Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Build Your Business Write teleclass

I've been invited to join Suzanne Lieurance on her weekly teleclass Build Your Business Write this Wednesday night, Feb. 25th at 7pm CT. I'll be answering questions about technical issues you face when trying to establish an online presence for yourself and your business.

Join us for this informative teleclass Wednesday night and don’t forget to submit a question you would like to have answered during the call.

Once you register, you’ll receive an email invitation to this event.

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

They're Here

Just the FAQs eBooks are now available to the public. You can even take a look inside each one. And, you can download the Quick Step Guide right now for free.

Special discounts are being offered on bundle packages to help you with all aspects of establishing an online presence to market your product.

Visit the site now at http://www.JustTheFAQs.net and see how easy these books are to use.

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Filling the Void As the Old Book World Crumbles

In his recent editorial, Why Book Reviews Matter, Max Fisher comments on the rumors of doom concerning the Washington Post's weekly stand-alone featuring news and reviews of all things literary. (The editorial can be found here.) Even though the rumors are currently being denied, it is more evidence of the struggle all print media is facing, which is declining sales due to the availability of free content on the Web.

This trend follows in the wake of the rise in Print-on-Demand (POD) publishing that is forcing traditional publishers to completely rethink their business model. The days of filling warehouses with offset print books that are delivered to brick-and-mortar bookstores are quickly fading. A full 55% of all books are sold online, not in stores.

While POD publishing may be a nightmare for traditional publishing houses, it’s a dream come true for many authors. By utilizing one-stop-shopping vendors such as Lightning Source to provide editing, design, layout, and printing, and then posting their products directly on Amazon and other online retail outlets, many authors are by-passing traditional publishers altogether. However, vanity publishing still carries a bit of a stigma in both the literary business world and among readers. Self-published books are not considered to be as high a quality as those selected for print by traditional publishers.

Another emerging trend is being forged by small, independent publishers who are more author-friendly in terms of royalties and contract lengths and who still offer many of the perks of traditional publishers. In some cases, the layout and design fees are paid by the author. Publishing in this manner seems to be gaining in popularity as a “middle way” between vanity publishing and what is now being called “old-world” publishing.

Is the reorganization of traditional publishing house methods, the disappearing of print media and the rise of POD self-publishing brewing into a perfect storm that will result in the demise of quality standards? Only a select few traditional publishers and print media are considered as guardians of high standards. Getting your book reviewed in the NY Times is truly a feather in your cap.

Today, book marketing gurus claim that being the recipient of a book award could mean the difference in helping a librarian decide whether or not to buy your book. Writers who win such prizes market themselves as an “award-winning author.” Few readers check to see which award has been bestowed. The unfortunate truth is, there are so many awards offered to today’s authors that, given enough money and time, winning an award is not as difficult as it once was. And, very few of these awards are credentialed in such a way that it is any boon to the author to extensively advertise the name.

Anyone who has ever marketed anything knows that endorsements and reviews count. The higher the profile of the endorser, the better. As the old ways of book publishing and marketing continue to give way to the digital revolution, who will hold the new standards for deciding what’s worth reading? What will fill the void when the old ways are gone? Will we be even further subjected to the rising din of noise created by the masses when more people are shouting about their product while fewer are listening to accredited sources? Time will tell.

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Sending Review Copies Soon

The final layout copies of Just the FAQs eBooks are coming in! They look great - filled with lots of color and easy-to-follow instructions.

Advance copies are being sent to select marketing gurus who will be collaborating with Just the FAQs to help you with all of your online marketing needs. Look for announcements of upcoming teleclasses where you'll be able to get answers to questions on blogs, feeds, Web sites, and article marketing to take your book to the next level.

Just the FAQs eBooks include the latest changes to Feedburner by Google. The Blogs and RSS Feeds eBooks eliminate the learning curve and take you step-by-step through each process to get your online presence up and running. The Web Sites eBook fully prepares you to be a site owner and contains three printable worksheets to help you create a site that really works for you and gets you noticed. The Articles eBook helps you get setup with all the major article directories and has multiple tips and tricks for running a smooth article campaign that gets results.

Subscribe to the RSS feed by email or in a reader to be the first to know when Just the FAQs eBooks become available on February 9th.

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