Marketing Archives - Page 6 of 16

2 December, 2014

The A-Myth

By Support@wheatmark.com|2023-06-09T11:15:23-07:00December 2, 2014|Marketing, Publishing, Resources, Writing|Comments Off on The A-Myth

Wheatmark’s Sam Henrie wrote in a previous post about The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, one of the most important business books I’ve read, which helped me look at business in a completely different way.

Working on the business is quite different than working in the business. Just because you love cooking and everybody says you should open a restaurant doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Being a great chef at your own restaurant might still mean doing a terrible job running the business and hating it. Michael E. Gerber talks about how business owners ought to view themselves not as technicians (chefs, dance instructors, editors, widget makers) but as marketers and savvy businesspeople. He exhorts entrepreneurs to become experts at making the business of their trade work better instead of getting caught in the daily whirlwind of working in the business. The e-myth is simply […]

21 November, 2014

Did you hear what I heard?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:15:53-07:00November 21, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on Did you hear what I heard?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Wednesday’s Authors Academy call was one of our best ever!

Jim Best totally blew me away with his insight and his experience marketing his books.

Jim’s sold 70,000 copies to date… so he knows of what he speaks.

His closing thought was that first and foremost, your book has to be good.

Otherwise, you can’t get the power of word-of-mouth marketing working for you.

Jim’s books happen to be great—and they make great gifts!

You can check out his entire catalog here.

I recommend starting with The Shopkeeper—it’s lots of fun.

Meanwhile, you can definitely file the interview under “can’t-miss.”

But only Authors Academy members have access to the recording of this call to review on-demand.

If you’re not a member, give yourself a much-deserved early holiday gift by clicking here.

If you’re at all serious about selling copies of your book, you’d be just plain nuts to […]

14 November, 2014

How to Sell 1,000 Books during the Holiday Season

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:16:01-07:00November 14, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on How to Sell 1,000 Books during the Holiday Season

How would you like to sell 1,000 copies of your book during the upcoming holiday season?

I know I would!

Next week in the Authors Academy I’ll be interviewing James D. Best, author of the Steve Dancy series of westerns including his latest, Jenny’s Revenge, scheduled for release in February.

Jim’s sold more than 70,000 copies of his books to date, which includes a few one-off titles in addition to his extremely popular westerns.

Jim published the first Steve Dancy tale, The Shopkeeper, back in 2007.

He was a complete unknown at the time, having published only one book previously. The Shopkeeper was his first work of fiction.

His book sold reasonably well at launch, but his initial sales tapered off after a bit—he’d reached the end of his existing platform.

Most authors give up at that point, figuring they’ve sold as many as they’re going to.

Not Jim. He went to work, and by the following Christmas, […]

12 November, 2014

It’s the end of the bookselling world as we know it

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:16:08-07:00November 12, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on It’s the end of the bookselling world as we know it

… and I feel fine!

This article (sent to me by client and friend Byron Thompson) predicts the demise of publishers at the hands of retailers like Amazon and Apple.

Meanwhile, this article predicts the decline of—you guessed it—retailers like Amazon and Apple, at least when it comes to selling books and other media like music.

These types of articles sometimes make us wring our hands and fret: what, oh what, are we to do?

How will we ever survive without NY publishers… or even worse, without retailers like the mighty Amazon and the amazing Apple?

I think there’s nothing to worry about, and let me tell you a story that illustrates my thinking why:

Back when I was in middle school, I loved reading Michael Crichton sci-fi thrillers like Congo, The Andromeda Strain, and Sphere.

This was around the time when the first Jurassic Park movie came out.

One time, I remember being so wrapped […]

10 November, 2014

What has Tom Hanks got that you don’t?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:16:16-07:00November 10, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing, Publishing, Social Media|Comments Off on What has Tom Hanks got that you don’t?

I came across this article this weekend.

It’s about how Tom Hanks got his first piece of short fiction published… in The New Yorker.

Now, in case you aren’t already aware of this, getting a short story published in The New Yorker is pretty much the ultimate accomplishment for a writer.

Many authors submit stories for months, or years, or even decades… and never get their work published.

But not Tom Hanks. Did I mention that this was his first published short story?

What exactly has Tom Hanks got that you don’t?

“Duh, Grael,” you’re probably saying to yourself. “He’s Tom Hanks!”

My point exactly.

Tom Hanks is a famous actor, so he’s able to get his fiction published by The New Yorker his first time out.

What this phenomenon refers to is the idea of “platform,” which Tom Hanks most certainly has.

