March 2013
FROM COACH TO AUTHOR Andrew R Miller
PITCHING FOR BUSINESS Hazel Edwards
VIDEO BOOK TRAILERS AUTHOR WEBSITES THE BESTSELLER INCUBATOR
E-READER DIGEST
Alicia Freile
www.barefootbasics.com.au
see page 16 to read how you can win this 7 week online coaching program
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FROM COACH TO AUTHOR Andrew R Miller
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PITCHING FOR BUSINESS Hazel Edwards
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INDIE RECON
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MEDIA CENTS & SENSIBILITY Christina Hamlett
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VIDEO BOOK TRAILERS
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BESTSELLER INCUBATOR
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AUTHOR WEBSITES Jeannie Barker
I WRITE. . .
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WHITSUNDAY WRITERS FESTIVAL Gloria Burley
MENTION AUTHORGRAPH
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www.authorpreneurmagazine.com
Jeannie Barker Founder & Editor
INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
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E-READER DIGEST Alicia Freile
Welcome to the second edition of Authorpreneur Magazine. Our featured authority publisher is Alicia Freile. She shares her story of being invited by a publishers to write a non-techie’s guide to e-books and e-readers. Authoring E-Reader Digest is helping Alicia build her professional reputation and giving her a foundation upon which to build her career. Coach Andrew R Miller shares his journey to becoming a published author in From Coach to Author. Renowned expert Authorpreneur Hazel Edwards shares tips on Pitching for Business in an extract from her book Authorpreneurship, the business of creativity. We welcome award winning author and media relations expert, Christina Hamlett as a regular contributor with her new column Media Cents and Sensibility. In her first column Christina talks about your book pitch and invites you to share yours in Twenty Five Words or Less. Don’t miss the opportunity to win The Bestseller Incubator 7 week online coaching program with Rochelle Stone from Barefoot Basics. It’s easy to enter with a like, follow or tweet! Until next time,
To cater to different reading preferences the magazine is available in three formats: Web Magazine – If you prefer to read online you can read all the content online on the website www.authorpreneurmagazine. com Digital Magazine – If you prefer to read a digital magazine you can view it at the www.magcloud.com website, or via the MagCloud App Print Magazine – If you prefer a print magazine you can order your copy at www.magcloud.com or via the MagCloud App We invite you to share your author story or contribute an article or short piece on a topic of interest to authors. Please see our submission guidelines or email info@authorpreneurmagazine.com.
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AUTHORITY
ALICIA FREILE talks about E-READER DIGEST
I thought it would be a great opportunity to ‘get my name out there’ as an expert on the topic
In 2012, I did something I never planned to do... I announced the launch of my first book, E-Reader Digest. Why was this so unexpected? Because I’m not a writer by trade... Come to think of it, I wasn’t even a very good student in school. What I am is a graphic designer who works closely with the book publishing industry, but never before considered a foray into the editorial side of the field. Certainly, I had never imagined I’d be an authority author on a book! But I’m getting ahead of myself... I’ll backtrack a little, and tell you a bit about me and how I ended up writing my book. I have been working in the book publishing industry for 15 years and I absolutely love it. Starting my career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I worked as an in-house book designer for nine years before moving to Australia to pursue a master’s degree in Design Management. My plan was to get my degree and then return to America to continue working in publishing, hopefully at a higher level than before. Funny how plans get derailed, isn’t it? During my studies, I met my Australian husband-to-be and quickly realized that I needed to find a way to stay and work in Australia. It was easier said than done. Because sponsored business visas for graphic designers were like gold dust, I had to consider other options... including the notion of starting my own graphic design business. And this is what I ended up doing. In the past, I wondered why so many immigrants are entrepreneurs. And now I know! As an immigrant, it can be extremely difficult to break into an industry when your entire professional network (and reputation) is based on the other side of the world. Even if you have a wealth of experience, if people don’t know you then you may as well be invisible to them. In 2008, I launched Tango Media, a boutique graphic design company focusing on book design, layout and typesetting. I had a few American clients that I knew through my publishing career in the States, plus a couple of Australian clients that I managed to connect with since arriving down under. But I needed to grow my Australian client base and expand the business in order for it to be sustainable.
