WizardofeBooks.com

Rather than launch a book, why not launch an online community? A way to poke fun at ourselves? A volunteer campaign? A wacky public stunt? A fundraising effort? A regular podcast about the key issues of your book? Awareness around a cause? A free tool that saves people time or money? An interview with someone that inspired you?
Why do the usual? Like, ever?

I am a blogger.
I observe.
I rant.
I question.
I have definite opinions.
I have freedom of what I write and when.
I am an incurable romantic.
I don’t like everyone I write about, and it’s OK to let that show.
I would never ‘out’ someone without their permission.
I make inappropriate jokes.
I may choose to tell only half the story.
I don’t have to question my writing.
I run nothing past a higher authority.
I honour my conscience.
I am not always objective.
I don’t have to look good in front of a camera.
I don’t have to soften the message.
I write for an audience that feels the same as I do about freedom of information.
I go places that others would not dare.
I am a blogger.

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Enjoy this fun and fast interview with Judy Mayhew, who works hard to create a monthly meetup of Authors and poets here in Nanaimo.

Judy’s WordStorm group meets on the last Monday of each month, at ACME Restaurant in downtown Nanaimo. They have booked Authors and poets for literally YEARS in advance, so best to buy your tickets early, at http://www.wordstorm.ca/. We have such a rich and vibrant writing community here in Nanaimo, and I’m so proud to be a teensy part of it!

Is volume the name of the game when it comes to eBooks? I’m not convinced that it is.

In this post by Chris Brogan, he makes two extremely important points about pricing digital products.

1. People never truly know what your content is actually worth. Even after they’ve read it.

2. People assume what content is worth based on the up-front price.

If you give a kid a puppy, they will, from day one, forget to feed it, walk it, and they will never EVER scoop the poop. However, if that kid begs for a puppy for 3 years before you finally cave and let him have it, they will feed it for a year, walk it for a week, and scoop the poop once. This is still imperfect, but an improvement. The old adage about people not holding value for something that comes too easily is still true.

It’s rare for people to take the advice of any expert seriously. The real value of the words of great men and women, people who’ve been there, those who are self-made millionaires, the kids who’ve made it, is in the action that follows. Reading Think and Grow Rich once will tell you that. It’s all stuff you already know. (Or at least, that you should know.) Nothing in that book is groundbreaking. But the people who’ve taken it seriously and then acted on it, their success becomes legend. And then, the book gets a reputation. But everybody hopes for a free puppy.

When I price my books, I have nothing like the reputation of Andrew Carnegie nor his student Napoleon Hill to rely on to drive sales. I need to justify right up front why my stuff is good, whether it be an instruction manual or any of my crappy fiction. If it’s 99 cents, more people will probably download it than if I had priced it at $9.99. (Or in some cases, $99.00.) But I doubt ten times more people will. And at 99 cents, there’s nothing for my readers to brag about. No reason for them to tell their neighbour about how great this book was. It will be forgotten because it was not valued before they even cracked the cover.

I’ve had clients who have grossly underpriced their work. Every single time, I plead with them to not do it. Some listen, and some don’t. Before you underprice your next eBook, ask yourself, “Why do I feel the need to do this?” Is it fear that the book won’t sell at a higher price? (Fear motivates rarely motivates us to do anything positive, but that’s another article.) Instead, what about doing the tougher job: demonstrating value. Only a poor salesman drops his price. Demonstrating benefits, offering testimonials, samples, and showing long-term cost savings are the way to come out on top.

Remember, you only have to sell 1/9th the quantity of eBooks at $9.99 than you do at 99 cents to come out on top.

Ad Age does a daily rank of the world’s 150 top marketing blogs. Here are my faves off that list, and why.

The daily list is at: http://adage.com/power150/. I read several of them regularly, although I don’t read any of them daily. My list of favourites – in the order they are found on the AdAge list – includes;

- Seth’s Blog: Seth Godin, the sexiest head in marketing, has daily blog posts that are short, to-the-point, and don’t waste time. Inspirational.

- Chris Brogan: Also sexy, but different. I’ve heard Brogan speak at various conferences, and he’s a real, down-to-earth guy with stuff that works. Simple.

- CopyBlogger: Brian Clark talks about words that sell, and why. He’s a WordPress advocate, and his posts are uncomplicated and explanatory. Interesting.

- JohnChow.com: I love him for so much more than being Canadian. John is a racehorse in the world of marketing; sleek and fast. Aggressive.

