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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 24th, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network

This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Penny Sansevieri, CEO and Founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about effective book marketing tips and techniques as well as how authors should be using their books as their hook.

Ms Sansevieri will share best practices for marketing your book including where authors should begin, how to best work with the book marketing expert you hire and whether the self-published author really has to work that much harder than a traditionally published author to get the same kind of exposure. An industry expert for more than 10 years, she will also share her perspective of the future of the book publishing industry.

Kimberlie Dykeman, author of Pure Soapbox: A Cleansing Jolt of Perspective, Motivation and Humor, will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov the evolution of how her book and brand came about, how she got published, and how she is using her book as her hook.

Spanning the dynamic platform of the SOAPBOX® brand, Ms. Dykeman will talk about her rise in the ranks of two of the most challenging fields: publishing and entertainment. As an on-camera personality, executive producer and international spokesperson as well as a motivation expert, she will reveal not only how her book continues to expand her brand but also how she has engaged and enrolled a well-known charity, LIVESTRONG™, as a beneficiary of her book’s success.

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

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 using your book as your hook to make your brand bigger.

A book can be the genesis of a whole big brand or it can enhance one that’s already established.

Books bring a means of “hooking” your audience and market by providing insight into your business, system, creativity, imagination and ultimately – your brand. Even you!

On the credibility front, there is no question that books create instant credibility for you in your area of expertise. It also gives you the opportunity to be a little bit more transparent and a lot more accessible to your book reading audience. When they read your books, they feel more connected to you and why you do what you do.

Take a look at bigger, more established brands that have used books to tell their branding stories and how they got to be the big brands and businesses they are. Whether they’ve written them themselves or not, the brand benefits as a result of the books:

STARBUCKS – When you do a search in Amazon in just books, there are more than 1,000 results! Everything from The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary to Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built A Company One Cup At A Time to It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles From a Life At Starbucks to even Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America from Starbucks and Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow.

GOOGLE – There are more than 3,000 results alone when you type the word “Google” into Amazon. A company that grew up on the premise that people would use their search engine over others to find what they are looking for on the Internet has turned into so much more. Books include for example
The Google Way: How One Company Is Revolutionizing Management as We Know It; Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know; The Google Story: For Google’s 10th Birthday; and even What Would Google Do? and Google Speaks: Secrets of the World’s Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

TOYOTA – More than 4,000 results show up for “Toyota” when you search for it in Amazon. Here’s a company in a very different competitive space than a $5 cup of coffee or a free search engine. This is a brand that wants you to spend thousands of dollars on a vehicle that is going to require even more money after you buy it in order to maintain it. Yet books have been used to expand the visibility, credibility and confidence in their products and methods in the marketplace. Some of the books written about Toyota include The Toyota Way; Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results; Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way and even The Toyota Leaders: An Executive Guide among others.

There are even people who are their own brands who use their books as their hooks. Take a look:

MARTHA STEWART – From cookbooks to craft books to cupcake books to housekeeping and organizational books, not to mention a leadership book or two, Martha Stewart has successfully used her books as her hook to continue to deepen her connection with her loyal following who just can’t wait to find out what secrets she’ll reveal next to improve the lives of her reading and viewing audience. Her brand extends to linens, paints, cooking products and even her own magazine – and her books do too. In fact, Martha has been producing and publishing books around her brand for more than 20 years. Here’s a smattering of them as a tasty sample: Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts: Basic Techniques for Sewing, Applique, Embroidery, Quilting, Dyeing, and Printing, plus 150 Inspired Projects from A to Z; Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home; Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook; Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook; Martha Stewart’s Gardening: Month by Month; all these and more topped off by The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Build, or Manage a Business.

LARRY KING – Since the 1980’s, Larry King has not only been one of the best known faces of CNN, he has also been a prolific writer. Establishing his own brand through his books, he has commented on everything from his own life, health, even his love of baseball as well as what he’s learned from pundits, politicians and Presidents. Here are some samples beginning with one of his earlier books from 1989 entitled Tell It to The King to a more recent book published 20 years later in 2009 entitled My Remarkable Journey. Then there are others before, in between and after these books including Remember Me When I’m Gone: The Rich and Famous Write Their Own Epitaphs and Obituaries; Love Stories of World War II; Powerful Prayers: Conversations on Faith, Hope and The Human Spirit with Today’s Most Provocative People; Anything Goes: What I’ve Learned from Pundits, Politicians and Presidents; Beyond a Reasonable Doubt; Taking On Heart Disease: Famous Personalities Recall How They Triumphed Over the Nation’s #1 Killer and How You Can Too; to even Why I Love Baseball and Daddy Day, Daughter Day, a children’s book he wrote with his daughter, Chaia.

