually, the actual author himself. It turned out he is an underage person who had simply taken too much to drink one evening, and decided to be a prankster.

The comments all concerned one item that I had blogged about, and involved another individual that I had linked to in that particular post. This other individual actually spoke to the commenter this evening by phone, at a home telephone number that the commenter provided when asked in an email message at the address he provided when he made the comment. (Doesn’t sound like a world-class hacker now, does he?) At this point, the offender is probably right to be a bit shocked and afraid of his own behaviour.

After an interesting (and I’m sure, gratifying) conversation with the young person, my friend gave me the update that the problem would not be repeated.

I’ve learned from this experience;

1. Always have comment moderation turned on.
2. People will do stuff you’d never expect, even in the eye of the public.
3. Don’t take nasty things said by people you don’t know too personally – it did really turn out that this person didn’t know what he was talking about. (And was drunk to boot!)
4. It turns out it is worthwhile to follow up to nasty commenters who use profanity and who say unreal stuff. We did get an apology, albeit a verbal one.

The only item outstanding for me relates to the fact that this nasty commenter turned out to be a teenage minor, and technically still a child in the eyes of the law. While I still insist that it was the right thing to do to call him and ask for an apology, I know that I wouldn’t like the idea of anyone else scolding my child but me. I’m not sure if we have compromised ourselves by doing so. But on the other hand, if my own child offended someone, I would want her to know. It’s only when we understand the damage we do that we feel a bit of pain ourselves, and are stimulated to correct our behaviours.

What a weekend it has been for Humanus Publishing! A launch party for one of my authors, a new release from another of my authors, and the rollout of our new affiliate program, all in the last 4 days!

Sunday was the launch party for The Freshman FlyFisher, (ISBN 978-0-978-3292-1-1) by Rick Passek of Surrey, BC. Rick held his launch event at the Little Campbell Hatchery at the Semiahmoo Fish and Game Club on 184th in Surrey. What a huge success for all involved! Rick not only sold plenty of books, but made numerous contacts related to promoting family outdoor events in the Surrey area. We are grateful to the Rotary Club of Cloverdale BC, for their wonderful management of the food concession stand, and to the City of Surrey for their support. As always, Rick was a real star, and was cool as a cuke from Friday morning’s appearance on Breakfast Television on City TV, to his interview on CBC Radio’s BC Almanac Friday afternoon, right through Sunday’s festivities. My favourite moment was little 6-year old Gracie’s fishing lesson on Breakfast Television Friday morning. She picked up the fine art of casting in a matter of minutes, due at least in part to Rick’s careful tutelage. Good going, Rick!

Another one of my authors, the lovely Jeri-Lyn McCrea, is the author of Words in Action – A Journal to Inspire Change, (ISBN 978-0-9809325-0-8) which is scheduled for release on April 25th. I saw the first copies back from the printer’s on Saturday, and boy, do they look fantastic!! The matte-coated hardcover is sooooo soft in the hand, and the pages look truly inspiring. I’m really excited about this journal (I guess we should stop referring to it as a “book”), because it breaks entirely new ground in the area of motivation and self-improvement titles. Jeri is so right when she talks about people “figuring it out for themselves”, and not looking to others to “complete their lives or tell them what to do”. Her journal is a book you ultimately write for yourself, and get a little burst of energy and motivation every day. Setting goals and making up your mind to achieve them – that’s what Words in Action is all about. Watch this blog for more info about events coming soon to the Langley and Surrey areas.

The cherry on the cake of this weekend was our new Humanus Publishing Affiliate Program. I started this project a few weeks ago to solve the problems of one author’s quest to market their product online, and it has now snowballed into something that can be used by any self-publishing author who wants to sell their books direct to consumers over the internet. Authors want to be freed of the hassle and overhead of online sales in order to keep writing, and this system means that they do not need to put up any money up front to make that happen. It’s cheap, fast, and keeps writers doing what they should be doing – writing. I hope that this system will expand into something resembling a marketing co-op for self-publishing authors, while continuing to align itself with the values of Humanus Publishing. If you know of a publisher who wants to sell their products through our program, you can earn money by referring them. Simply email me and let’s find a way to make it happen.

