i was writing "winning at internet poker for dummies" for wiley and my agent recommended this book when i asked what i could do to help promote my title ... so i'm coming from a sort-of weird angle; monster publishing house with an established name, new author trying to figure out how to sell more books.
"1001 ways ..." is written, at its heart, for publishers, and *especially* self-publishers. as others have mentioned here, it's a tad less valuable for authors.
the good news is it's jammed full of ideas, tricks, tips and techniques ... and at 700 pages, there are a ton of them ... something in here will help you, i guarantee it.
the bad news is that a larger-than-you-would-expect amount of information is conflicting (e.g. "start at the top when trying to get reviews on your books, one review at the top offsets thousands at the bottom," ... several pages later, "you need to start at the bottom of the media chain for reviews, you're most likely to get success there." "send all your review copies by overnight express" then later, "don't bother with expressing your drafts, it's a waste of money."), some strange (e.g. "do a book signing in a donut shop") and, as with any book of size, a lot that's just not applicable to you ...
worse, there isn't an overlying set of plans ... nothing that says, "if you're this kind of publisher, read this and this, but ignore that," "if you're an author doing how-to books, ignore anything we mention about this," "if you have a budget of this much, you should focus only on these things."
so the combo of a nearly infinite amount of information, crossed with no overlying skeletal plan, can make the book tedious and time consuming. reading it reminds me of eating dinner with a really smart friend -- you ask her a question, and then just listen to her go on and on and on with no apparent purpose; or even memory of what she's just said.
then too, i ordered a brand new copy from amazon and it's copywritten 1998. that's a bit too old, especially if you need contact names.
the good news is that mr. kremer keeps an update on his web pages. the bad news is it means you have to sit with a book by your computer as you go back and forth to do anything fairly serious (and worse, you [are recommended] more of mr. kremer's services whilst you're on the site).
so should you get it? sure. but be prepared to spend time and you've *got* to put your thinking cap on and think about you. narrow your focus, narrow your plan, pick and choose to suit your style (he says this in the book, later he says, "don't be afraid to try multiple different ideas." argh.)
if you don't have a lot of time. if you don't have a lot of energy. and especially if you think you've found another book that is more applicable to your specific situation, buy that instead. it'll save you the aggravation.
thanks for reading.
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