Sam Henrie

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. […]

15 July, 2013

The most important factor in becoming a successful author

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:27:42-07:00July 15, 2013|Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on The most important factor in becoming a successful author

Simply getting started might be the most important factor in becoming a great author. I list it as a good second.

The numbers of people who dream about becoming an author but actually never do anything to make that dream come true is probably in the millions. So, I don’t want to neglect the point that to succeed you must first start, but that’s not what’s going to set you apart from the hundreds of thousands of people who do actually set pen to paper and write a few chapters.

The number one factor in becoming successful in writing is persistence.

The best talent in the world is of little value if one doesn’t use it.

The best teachers and instructors in the world can do little for someone who throws down the pen or the tablet and gives up when the going gets tough.

Persistence is a virtue that gets little limelight in most […]

13 July, 2013

How to market your memoir

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:27:51-07:00July 13, 2013|Marketing, Resources, Social Media, Writing|Comments Off on How to market your memoir

Marketing a memoir is quite different from marketing fiction or even most nonfiction books.

With a memoir, you will need a platform built around you or the topic that you write your memoir about. It’s all about you. Your reader must fall in love with you. Not the character in a novel or a unique business idea in your self-help book, but lovable, likeable, plain old you.

It is imperative that you are accessible to your reader. Since the power of a memoir is that you are giving an inside look at the inner workings of your life, you must put yourself in the public eye enough that they will want to know more.

Blogging is easily the memoir writer’s best platform tool. With a blog, you build the bridge between your daily writing and your life story. As your posts reveal what is happening with you today you automatically encourage interest about […]

28 June, 2013

Rewriting your book after the first draft

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:28:04-07:00June 28, 2013|Resources, Writing|Comments Off on Rewriting your book after the first draft

Once you have a first draft of your book, it’s time to rewrite it.

Plan to rewrite at least four times before submitting your book to an editor.

The first rewrite will be the deepest and cruelest but also the most necessary one. This is called a structural rewrite. Look at the big picture of the book and ask some serious questions:

What scenes are to stay and which ones are to be deleted?

Are the characters staying true to form throughout the story?

Are they believable, likable, and lovable?

Do the good people have any weaknesses and do the downright nasty, bad folks have any redeemable features?

Does the book flow well? Does it get bogged down in description or in dialogue?

Does the tension build too fast? Too slow?

Are the characters described in one massive word dump or are they gradually introduced through scenes, actions, conversations, and body language?

Step away from your book as the author […]

Sam Henrie

About Sam Henrie