Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday September 7th, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network

This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Bret Ridgway, founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about strategies for authors to leverage in their Internet marketing efforts as well as the biggest mistakes they make when attempting to handle product fulfillment for themselves and their books.

Mr. Ridgway will also discuss the concept of perceived value, recognition of how valuable time is to an author’s work and the ten-to-one (10:1) rule of information marketing.

Jo-Ann Geffen, the co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul®: The Story Behind The Song,” will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov how she landed the opportunity for the book and how she presented its concept as well as how she gathered the stories for it from a variety of musicians, from well-known recognized names to those less familiar – all with insightful tales to tell about their music.

In this latest “Chicken Soup for the Soul®” book, Ms. Geffen will talk about the kind of impact the 101 stories are having on readers everywhere, which charities were selected for the book’s donations as per the “Chicken Soup” model and her suggestions for how musicians can continue to share their stories behind the song beyond this book.

In the Education Corner, host Jennifer S. Wilkov will be talking about storytelling as the hook for your book.

In the information marketing world you’ll frequently hear the phrase “perceived value” uttered. Simply put, it means how much people think your product is worth. How you choose to package the information you’re selling will have a tremendous impact on how your customers perceive its value.

Let’s take a look at the relative perceived values of different products from lowest perceived value to highest perceived value. Keep in mind the content is identical regardless of the packaging.

Example 1: Single CD

Low                 Medium               High

Paper Sleeve —-Jewel Case —— DVD Style Case

If the CD is a free lead generation tool or a bonus item then a paper sleeve may be your best choice. The price that you’re asking for the product will, to a large extent, determine what kind of packaging you want to utilize. If you’re giving it away you need to go bare bones on your packaging.

But, if the product is selling for $47, $97 or more than you need to dress up the package. It needs to be more impressive so a jewel case with full color inserts or a DVD style case with a full color outsert will be called for. Remember, the content is identical. You are influencing the perceived value of your content by packaging it differently.

Example 2: 100 Page Manual

Low                        Medium                        High

Saddle Stitched — Perfect Bound — Spiral Bound — 3-ring Binder

Again, the content is identical in each of the formats. But the public has been conditioned to equate the value of a perfect bound book with a $19.95 price or so you’ll find in your traditional bookstore. Put that same information into an 8-1/2” x 11” spiral bound document or a 3-ring binder then it appears to be more specialized knowledge and people are willing to pay more for it.

If you’re selling a multifaceted product that consists of many CDs and/or DVDs and some printed materials that going to have a ticket price of $497 or higher then you definitely want to stay toward the upper medium to high end of the perceived value scale.

How you choose to package the components of your information product is critical to how people will perceive its value. Be aware of the value scales above when you’re deciding how you want your product to look.

Bret Ridgway is co-founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, a company dedicated to helping authors, speaker and information marketers. For more information call our Client Care Team toll-free at 888-261-8050 or email info@SFSmail.com.

By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio

www.yourbookisyourhook.com

As authors and writers, we’re always learning about resources and industry tools that we can use to improve our book project performance and the enjoyment of our writing and marketing experiences.  Today let’s talk about storytelling.

We as human beings have told stories for years. Philosophical stories, educational stories, stories of great accomplishments and stories that have kept the histories of nations, beliefs, religions and cultures alive.

By our very nature, we are born storytellers. Some of us feel more comfortable with this role than others. Some feel more confident as orators and speakers who tell stories live in person in the front of a room, on a stage or through television and film. Others feel more at ease writing their stories down in the form of an article, a blog or a book. And still others are most apt to tell their stories through video recordings or a film script. By and by, we have developed more ways to tell our stories throughout the centuries – and books are the hook for many of them.

Our stories reveal our strengths, fears, courage, cowardliness, faith, fortune and misfortune. We dash our hopes against the seas of despair only to find an unanticipated resurrection, resolution and reward for the variety of experiences we have endured throughout the journey.

As we write them down, our stories leave a legacy – beginning with the very next person who reads your book. I often like to say that “Your book is your HOOK!” because, simply put, just look at all the dead people you have lingering around on your bookshelf. Whether they are authors of scary stories, inspirational stories, historical stories, memoirs, children’s fables or films that have been adapted from a book written long ago or last year, we as human beings just love great stories. We read them again and again. When we like them, we pass them on because they’re just so darn good.

