Tradebox – Ebay Accounting Package

If you’re a newbie to the publishing world, either you’ve self-published or had your book cooperatively published, you’ll be thinking about getting your book out there, telling the world about it. You may be in one of two places. Either you will be standing in a forest, crowded by trees, seeing so much you need to do, and wondering what to do first, or you will be standing in a desert, wondering what to do at all. My experience with marketing my book has certainly been one of learning, making mistakes, and of facing my fears and doing things I’d never have believed I would one day be doing.

Wherever you are standing, understand that any results do not come about instantaneously, that it is your consistent, daily efforts that, over time, will pay off. You need to get your book known, talked about. Here are a few pointers:-

1. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW about your book, through phone, email, letter. I made a simple website ( http://www.chilledparent.com ) and sent the link to everyone I know, family, friends, and also asked them to send it on to others. It’s good to draw a spider map, or mind map, with all the communities in your life – your kids’ parents, your relations, work acquaintances, church acquaintances – absolutely all your communities, and every name you can think of. Don’t pre-judge anyone – through a chance conversation one of those people may know of someone who could help you in your marketing, through some avenue.

2. HAVE A6 CARDS, OR BOOKMARKS PRINTED, with your book cover on one side, and information about the book on the other side, like price, ISBN, where the book is available, as well as your website address. Have these distributed. Mine is a parenting book, so I approached toy shops, baby clothes shops, children’s play venues, pre-schools, toddler groups, anywhere to do with kids, where I thought parents might frequent. I asked the proprietors if I could place the cards by their tills, or in a prominent place for parents to pick up. At schools, I asked the Head Teacher to have one given to each child to take home to their parents. You need to know the people you are targeting who will be interested in your book, and think of as many ways as possible to get it known to them.

3. APPROACH BOOK STORES. Now this can be a minefield. My experience has shown that small, independent bookstores are more likely to support you, especially if you are local to them. To be able to get your book in a prominent place in your local bookshop, and do a publicity campaign at the same time, directing customers to the shop, can give your book the initial boost it needs. I wrote on the back of each A6 card “available at ….. bookshop”. This not only gets your book known, but helps your relationship with the bookshop, who welcome the custom – it’s both good for you the author, and for them.

4. GET YOUR BOOK PROMINENTLY PLACED IN BOOKSHOPS. This is tricky. As an independent author, you’re competing with the big publishers who (I am told by bookshop proprietors) can command a good placing for their books in the shop, and sometimes pay for it. If you can get your book placed in a prominent position, then you are going to sell many more books. I used my testimonial from my local bookshop to convince the big shops that, when prominently placed, my local shop sold X amount of copies.

5. GET YOUR BOOK KNOWN BY THE PRESS. Produce a press release about your book, and distribute it to all newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. Now, your local press are likely to be interested, especially if you can give them a good story. My local paper picked up on two lines in my press release about how I was inspired to write my book after my daughter nearly died from meningitis. I must say, they weren’t going to write anything, until I phoned them to follow-up on the press release, and until they spotted the possibility of a good story in the text.

6. ORGANISE BOOK SIGNINGS. Your local shop may support you in this, but approach as many shops as you can. Advertise the event, and make sure the bookshop is advertising too. Tell all your communities (in 1. above) about the event. On the day, unless you’re famous and well-known already, don’t expect people to be crowding around you for your signature. Get up from the table and go approach people with your book, strike up a conversation, be yourself, build rapport with them, and invite them to buy it with the added bonus, today, of having your signature. This approach can be the difference between you selling 10 books or 50 books.

7. MAKE A SIGNATURE ON YOUR EMAIL with your website link, so that all emails you send will have your signature for potential customers to click on.

8. APPROACH LIBRARIES to stock your book. This will involve some research on your behalf. Libraries don’t necessarily buy books on a local basis, but have a central buyer. It’s not difficult to find their name and contact details by talking to a librarian at your local library.

