Customer Reviews

Book Marketing from A to Z

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you were to sit and talk with any writer whose work is having success, and ask them what the main element is that has made this a reality, they would tell you one word, promotion.
As a reviewer, I have read countless books that literally brim over the top with talent and craftsmanship of writing that will never be read by a hungry audience. Why? Because none knows about these rare treasures that would fill them with total ecstasy and pure reading enjoyment. When I am asked, who is your favorite author; I always say, the unknown. It is a sad truth, but there is hope at the end of the tunnel, Book Marketing from A-Z, may indeed give any author a fighting chance in the competitive world of publishing.

What will you find inside the pages of this excellent work? The heart of your fellow authors, reviewers, and others that will share with you their trials, tribulations, failures and successes in book promoting. Written in a clear concise way; this work is easy to navigate, not filled with fluff, but with honest ideas to help you achieve your goals.
Authors from every genre are represented, countless stories and valuable tips literally fill each page with their carefully constructed ideas and plans that have helped to bring them in contact with the reading public. Find out the true answers to questions such as; Just how well do contests do to draw potential buyers? Are reviews really that important? Does having a book signing really make a difference? If you have an unanswered question about promoting, this book will give you the answer.

As one who hears the heart-cry of countless unknown authors, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This work will be a Godsend to you; an author's Bible that you will refer to time and time again; one that will help join you with the reader that is awaiting your hidden treasure.
Shirley Johnson
Senior Reviewer
MidWest Book Review

If you've written a book, you probably know by now that you're only half done - next you have to market it. But before you spend thousands of dollars on a marketing campaign, invest about twenty bucks and get this book! It's a great place to start for one key reason - over 300 published authors share nuggets of wisdom. This isn't just theoretical stuff. What you'll find here comes directly from experience.

Chapters are arranged in alphabetical order; the no-nonsense, get-to-the-point categories include Book Signings, Internet, Pitching the Media, and Snowball Effect. Here's one of my favorite lines in the book: "I've found that book promotion, like life, is a series of lovely little chain reactions." So very true. One contact leads to another. One creative marketing idea spawns another, and pretty soon you're making books sales today from action you took months ago. Jump-start this process by reading "Book Marketing From A-Z." You don't even have to read it in order, or in its entirety, to start benefiting from its content.

Whether you've just released your first book or you've completed your fifteenth, "Book Marketing From A-Z" gives you good advice from fiction and nonfiction authors of many different genres who've been there, done that.

-- Graciela Sholander, http://dreamitdoit.net

Right off, you should know that I contributed to this book. Now you know that, you may also want to know that this fact should not reflect poorly on the credibility of this review, partially because I WAS involved with it from the very beginning.

BOOK MARKETING FROM A TO Z evolved from a fine newsletter that Francine Silverman publishes. It is a place where authors share their promotion ideas in an effort to help one another. Francine assembled the best of these and that makes it a book of practical--and heartfelt--ideas. I am proud to be a part of it and feel it will make a fine companion volume to my THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER, also available on Amazon.
------------
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of USA Book News "Best Professional Book 2004," THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T.

Book promotion and marketing are two very important elements for the survival of any writer's book. A lot of time and work is needed to set up a promotional package and a marketing plan. Although Francine Silverman's Book Marketing from A-Z does not go into depth in each outlined promotion, the ideas and resources offered from more than 300 authors contained within definitely do inspire and help.

These authors provide links, tips on what NOT to do, some even go into great detail to explain exactly what they did to get their books up front and personal. Francine's book structure in alphabetical format offers you easy access to pinpoint the precise promotional leg you want to work with at any given time.

Some of the areas covered are:

*Book Signings

*Book Reviews

*Contest and Competitions

*Ghost Writing

*Pitching the Media

*Press Kits

*Speaking Engagements*

and so much more.

The 300 plus authors write in various genres and, regardless how they were published, offer you viable methods to learn and incorporate for your own books. Whether you are a new or seasoned writer, Book Marketing from A-Z contains important tried and true recipes to help you in your long and continuous promotional journey. This 400-page reference guide is a valuable addition to any writer's library. Book Marketing from A-Z is a must `cover to cover' read for any writer who is serious and determined to get their book and work out there to the public.

Francine Silverman's Book Marketing From A-Z is now placed alongside Carolyn HowardJohnson's The Frugal Book Promoter book on my bookshelf as two references I will constantly use for my own promotional efforts.

Book Marketing from A-Z by Francine Silverman is now available at: Amazon.com

Reviewed by Lea Schizas, The Muse Book Reviewer

One of the things that many writers find hardest about getting published (apart from getting published itself!) is promoting their work. Writers generally want to write, not be publicists, and yet in this day and age it's rare to find a publisher who'll truly market your book for you. As the saying goes, if you want it done right you have to do it yourself. That's where Francine Silverman's "Book Marketing from A-Z" comes in.