Secretly, we even read some of them more than once. I know people who have a favorite book they read once a year to remind them of something, encourage them and help them keep their perspective solid.

As authors and writers, we are the ones who give generously of our time, energy and effort – a significant contribution from our lives to humanity – to share our stories with the world. We touch the lives, hearts and imaginations of others with our books. That’s why your book IS your hook! You hook the souls and spirits of others with your book. Across the seas in so many languages, people read your story and get hooked into your imagination, inspiration and intellect.

Storytelling has been an integral part of our DNA since the human race began. Stories help us to better understand our world. They take our breath away. They make us smile. They startle us. They make us recognize what we believe in and they inspire us to stand up for what we stand for. Stories instill faith, optimism, hope and grace in others. They introduce conversations, conflicts and confrontations of our deepest beliefs and feelings.

Stories are powerful. They influence our lives and fan the flames of the Human Spirit.

When you are willing to tell your story in a book or whatever form you choose, you bless the entire human race with it – past, present and those who will come years after you are no longer here. You make a difference with it in the lives of so many, many whom you will never meet.

Tell your story and leave your legacy. And that’s why your book is your hook – for your story.

For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 31st, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network.

This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Renee Giroux, author website expert of Stimulating Conversation, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about author website essentials as well as the biggest mistakes authors make when building websites for themselves and their books.

Ms. Giroux will point out what an author needs to prepare when enrolling a website designer and why they can’t just hire one and leave the site to the designer. She’ll also talk about the important distinction of hiring a designer who is knowledgeable about author websites in particular as well as whether an author should make separate websites for themselves and their books or not.

Marilyn Perlyn, renowned multi-award winning author of The Biggest and Brightest Light and an inspirational speaker, will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov the evolution of how the experience she had with her 6 year old daughter, Amanda, and Amanda’s empathy for her teacher’s loss of her own daughter changed her life as well as her family’s lives forever and became a beloved storybook about how children really can make a difference in the lives of others. Mrs. Perlyn will also explain why she chose to self-publish the book so it would be a hardcover children’s book, how she got Muhammad Ali to write the foreword for it and how she is using her book as her hook.

Mrs. Perlyn will reveal the incredible impact her young daughter’s experience with empathy has had on others and how it has easily extended beyond her own family to thousands of other children worldwide along with their parents, grandparents and teachers. She’ll also discuss her celebrated OCHO Project which stands for Opportunities for Children to Help Others and how she and her family have found so many ways to make a difference for children across the United States and around the world.

In the Education Corner, host Jennifer S. Wilkov will be talking about the power of your participation when using your book as your hook.

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 31st, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network.

When a website is done correctly it serves it’s owner and readers well. When it is done badly, the results are punishing! There is a whole website dedicated to the area of bad websites, called
WebsitesThatSuck. I should qualify and say that the site does not have to be gorgeous, or flashy, or even clever. All of those things are really nice, but most of all your website needs to have the basic information and structure for media and readers to use your site effectively.

Essential anatomy of an author’s website is:

1. Your name (author’s name) generally used as a logo on all pages. Your name should also be your domain name. This helps with Branding and SEO. Sometimes, when your name is not available you can use something like www.johnsmithauthor.com or www.johnsmithwrites.com. You get the idea. Try not to be too clever. Generally people searching for you will use logic over wit.

2. Navigation is the most essential piece of the website design. Navigation should be straight forward, and easy to understand. You may be very funny or clever, but save that for your content, interviews, and books. People need to clearly, easily, and logically find their way around your site. The navigation needs to begin above the fold, and should not be difficult to locate. Websites that Suck coined the term Mystery Meat Navigation. If you are in any way not clear on navigation, or are just curious if your site uses Mystery Meat Navigation, check out the site.

3. Your Book. I know that seems like an obvious statement, but honestly you would be surprised. You should have an image of your book, and at least one way to buy your book. A ton of online retailers make it very simple. There are even IndieBound booksellers happy to provide you with that service, if you are wanting to promote independent booksellers.

4. About You. People want to know about you. You should have a bio. That is an essential part of your marketing plan anyway, so go ahead reuse that essay you already wrote. Here is where you can be clever and fun. Your readers want to know about you and your personality.

