Sam Henrie

31 July, 2014

Perfectionism, Writer’s Block, and Marketer’s Block

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:18:21-07:00July 31, 2014|Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Perfectionism, Writer’s Block, and Marketer’s Block

Nearly every month I’m late turning in this article for our Marketing Letter and this Publishing Success Blog, to the great frustration of my staff. Why am I late? The old saw comes to mind: “Perfectionism, Procrastination, Paralysis.” My article needs to be perfect because it will be sent to the most important audience I have: you. Because I want it to be perfect, I procrastinate, sometimes to the point of paralysis. And so the article gets turned in late. Many of you have had writer’s block, and will attribute it to the same root cause: perfectionism.

Not so fast! A few months ago I heard a radio program whose topic was whether perfectionists do, in fact, procrastinate more than other people. Two researchers from major universities who studied this subject were interviewed. (My apologies for the missing citation, but I don’t remember the names of the researchers, and couldn’t find […]

30 June, 2014

It’s time to sell your book!

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:18:55-07:00June 30, 2014|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on It’s time to sell your book!

Once a book is published, the first time author may think the job is done. Unfortunately, there is still a lot more to do!

It’s time to switch from your author hat to your marketing one!

You may have heard that the best time to begin marketing your book is day one. Building a following does take time. But it doesn’t mean that it is too late to start marketing at any point in the publishing process. In fact, you can market a book that is years old and still find success if you apply yourself with enthusiasm and hard work.

This article is about creating the right mindset for selling your book. If you love meeting people, talking to crowds and have no problem with meeting strangers, you may think that selling your book will be easier than someone who would rather stay in the background. Surprisingly, though, with all the many […]

30 May, 2014

Want 15% of $26,000,000?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:20:20-07:00May 30, 2014|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on Want 15% of $26,000,000?

We’ve all received advance-fee fraud emails claiming that if we just allow the deposed King of Tannu Tuva to deposit $26,000,000 into one of our bank accounts temporarily, we’ll be able to keep 15%. At some later point we’ll be asked to lend $5,000 (the advance fee) very temporarily to allow the transaction to go forward. Ever wonder why the fraudsters don’t make these emails more believable? Why they claim to be from Nigeria when most people (correctly or incorrectly) believe that Nigeria’s the source of most scam emails? Why they don’t tell less farcical stories about why they need our help? Why they offer such absurdly large amounts of money for otherwise readily available, inexpensive banking services?

Because they only want to get responses from the very gullible. They want the somewhat gullible to weed themselves out, so the scammers don’t have to waste months in email and phone conversations […]

31 March, 2014

5 great places to give a book reading

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:20:58-07:00March 31, 2014|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on 5 great places to give a book reading

Today when most people think of book marketing the first thing that comes to mind is social media — building a mailing list and getting likes on Facebook and tweets on Twitter. But surprisingly, the old fashioned methods of connecting face to face with live book events are as important as ever.

In fact, the connections made in person are stronger in many cases and can make a deeper, lasting impression. Shaking hands with a person, making eye contact and sharing a few minutes of conversation will create a more memorable bond than online connecting.

Definitely, it takes a bit more effort, and for the introverts among us, it may seem like a stretch out of the comfort zone. However, in many ways, meeting people in person can be a lot of fun and provide valuable feedback and encouragement that is limited when sharing 140 characters on Twitter or a three sentence […]

21 January, 2014

Building your 100 book marketing gold list

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:21:56-07:00January 21, 2014|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Building your 100 book marketing gold list

If you are looking for a magic bullet to speed your book to greater selling success, creating a 100 gold contact list might be just the ammunition you need.

A gold contact list is simply a list of 100 people that would help you to sell more books. This concept comes from John Kremer of Bookmarket.com. Kremer explains that building a list of 100 key media and book marketing contacts will help you to focus your relationship building efforts where they will have the most punch.

The first thing you have to realize when you build your list is that you don’t have to already know and have a relationship with these people. Come up with a list of people in the field that you want to know and then try to build a relationship with each one.