Francine Silverman runs an inexpensive book promotion newsletter for writers: http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com/ In it she collects all sorts of war stories from her readers--success stories, ideas, failures, and so on. In "Book Marketing from A-Z" she has collected many of those tips and stories (from more than 300 authors!) in a handy guide organized alphabetically by topic.

I admit it--promotional tips aren't generally what I consider riveting reading. I'm one of those writers who are afraid of people and find promotion and publicity quite difficult, so the subject is a bit daunting. Yet by the time I got halfway through I was voraciously reading each entry in its entirety and feeling all fired up on the topic. There are just so many great ideas in here that it's hard not to get your imagination going.

This book really does cover everything. Want to consider advertising? Authors sound off on the effectiveness of various sorts of ad campaigns from Amazon promotions to Google ads. Not sure how important a good book cover is? There's plenty of information on that, too. Authors go into their experiences with book reviews, book signings, branding, conferences, contests, discounts, giveaways, gimmicks, donations, dual career promotion, internet outlets, organizations, pre-publication promotion, speaking engagements, tie-ins, and much much more.

Some of the contributing authors offer contradictory advice, which, oddly enough, I consider a plus. After all, not everyone's experiences will be the same. This allows you to try to figure out which things will best apply to your own situation and work accordingly.

In all, I found this to be not only a highly informative and useful book, but also a fascinating read. I think it will be of great value to any writer looking for ways to sell a book, whether you're self-published or you've published through more traditional means. I'd also recommend the book to those writers still in the process of looking for a publisher, as many of the contributing authors impart quite a bit of wisdom on that part of the process as well.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me also tell you that I am a contributor to this book. However, I'm not getting paid anything and if the book wasn't worth the cost, I would be the first to say so. The simple fact is, no matter who your publisher is, you can almost certainly expect to do most of the promotion for your book...unless you're one of the few who gets a six-figure advance and a fully-supported tour. Doesn't happen much!

There are plenty of good, solid ideas here. I'll bet you'll find plenty you can adapt to your book and your personal style.

I'm the author of 12 books. Number 13 is coming in October 2005: IN THE COURSE OF DUTY, the true story of one of the most amazing naval vessels in history, and how it came to rest in the middle of a bean field in Oklahoma. It's being published by a major house, but guess what. I'll be using some tricks from Francine's book to try to get the word out. (...)

There seems to be a sudden explosion of books which teach writers how to market and sell their books. The reason is obvious. The penny has finally dropped that the key difference between good and poor book sales is the author's marketing skills. With the advent of inexpensive self-publishing, many authors are having to learn how to manage all aspects of book publishing, including marketing and selling the book, sometimes by hand. Even authors who have books with the big mainstream publishing houses, the marketing budgets have significantly decreased, and new authors are finding that the only way to stay out of the remainder pile is to do most of the marketing themselves. Most of the books I've read on this topic have been well researched, with easy to follow, helpful suggestions. Francine Silverman, more editor than author on this project, has produced a book which is unique in its approach, even in this suddenly crowded market. What it does is to provide a series of examples, anecdotes or advice from experienced authors in a structured format on what has worked, promotionally, for them. Taken collectively, the book is full of information which is often novel, and almost always interesting, because in the context of an actual experience.

The book is organised into 35 alphabetised sections, each looking at a single aspect of book promotion. The book starts with Advertising, and ends with Zero Promotion, and for each section, there are a wide range of invited anecdotes, suggestions, tips, pitfalls, and other pieces of useful information from authors who have been there. The authors are wide ranging, and include the self-published, publishers, promotion experts, Internet personalities, and authors who are published with large publishing houses. The advice spans a wide range of areas of book promotion,

The book's structure is just a little haphazard in its current alphabetised form, and might have worked better, particularly for those new to book promotion, if it were structured in the order in which the activities occur. However, the A-Z format does have the advantage of making it easy to find advice on a specific topic, and deciding at which point each of these activities should occur isn't that straightforward anyway. Creating a book cover obviously precedes holding a book signing, but some of the activities, like setting up a website, creating a press kit, or branding yourself, can occur at anytime, including prior to a book's completion. One other problem with the book is that contributor promotional information occurs just after their tips, which is probably a good thing for the contributors but as it is often lengthy (sometimes lengthier than the tip), it can be distracting. It would have been better to have an alphabetised list of contributors with their bios at the end of the book, which would also mean one bio per contributor rather than coming across the same bio repeatedly. Minor problems notwithstanding, this is still an extremely useful book and is full of so much information that readers will find themselves returning to it regularly.