5. Your Image. I am a huge advocate for a professional photo, not a snapshot of you in your kitchen, but a well thought out picture. I have met many authors who either write under a pen name, or who otherwise would rather not have their photo posted for the world. I understand. I have seen many clever alternatives to the photo. One of my favorites is a sketch drawing. A stylized photo would work. Keep in mind, if a major press outlet was doing a story on you, what image would you want them to use to represent you. Having your image on your website, even if only on the media page, helps media outlets promote you.

6. Contact information. Again, I know that this seems obvious, and every website handles contact info a little differently. You can make a contact form easily, even in the free templates, but it is also just fine to have a narrative page. Some authors list the different contact names and info for themselves, their assistant, their agent, their PR rep, and their publisher. If you are not comfortable with listing your email with a ‘mail to’ link attached, then spell it out. (i.e.: renee AT stimulating DASH conversation DOT com. Regardless of how to you present the information, always include your contact information.

7. A link to your publisher. Even if you are self published, people should be able to access that information from your website.

8. A Media Page. You may just be starting out, and not yet have tons of interviews or press to include, but please, expect that you will and leave a place for it on your website. The media page can include links to all your media coverage, information for media to use for interviews, Virtual press kits, your press releases, or optional images if you have them. Anything you would like Oprah’s or Terry Gross’ staff to know when they are researching you for your interview.

9. A Site Map is usually included with most DIY services. Any professional site is going to have the site map done for you, so don’t stress over it too much, but understand that the search engines use the site map, hence it’s importance.

10. Title Tags and Metadata are technical terms for the small details that you don’t realize we use. Title tags, for example, are the titles on the page at the very top of the browser window. For sites that don’t have title tags, generic information renders where the title should be. Another example of metadata populates the small paragraph you read when looking at search engine results. These details seem small, but when they are not included they make a site look unprofessional, and more importantly, they make it very difficult for your site to be found by search engines, and in turn readers and media. Wiki explains, but technically. If you have questions about your site’s metadata, feel free to ask, we can help you identify it, and edit it if needed.

I want to emphasize that regardless of whether you create your own website from a template, use a free blogging platform, a professional web developer, or your brother-in-law, please think through the needs of your site before starting. Try to step back and see your site through the users point of view. Expect press and readers to visit your site to get more information about you.

BONUS INFO on Author Profiles

Now that your website is live it’s time to get your profile on every FREE site for authors. Your name, brand and profile need to appear in all the places where writers and readers gather. The other important factor is that all of these important sites provide your site with a link back, from a high ranking book website. That is one of the basics of gaining high SEO ranking.

The following sites offer authors a FREE service, so take advantage. Get your name out there!

Amazon’s Author Central: Amazon loves books, and books begin with authors. As an author, you are part of a special community at Amazon. At Author Central, you have the opportunity to share the most up-to-date information about yourself and your work with your readers -you can view and edit your bibliography, add a photo and biography to a personal profile, and use a blog to connect with readers.

If you’re an author with a book listed in our catalog, you are eligible to join Author Central. You can use your Amazon.com customer account to get started (or create a new one if needed).

BookTour: Events in BookTour’s database are sent to online calendars and our partner book-friendly sites. Adding your events to BookTour is the quickest way to get them seen by thousands of potential new readers.

Filedby.com: Any author with a book published in the U.S. or Canada can join for free, manage and enhance their pages, promote their books, check for accuracy, provide corrections and much more. The company was started to provide every author with the tools to market successfully on the web.

Goodreads Author Program: Much like MySpace Bands pages, the Goodreads Authors program is a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books.

The Authors Program is designed for people with published books, or who are in the process of publishing a book. It’s best if your work is on a bookseller’s site like Amazon, but we will accept any author who has published a book. This includes authors from other countries as well as authors who are self-published (such as through Ebooks or services like Lulu). If your book is self-published and is not yet in the Goodreads database, you may manually add it. If you are a writer but have not yet published a book, you may want to check out the writing section of your profile where you can post your writing for others to read and review.

Authors Den: The largest most vibrant free online literary community of authors and readers! Visited by 1,400,000+ readers/mo. Authors: participate and you will reach many readers. Share your bio, books, blog, events, stories, articles, poetry and drive traffic to your other websites.

Librarything: LibraryThing is a great place for authors to connect on a personal level with their readers. If you’re also a LibraryThing member, then become an official LibraryThing Author, and showcase some of your personal books for interested readers. Sign up to participate in an Author Chat.

Use LibraryThing Local to your advantage. Add readings and upcoming talks to the “Events” section on your author page, so readers know where to find you.

Linkedin: is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.