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Around this time, e-books started to enter my radar. I knew about Amazon’s Kindle, and e-books in general, from friends and colleagues in the United States. But Australia was a few years behind in this technology; only the faintest murmurs about e-books were heard down under. It struck me as an excellent opportunity to get into this area early on, so I learned how to design, format and distribute e-books for my American and Australian clients. It was a great move because digital publishing in Australia (and everywhere) has grown steadily, and I was lucky enough to have a head start. A year ago, one of my digital publishing clients, Michael Wilkinson (Wilkinson Publishing), saw a gap in the market for printed resources geared to consumers wanting to learn about e-books and e-readers. This type of content was readily available online, but only the tech-savvy would know where to find it. Michael decided he wanted to publish a printed non-techie’s guide to e-books and e-readers, that would be written in easy-tounderstand language. He asked me if I wanted to author the book. I was surprised by his offer... I was no techie. I hated learning to use the computer during my undergraduate days and learning new software never came easily to me. I told Michael all of this and he replied by saying “That’s exactly why I want you to write it. You’ll explain e-books and e-readers to people who struggle with technology in a way that is clear and easy to understand”. I quickly agreed to write the guide. Aside from the fact that I’m passionate about the subject of digital reading, I also thought it would be a great opportunity to ‘get my name out there’ as an expert on the topic… especially in Australia where I’m still building my professional reputation and network. Authoring E-Reader Digest would give me the foundation upon which I could continue to build my career. It would allow me to gain recognition in my industry and online. How could I say no? Writing E-Reader Digest was hard work... way tougher than any book design project I had undertaken. And I was doing it on top of my normal workload! The writing took more time than I anticipated, involved a lot more research, and was quite frustrating at times. But Michael Wilkinson, the publisher, was
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encouraging and patient with my questions. His confidence in the book made me feel confident about it too, and pretty soon I had written the entire draft manuscript and submitted it to the editor. After the editor’s review, the manuscript came back to me so that I could design and lay out the book. (That’s right, I designed my own book!) I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a smart idea or the biggest mistake I ever made... It turned out to be a good move, as we saved a lot of time by keeping the design with me instead of an external designer. Since E-Reader Digest covered the latest technology in digital reading, we couldn’t afford to spend much time on the editorial process. The technology continues to change all the time and wasn’t going to stop because my book was on press. It needed to go to press fast! E-Reader Digest was published in November 2012 and is also available online and in stores in Australia, the US, the UK, and various other countries. It is early days for the book, of course, but I’ve noticed an uptick in Tango Media’s website traffic since the book came out. And I’ve been able to take advantage of being a published author by serving as an ‘expert’ for journalists to ask questions about e-books and e-readers. Only time will tell what else E-Reader Digest will bring my way... One area worth mentioning here is promotion. Many authority authors, myself included, need to handle the book promotion and publicity themselves. At times, this felt more challenging than actually writing the book because I quickly needed to learn everything I could about how to promote a book. I learned how to correctly write my own press release, how to navigate the world of newspapers, TV and magazines, and how to make the most of online and social media promotion. None of it was easy, but the lessons learned in this area were all extremely valuable and I can apply them to my business. As for publishing a book to set one’s self up as an authority, I realize I was lucky that an established publisher approached me to write a book AND paid me to do it. Often, authors who wish to write a book to promote themselves as an expert must foot the bill themselves... either by self-publishing or working with a vanity press. But I think the benefits are the same regardless of the path you take: Your
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professional profile gets a big boost, your byline is all over the internet, and you can always bring a copy of your book to a meeting with a potential client... which is sure to impress!
by Andrew R Miller On 5 October 2012, a book titled Hope Won’t Pay the Wages was published on Amazon with me as the author. My very first book.
Alicia Freile Alicia Freile is the author of E-Reader Digest, a non-techie’s guide to the world of e-books and e-readers. She is also the Design Director of Tango Media Australia and the Director of Tango Media USA. At Tango Media, Alicia handles e-book publishing as well as traditional book design for a variety of American, Australian and UK clients. She manages an international team of book publishing professionals in e-book design, formatting and distribution, helping book publishers to get their traditional books into digital format in both English and Spanish. In the past, Alicia has worked as an in-house book designer for American and Australian publishing houses. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the United States and a Master’s degree in Design Management from the University of New South Wales, Australia. E-Reader Digest is her first book. Alicia lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband. Website www.tangomedia.com.au Buy the book E-Reader Digest at www.angusrobertson.com.au
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After it was finished, I was thinking about all the people that had been instrumental in its creation and development: the idea itself; the people that I interviewed; the book coach who helped me to write it; the web developer who put the dedicated website together; the cover designer; the proof reader. And I realised that, when I thought back to how I met those people and where the initial connection came from, almost every single person could be tied to a conversation I had had whilst networking. The main concept of my book is to draw out learning points from business owners and entrepreneurs. But not from those that are fantastically successful (there are plenty of those types of book around) but from the people who faced their worst possible business nightmare - corporate collapse - and survived. For it is through adversity that we learn the most. I work with companies that are in distress or facing insolvency and, as I always said, there isn’t a LinkedIn group for companies about to go bust. This thought led me to adapt my day to day work into a book so that the experiences of those that had been through difficult times could be passed on to others. My initial idea was to just pull together a series of blogs or articles, although the concept of a book was flittering on the edge of my thoughts. Never having been a writer, if I thought about it too much, I became paralysed with fear. So I decided to just get on with talking to people, see what nuggets I could glean and worry about what to do with it later. I used breakfast meetings and online forums to find people willing to be interviewed. Ultimately, of these people, only two were prior contacts of my own. The rest were new and the tales and the learning points I got from them were dynamite.