9. SEND A COPY OF YOUR BOOK TO POSSIBLE REVIEWERS, national newspapers, local newspapers, magazines relevant to the topic of your book.

10. ATTEND EVENTS AND TRADE SHOWS relevant to your book topic, where you will meet possible customers. For example, I attended a holistic baby show where health professionals dealing with parents and children attended, and mothers-to-be and parents came along.

11. HAVE YOUR BOOK WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES. Many times I travel on the London Underground, and I carry my book with me. It has a distinctive cover and title, and I notice people looking at it. If you’ve got your book with you, people are likely to ask about it. You need to get it seen. If you don’t show it to people or tell them about it, it will not get known.

Books don’t have the habit of jumping off the shelf and dancing about shouting “here I am, come and get me”. They’re inanimate objects. They don’t even necessarily get seen on the shelf, along with all the other books. They need publicity. Of all the methods above, number 5 is by far the most powerful, but also the most difficult to execute. Your book in the press, either a review, or most powerfully, as part of an article, gets people walking into bookshops asking for it – it sells books, and the shops love it – they order more. You want the maximum exposure with the minimum effort, and this is the way. Good luck!

Technorati Tags: Book, Eleven, Exposure, Massive, Steps

Books are the best friends of human being. It realizes us the power of knowledge, helps our understanding of different subjects and makes us a better person. It also improves our communication skills and our overall personality. There is nothing more exciting than reading a book and losing yourself in the characters present in the book and being a part of twists and turns of a great story.

You go to the nearest book stores to find your favourite books. It has been the convenient way of reading books so far. Although it is very common to go to these stores but now it is very difficult to get time to visit the store. Even if you go there, you don’t find the books you were looking for. Also, many times the traditional book stores don’t offer you a host of options to shop. Keeping all these factors in the mind, many new concepts and ideas are coming into the market. Readers are getting the joy of reading whole book on their PC with a reasonable pricing option. It really sounds good if you are looking for comfort with no compromise in services.

With the increasing use of internet and its applications in our daily life, the concept of online book store is getting a huge popularity. People love to see, read the summary and post their requirements of books through online process. It is more comfortable and convenient. This concept was first used in schools, colleges and universities in order to provide their students a better choice of gaining knowledge. All the libraries in these places were made online within the local area networking system. Later on, this innovative idea was absorbed by the internet savvy persons and they developed online book stores. All these have not only benefited to the readers but also to the authors since they receive more royalty now mainly because of increased sales globally. Consequently, it also helps the price of books putting down and making the availability more convenient.

The online book shops are becoming famous for its variety too. It gives a list of the renowned authors and their books. You can also find the not so popular authors here and enjoy the novels. It gives a number of choices to the users to find exclusive book lists, hard to find novels and the price range with a simple click. For example, if you are looking for a Harry Potter book, you can simply type the name in search box and you will get the required details within no time. These stores also deliver your booked stuff to your residence.

There are some other lucrative services offered by the online stores. If you are not a person who loves reading books, you can find the DVD and CD version of your favourite books here. The price of this multimedia stuff is kept affordable for you. Now, enjoy reading or watching the fictions or Non-fictions in a most innovative way. There are many sites where you have to get yourself registered and they will be informing about the latest books and offers through e mail. Hence, you will be updated with the happenings in the book world.

The fame of online book portals is obvious in the UK. Some of the biggest book stores in the world come from the UK. The renowned book chain Waterstone is one of them. The fact remains same with the online version of the stores. It is the best place to lure the book worms with a number of online bookstores UK. The online bookstores Ireland, London are also very popular among the book lovers with its huge variety of reading materials. Amazon.co.uk, Rupizcompare.co.uk, etc are some of the leading sites that provide the wide variety of books at the affordable price. You can also find the attractive offers and deals on the sites. It gives an exciting shopping experience to you.