This will take some time. It will mean finding out where this […]

12 December, 2013

Christmas Publicity – Don’t knock it!

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:23:12-07:00December 12, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Christmas Publicity – Don’t knock it!

You may think it’s not ethical to do something “nice” and make money off of it at the same time. But if you had a choice between creating publicity through a nice project and simply creating some publicity, you’d probably choose the nice project every time.

The news is full of media darlings doing anything possible to get a little camera coverage. Instead of yelling and getting drunk or married or divorced in order to get attention, how about doing something nice?

WestJet Airlines created a bit of Christmas cheer with its latest publicity video. The airline asked 100 people on two different flights what they wanted for Christmas as they boarded the plane. Then the WestJet “elves” went into action to buy and wrap the gifts and fliers received them at baggage claim when they landed. The whole video is about six minutes, which is long for an […]

23 November, 2013

Setting the proper price point for your book

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:23:19-07:00November 23, 2013|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on Setting the proper price point for your book

As an author, you want to receive a fair price for your book. You’ve put in hours of hard work to get to the publication stage, and now that the book is ready, you must figure out the best price point for selling.

There is no hard and fast rule, but a good starting point is to research the prices of similar books on Amazon and in bookstores. Overpricing your book can be disastrous, but underpricing has its downfalls as well. Oftentimes publishers will put a printed price on the book cover, knowing that they plan to offer a discount for most of its selling history.

If you want your book to be sold in bookstores, pricing it too low may discourage bookstores from stocking it. Bookstores are interested in making a profit and if that profit is in pennies and nickels, then they are not going to bother with ordering your […]

4 November, 2013

Can’t figure out social media and don’t want to? Sell books the old-fashioned way

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:24:30-07:00November 4, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Can’t figure out social media and don’t want to? Sell books the old-fashioned way

It may seem like the only way to sell a lot of books is to use social media. There is texting, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a thousand other social programs with a new one launching every week. Should you use each one or select just one? Or, is it possible to sell books the old-fashioned way with simple word of mouth?

Granted social media is an integral part of communication today, I am here to say there is still a place for word-of-mouth communication. Calling someone on the phone and sharing about your book may seem like an ancient process used by authors who lived in the pre-digital era, but a one-on-one conversation can still have some amazing results.

There is something to be said for a conversation between two people that is not immediately broadcast around the globe.There is something valuable in a conversation that goes no further than the moment […]

15 October, 2013

Too much competition for your book?

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:25:06-07:00October 15, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Too much competition for your book?

It used to be quite easy for someone to start a small business in a small town and make a success of it. Granted there weren’t ten million customers available for whatever they did, but there was a small group of people that were available and these people would stop by and give the new shop a try. Or at least take a peek in the window. After all, there wasn’t that much going on in the small town and you were something to look at.

Today with the Internet, every business is toted to be available to a millions of people all at once.

It’s true. It’s amazing. Millions of people.

But there’s a catch!

Just because your online business is available to millions of people doesn’t mean millions of people are going to take a look.

In fact, maybe none of them will.

There’s nothing wrong with your business perhaps, but your business itself […]

30 September, 2013

Why you should create small realistic book marketing goals

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:26:27-07:00September 30, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Why you should create small realistic book marketing goals

Every author would like to sell a million copies.

More authors can achieve this goal if they go about it with a realistic plan.

For instance, while you may not sell a million copies in a week or a year, there is a much stronger possibility that you might sell that many books over a longer period of time.

It’s better to make a reasonable goal that you meet and then, once it is achieved, set the bar higher for the next round. Make the first goal easy and doable. Success builds upon success. With each achieved goal you will have the knowledge and expertise, contacts and methods for raising your next level of book selling.

The first goal should be small because you will be putting in a lot of the ground work for future sales. That ground work will take more time and have a deeper learning curve as you get started. […]

Sam Henrie

About Sam Henrie