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BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine "The Ezine for Successful Book Promotions" Past Issues Archives: http://archives.zinester.com/11698 Year 2 Issue 9 November 29, 2007 http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com *************************************************** On this issue: *************************************************** 1- From My Desk 2- How to Price Your Book 3- Useful Resources 4- Virtual Book Tours - A New Promotional Tool for Authors 5- The Ultimate Book Launch Party 6- Letters to the Editor 7- Articles Submission *************************************************** From My Desk *************************************************** Welcome to another issue of BookPromo. On this issue we cover How to Price Your Book to position yourself for profit and be able to sustain the financial cost of promoting it. On our second article you will learn about the world of Virtual Book Tours; they are becoming popular and readers are enjoying interacting with writers without having to leave their homes. And last but not least your key to an Ultimate Book Launch Party, send off your book the right way in order to reach your audience, profit and have fun at the same time. Enjoy your new issue and feel free to forward it to friends and associates. Helping, informing and empowering authors. Clary Lopez Editor-in-Chief BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine Guerrilla Marketers' Caf? http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com Blog http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com/blog/ You can contact us at: editor@clarylopez.com Subject: eZine *************************************************** How to Price Your Book *************************************************** By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dan_Poynter]Dan Poynter There is no formula for setting a price on a book-but there is a system. Book pricing depends more upon genre or category than on production costs. You must look at price from the bottom up and from the top down. Bottom up The Traditional Method (8x) Bottom up: You must price your book at least eight times (8x) the printing and trucking-in costs. This is your delivered production cost. Do not include the prepress (design, typesetting and layout) costs in your calculation. These are one-time charges that should be written off. In days past, we used to mark-up both prepress and production costs 8x, but those costs have been considerably reduced because of the computer-publishers can set their own type now, cutting down on some of the prepress expenses. Besides, your book will be around a long time; you will be able to spread those costs over many printings. Neither the customer nor the retailer knows or cares what it costs to print the book. They only know what it is worth to them. -Roger Pond Why eight times? Because of distribution and promotion costs. If you charge less than the 8x mark-up, you won't have enough money to promote the book. Distributors (66%), wholesalers (50-55%) and stores (40%) have to be paid for delivering your book to the reader-buyer. Each takes a hefty cut of the list price. Promotion is also expensive, and it is normal to invest 20 to 30% of the gross back into the process of selling your book. Depending upon the subject matter and the size of the potential audience, we often send out more than 500 review copies to appropriate magazines, newsletters, newspaper columns and opinion molders. Reviews are the most effective and least expensive promotion you can do for your book. Review copies are inexpensive promotion but they are books not sold. Top Down The Additional Method Top down: The price you put on your back cover, embed in your bar code, put on the order blank on the last page of your book and list in all your promotion should be as much as the market will bear. Visit a bookstore and check out the prices of other books like yours. Retail price is established by the marketplace not by the cost of production. -Jerrold Jenkins, The Jenkins Group. Yes I know your book has "no competition"; all authors think their book is unique. Buyers do have a choice. And don't fall into the trap of thinking your book is for everyone. For instance, I publish books on skydiving. I would like everyone to jump out of a plane-to have fun, to sky dive safely and to come back, make more jumps, join the club, buy equipment and (hopefully) buy more books. But, I am realistic. I know skydiving is not for everyone. (I am not sure why because gravity makes falling easy). Just because you spent the last year pouring your heart, soul and credit limit into your tome, that does not mean everyone is interested enough to buy it and read it. Now, that said, realistically determine the profile of the potential purchaser for your book. Visit a bookstore and look for other books on your subject that would be purchased by the same type of person. Also look at the formats of those books: shape, color of paper, and types of binding. You want to find what your potential buyer is willing to spend. If you are selling to teenagers, your price will have to be low and soft cover. If yours is a business book, $34.95 and hardcover with a dust jacket may be right. If this is a professional book aimed at doctors, lawyers or accountants, a hardcover book without a jacket at $90 would not be out of line. Please do not call and ask me how much you can charge for your book. For books on book promotion (such as The Self-Publishing Manual) and for books on parachutes (such as The Parachute Manual), I can make an educated guess. I do not know your field or your customers. I would have to visit a bookstore and check the shelves. You must do the same. Prices should be based upon market factors first. What is the customer willing to pay for this product? -Roger Pond If you poll bookstore managers on pricing, remember that lower prices will sell more books, so they will often advise a lower price. You do not have any control over the top-down price. Your cover price must be right in the middle of those sitting nearby on the