Technorati Tags: Book, Expanding, Horizon, Online, Reading, Stores

What IS a best-selling author?
You have to answer that in your own mind.
Technically, it’s any book that makes it into the Top 100 list at ANY online or offline bookstore.
However, what does it mean to you?
Is it someone who sells 300-500 books in a day through online bookstores like http://Amazon.com and makes the top 10?
Is it only the person who makes it to #1?
Is it the person who sells their book from their own website and makes $10,000 in a few months?
Or does it have to be a specific list… like the New York Times best seller list?
What does it mean to you?
It’s a tough call. But you CAN have it all.
Selling your book through an online or offline bookstore will mean less money for you upfront, but will provide you far more leverage in the long run.
Selling your book from your own website and taking your own orders will mean far more money in the bank for you initially, but you’ll have to work a little harder on the back-end to get the recognition you deserve.
Both ways work. Neither way is right. It’s really what’s right for you.
Let’s talk about the steps necessary to make your book a bestseller whether you want to do it through an online bookstore or from your own website.
1) Pick the specific day you want to become a best seller.
Focusing on a specific day is what provides you the leverage to sell a large amount of books quickly. Selling 500 books over 6 months is not as impressive as selling 500 books in one or two days.
2) Create your “what’s in it for me?” offer.
Your book is a valuable resource for your clients. But selling it alone puts it up against all the other books already on the market for your subject. I don’t like those odds.
What you need is something “extra” — something that really let’s the perspective buyer know that you want to help them.
If you were to sell your book (for let’s say $20) and then offered everyone who purchased your book on the specific day you decided on in step 1 around $200 in bonuses from experts… do you think they’d be more likely to buy? And buy on that day?
Of course they would.
This is the step where you stop thinking about you and start thinking about the group of people you want to help by writing this book in the first place. Think of everything you can possibly offer to add value to your book and build a powerful arsenal of tools and resources.
When the potential buyer asks, “What’s in it for me?” (which they always do)… give them TONS of answers.
3) Use the 12-step method to create a promotional sales letter.
Now that you’ve answered the “What’s in it for me?” question, use the 12-step process to build a sales letter site for your book that explains it to the potential buyer.
They have a problem in their life. Your book is going to give them a solution for their problem… and a whole lot of “extras” if they buy on the specific day you’ve selected.
Tell them – using the proven 12-step process.
4) Leverage the relationships you’ve built.
Now, simply go back to the experts who provided you the bonus items for your book promotion, let them know the day you have picked as your bestseller day and ASK them if they would help you promote it on that day.
GIVE THEM A FREE COPY OF YOUR BOOK.
Don’t be stingy. These are experts who have earned the right to be called an expert. You are asking them for a favor. Be generous enough to let them read your book first.
If you can afford it, send them a physical copy. If you can’t, email them a digital copy with a short, concise explanation of what you are doing.
Pick a specific day to target your focused effort. Give an overwhelming amount of bonus reasons for people to buy your book on that day; and then leverage the relationships with experts to get them to help you promote your book.
Why would they want to? Some will want to give back for the success they’ve earned. Some will want to because by doing so their bonus item is getting in more people’s hands (and their bonus item promotes them).
What will these experts use to help promote your book?
You guessed it… the “list” of their current clients.
Authors 25, 50 or 100 years ago would buy out their own first printing to make it appear their book was popular. Many “best sellers” used this tactic to get the Best Seller status so publishers would contract with them for future titles.
Tricky? Maybe. Successful? Absolutely.
Now it’s your turn.
Now that you know HOW to become a best seller, let’s address where to become a best seller.
Right now the 2 most popular bookstores for running best seller campaigns are http://Amazon.com and http://BN.com (Barnes and Noble).
To get your book listed in http://Amazon.com you can either:
Purchase the $149.95 option from http://Lulu.com for Global Distribution. This will get you listed in all major online and offline bookstores or go to http://Amazon.com and do it yourself.
If you take the “do it your self” route at Amazon, be sure to join http://Amazon.com’s Advantage Program. They will walk you through the process of signing up and getting your book listed in their store.
If you want to get listed in Barnes and Noble (online or offline), then visit http://BarnsandNobel.com.
Lulu.com will make both of these a simple process because you’ll already have an ISBN and you can order just a few books initially to get started with http://Amazon.com and/or Barnes and Noble.
Let’s talk through a few examples of how the Best Selling promotion may work:
1.) Leverage experts
We’ve already covered this one.
If I was writing the Pet Name book, I could find experts who are currently providing products and services to pet enthusiasts. Ask for bonuses and/or content from them. Then let them know the day I’m going to promote it and ask for their help.
I would provide them a digital or physical copy of the book to review. I would also ask what I could do to assist them. I’ve got to make it worth their while to help me.
2.) Leverage businesses
Rather than relying on 1 sale at a time from individual readers, I could approach businesses that sell pet-related products and see if I could get a licensing agreement with them where they buy a large quantity of books at one time.
I could sell 500 books to 500 different readers or I could sell 500 books to 1 or 2 pet stores.
3.) Leverage home town support
If it’s a localized subject – like a travel guide to North Carolina beaches – you could focus on specific businesses along the North Carolina coast to promote your book.
You could also contact local radio and/or TV stations to get publicity for your book promotion.
The biggest key to your best selling book promotion… don’t just go through the motions. Make It An EVENT! And have FUN with it.