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Andrew R Miller
Once I had my research gathered, the big question was ‘what was I going to do with it?’ I was introduced to a book coach, Gail Powell, who was running a course to help people get a business book written. Gail really helped me find focus and clarity; unlocking my limiting beliefs and giving me the tools to take action and get motivated about making my thoughts become reality. At another networking event, a web developer, Axita Ltd, liked the idea of the book and offered to develop my website www.hopewontpaythewages.co.uk and book cover for free. And, as if by chance, I was also mentoring an academic who ended up proof reading my manuscript; it was amazing how it all seemed to come together. Somehow it all just fell into place. The book is proving to be incredibly popular. As well as creating awareness of an area of business where greater support is needed, it also provides that support. But the lessons learnt are applicable to every business owner and everyone that has read it has found something that they can take away and use in their own enterprise. I now even have interest at a government level, with Vince Cable’s Enterprise Directorate Strategy requesting a copy and subsequent meeting to help them aid their own research and policy development. To become an author I would have to take my own advice. Prepare to be flexible, react and move; no matter what life throws at you. You have to be really passionate about what you do because this will translate into the book. Meeting and speaking to people and learning from others’ experiences, as well as listening to their feedback was invaluable to me. Without this input my book would certainly not have been published at this stage. Get out there, meet people, discuss ideas and see where it leads – believe me there is no one winning formula.
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Andrew R Miller has over 16 years experience working in insolvency and turnaround for one of the big 4 global accountancy firms, including a period spent in the insolvency unit of a well-known high street bank. He is a qualified chartered accountant and qualified insolvency practitioner. The nature of his work involved, predominantly, trading businesses that had gone into receivership or administration with a view to selling them as a going concern and saving the business and the employees. Andrew became more involved in internal management; leading and motivating teams and helping individuals develop and better themselves. This led Andrew to an interest in coaching. In 2010 he obtained the first of his two diplomas from The Coaching Academy and, in 2011, he set up his own coaching business; ARM Coaching Services. Andrew developed the concept of a Turnaround Coach, a confidential and independent service to help directors at a personal level. His combination of business knowledge and awareness of the turnaround and insolvency market coupled with his coaching training has helped directors stay in control, remain focussed, maintain their confidence levels and allowed them to make the right decisions, at the right time and for the right reasons. www.hopewontpaythewages.co.uk www.armcoaching.com.
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Renowned Expert Authorpreneur Hazel Edwards shares tips on
Pitching for Business A (Authorpreneurial) Hint Pitch a proposal this week in a way you haven’t tried before.
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1. As an authorpreneur you’re more likely to be initiating and so you may be ‘pitching’ a new process or concept as well as the content. If using terms, which are new to your audience, keep it simple. Don’t assume they know all the new verbs of how to do something technical, that you’ve just learnt recently. 2. Pitchathon: Convince why your project is saleable/publishable NOW. Practice to a time limit, even to the dog! Or the mirror. Or record it. 3. Speed Dating. Some publishers host bookseller events at which that season’s list authors have a limited time in which to explain why their book is relevant. Booksellers rotate in five minute slots around the author tables, ask questions and give feedback on what appeals to their markets. At the end, orders are placed with the publisher on titles, which have convinced them. In anticipation of next season, list 6 points on why your book or project may appeal. You’re permitted to use visuals like the cover. 4. Chances are your project will cross media. Practise with the equipment, so there are NO technical hitches. 5. Humour helps, if it is relevant. E.g. One illustrator presented a fast humorous autobiography in book covers she had designed. But it was the wit of her comments, which convinced future clients of the depth of her ideas and flexibility. 6. Consider the project from the listener’s perspective. What do they most need from you? 7. Play Devil’s Advocate. Point out the likely problems and how you will solve them with your innovation. E.g. Challenges of adult literacy addressed through simple performance scripts and reading with a purpose. E-scripts for easy accessibility in remote regions. 8. Where would this project fit within their existing list? Show you have researched them. 9. A creator profile & CV are different. Indicate your skills relevant for this project. A CV is where you have been. A profile indicates what you can do.
