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"Why bother to publish?" asks author, editor and marketing executive Kendra Bonnett. "The average US author spends months, even years, writing a book only to sell fewer than 100 copies." Of the 1.2 million books Nielsen Bookscan follows, 950,000 titles have sold fewer than 99 copies.
Kendra often asks her audiences: "Which of these statements is true? (1) My publisher will ensure that I have a well-marketed book. (2) All I need to do is get my book listed on Amazon and my sales will take off. (3) I don't need to worry; I'm just using my book as a glorified business card to build creds and win new clients. The answer? None of the above." Most authors believe at least one of these statements, and that's their fatal mistake. Using her marketing experience, writing talent and Internet know-how, Kendra guides authors in search of book sales or new business.
The bottom line is this: The day an author decides to write a book, the process begins. She must define her audience, create innovative sales tactics, and build readership (a list). "Quite simply," says Kendra, "the day you start writing your book you also must start selling yourself...and what better first step than to start blogging?"
Most recently, Kendra is co-author of Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story. This collective memoir of women born during WWII is a 2008 IPPY Book Award winner and compelling for the many ways it engages readers-through the inclusion of memoir vignettes from more than 100 women, quotes from famous Rosie's Daughters, iconic images of the 20th century, interpretive narrative and a timeline. After all, why shouldn't a reader's experience be as entertaining, as effortless, as worthwhile as possible? Reading a book should be as enjoyable as picking up a magazine. And it's an important aspect to marketing and selling one's book.
Kendra brings her extensive experience to bear on each client's individual needs-experience gained in more than 25 years using marketing to sell books, magazines, hardware, software, and business-to-business services. She specializes in giving her clients methods that enable their prospects and customers to make educated buying decisions. Her secret? Translating technical, often-complex features into simple, compelling benefits. For her business clients, she imbues raw specs with emotion and value. For her author clients, she helps them use their personal narrative to build loyal readers.
Kendra has started three magazines, including the award-winning Profit Magazine for IBM. She left IBM to assist former Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon with research and spent 18 months interviewing more than 100 leaders from the worlds of business, finance, government and sports, including President Gerald Ford; Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz; CEO of W. R. Grace & Co. and President Reagan appointee to head The Grace Commission on waste and inefficiency in government, J.Peter Grace; journalist Jack Anderson; and Wall Street's William "Billy" Salomon of Salomon Brothers.
In 1996 she joined the marketing firm Mark Stevens & Company and served as its president two years later. She began working with the Internet around the same time. And in April 1998 she hosted a two-hour satellite broadcast about Internet opportunities for small and growing businesses, sponsored by IBM and the US Chamber of Commerce.
Kendra is an award-winning author who has written more than 150 magazine articles and written, edited or ghostwritten seven books, including An IBM Guide to Doing Business on the Internet (McGraw-Hill, 2000). She graduated cum laude from Arizona State University with degrees in history and anthropology, has a Master's degree in history from The College of William and Mary and further graduate studies in history at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