Technorati Tags: Author, Become, Bestselling, Book

Are you ready to take your career to the next level? If you are a speaker, seminar leader, consultant, coach, writer, service business owner or an expert in your field you might be interested in writing a book.
Put your insightful message in book form and watch it catapult your career to the next level. Interested? Here are 10 good reasons you should write a book:
1. A book captures your unique insightful information. You have specific skills and information. Thousands of people search for specific information daily. They want simple to read and easy to understand information.
Write a book to educate your audience; include engagement tools in your book. Help them make more money, cut costs or solve their problems. Examples include: online assessments, how to tips, short reports, resource lists, how-to tutorials, dictionary of terms in your field, etc.
2. A book builds extra credibility to your message. People are more likely to value your message in book form. People want to listen to what you have to say. It carries status that’s not quite captured in other formats like tapes, cds or even video.
3. A book crystallizes your message. Write a book and it will focus your personal or even professional mission. People will take notice because author stands behind your name. Your book expresses your message in a clear permanent format.
4. A book expands you audience. Speakers reach 100s through the speaker’s circuit on a regular basis. A book will potentially reach 1000s. It takes on a life of its own. Even in the 21st century a book may travel and capture an audience that even televised media can’t go.
5. A book distinguishes you in a crowd. Your professional associates may be used to competing and winning more business. Write a book and leverage higher fees for the same amount of work. Leave your pro associates in the dust with author behind your name.
6. A book brings a new level of fame. Write a book to elevate your name in your field. More people will know about you and gain respect for your expert knowledge through a book.
7. A book creates greater opportunities for profit. Write your book and create other products that complement or follow up your original work. You can create cds, courses or podcasts from the material in your book.
8. A book is your new business card. Write a book to provide your original, different information. Have you wondered what makes a new diet book sell well even when there are scores of diet books on the market?
The author presents their unique set of successful diet rules, their exercise program, their perspective, their testimonials and their credentials. They use original, different information for the same results. Make your book your best business card.
9. A book creates a world of opportunities. Offer your readers an opportunity to learn something new or interesting. Sprinkle your book with little known interesting facts about your topic.
Be careful to avoid information overload with pages of detailed statistics. But if you sprinkle them as morsels throughout your book, you create anticipation that will lead your readers through to the end. People love statistics and bite-sized trivia about just about any topic.
10. A book makes it simple. Give your readers an easy to read style to learn about something. Take a complex subject in your field and make it simple. Most people enjoy an easy reading language. They will not only reward you by reading to the end but your readers will be happy to tell all their friends about your insightful easy to read book.
Don’t put it off any longer. Focus in on your good reasons to write a book. Your audience needs your insightful advice. Just do it and watch your career take off to new levels.