Books have been used to brand people, systems, methods, philosophies and businesses for years.

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

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.

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

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 10th, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network

This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Marc Harty, CEO of MainTopic Media, Inc., will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about press release marketing and how to work effectively with this often misunderstood publicity tool.

Mr. Harty will share best practices for using press release marketing in conjunction with other book marketing strategies as well as specific tips, techniques and resources. Known as the 30 Minute PR guy, he will also differentiate online PR from traditional PR methods and share how authors can leverage their time, energy and efforts by using press release marketing.

Dr. Charles Glassman, author of “Brain Drain: The Breakthrough That Will Change Your Life,” and also known as The Coach MD, will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov the evolution of how his book came about, why he chose to self-publish it, how he won several awards for it, how he’s using his book as his hook and a few of the techniques he has used to market it.

Dr. Glassman will reveal how his book evolved from his initial writings to encourage a single patient between office visits to a newsletter for all of his patients and at last into a book. He will talk about how he published the book and why his book has really hooked everyone, including himself, with a therapeutic way of keeping an eye on the positive parts of life.

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 the do-it-yourself aspects of your book.

It’s true that you could hire someone to help you complete almost every part of your book. You can be just the idea person behind it all and have your name on the cover. People do it all the time.

On the flip side of this coin, you can do many aspects of this process yourself and this is where many authors begin their own book writing and publishing journeys.

A daunting task to undertake, creating, writing and publishing a book challenges even the most lion-hearted people at times; however, it also carries the amazing lessons of perseverance, courage, persistence and faith.

The reality is a do-it-yourself book at its core and most pure form could really be a do-it-yourself project – where you write it and type it up in your favorite word processing program, add a picture or two, create a cover, print it out, take it to your neighborhood copy shop and have it copied and bound and bingo! You have a book! No one can say you don’t. From another perspective, you can take that same book and instead of going to the local copy shop, you could publish it electronically at first…and you would still have a book. An e-book.

What many of us dream of is a much more professional process that enrolls more of the publishing industry and a more sophisticated support team than your local copy shop owner or graphic designer, no offense intended to him or her.

The do-it-yourself aspects of your book stem beyond just writing it, crafting it and delivering a manuscript. They include how you will market it and tell others about it. Now you can hire others for this part too; however, you will have to retain responsibility for these activities, not just “hand them over” to someone else. You will be the evaluator of whether the message being marketed is congruent and consistent with your voice, approach and project outcome.

You can also sell books right out of your car and go knock on doors to ask others to sell your book for you. You can even sell it in your own office or place of business and also put it up for sale online yourself. You can even risk becoming your very own version of Willy Lowman from the infamous “Death of a Salesman” in Arthur Miller’s famous play.

There is a distinct difference and a fine line between delegating the various responsibilities of your project to the right team members and retaining an aspect of each responsibility yourself. Somewhere between the hiring of your team and the tasks assigned to each member is the fine art of delegation and the real determination of how “do-it-yourself” your project is going to be.

As an author, it is important to keep in mind that in some way, shape or form, we are all actually “doing it ourselves.” What it really boils down to is just what aspects we choose to do more of “ourselves” that make all the difference.

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.

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

Click Here to listen this interview any time after 9:00 am EST Tuesday August 3rd, 2010 on the WomensRadio Network.

This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Frederick Vallaeys, Google’s AdWords Evangelist, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about what Google AdWords is and how to work effectively with this targeted advertising tool.

Mr. Vallaeys will also share best practices for running a successful campaign using Google AdWords along with specific tips, techniques and resources that Google provides to advertisers so they can capitalize on their use of the service. He will also discuss why Google AdWords is particularly beneficial for authors when using their book as their hook and how to optimize their campaigns by leveraging the nature of Google AdWords to target your desired advertising audience.

Brad Geddes, author of Advanced Google AdWords, will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov how an advertiser can maximize their use of Google’s AdWords program.