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10. List non- traditional markets. Consider three possible markets for your current project. 11. Time-lag. It may be a good idea, but in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite fear of imitation, leave your proposal on file with the producer. Often your current proposal may remind them when they are seeking new writers for another series. 12. Prepare a very well presented folder with samples and contact links for later study. Especially if any translation or costings are involved. Non native speakers may need to have your words translated and their significance considered. 13. Flexibility: Be willing to re-structure according to clients’ current budgets or requirements, but build in payment stages, rather than working on spec (speculation). 14. Rates and conditions: Inform yourself of industry rates and don’t undercut. Decide whether to risk a percentage of eventual profits (gross or net are different) or take a fee now and no continuing interest. Do you want your reputation to be enhanced by this? Must your name be included? Or is it for a charity? 15. Track record: Give examples of previously completed projects. 16. Copyright your material and keep evidence of dated, earlier drafts. 17. Investigate trade marking or patents if appropriate. 18. Collaborative projects. Clarify rights and have signed agreements on expenses and income splits. 19. Time frame. Some projects such as animation or film take years, and others never get past the initial stages. Stagger your projects, so you are not living on hopes. 20. If this concept is emotionally significant to you, the financial considerations may be secondary. BUT you need to monitor how much time and energy can be given long term.
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This is an extract from Hazel Edward’s book Authorpreneurship, The Business of Creativity. Order the book here: www.asauthors.org/dvdbook/authorpreneurship
making indie publishing a mission possible The Indie ReCon free online conference presented in February 2013 featured over 25 guests who discussed the nuts and bolts of self-publishing from the pros and cons, all the way through to marketing and becoming a bestselling author. Guests included Darcie Chan, Lori Culwell, Joel Friedlander, C J Lyons, Joanna Penn, and many more. Topics covered included: - Branding You and Your Book - Breaking into International Markets - Building a Bestselling Publishing Team - Creating Unique yet Affordable Covers - Creative Book Launches - Entrepreneurial Authors Many Hats
Hazel Edwards Authorpreneur Hazel Edwards is best known for There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake but writes across media, age groups and non/fiction. Writing a Non Boring Family History, Authorpreneurship, The Business of Creativity are best e-sellers from her online bookstore. Hazel is a frequent confererence speaker, mentor and conducts web chats. f2m:the boy within a documentary is in progress about her co-written YA novel about transitioning gender.
- Getting eBooks into Bookstores - Planning your Future - The Biggest Mistakes Indie Authors Make - The Future of Digital Publishing - The Future of eBooks as Apps - The Magic of Awards and Reviews - The Pros and Cons of Indie Publishing If you missed the conference you can still view the posts, videos and chat recordings on the website: www.indierecon.org
www.hazeledwards.com
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Media Cents and Sensibility by Christina Hamlett
Twenty-Five Words Or Less “What’s your book about?”
Whether it’s still a work-in-progress or has just made its official debut, you probably get asked that question a lot. Depending on who your listener is, how much time you have, and what sort of call to action you want to create, you probably also have a short version and a long version of your answer. How do you reply, though, if that question is asked by someone in the media; specifically, someone in a position to give your book some favorable publicity? Unfortunately, authors typically make the mistake of rabbiting on ad nauseum about all of the wrong things. Giddy to be in the spotlight, they treat the question – and every interview - as a free commercial to aggressively push sales rather than a chance to calmly project credibility as an expert on the book’s core themes. By focusing entirely on the book rather than articulating why it will resonate with the media outlet’s target demographic, they ultimately miss an opportunity to become a recurring guest. From a reporter’s perspective, a writer who can’t distill the scope and purpose of his/her book in a pitch that’s less than 25 words is likely to deliver a meandering monologue without any takeaway value. I call this The Eugene Syndrome. Throughout his adolescence, I used to take my nephew, Eugene, to San Francisco every Christmas break to go shopping, look at Alcatraz through the
Pier 39 telescopes, and experience fine dining. He’d often use the occasion of the long car ride to tell me about the latest movie he had seen. In his zeal not to leave anything out, his summaries were generally longer than any of the actual films and, by the time we rolled back home, he had yet to reach the ending and refused to exit the car until he had finished. His recaps tended to flow like this: “So it starts out with these horses and they’re wild and running around in this canyon that’s Wyoming or something and then there’s this girl who lives on a farm and this guy named Ned likes her but then there’s this other guy named Bob who likes her, too, and he and Ned don’t get along and Ned thinks Bob let Julie’s horses loose – Julie was the name of the girl – but meanwhile back in town everybody’s all mad because the Depression’s going on and nobody has any money and Julie goes to buy food to fix dinner for her father since her mother died when she was a little girl and…” Whether you make your media pitch in an email, by phone or in person, brevity is critical in selling yourself as someone who not only respects the reporter’s time but also understands the needs/ wants/interests of the readers, listeners and viewers the reporter is courting. Can you describe your book in 25 words or less? Please post your book description in the comments section on the website. The best three will be showcased in my next column.