- ShoeMoney.com: Love this guy’s backstory. A real Basement Techie, all grown up. An eager and hardworking guy with great advice. Funny.

- ProBlogger.net: Darren Rowse has plenty of guest bloggers on his site, all about blogging for money. Specific and technical. Aussie.

- JoelComm.com: If you want to learn about how to use ClickBank or AdSense, this is the guy. Believable and trustworthy. Sensible.

- ChrisG.com: Garrett’s generous new media and WordPress blog fills a gap that others have missed. Smart, understandable, and practical. Clever.

I’m sure there are others just as worthy, but these are the guys on that list that I read regularly. I notice that Michelle MacPhearson’s blog and Frank Kern’s variety of crazy sites have missed the list entirely, which is a real shame. Both are also great folks worth following.

Image from Copyblogger.com

This is a great post from Copyblogger, which if you don’t already read, you should be. Founder Brian Clark is a real smartie, and he’s always got great stuff.

When he talks in #2 about not using a standard page from within WordPress, don’t forget that you can remove the sidebars from any WordPress page and still use that as a landing page. I do it all the time, and it’s very simple to have a theme designer help you with a few brief keyboard strokes that will simply create another page template.

Brian often has clever and brief tips that are extremely useful, and you can follow him on Twitter as @copyblogger.

Author Holly Tucker is about to release her book “Blood Work” on March 21st. Check out her pre-release activities to help market her book.

Holly has great cover artwork, and she uses it. She also happens to be adorable herself, so she has her photo in her newsletter. She has created regular and clearly-written contact with her potential reader base, and she’s quick to remark on things like positive reviews (in Publisher’s Weekly – congrats, Holly!) in her neatly crafted newsletter.

But here’s the thing I like the most about this newsletter: the opening line. “My amazing agent, Faith Hamlin, wrote something today in response to a bunch of questions that I had sent her. ‘You’re doing. Fine. Don’t worry.’ ” The periods are what caught my eye. It’s subtle, reassuring, and you want to know the answer to the implied question. It’s like a promise stating, this will not bore you. It slows down the reader and forces them to pause and pay attention.

A good subject line or opening line is tough to write. It must convey excitement, create good feelings in the reader’s brain, and encourage them to read the rest of it. I rarely read an entire newsletter, I confess. So many of them are poorly-written, contain no useful information, etc. But Holly’s style is very readable, and even though she’s not giving me anything scientific I can use in my business, I want to know about her journey as a Writer, as the creator of the “second baby” as she refers to it. I feel her excitement. I want her to succeed.

Good luck Holly! You can learn more about the book here: http://www.holly-tucker.com/blood-work/#about and follow her on Twitter as @history_geek.

If you are trying to sell ebooks to mobile readers (and who isn’t?) you must read this post by blogger Piotr Kowalczyc. The entire post is written in bullet points, with exact instructions on how to sell more ebooks to mobile phone readers.

(And by the way, this is precisely what I do every day. Trust me. It definitely does sell more ebooks.) I might add, that you can use your own affiliate link (Amazon calls these “Associates” when referring traffic to your own books. He also gives great points on using hashtags on Twitter.

Here are the first few lines of the post, just to whet your appetite:

“If you are a self-publisher actively using social media to find readers and draw their attention to your books (probably published in an electronic form), this post is for you.

I’d like to share a simple way to make your e-book available for instant purchase by mobile phone users. As you’ll see – it’s very easy.”

Good luck!

I really like Chris Garret’s honest comments in this article about his experiences with affiliate marketing. While he talks about it more from the standpoint of running ads for someone else’s product, rather than having an affiliate program for your own products, he gives encouraging advice that mirrors my own.
Pay special attention to his remarks about mistakes that he made while starting up: as a product owner with your own affiliate program, you can use quality documentation (good written instructions) to make it easier for your affiliates, build their trust, and help them to avoid potholes.

Jill Exler is a Mum, Author, and Entrepreneur who is really hitting the streets with her tool for self-published Authors, Jexbo.com.

Jill’s smile isn’t the only bright thing about her. Jexbo only takes 5% for any self-pubs that list their books on her site, as compared to (ultimately) over 50%, depending on the variety of services available for Authors. Jill created the site herself after stuggling with her own self-publishing issues.

I love that Jill took things into her own hands, and that she’s kept her business model so simple. Her service is complemented by an interview series (Hey Jill! I’m available!) and a newsletter aimed at self-pubs. It’s all about helping self-pubs advance their businesses.

Jill takes things seriously, and she doesn’t mess around. You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jexbo. What a clever cookie.