I can’t say enough about LinkedIn, here are several articles and posts explaining why authors should be here:

• http://michellerafter.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/how-writers-can-use-linkedin/
• http://www.fundsforwriters.com/linkedin.htm
• http://writeitdown.groupsite.com/
• http://www.authortechtips.com/2009/07/4-reasons-why-every-author-should-use-linkedin/

Shelfari: introduces readers to our global community of book lovers and encourages them to share their literary inclinations and passions with peers, friends, and total strangers (for now).

Shelfari is a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers, and has many tools and features to help these groups connect with each other in a fun and engaging way. Our mission is to enhance the experience of reading by connecting readers in meaningful conversations about the published word.

Requires you create a “profile” and then request to link your profile with your author page you may have to request that your book be added to their datadase. Their Author Unbound Program allows any member to edit or add to the author’s page.

Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers: If you’d like to be considered for Meet the Writers, send an email to writers@book.com

A Directory of Authors on Twitter: Authors request their twitter account be added.

BookBuzzr: A portable author website in the form of an embeddable book-widget that’s shareable across multiple social networks. And with book-pages that look and act like pages from a real book. This is a nifty, free widget to add more flair to your virtual presence.

BookTour.com will allow you post your events, and email readers when you are visting their area. You can also post your author profile for free.

Storycasting.com: is a site for members to “cast” their dream cast for their favorite books. <25-30% of readers already do this casting thing in some way, and so all we’re doing is webenabling an existing casual hobby. Even if the author isn’t one of these ‘casual caster’ types, they should know that a significant portion of their readers are, and so it’s worth it, in terms of the reader/author connection, to post a cast of their own and send their fans. It’s a hook, and if you don’t use an available hook (especially when it’s free), you’re just missing out.

• It’s a great source of information to blog about. They can blog about their cast, they can make a blog contest using Storycasting, they can later blog about all their fans’ casts, etc.
• Storycasting.com is starting to engage with the publishers, by this winter you’re going to see publishers using their publicity engine to send readers to the site as part of their launch and genre push.
• Storycasting should be on the list of things every fiction author and publisher does as part of their book promotion process.

Interested authors may email: Holly,author support intern, who will get them and their books set up on the site, and get them an author account so they can cast. Needed are: author, title, synopsis, and cover-art; Storycasting.com can get all that from their website, or from Amazon.

If they don’t have a website or aren’t on Amazon, they need to send that directly (please limit synopsis to ~85 words). Either way, Storycasting.com will put the books in, with the links to Amazon, and a link to their website or blog.

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 31st, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network.

My book is the platform for my career as an author, inspirational speaker, service-learning advisor, character education provider, and creator of a free school service initiative called The OCHO Project: Read for a Need (Opportunities for Children to Help Others). The book has served as an inspiration for children to realize their own potential and power to help those in need. But most importantly, the book demonstrates to children what “empathy” means…what it looks like, feels like, and sounds like…and motivates children to treat another person kindly based upon the understanding of what that person is going through.

Since my book is non-fiction, I was able to find an underserved niche market for my book and market it to that audience. Some books, such as mine, can be marketed to a diverse group of people such as children, parents, grandparents and educators. I discovered that one group to market to was educators because of the book’s message about kindness, caring and empathy. In the last decade, character education in many schools has been mandated by the state. Although it is mandatory, many schools lacked the resources to find materials that teachers can use. By being creative, having a dynamite website and developing free online educational programs, I am able to get educators to purchase the book and have additional materials that enable them to use the book throughout the school year.

I also keep abreast of current events related to my book. For instance, last year the New York Times had an article on the front page about the importance of schools teaching empathy as a prevention to bullying. Bullying is currently a huge problem in our country and we are constantly hearing terrible stories of children that were bullied. Topics such as these provide formats for speaking engagements. This week (July 31, 2010) the New York Times had another article entitled, “The Benefits of Volunteerism, If the Service Is Real.” This article states, “Studies have shown that generally, community service for whatever reason is a good thing. But how it is done and whether it also involves service learning – that is, lessons that discuss homelessness, say, or hunger in a larger context – make a difference.” The OCHO Project is just that, a service-learning project. I try to be creative with marketing tools that are both current and relevant.