Christina Hamlett
Former actress and theater director Christina Hamlett is a media relations expert and award winning author whose credits to date include 30 books, 150 stage plays, 5 optioned feature films, and squillions of articles and interviews. In additional to being a professional ghostwriter, she is a script consultant for the film industry (which means that she stops a lot of really bad movies from coming to theaters near you). Christina’s latest book, Media Magnetism: How to Attract the Favorable Publicity You Want and Deserve, is targeted to authors, artists, entrepreneurs, business owners and nonprofits. www.authorhamlett.com
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Video Book Trailers
Are book trailers considered an essential marketing tool for authors now? Probably not by many, however, when you consider the huge marketing potential offered by video sharing sites like YouTube, authors might be well advised to consider tapping into this marketing tool. But be warned - a bad book trailer may be worse for you than having no book trailer! Video book trailers come in a variety of ‘styles’. Everything from simple image and text montages, to authors talking about their books, right through to productions that resemble movie trailers. It is particularly important to consider which type of trailer will appeal to your potential readers. Not only do you want something that shows people what the book is about, but something they will enjoy watching and feel compelled to share with others. Read the experiences of these authors, who have used a variety of different types of trailers. View their videos and share your thoughts on these trailers on the Authorpreneur Magazine website. What type of trailer do you have for your book? Or what type do you think would suit your book / reader’s tastes?
Elly Klein I produced a video book trailer for my humorous relationship advice book, Men Are Like a Box of Chocolates. I wrote it myself and used images from my book. I also selected the track from stock music. A friend, who lives in LA and works as an animator, put it together for me, as I don’t have the technical know-how.
www.ellyklein.com
It’s difficult to measure how successful it’s been for driving traffic and sales. At the moment, it’s had around 500 views and has been live for 6 months. I’m glad I have it, because I think it’s a really fun and dynamic way to promote the book.
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Marianne Cantwell I created a book trailer for my book Be A Free Range Human which launched at the beginning of January. My publisher (a traditional business house) had never had an author do a book trailer before and I did it all myself, with some outsourced help. The - rather unusual - trailer drove signups for my book site www. beafreerangehuman.com and as a result we got this book to a) sell out on Amazon.co.uk on its first day and b) be Amazon’s hottest new release across all books in mid December (based on pre-sales alone!). It is also a #1 bestseller in www.beafreerangehuman. entrepreneurship and careers. Much of the buzz that led to that initial success com was from the trailer (but now the book is gathering its own momentum). The trailer was filmed in two cities and put together in a third. I was in California for most of it (all the outdoor cliff shots!) then in NYC for the street shots and back in London, UK for the rest. I story-boarded it all myself and got a videographer to shoot and edit under my direction. The speaking you hear on it was from Skype-recorded interviews with some of my clients (their words were unscripted and we edited them together). What it is not - book trailer mistake to avoid It is not an ad for the book. I don’t mention the book anywhere in the trailer! It’s there to get people thinking, inspired and curious - I think that a lot of authors make the mistake of trying to do an info-mercial for their book, but you don’t pass a bland info-mercial around to your friends! This trailer is one I know has been passed around with people saying “you have to see this”, and it’s the message and passion that people buy into, and that in turn leads to getting the free chapter from the website and buying the book. In total, I spent only $600 US on this (I was going to be in those locations anyway so flights don’t count!). I could have done it myself (as I usually make all my videos) but I wanted something unusual and of a higher quality for the book. I think this video drove substantial interest and sales and it is still something people comment on when getting in touch about the book.
www.beafreerangehuman.com
George Ivanoff I had a computer animated trailer produced for my book Gamers’ Quest in 2009. It’s been viewed over a thousand times on YouTube, but I discovered that I actually had to promote the trailer in order to get those hits. The most useful part of having the trailer was being able to show it to school groups whenever I did school talks and writing workshops. It proved to be a great way of engaging an audience and getting their attention from the word go.
georgeivanoff.com.au
When the sequel, Gamers’ Challenge, came out in 2010, I had another trailer made by the same guy who did the first (Henry Gibbens). This time around I really didn’t put very much effort into promoting the trailer online. This is reflected in the smaller number of hits. But I did use it for school visits and again it proved to be very successful in this regard.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/0vCCl34Fgo?fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/ OPQc32qn2_E?fs=1
In June this year, the third book in the series will be published — Gamers’ Rebellion. Henry Gibbens will again be making a new trailer.
Alison Skate I
I published a book in February last year called Ambush Proposals: The Hero’s Guide to Wedding Proposals. The promotional video has had 20,000 views and was featured in The Huffington Post as a quirky and unique way to promote the book.
