“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – All About eBooks Symposium & eBook Author of 60 Books
November 9th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Laurie McLean, a literary agent at Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco and the dean of the new All About eBooks Symposium sponsored by the new San Francisco Writers University, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about the rise of ebook publishing and why she became a driving force behind the new All About eBooks Symposium.
Ms. McLean will also discuss her own experience with e-publishing and top tips for authors to understand about ebooks. She’ll also share her perspective of the role of digital publishing for the future of the book publishing industry.
eBook author Sherry Derr-Wille discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about how she has been writing her books for the past 50 years and how she finally got her first book published seven years ago in 2003. She’ll also talk about how she has gotten e-publishing contracts for her now 60 books.
Ms. Derr-Wille will also talk about how she has not only e-published but how she has also published each book in hardcopy. She’ll reveal how she uses her books as her hook and the variety of creative ways she makes them available to her loyal readers.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss e-publishing and the constantly changing face of the digital publishing world during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/cCHxIg
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
Kindle vs iPad
November 9th, 2010
By Guest Blogger, Laurie McLean
www.allaboutebooks.us
Apple’s iPad may give Amazon an advantage in the e-book wars. According to a report from Cowen and Co. on the digital book market, “not only are sales of the Kindle device expected to grow 140% this year to nearly 5 million units from 2009, but digital book sales via the Kindle store are on track to grow 195% to $701 million in 2010….
Greasing those book sales are Amazon’s Kindle app for iPhone and iPad, which are the digital equivalent of little storefronts,” the Los Angeles Times wrote. The survey also found that “one in five people who buy digital books from the Kindle store don’t own a Kindle device.”
Cowen analysts Jim Friedland and Kevin Kopelman observed that the “iPad is not having a negative impact on Kindle device or e-book sales. In fact, we think the adoption of tablets will boost Kindle e-book sales.”
The study indicated that this year “Apple will have 5% of the market for digital books, compared with Amazon, which is projected to have 76% of the market, But by 2015, Cowan estimates Amazon will have 51% of the market and Apple with 16%,” the Times reported.
An Author’s eBook Success and How I Use My Books As My Hook
November 9th, 2010
By Guest Blogger, Sherry Derr-Wille
www.Derr-Wille.com
Where do I begin telling you about my writing or should I say my passion? I write not because I want to but because I have to. This is what I’ve done since I was 15 years old and 50 years later it’s just too late to change things.
I wrote my first book, DOUBLE M: THE MALLONS when I was a sophomore in high school as part of my English assignment. Having written it, I put down my pen and said no more. Like sure, that’s how it worked. I wrote two more books in that series and continued writing until I had tons of spiral notebooks filled with words and stories I knew would never be of interest to anyone but me.
In the early years of my marriage I submitted to lots of New York houses and have the rejection notices to prove it. My first so-called success came when a Vanity Press said they wanted my work. Thank goodness my husband knew an attorney who got me out of that mess.
It wasn’t until the spring of 2002 when I realized my friends in the writing world were becoming published. Knowing I’d receive a rejection, I sent in one of my manuscripts, OUTLAW’S SON. By the end of that year I had signed 17 contracts with three different e-publishing houses. The next year I signed a contract with a new company for SUMMER’S CHILD, which became my first published work.
My books cover every genre of romance other than fantasy and regency, family epics, and most recently murder mysteries. Under the name of Shari Dare, I also write erotica. In that genre I’ve touched on over the hill heroines, time travel, contemporary, western and historical.
Over the years I have had 57 books published and have found if I want to market them it must be up to me. At this point, I attend several craft fairs over the summer months, have just started going to our local farmer’s market, and have signed books everywhere from dress shops, coffee shops, bagel shops, donut shops and parties at my home, to sitting in front of the office of an accountant with a card table and a pen in my hand.
I’ve also done several speaking engagements. Just recently, I debated about setting up the entire selection of books, since I was speaking to a group of blind adults. At my husband’s urging, I finally set up a full display and to my surprised sold seven copies of my books. One never knows where one’s success will come from.
In an attempt to promote my work even further, I have advertised in local papers, sports programs for the local high schools, and recently while acting in our little theatre production of SHE WAS ONLY MARGINALLY MODEST, I purchased an ad to be printed in all the programs to be handed out at each of our four performances.