Sexy is as sexy does. Johnny Lee* has done an awful lot with a $40 piece of hardware. That makes him hotter than anybody else on YouTube. [Here's a link to Johnny's Blog, where you can even help his projects. See right under the photo in the right-hand column.]

Check out what Johnny put in his videos: hacks for Wii remotes, the latest Nintendo technology. The remote has an infra-red camera built into it. The video below shows just two of his fantastic discoveries that make use of the remote only – not the entire Wii system. He has written software that allows this device to be corrupted into something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Yes, the hacks are brilliant. But what I really find hot is how he recognized the power of YouTube to get the word out, and he angled himself extremely well in his approach.

He succeeded because first, he had fantastic keyword power. (Wii? Even a gameophobe like me has seen the thing in action and been wildly impressed.)

Second, he had something truly worthwhile and powerful to show.

Third, he asked for NO MONEY.

And fourth, he’s got magnetism – he’s a natural in front of the camera because he’s not rehearsed or contrived. Johnny is naturally sexy.

Can any of us do all of these things and get the same number of hits? Let’s take an example using my own business.

1. Keyword power. OK, obviously using keyword strings like “sell more books” is not cutting the mustard. So, let’s think benefits. If you write a successful book, you will be rich and famous. (Perhaps.) You may be able to charge more for your current services. (Sounds great.) You will gain greater respect, receive universal validation, and be able to launch an entirely new sub-career and business for yourself. (Now you’re talking.) And, your children will think you are cool. (Bingo! Sold to the bidder with the book in hand.)
2. Something really worthwhile. What’s something related to books that will make your kids think you are cool and that’s really worthwhile? How about a system to sell a lot of books online? (Not bad. Keep going.) How about being able to sell them without any real work involved? (I’m listening.) How about being able to sell them to people using only their cell phones? (Another ball out of the park!)
3. Ask for no money. For an entrepreneur, this is a tough one. What if we just said we’d ask for no money up front? (That I can live with!)
4. Be magnetic. The key here is to not try too hard. I’m serious about my business, which is creating and selling great books for my clients, not making videos. A certain level of professionalism is required, but if it looks like it came out of DreamWorks, it may actually cost me credibility. Better to go for character, rather than false smoothness.

So where does that leave me? OK, I need to create a little video on YouTube that comes from the angle of “How to sell your books and market on the internet for higher profits with less work and using mobile-friendly browsing.” Short title, “Sell anything via a cell phone”.

I’d watch that. Report coming soon – our affiliate system is now live, and I’ll test the shopping cart using my own cell phone next week. Now that WILL be sexy!

* I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this is the same Johnny who invented something else I loved, the Poorman’s Steadycam. Help a student out and buy a cool video accessory from him!

- Another post by Liz Gaige of Market Navigators.

The hot topic of the day for me is quality customer service, which at first blush may not seem like a topic of interest to a self-publishing author. In fact, customer service at its core is simply considering your customer/reader–and successful writers do that all the time.

I will read what entertains me and informs me. And, in order to reach me, the things I read have to connect with me.

When I pick up the Harvard Business Review, my eyes quickly glaze over. It is a highly successful publication, so I’m sure I’m the one with the issue, not them. It’s just that I’m a hit-the-ground-running type. The one who wants quick sound bytes, and facts in point form, so I can make an informed decision and at least get started. That means I have a greater connection with writing that takes that form.

Knowing who your audience is and how they need to receive information is the key to being a successful author. There are a lot of books with great information buried in them, but their form is a roadblock to their success.

Do not bury the gold! Learn about your readers, ask how they will use the information, then give it to them in a way that works for them. That, is a writer’s version of good customer service.