The promotional video played a large part in attaining media coverage of the book, including reviews and articles in The Courier Mail, BMag, Mx Commuter Magazine, ABC Radio, The Knot.com.au and various online publications. The promotional video is interactive, and was created with the help of Paul Holland. Paul assisted with the animations and producing the video in an interactive format. The video itself was filmed in my home by myself and my husband. The video provides viewers with a number of questions, to which they respond by clicking on an icon on their screen, which prompts the next part of the video. They are eventually streamed one of eight possible proposal ideas based on their answers to the questions. The video functions on PC, but iPad and mobile users can scroll the ‘description’ of the video to select their responses. (When viewing the questions, I recommend waiting until the end of the clip on Question 3 for an extra giggle.) It has been a fun way to promote the book, which won a finalist medal in the Indie Book Awards in 2012. http://www.youtube.com/v/zilxbf69P9o?fs=1
Ludwina Dautovic My first book, It’s That Easy - Online Marketing 3.0, was a collaborative effort. I sourced eighteen authors (which includes myself), to show business owners how to better connect and engage with their market online. I’m very big on video marketing and know the power it has in terms of Google ranking, syndication and customer engagement, so producing a video that not only highlights the content but also the authors, in my eyes, is essential.
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I used an online program called Animoto which has a small yearly licence fee. It’s a program that allows you to draw in images and audio files along with your choice of text and then it magically edits it together based on the tempo and length of the music. The music is original and was written by one of my staff, Aaron James Lee. Anyone can use Animoto and it is simple and fast to put together. I know that the video will help with the decision process of potential purchases. It not only highlights the content and authors but will engage purchasers in a way that text and images alone cannot.
http://www.youtube.com/v/64PqCo8svhI?fs=1
Animoto video creation service: animoto.com
Leigh-Chantelle What Do Vegans Eat? book started out as a scrapbook-style presentation for a Brisbane vegan group. I wanted my presentation to be fun and visually appealing, yet still have the important educational aspects of a vegan health talk. I combined my love for fun, easy to comprehend education, with food and animal photographs and myself posing to create what I hope is an inspiring look at how easy being a vegan is nowadays. www.vivalavegan.net
The video idea for What Do Vegans Eat? and My USA Adventures was simply like my other videos: DIY, friendly and colourful, with basic information.
My USA Adventures is a book based on my travel adventures to 14 out of 50 states in the United States of America. Throughout June and July in 2010, and July and August in 2011, I take readers along on my travels with journal entry-style narration of my adventures. My video book trailers have worked well for sales and I would suggest everyone include a video for promotional purposes.
http://www.youtube.com/v/xmFAR7rH79U?fs=1
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http://www.youtube.com/v/7iMj2hdf0Ps?fs=1
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The Bestseller Incubator Authorpreneur Magazine is pleased to announce our first giveway! Rochelle Stone, Publishing & Marketing Specialist from Barefoot Basics, is giving one lucky reader the opportunity to participate in her 7 week online coaching program The Bestseller Incubator. This prize is valued at $450. You can read more about the program below or on the Barefoot Basics website www.barefootbasics.com.
Focus Your Book Marketing Plan with The Bestseller Incubator 7-Week Online Coaching Program Are you looking to publish or be published in 2013? Or simply looking forward to finally putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard in the new year to make your long-term writing dream a reality? Maximise your opportunities for Self Publishing success by investing in Barefoot Basics’ The Bestseller Incubator. Developed by Rochelle Stone, Publishing and Marketing Specialist at Barefoot Basics, to guide new and established authors through life beyond the manuscript and towards establishing their online platform, marketing and pr schedule, distribution model and book business plans.
Whether traditionally published or selfpublished an Author’s reality is the same…
MARKETING SELLS BOOKS!
The Bestseller Incubator has been developed to assist Author’s in creating a strategic vision for taking their book to market, maximising their results with the aim of ensuring they are in the top 10% of Authors that earn 75% of the income. The Bestseller Incubator: 7-Week Coaching Program is for self-publishing Authors, who understand that they are truly accountable for their own success. Each of the information packed modules and sections have been supplemented with Action Steps, to bring your book publishing journey to life. Read more about the program at Barefoot Basics: www.barefootbasics.com.au
Throughout ‘The Bestseller Incubator’ journey you will learn how to: 1. Define Your Vision 2. Create Your Online Platform 3. Build Your Distribution Model 4. Maximise PR & Publicity Opportunities
Visit the Authorpreneur Magazine website and like, follow, tweet about the competition or submit a testimonial. You can earn one entry for each action.
5. Build Your Profile 6. Build Your Book Business Plan
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Author Websites by Jeannie Barker
Every author should have their own website - even if they haven’t published their first book yet! Your author website is your online business card, your book shop, your blog, your connection with readers, your showcase for publishers, your most important marketing tool and the ‘hub’ of your author platform. And you don’t have to wait until you have published your first book to create your website start building your author platform now, no matter where you are at on your publishing journey. What are the main components of an author website?