I also give out pocket calendars every year and with every sale, I give my fans one of my pens. As one fan said, “I really don’t need another book, but my pen ran out of ink.”
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – Writing Partnerships & “Her Story: A Timeline of the Women That Changed America”
November 2nd, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Dr. Rachel Ballon, licensed psychotherapist and counselor for writing partners, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about why writers tend to fall so easily into writing partnerships and what to do when they go wrong.
Dr. Ballon will also discuss tips for choosing a good writing partner right from the start and the steps to take if your partnership shows rocky signs and needs to end.
Co-authors Charlotte Waisman, Ph.D., and Jill Tietjen will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov their historical book entitled Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America.
Dr. Waisman and Ms. Tietjen will talk about how they met as writing partners, how they wrote their book and how they selected the women to include in their groundbreaking project. They will also reveal how they got it published and how they are using their book as their hook to raise awareness of the impact women have had throughout the evolution of the United States.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss writing partnerships – the good, the bad and the ugly – during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/d1ypNn
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – Literary Agents Michael Larsen & Elizabeth Pomada Plus How to Write A Book Proposal
October 25th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, prominent literary agents with their own agency, Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about why they feel now is the best time to be a writer and also why they think now is the easiest time to find an agent.
Mr. Larsen and Ms. Pomada will share some of the biggest mistakes authors make when approaching them as agents. They will also discuss how authors benefit from attending a writers conference and why it might just be the right place for authors to find their own literary agents. Insights about the upcoming Writing for Change Conference hosted by Mr. Larsen and Ms. Pomada in San Francisco in November will also be provided.
As an author, Michael Larsen will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov his Writer’s Digest classic book, How to Write A Book Proposal, currently in its 3rd edition and referred to as the definitive resource for crafting effective book proposals.
Mr. Larsen will talk about why he wrote the book, how he got it published and how he’s using his book as his hook as an agent helping authors to write great book proposals.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will discuss why agents and publishers are picky for good reasons during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/aG4Gay
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
Get Paid to Write Your Book
October 25th, 2010
By Guest Blogger, Michael Larsen, Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency
www.larsen-pomada.com
If you have an idea for a nonfiction book, the ability to write and promote it, and you prepare a strong proposal, you can get paid to write your book. Proposals range from 35 to 50 pages and have three parts:
- The Overview
- The Outline
- A Sample Chapter
The Overview
Your overview must prove that you have a marketable, practical idea and that you are the right person to write about it and promote it. Provide as much ammunition about you and your book as you can muster, including:
- The opening hook that will most excite editors about your subject.
- The book hook:
* the title and selling handle, up to fifteen words of selling copy about the book.
* the books or authors you’re using as models for your book.
* the suggested (or actual) length of your manuscript and when you will deliver it.
* the book’s benefits (optional).
* special features (optional).
* information about a self-published edition (optional).
- Markets: The types of readers and retailers, organizations, or institutions who’ll be interested in your book. The size of each group and other information to show you know your audience and how to write the book for those readers. Other possible markets: schools, businesses, and subsidiary-rights markets such as film and foreign publishers.
- The Author’s Platform: A list in descending order of importance of whatever will impress editors about your visibility to your readers. Online, this may include the number of unique visitors or subscribers to your blog or website, your contacts on social networks, and online articles you’ve published.
Offline, your platform may include the number of articles you’ve had published in print media as well as the number of talks you give each year, the number of people you give them to, where you give them, and your media exposure. Editors may not expect authors of quote books to have a platform; business authors must. For certain kinds of books, an author’s platform is important for big and midsize houses.
- About the Author: Up to a page about yourself with information that isn’t in your platform. Begin with the most important information.
- Promotion: A plan that begins: “To promote the book, the author will:…” followed by a bulleted list in descending order of impressiveness of what you will do to promote your book, online and off, during its crucial two-week-to-three-month launch window and after. Start each part of the list with a verb and use numbers when possible. Publishers won’t expect big plans from memoirists, and the smaller the house you’ll be happy with, the less important your plan is.
- Competing Books: A list of the six or so strongest competitors for your book—not just bestsellers. In addition to basic info about each book (title, author, publisher, year of publication), include two phrases—each starting with a verb—about each competitor’strengths and weaknesses. List the competitors in order of importance.