My book has become my hook because I have created “a mental model for behavior” that I want my readers to remember. It is my job to do the research to show them that they will be better people for having read my book. My book has taken me on a journey that I never dreamed of. Writing about a real life experience has made my enthusiasm contagious (or so I am told!). Remember, passion sells! It has opened up a whole new world to me and I can only hope that my readers will find the story shared in The Biggest and Brightest Light as inspiring as I have.

As authors and writers, we’re always learning about resources and industry tools that we can use to improve our book project performance and the enjoyment of our writing and marketing experiences. Today let’s talk about the power of participation when making your book your hook.

An author succeeds the most when a team is formed around him or her. Those with a team go farther, it seems, than others. Enrolling experts in areas not so familiar or strong is a common practice for people in all professions and walks of life.

There is a poignant distinction, though, that cannot be denied between hiring someone to delegate a task to and collaborating with a hired helper. Whichever way you choose to support your project, the core component that will determine your success is not related to the people you hire. It hinges on how powerful your own participation is in the process.

When you hire help, experts and assistants require information, direction and a clear understanding of your purpose and goals for your project. Without this, each individual you want to hire could be the top in their field, yet it is next to impossible for them to do their best work for you and your book when they don’t have this essential guidance and input from you, the creator and originator of the work.

It is not about whether or not you have the money to hire an expert to help you, but rather what you prepare and bring forth to the process on your own that counts.

In the interview I did this week with Renee Giroux on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Renee talked about how it is not enough for an author to hire her to create and craft an amazing website for them as an author and also for their book. The author must provide input and feedback during the course of its development so that it resonates with the author’s intentions, good feelings about the project and their personal presentation style.

During last week’s show, I had this same conversation with Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, who clearly stated that one cannot hire her and her team and then disappear without providing input and direction for their book marketing and publicity activities. They have to be a willing participant in order for the strategies chosen to truly work.

The power of an author’s participation is greater than you think. You must provide the heart, passion and purpose of your project to those you hire to help you get your message out. These are the same qualities and points of information that only YOU can provide to your reading audience who are scattered throughout the general public and want to know why they should read your book.

Without you, your book cannot be your hook because you are needed to put forth the fuel and fire required to make it hook your reader, vendors and collaborators.

People and experts, by our very nature, want to work with someone who is excited about their own project. When the author is psyched up and ready to take their project to greatness, experts line up to get on board with it because the enthusiasm of the author becomes contagious. They want to be a part of it because the project has momentum, joy and excitement wrapped up around it. When the author falls in love with their own project, it’s easy for others to jump right into the love fest and fan the flames of project’s energy and attraction to more people.

But that juice for your project has to stem from you and your vision, purpose and passion for what you wrote about and what you intend to do with it.

Marilyn Perlyn, a mother of a young daughter at the time she experienced the life events that she eventually wrote about in her book, continues today, more than twenty years later, to joyfully promote and praise her book project as her hook for helping children, parents, grandparents and teachers learn how important encouraging empathy in our children really is. She is passionate about her own experience that changed her life and the lives of her whole family. She speaks lovingly of her own transformation caused by the unanticipated response and actions her own daughter took at the moment of someone else’s pain – someone not even related to her yet so much a part of her life – the pain she saw in her first grade teacher when her daughter died as a result of an illness.

Marilyn, as the author, has spoken inspirationally to schoolchildren, community organizations, parents and teachers about the premise of her project and why it’s important to acknowledge and, furthermore, encourage this behavior in our kids. She has been recognized with awards and imparted her perspective to her own children who have also been recognized for their own efforts to make a difference in other’s lives. They have been interviewed on Oprah! and as a family, they have received more than 30 awards including the National Daily Points of Light Award.

Marilyn’s book was published in 2004. Since then she has been a willing participant in every step of the process of writing, publishing and promoting her book. She continues to seek out advice and guidance from experts for how she can further promote her project and expand its message so it can continue to be heard by new audiences. She is an amazing example of the success the author of one story can enjoy. And joy is the right word for Marilyn. Her investment is way more than money. Her investment in her project is love – love for all those who benefit from the message of her book – and she does everything in her power to bring that message home to the hearts of everyone she meets.

When you as an author invest your participation, love and passion into your project, you too will enjoy amazing results from the team of experts you hire to help you and you’ll achieve greater success with using your book as your hook.

For more information on this Education Corner topic and others, please refer to www.YourBookIsYourHook.com/blog for more articles and resources to help you with your books.

When you start seeing your book as your hook for your brand, you’ll find it is so much more than just a book.