Essentials 33 Bio - Your ‘about you’ page is essential. Your readers want to connect with you, identify with you, feel like they know you... so share some information about yourself on a bio or profile page. Make sure you include at least one image of you - people want to see what you look like. If you have an ‘author portrait’ that you use on your books, make sure this photo is displayed on your bio page. If you use a profile photo consistently across your social media sites make sure this appears on your website too. 33 Book/s - This can be a page for your book, a page for all of your books, a separate page for each one of your books or page for each of your book series. You need to include an image of your book cover/s, the blurb for the book/s and information about where to buy the book - either a link to your online bookshop or your sales processing page on your own site, or the book sales site/s where your book is available for purchase. A couple of brief testimonials can also be included on your book/s page/s, or on a separate page. 33 Contact - If you wish to make yourself available for direct contact from your website, include a contact form. Instead of direct
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contact you may prefer to include your agent’s contact information, or your speaking agency contact, or even just your PA/VA contact details. Note: To avoid spam use a ‘contact form’ - do not display your email address on your website.
Optional 33 News / Events - Publish a calendar or listing of your past and upcoming book signings, speaking engagements, interviews, etc. This can be a page, a calendar or listings presented as blog posts (an easy way to add events). 33 Reviews / Testimonials - Publish testimonials and reviews of your books, both professional and from your readers. A good way to get reviews is to offer a free review copy of your book. If the reviewer has a website, include a link to their website beneath the review. 33 Excerpts - Include an excerpt from your book, either published on the site directly or as a downloadable PDF, or provide both options. 33 Speaking - If you are available for speaking engagements have a separate page for this. Give examples of past speaking engagements and the topics you talk on. Include a link to your contact page for booking enquiries or info for contacting your speaking agency.
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33 Book Trailer - If you have a video book trailer for your latest book make sure you feature it prominently on your site. Book trailers for other books can be on the relevant book pages but the latest book trailer should also be featured on the home page.
visitors to share your content. You can choose which social media platforms you wish to enable sharing on - make sure you enable all the platforms that you use, plus any others you feel appropriate to your audience.
33 Blog - Some authors choose to blog, some don’t. Blogs can help your audience connect with you on a more personal level, keep them coming back to the site to read your fresh content, and enable them to interact directly with you via comments on your posts. Blog posts can be articles on your area of expertise, updates about your writing, comments about your events, personal stories from your life (how personal is up to you). Adding blog posts can help your site to rank better in search listings since your site is seen to be adding fresh new content regularly.
33 Newsletter Subscription - A sign-up form for a newsletter can help you build up a database list of people interested in your books. This means that when you write your next book you already have a list of people interested in your topic or your style of writing that you can pre-sell your book to. Plus, publishers consider this an important element of your author platform and may ask how many subscribers you have. If you don’t want to send regular email newsletters you can opt to simply have an auto-generated email sent whenever you add a new post to your blog. This is an easy way to generate regular direct contact with your subscribers / fans. 33 Sell Sheet - A one page sales sheet is generally designed for book distributors, however, it can also be a great marketing tool. If you have one, make it available on your website media page and book page. 33 Media - A media kit can include the key information and files that a journalist could use to write an article on you or your book, or as background information for an interview. This could include: a sell sheet for your book, print quality portrait image, book cover image/s, other relevant images, an extract from your book, audio file, etc. - all available for individual download or in one zip file.
Marketing tools 33 Social Media - If you are using social media marketing feature your chosen platform icons on the site so people can easily click on them and ‘connect’ with you. WordPress and similar Content Management Systems (CMS) have plugins and widgets which can make adding clickable social media icons and buttons quite simple.
Other key points to remember
33 Sharing Tools - Tools like Add This or Retweet can be easily added to your site to encourage
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33 Your site should be well laid out, with clear and easy navigation (menu). 33 It should be attractively designed with a modern look (no scrolling text, animated clip art gifs!). 33 Your images should be good quality, professional looking and low resolution to load quickly.
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33 You, or your PA/VA, should be able to access and update your website if you wish - not have to wait on your webmaster to do it all for you. Using a CMS like WordPress can make maintaing and updating your website easy. 33 Your website should be ‘mobile responsive’, enabling it to look good on mobile phones and tablets. 33 Avoid Flash - the content cannot be read by search engines and cannot be viewed on some tablets and phones. 33 Your design, the look of your website, should match the genre / audience you write for. If you write light-hearted romances the design should look very different from that of an author who writes gothic horror.
Jeannie Barker Founder and editor of Authorpreneur Magazine; WordPress consultant and trainer; web and graphic designer. Jeannie is passionate about helping authors create their own author brand and market their books and services.
I Write. . .