- Complementary Books: A list of up to six books like yours that prove the market for your book.
- (Optional) Spin-Offs: The titles of up to three related follow-up books
- (Optional) Foreword: A forward by someone whose name will give book credility and salability in fifty states two years form now. Obtain commitments for cover quotes as well, if you can.
- (Optional) A Mission Statement: One first-person paragraph about your passion or commitment to write and promote your book.
(The Table of Contents)
One or two paragraphs in the present-tense about every chapter, using outline verbs like describe, explain, and discuss. For an informational book, you can use a self-explanatory bulleted list of the information the chapter will provide.
A Sample Chapter
Usually one chapter that will excite editors by proving you will fulfill your book’s promise to readers and make your book as enjoyable to read as it is illuminating. Include about 10 percent of the book, or about 25 pages. Memoirs should be finished, and agents and editors will request more chapters.
Adapted from the fourth edition of How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen (April, 2011).
The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Million-copy selling authors Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America).
We are offering a special $50 discount to listeners of Your Book is Your Hook. To take advantage of this opportunity, listeners should send a check for $395 made out to San Francisco Writing for Change Conference to us at 1029 Jones St., San Francisco, 94109. On the memo line, write Jennifer Wilkov. Listeners are welcome to call us at 415-673-0939 with questions.
Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, Co-Directors.
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – Contract Agreements and Author & Domestic Violence Survivor Nancy Salamone’s “Victory Over Violence”
October 5th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Renee Duff, intellectual property and publishing contracts attorney, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about why it is important for authors to understand the impact of a mishandled publishing contract. She’ll also discuss the variety of rights addressed in the contract including how to cover technological developments that haven’t even been imagined yet.
Ms. Duff will also talk about the different roles an agent and an attorney play for the author as well as why authors should temper their exuberance in signing a contract just because they got offered one.
Author, domestic violence survivor and advocate Nancy Salamone will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov what inspired her to write her memoir, Victory Over Violence, and how she wrote about her painful experiences. She’ll also discuss how she chose to publish it and how she’s using her book as her hook to help other women.
Ms Salamone will also talk about economic abuse and how it is an equal opportunity offense. She’ll also share how she designed and developed her financial self-sufficiency program called “The Business of Me” that she teaches other women around the world.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will talk about the reality show for books as an idea whose time has come during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/93eJ0Y
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – Literary Agent Jennifer DeChiara & Bestselling Author Julia Cameron
September 27th, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, Jennifer DeChiara, president and owner of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about why authors benefit by having an agent, what agents do and what they don’t do, and the biggest mistakes authors make when approaching agents with their projects.
Ms. DeChiara will also discuss the expectations agents have of the authors they choose to work with and how authors can best work with their agents. She’ll also share her perspective of the literary agent profession and of the future of the publishing industry.
International bestselling author Julia Cameron will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov what inspired her to write her latest book, The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration, and how she wrote it. She’ll also discuss how she first got published and how her work as a writer of thirty books has touched the lives of so many.
Ms Cameron will also talk about how she enjoyed writing about the creative lives of others, what she means by “finding your true north” which is also on the cover of her new book, and her experience of meeting other creatives who have benefited from her work. She’ll also share her advice to authors for how to best write their books every day.
Host Jennifer S. Wilkov will talk about the pain of the author’s pitch during her Education Corner segment during the show.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/aVZW5N
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
“Your Book Is Your Hook” Show – Morgan James Publishing and CEO and Author Jay Myers Will Keep Swinging
September 21st, 2010
By Jennifer S. Wilkov, host of the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show on WomensRadio
www.yourbookisyourhook.com
This week on the “Your Book Is Your Hook!” Show, David Hancock, Founder of Morgan James Publishing as well as a bestselling author himself, will talk with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov about why he formed his company, his entrepreneurial publishing process and why his publishing model works well for so many authors.
He’ll also discuss how he finds his authors and what authors need to know to really catch a publisher’s eye. Mr. Hancock will also share his perspective on the future of the publishing industry as well as information about his upcoming Ethan Awards presentation this Fall.