shelf. Customers will compare. If the cover price is too high, you will price your book out of the market and it won't sell. If it is too low, the book will not be credible and potential buyers will think there is something wrong with it. You also won't make enough to invest in further promotion. Often, you will be surprised what people will pay for your book. There are many examples of people who raised the prices of their books and actually ended up selling more. But, in these cases the buyer was somehow convinced of the value and benefit of the book. Compare. Hopefully, your bottom-up price (8X) positions lower than your top-down price. If there is an overlap, you will have to reformulate the design of your book. In other words, cut back the size, leave out color photographs or use less-expensive materials. Pricing your book is not hard. Calculate your costs and visit a bookstore. Do your homework. InfoKits. Detailed information on book writing, production and promotion. http://parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/infokit.cfm Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Poynter http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Price-Your-Book&id=846307 *************************************************** Uselful Resources *************************************************** Bookhomestead.com – Book Lovers Community. Have your book reviewed by readers http://bookhomestead.com Resources for Writers at Guerrilla Marketer’s Caf? http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com/tactics.html Odeo.com - Add Audio to your Website CreateSpace – Create and Sell Books, Music and Video http://www.createspace.com/Index.jsp Lulu.com – Self-Publish your book, ebook, CD, Video, Picture Book, Calendar and more the easy way http://www.lulu.com Picasa – Great photo sharing site to integrate in sites and blogs. http://picasa.google.com/ ************************************************** Virtual Book Tours - A New Promotional Tool For Authors ************************************************** By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Chaze]Theresa Chaze Virtual Book Tours are the newest marketing opportunity for authors. With traditionally book tours, authors travel from town to town doing book signings and doing interviews to publicize their books. Although the process is very effective, it also involves great expense, travel and time. Virtual book tours essentially do the same; however, instead of the authors physically traveling to bookstores, the interviews and book readings are conducted electronically through posting on blogs and IM conversations. Although a Virtual Book Tour doesn't have the same personal touch at the traditional tour, it can be more informative and effective. From the comfort of their homes, readers can learn more about new writers and their work. By reading the interviews on the blogs, the readers not only learn more about the author's work, but about her or his private lives. Interviews are conducted by many bloggers, each of which will give a fresh perspective on the author as a person and on the work. By following the tour, the reader will be able to get to know the author on a more personal level as well as be able to read excerpts of the book. The internet also allows the readers to meet the authors electronically through IM messaging, conferencing and chat rooms. Many of the IM services have both audio and video features, which personalized the experience more. No longer just words on the screen, the authors can become three dimensional people who can answer questions about themselves and their work in real time. Chat rooms and conference room have the advantage over the one to one IM messaging by allowing the readers to share in on both the questions and answers. By coming together in a room, the author's answers are shared with all in the room instead of just the individual. For the readers, it gives them the opportunity to receive answers to questions they may not have thought of or were afraid to ask. For the authors, it has the advantages of being able to reach a more diverse audience quicker and more conveniently. No longer do authors have to pack up and travel from town to town to gain the attention of their target audience. The internet has also made reaching new audiences and reconnecting with existing ones, easier and quicker. No longer bound by time and space, authors can not only make direct contact with their target market, but also expand their readership into the general audience. The proper use of key words in the blog will make the interviews more accessible by search engines. The diversification of the type of blogs involved in the tour will help the author reach a varied audience that might not have be otherwise open to the author's work. Virtual book tours also benefit the bloggers involved by bringing more traffic to their site. As part of the promotional process, the coordinator also promotes the hosting blog thereby temporarily giving the blog additional attention. By hosting a stop on a tour, the blogger also promotes their own message, while helping another. It is a win-win situation for all involved. Dorothy Thompson is one to the premier Virtual Book Tour co-coordinators. Her promotional website Pump Up Your Book Promotion and her book promotion blog at Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion has helped many authors successful promote their books. In January, she will be hosting a Virtual Book Tour for Kathleen Willey's book Target: Caught In The Crosshairs Of Bill And Hillary Clinton. Currently it is ranked 79# at Amazon. She has also hosted many other authors both in the US and in Canada. Her success rate has surpassed most of the other tour coordinators. In addition, she is the author of the self-promoting e-book, The Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook. Her success rate has made her tours a valuable promotional asset to the authors she has represented. Theresa Chaze is a Wiccan Prieste and Ordained Minister. She has be describes as a woman who has the courage to play with dragons. To learn more about Wiccan, her novels, and Ms Chaze, go to her website at http://www.theresachaze.