Technorati Tags: Book, Career, Catapult, Level, Next, Write

Are you finished writing your book? Congratulations! But wait, does your book title still need work? Most working titles should never make it through the final edit. Titles are one of the most important aspects of your book’s selling power. Getting this wrong could mean your book never receives the attention your message deserves.
Researchers say a disappointing title versus a grab-you-by-the-collar title can cause your book to plummet or soar in sales. Therefore, you owe it to yourself and book’s success to write your best title.
After all, the better your title the more people will reach out and grab your book to read. Craft your title to rise to a top seller status. To make sure your book captures all the attention it deserves, start with two top tips to sizzle your title to sell:
1. Write a Book Title to Quantify Change and Add Time Limits
Another characteristic to include in writing your best book title is to promise change. In your title spell out the change that readers can expect if they follow your book’s concepts. Let them know what to expect. Use secrets, steps, tips, ways and time limits to promise change.
You can add focus and credibility to your title by adding a time frame or quantifying change. C.J. Hayden’s book “Get Clients Now: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants” The first part of the title tells what the book is about. Adding now brings immediacy. The 28-Day parts emphasize that the reader will get day-by-day instruction and probably enjoy results in less than a month.
A good friend of mine includes in her “Write Your Best Book Now: An Easy 7 step Writing Program for Entrepreneurs and Writers” uses the same principle of adding immediacy with the word now. She also quantified change with steps that communicate to the reader; read this book and they will get their best book written in 7 easy steps.
Other good examples of quantifying change are “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey and “7 Steps to Fearless Speaking” by Lilyan Wilder.
Another change oriented title is “Weigh Down: An Inspirational Way to Lose Weight, Stay Slim and Find a New You” or “How to Be a Great Communicator In Person, On Paper, and on the Podium: The Complete System for communication Effectively in Business and In Life.
Change motivating titles often begin by identifying their target market including the problem, event or characteristics the book address. In doing so, they promise an easy structure leading to the promised change. List instantly communicate easier success by changing big task into a series of smaller tasks.
2. Write a Book Title that Use Concept and Memes to Connect Instantly.
Another top tip for developing a sizzling book title is to aim for a concept, a memes, a word, or phrases that tell a story. Using a story, your readers can immediately connect with and want to associate with your book. Names that tell a story, or express a benefit, are memes. They are words or visual images that tell a story at a glance.
As a primer to developing your own book title, visit Sears and look at the brand names of their proprietary products. The short names of these products are concepts; that tell a story in an instant. At a glance you get it.
You understand the message. Examples, include Diehard batteries, Weather-Beater paints and Craftsman tools. Each products name is a concept. Think about it, which product would you be attracted to “Diehard” or “Stop Slow”. Or would you choose tools with the name “Apprentice” or “Craftsman?”
Many successful books are based on concepts or memes. For example, “A Happy Pocket Full of Money” by David Cameron tells a story of happiness and money. From the title you know this book is going to be about getting more money in your pocket.
The Chicken Soup series instantly brings images of comfort and being cared for. It resonated with a whole generation of Americans that have bought the book into the hundreds of thousands.
The Dummies series communicate anyone can read one of these books because you don’t have to know anything to get it. People automatically know the book will somehow make the complex simple to understand.
When writing your book title, think of a concept, a meme, or phrase, to tell a story that your readers will instantly understand and want to be a part of. You may ask where are the customer benefits you’re always telling me to include. The benefits are still a part of the meme title but a suggestive part. Your mind will fill in the benefit because it’s an understood part of the story.
For example: Chicken Soup book promise and deliver the comfort and care of good stories. Pocket Full of Money readers know how to get a pocket full of money and gain happiness. Dummies communicates you don’t have to be an expert to understand the book.
Don’t forget when creating your top selling book title, your possibilities are limitless. Choose a title that is flexible enough to be expanded into more than one book. Think series, including other information products that can be developed and sold from your website.

Technorati Tags: Book, Seller, Status, Title, Write