Jay Myers, CEO of Interactive Solutions Inc. and the author of Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur’s Story of Overcoming Adversity and Achieving Small Business Success, will discuss with radio personality and host Jennifer S. Wilkov why he chose to share some painful business experiences through his book, why he decided to write one and how he was able to balance writing it while heading up a busy business.
He’ll also talk about why he chose to publish with Morgan James Publishing and how he’s using his book as his hook to increase sales for his business by using it as his best business card. He’ll even reveal how the book led to more speaking engagements than he had had in the three years prior to the book being published combined along with great advice for small business owners who think they don’t need a book.
In the Education Corner, host Jennifer S. Wilkov will be talking about how to increase sales using your book as your hook.
Click Here to Listen Now: http://bit.ly/9nBPTN
If you have questions about any of these interviews or the education corner topic included in the show, please put them here in this discussion thread and I’d be happy to answer them.
“Increasing Sales Using Your Book As Your Hook!”
September 21st, 2010
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 increasing sales in your business by using your book as your hook.
Does having a book really increase sales in your business? Is it worth the time and energy? I get asked these questions all the time.
In the evaluation, you may find that having a book could just be what you need as part of your next sales strategy.
Here’s how it helps you:
1) Your Credibility Brochure – Oftentimes, you have but an hour to establish your credibility when you meet with a prospective client – sometimes less. It’s challenging to find out everything you need to know from them while at the same time telling them more about you and what your company can do to support them.
Stories, sales successes and your detailed approach to how you do business are often secondary to the fact-finding and problem-solving conversation. Instead, these are either found on your website or sent in a follow-up note, if at all.
Imagine, for a moment, doing what CEO and author Jay Myers does at his company, Interactive Solutions Inc., where he sends his book, Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur’s Story of Overcoming Adversity and Achieving Small Business Success, to new prospects and clients. In it, they learn about Jay, his approach to business and the trials and tribulations he has worked through as an entrepreneur and committed business owner.
In fact, when Jay came out with his book, he not only got more sales for his business, he also got invited to speak at events and conferences. Now that’s powerful!
2) Deepens Relationships – Books deepen the relationship you have, not only with prospects but with existing clients, vendors and strategic partners. It has the effect of sharing your stories of the highs, lows and learnings from your business with others. It builds trust through transparency.
Oftentimes in these more transactional relationships, you may not find much time to tell your latest success stories or share what you discovered in another business situation because you’re focused on delivering your service, caring for the customer and getting business done.
Even sharing your book with your colleagues can strengthen your internal business relationships by revealing your experiences and sharing them with your team.
3) Built-In Referrals – It’s easy to tell someone about a business that did a great job for you. But sometimes, in many industries, there are so many people in the same profession doing great jobs for people. Competition is fierce and you need to leverage every opportunity you have to get referred new business while making it easy for others to refer you.
Imagine if your happy clients have a copy of your book and, while referring you, they tell the person that not only are you great at what you do but you’re also an author! Now you’ve got their attention! If your client is willing to share the copy of your book they have or refer the person to look it up online and find out more about it, that’s a powerful, MEMORABLE referral.
Books create credibility instantly. They make you an expert in your field. Others perceive you this way because if you were good enough to get published, then you must know what you’re talking about. Once they see your book, read the comments and reviews about it, see an excerpt from it and understand more about you, your book is your hook to more business and greater sales.
Referrals are easier and much more fun for everyone involved – because you’re an author and stand out from the crowd of other professionals being referred.
4) It’s a Bigger Better Business Card – There’s very little surface area on your business card to put your success stories, system and approach to your business. Sometimes when you meet someone, you only have enough time to exchange cards. Instead of just following up with a phone call, what if you sent them a copy of your book? It’s a bigger better business card that says so much more than you had time to say when you met. It also engages more interest.
By signing it and including where you met such as, “It was great to meet you at the networking meeting last week,” you remind them of who you are, where you met and then tell them so much more through your book. It’s your hook to engaging them in a follow-up phone call or meeting that could lead to more sales.
There are lots of reasons to consider using your book as your hook as the key ingredient for your next successful sales strategy. In the final analysis, the time, effort and energy you invest in your book could create a great return on your investment through better referrals, bigger opportunities and an increase in your bottom line.
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.