The New Yorker knows that publishing Tom Hanks’ fiction will help sell magazines.

They know people will […]

7 November, 2014

Is the book dead?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:16:22-07:00November 7, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing, News|Comments Off on Is the book dead?

My friend and client at Wheatmark Frank Babb recently sent me the link to this thought-provoking essay in The Economist.

As the article notes, people have been predicting the death of the book—and even the death of reading itself—for more than a decade.

I’m not so sure about that, but one thing is certain: there are more books being published now than ever before!

According to Bowker, around 8,100 ISBNs were issued in 1960… compared to around 1.4 million in 2013!

That’s a lot of books—and that doesn’t even include all the self-published books that the author didn’t get an ISBN for.

Suffice it to say that the competition for readers is fiercer than ever!

That’s why it’s so important to invest in training programs like the Authors Academy and attend live, in-person events whenever you can.

Knowledge (and it’s application) is your greatest asset as an author.

I’ll be presenting on Choosing a Publishing Service […]

12 October, 2014

A social media site that costs nine thousand dollars to join?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:16:58-07:00October 12, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing, Social Media|Comments Off on A social media site that costs nine thousand dollars to join?

A social media site for the 1%? No, this isn’t a joke. It’s real!

You can check out the article about it here.

I didn’t link to this article just to shock you, or to piss you off.

(Though if you’re signing up for the site as others are reading this, I tip my hat to you, Richie Rich!)

I linked to this article to remind you of the incredible power of targeted marketing.

This is marketing that is targeted at a particular audience—not just “everybody.”

“My book is for everybody,” authors say to me.

No, it’s not.

Every book has an ideal target audience, an “avatar reader.”

This is the kind of person who would buy your book based on the title alone.

For example: The Rich Person’s Guide to Social Media—How to Keep the 99% from Cluttering Up Your Online Feeds

Or: The Thrifty Buyer’s Guide to Coupon Clipping—Save an Average of $20 Every Time You Visit the […]

25 September, 2014

Can a book change your life for the worse?

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:17:13-07:00September 25, 2014|Marketing, Publishing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Can a book change your life for the worse?

Last week we discussed life-changing books.

For most people, that means “life-changing for the better.”

But is it possible for a book to change your life for the worse?

This article from the Sunday Book Review in The New York Times considers the question.

For my part, I love the idea that a book can be a bad influence—just like it can be a good influence.

I also happen to believe that it’s true!

But that’s not what this article got me thinking about, which is the subject of influence itself.

Books are perhaps the most influential media out there.

They can convince people to dress up like characters on Halloween (and on other days, too.)

They can convince people to make major lifestyle changes, like changing their diets or beginning an exercise program.

They can convince people to drop everything and go on a spiritual quest.

They can even start wars.

There’s just one problem: most of the time, you […]

16 September, 2014

“Never have so many said so little to so few”

By Grael Norton|2023-06-09T11:17:31-07:00September 16, 2014|Authors Academy, Marketing|Comments Off on “Never have so many said so little to so few”

A lot of people would have you believe that blogging is passé, or even dead. They think if you’re not on the “bleeding edge” of technology, you’re wasting your time.

“Never have so many said so little to so few,” they say. And they have a point: many, many people’s blogs are read by their family and close friends only.

Is blogging dead? No, but writing a boring blog is!

You may have noticed that we’ve been playing with a new format here at Wheatmark for the last couple of days.

That’s because I just attended a GKIC Fast Implementation Bootcamp in Tempe last week.

Dave Dee, one of my mentors, taught a course on email marketing that was just incredible… but when I got home and reviewed my notes, I realized I’d already learned these exact same techniques… four years ago!

I just hadn’t bothered to implement what I’d learned.

The moral of the story? You’ve […]

12 August, 2014

Don’t Sweat Those One-Star Reviews

By Sam Henrie|2023-06-09T11:17:54-07:00August 12, 2014|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on Don’t Sweat Those One-Star Reviews

I read Light in August by William Faulkner when I was in high school and remember not being able to put it down. It was unlike anything I had read before. The story was so dark. All of the characters led such bleak alienated lives in the unforgiving society of the rural deep South in the 1930s. Faulkner opened a window for me onto a place, time, and people that I was unfamiliar with, and I couldn’t look away. The disorganized narrative style was also new and interesting to me—like some new kind of atonal music.

Out of curiosity I went to Goodreads to see what current readers thought of the book. I was surprised to find 662 one-star reviews, with 7% of readers giving the book one or two stars. This for a book that is always included in any list of the best novels of the […]