As the author of the most advanced book ever written about Google’s advertising program and as the first advanced AdWords Seminar Leader and a trainer who works directly with Google, Mr. Geddes will reveal why he wrote this book, how he connected with Google while he wrote it, how he enrolled Frederick Vallaeys, Google’s AdWords Evangelist, to write the foreword for the book and how he got published. He’ll also talk about how he is using his book as his hook to reach more advertisers who are seeking to use more advanced strategies with Google AdWords.

A no holds barred trainer at heart, Mr. Geddes will share with listeners how to write an effective ad that is conducive to the limited number of characters allowed by Google’s AdWords program. He’ll also provide suggestions for how to properly set up your AdWords account and reveal why testing your campaign is essential for your advertising success.

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 the fundamentals of advertising your book.

Advertising, by design, is the very mechanism through which you create greater exposure for your book. Through advertising, you find places where your audience and reader are already present and place an ad there to inform them about your book and why they’d want to read it.

Let’s take an example from every day living to demonstrate this. Let’s say, for the purpose of illustration, that instead of a book you had created a food item. You would probably use the advertising strategies that food companies use all the time where they advertise that food item everywhere they think the buyer is going to be: in the grocery store, on television and radio programs directed at their same audience, in magazines that their consumers read and so on.

You know. You see these ads all the time. Yet when it comes to your book, maybe you’re not sure how to apply these very same strategies. So let’s talk about them.

The structure of an advertising strategy is simple: it’s the Who, What, Where, When and Why of your book.

Targeting your audience is fundamental when you are looking to advertise your book. More often than not, you will have to pay for advertising your book in one form or another so it behooves you to pay attention first as to whether or not the venue is really reaching the audience you want to talk to about your book.

By understanding WHO you want to reach with it, you’ll be able to determine the best advertising opportunities for it so you can talk to the right audience filled with your readers.

Now you have tell them WHAT you have. It’s a book. It’s an experience. It’s an adventure, a resource, a guidebook, a thriller or a great bedtime story. That was easy.

Next, you’ll want to be sure to include WHERE they can get a copy of it. Where is it sold? Where can they buy it? Online? In the big booksellers and in the local bookseller down the street from them? Can they get a copy in Costco when they go grocery shopping? Where can they get it?

WHEN is it available? Can they buy it now? Should they reserve their copy before it comes out? Is it available to pre-order? People want to know whether your book is coming out this Fall or whether they can go buy it now.

Finally, you’ve got to hit them with your hook – about WHY they should read your book. Your hook has got to grab them, make them want more and interest them in seeking out your book.

It’s about the benefits of reading your book. Is it a great escape into another world filled with desire, romance, a mystery to solve, a treasure to discover, a lesson to learn or a skill set to acquire?

Why should the reader invest hours of their valuable time and lay down their good money for your book? WHY?

Once you have identified these pieces of the advertising puzzle, it’s time to seek out advertising venues that can help you distribute your message to the audience you want to reach.

Programs like Google AdWords help you to target your audience by using short, effective ads and thoughtfully selected keywords to assist you with reaching the readers who will be interested in your book. By targeting their millions of users and allowing the right people to reveal themselves as your audience as a result of what they’re searching for online, programs like Google AdWords take the guesswork out of where to find the exact people you want to reach and help match your ad with the people who want the kind of experience and expertise you’re providing.

Now let’s face it: Writing advertisements is a lot different than writing a 300-page novel, a 200-page business book or a 32-page children’s book. Advertisements are short, concise and are designed to get to the point, or your hook, quickly. You’ve got to be able to focus the buyer on what you have and why they want it. Then you can tell them where to get it and when.

As an author, you have to be so much more than just a writer. You must become a marketer of your book. Learn to embrace the role of the town crier about your book, shouting “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” politely to everyone you meet, everyone you email and all those in your social media networks.

One Last Tip:

Every great advertiser knows that just because you think you’ve written a great ad, you’re not necessarily going to sell a boatload of books. The secret you may not realize about advertisers large and small is that we all test and test and test what we’ve created as an ad to see if it will really reach the people we want get the word out to. So just because you feel like you’ve nailed it when you write your ad, understand that your audience will be the final judge and tell you whether you’ve got it right…or not. 

So get ready to embrace humility and treat advertising as a puzzle that you can get excited about solving. It’s a game, after all. The person who reaches the right readers and tells them why their book is what they’re looking for in the most effective yet concise way…wins.

If you want to sell more books and you want more people to read it, then you’re going to need to invest your time and effort first in advertising and marketing your book. 

It will make it a lot easier for you to generate the success you seek and make it a win for everybody including you, your publisher and your reader.