Some of the more innovative ideas include Lara Zeises' suggestion about making use of college alumni magazines: "I went to the University of Delaware, which has a student population of 16,000 at any given time...I e-mailed the `news & Notes' section about my first novel, Bringing Up the Bones (Delacorte/Random House 2002), and they ended up writing a full-page article with four-color photo about me. I got several speaking gigs and subsequent interviews for other publications, all from theat (free!) piece of publicity.(72)"

Another of the many gems in this book of gems is from author Don Keith, who suggests the use of viral marketing by creating a humorous and forward able email and sending it to a relevant group of people: "Within two days, I had heard from over 50 people. Many of the folks I heard from didn't receive the original mailing to the 30 people. It was forwarded to them. One person told me he received the forwarded e-mail from three different people!) In addition, the list, along with the info at the end, has been reproduced in several broadcasting trade publications and on websites.(204)"

Many of the ideas will inspire and fire authors to go out and try more creative approaches to promoting their books. There are certainly enough of those in here, plus a welter of links and further information, including a section on additional author services. This is a nicely pulled together, easy to read and practical set of very useful advice, given in the context of real life anecdotes. Book Marketing from A-Zis a fun to read resource full of a tremendous amount of innovative information on getting your book in the hands of readers.

You've written a novel. You've had it published. Unfortunately, unless you're a megastar author like Anne Rice or Stephen King, chances are your publisher isn't going to do much in terms of promoting your book. But what is an author to do? You can sit and wait for your book to become a bestseller, but chances are a million against one that this isn't going to happen. Or you can take a serious, active part in the marketing of your book and achieve the highest success possible.

Francine Silverman's Book Marketing From A-Z is filled with original concepts and resources to help you along the way and make the process less difficult. An informative compilation of ideas and tips from over 300 authors, in it you will find links to promo and review sites, free-subscription newsletters, ezines and magazines that accept articles, contests, free downloads and much more. Topics are arranged alphabetically for easy access. Everything from the importance of book covers to pitching the media to the necessity of author websites can be found between these pages.

An absolute page-turner! I got it in the mail on a Wednesday afternoon and finished it by Thursday evening. I simply couldn't put it down. As an author, I found myself scribbling on the margins, underlining key words and taking notes. Later on I spent several hours at the computer checking the long list of links and adding them to my promo folders. I also subscribed to some very helpful newsletters. The drawback? It left me hungry for more. This is a book you'll definitely want to keep on your reference shelf. Highly recommended for authors who want to successfully market their books.

.
Many believe that getting published is the hardest thing about being an author--unfortunately it's not.

Regardless of publication method, it seems the most difficult part is marketing and whether they're a new or experienced author, all face the same uphill battle: getting consumers familiar with both them and their book.

But authors by nature are writers--not marketeers--and this leaves many unsure of what to do, much less with any guidance on how to do it. This is where "Book Marketing from A-Z" can help.

I've always been a believer that it's useful to ask others what worked for them and to me Francine's compilation, a collection of excerpts from her wonderful "Book Promotion Newsletter," is almost like being able to connect with over three-hundred authors to get great tips and discover what actually works in the real world.

From advertising to book covers through--believe it or not--zero promotion, Francine touches on over seventy different aspects of the book-marketing field. And because it's alphabetically arranged, an author can either flip to the sections where they want more information or do as I did and read it from cover to cover.

I have to say that after reading this work, this would be a helpful addition to any author's bookshelf--especially if like so many they've found that the lion's share of the marketing is on their shoulders.

You've done well, Francine!

Reviewed by Dehanna Bailee, Author of "The ABC's of POD: A Beginner's Guide to Fee-Based Print-on-Demand Publishing"

Book Marketing From A-Z is filled with numerous concepts and resources to help authors make the process of marketing and promotion of their book less tedious a task.

Book Marketing From A-Z begins with Advertising and concludes with Zero Promotion. It is easy to see that contributing authors poured out their souls with suggestions, tips, and pitfall tales.

Over 300 authors have contributed to this compilation of ideas, sources, and tips. Inside readers will find links to many promotion and review sites, free-subscription newsletters, ezines and magazines accepting articles, contests, as well as free downloads.

The book: organized into 35 sections with topics from the influence of book covers to pitching the media to author websites, however, there is no index in the back of the book? There are a number of other errors I won't mention, but this is not about that, it's about substance. I did not find this to be a "page-turner" per se.

Not sure why, but I expected a little more from this 402-page book. Book Marketing From A-Z somewhat lacks in substance, although this could be a good starter, marketing book for writers.

Reviewed by Betsie