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theresa_Chaze http://EzineArticles.com/?Virtual-Book-Tours---A-New-Promotional-Tool-For-Authors&id=848318 ************************************************** Visit our Blogs: Guerrilla Insight for Authors http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com/blog The Book's Den http://booksden.wordpress.com ************************************************** The Ultimate Book Launch Party ************************************************** by Clary Lopez There is no doubt that the day when you finally hold your book on your hands is one of the happiest days in a writer’s life. After so many months -if not years- of writing, revising, editing, submitting and finally publishing you can see and touch your “baby.” This occasion calls for a big celebration and what better way to send this book off unto the reader’s hands than with a “Book Launch Party.” One of the main considerations for this party is that you probably thought of it way back when you were planning to write the book. The book marketing plan must be prepared before the book itself in order to ensure success. Considering the topic and audience of the book determines the party’s theme along with all the activities. The best days to do a Book Launch Party are either Friday or Saturday, in order to get the most attendance. The time of day has a lot to do with the theme; it could easily be a picnic at the beach as a wine and cheese or masquerade during the evening. Here are the key ingredients on The Ultimate Book Launch Party: • Theme: Select a theme directly related to your book’s topic. Fiction books are excellent in this regard. • Invitations: Create one-of-a-kind invitation for the launch. You can get an inexpensive software program and design and print your own invitations. Request to RSVP. • News & Media: Don’t forget to prepare a news release to mark the event and forward it to your local newspaper at least four to six weeks in advance. Don’t forget to send a personal invitation to your local news person. • Party Register: Have everyone register on your party register and include their e-mail and mailing address. Tell them they’ll be the first to know about your next book sale, book release, contests and giveaways. • Game or Contest: Create a game or contest around your book. • Food & Drinks: Have something simple to offer your guests on elegant serving plates. • Reading: Read portions of your books or better yet, have some of your guests read a short portion of it. If anyone assisting has read your book ask them to tell the others about it. Nothing sells more than a satisfied reader. • Pictures: Take plenty of pictures with your guests while the party is going on. You might want to give the camera to one of them to take pictures as you visit with everyone there. The pictures will be great for promotional materials, websites and blogs. Note: You might want to have a release form ready for all the attendants to sign in reference to authorization to post their pictures online or any printed materials without compensation. • Sell: Offer special discounts to your guests who buy 2 or more signed copies of your book. Have bookmarks, flyers and mail order forms for everyone and the ones who don’t buy, they can take it home and order later. For those who don’t buy on the spot you might want to offer them the same special discount if they order in the next 48 hours. • Follow Up: Send the guests a thank you note for coming and include 2-3 business cards with a small discount offer for your book on the back for them to give to family or friends. Make sure your discount has an expiration date in order to keep the book sales going on a regular basis. That’s it. Easy, fun and profitable! Let your imagination roll and create The Ultimate Book Launch Party for you and your friends. Clary Lopez is the CEO/Founder of Guerrilla Marketers Caf?, Free Book Promotion site and BookHomestead.com, Book Lover’s Community Site. She is an author, moderator and publicist. You can contact her at guerrilla@clarylopez.com or join her on her sites http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com and her official author site http://clarylopez.com **************************************************** Letter to the Editor *************************************************** Write to us about what you would like to read about, so send us your comments and suggestions to be included on this section. editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Letter to the Editor Do you have an idea for a topic on this eZine? Send it to editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Ezine idea *************************************************** Articles Submission *************************************************** If you would like to write an article for this Ezine please send your request to: editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Article Submission *************************************************** BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine Copyright 2006, 2007 Clary Lopez All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Clary Lopez will not be held liable for any direct or indirect losses or damages originating from the use of any information listed on our website, newsletters or eZine. By using this site and ezine you agree to indemnify and hold all owners and representatives parties of Clary Lopez/Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe harmless from any claim or demand originating out of your use of Clary Lopez/Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe website and/ newsletters or eZine. Use of our website, Newsletter and eZine is and indication of your complete understanding and acceptance of these Terms of Service. Articles can be reproduced on websites or ezines as long as the article and bylines are included without any alterations. No part of the website can't be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage or retrieval systems without the written permission from the publisher/owner. |
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