Secure your domain name now! Don’t wait until you are ready to build your website - buy your authorname.com now if it is available. If you wait, another person with the same name may grab it and you will have to settle for something else.
Introducing our new short feature I Write. . . We invite writers to share where and how they write. Do you have an ultra-modern office space for your writing business? Do you have a cosy nook for reading and writing? Do you write on the road... with a tablet, smart phone or laptop?
Tip Check out some other author websites for ideas. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: Lee Child, Michael Connolly, Janet Evanovich, Emily Griffin, John Grisham, E L James, Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Rick Riordan, Nora Roberts, Michael Robotham.
Awesome Author Websites Do you have any favourite author websites? Ones that blow you away with their awesomeness? Please share with us the author, the website and why you love them. www.authorpreneurmagazine.com/ author-websites/
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What do you need around you to get into the proper writing mode? What environment inspires you to write? What environment helps you focus on writing? Please tell us about your writing space in 500 words or less and include a photo of you in the space (hi res for the print magazine edition), plus your website URL. Email your piece to: submissions@authorpreneurmagazine.com
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12-14 July 2013 wowfestival.blogspot.com Coral Sea Resort Airlie Beach QLD Australia www.authorpreneurmagazine.com
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Writers Festivals seem to be popping up all over – some in the most unlikely places. Those in the capital cities are becoming very crowded with little hope of getting anywhere near the presenting author, let alone being able to ask a question.
Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Bangkok Post and The Dawn (Pakistan). She is a former arts editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and now a senior arts writer. She has also worked as a radio producer with ABC radio.
There is one Writers Festival, however, that is very different. Now in its fourth year, the Whitsunday Writers Festival is the only one that offers the opportunity of close contact with the authors over drinks and dinner.
Conrad Walters has worked in the media for more than thirty years in the United States, where he won awards for investigative journalism, and in Australia, where he is a senior feature writer and book reviewer at The Sydney Morning Herald. Together wihth his partner Joyce Morgan, they have written Journey on the Silk Road.
The fourth festival promises to be diverse and informative. On Friday 12 July there will be a thriller writing workshop with Louisa Larkin, who studied Literature at the University of London and then emigrated to Australia. She became a publisher and returned to the University of Sydney to study Corporate Responsibility amongst other things. Her latest novel, Thirst, is set in Antarctica where she spent time researching the subject.
. . . the festival has a lot to offer everyone, including the guest speakers . . .
On Saturday Louisa is joined by Dr Tony Ayling who has written about a dozen books on the subject of marine biology and will give us an update on the Great Barrier Reef. Dr Anita Heiss is a member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales and is one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors of Aboriginal literature, and author of Am I Black Enough for You. She is an author, a poet and the recipient of many awards.
This promises to be an entertaining weekend where authors and guests will mix over wine and good food. Previous speakers include David Hill, ex CEO of ABC television and Susan Wyndham Literary Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald who both commented that the festival has a lot to offer everyone, including the guest speakers. Dates: 12-14 July 2013 Location / Venue: Coral Sea Resort, Airlie Beach, QLD, Australia (principal sponsor of the event) Cost: $595 ($AU) inclusive (based on twin share); welcome drinks Friday; full day conference Saturday with lunch, morning and afternoon tea and divine 5 course dinner; Sunday conference with farewell lunch. Festival Website: wowfestival.blogspot.com Contact: Gloria Burley 0422 026 793 (International +61 422 026 793)
Joyce Morgan has worked as a journalist for more than three decades in London, Sydney and Hong Kong. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The
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Are You Tracking Your Mentions? Are you using Google Alerts to track your mentions? Or do you use a social media tracker like Social Mention? What if there was an app you could use online, on your Android phone, iPhone and your iPad? Mention is a cool new tool that tracks your name, your business name or your keywords. The free plan includes 3 alerts (names, keywords, etc.), 500 mentions per month plus 1 month of history. Paid plans start at $19.95 per month. Check it out and see if Mention is something you would like to try, and please add your thoughts on the website: www.authorpreneurmagazine.com/ are-you-tracking-your-mentions/ en.mention.net
Authorgraph
Authorgraph (originally called Kindlegraph) was developed by Evan Jacobs, a software developer from Seattle. It came about when Evan attended an author reading in 2010 where the author offered to sign attendees books, having purchased the book on Kindle, Kevin had nothing for the author to sign. Now, through the Authorgraph website you can request authors to sign your eBooks. The signatures are downloadable as PDFs (viewable in applications like iBooks) or an AZW version (viewable in all Kindle apps on iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac, etc.) of their Authorgraph. Authors can list their books on the Authorgraph website, gaining more exposure and another means to interact with their readers. Your book doesn’t even need to be in eBook format - readers can request an Authorgraph for print books too. And, authors can personalise the message for each reader. www.authorgraph.com
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