Sometimes you just have to ask to get a book-signing. Our author, Trevor Pacelli landed a book-signing at a bookstore near his university campus in Tempe, Arizona a few years ago. He recently held another book-signing at University of Washington Bookstore's Bellevue location. He sent letters to the two closest independent bookstores, and they responded right away with forms for him to fill out with various options for book-signing events, as well as consignment sales. He filled out the paperwork, which consisted of a bio, book cover photo, headshot, and a book description. They also asked that two copies of the book be sent to the store. The store in Arizona charged $75 charge for the book-signing, but University of Washington didn't charge anything. Both stores expected him to publicize the event, and said they would publicize it as well. At the UW event, he was given about 30 minutes to talk about his book. The Arizona store accepted copies of his book to sell on consignment with 60 percent going to the author, and a $25 fee to stock the book. He simply has to supply them with books and they will send him checks as the books sell. It's not a big risk, and will bring attention to the book beyond the immediate bookstore sales. UW also kept a few copies after the event to sell, which Trevor autographed. If you have written a book, check with your independent, local bookstores. Some stores host celebrity book-signings, but are willing to accept a first-time author as well. It's builds good community and brings traffic and visibility to their store, while helping a new author get more visibility for his book.
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This new book, Six-Word Lessons for Writing Business Plans, the 25th in Pacelli Publishing's Six-Word Lessons series, presents 100 brief lessons, each with a one-page explanation, on what issues to address and what mistakes to avoid when writing business plans. It can serve as a handy checklist to make any business plan, and thus any business, better. Written by Ray Waldmann, who has started and grown three successful companies, written six books on business topics, and taught marketing on the faculty of the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business where he also mentored business plan competitions. As CFO of an early stage technology company, he created business plans, and negotiated financing with banks, angel investors and venture capitalists. He was VP of International Affairs for The Boeing Company. He is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Law School. Business Plans serve many purposes, such as organizing start-ups, attracting investors, raising funds, motivating staff, and reassuring customers and suppliers. Make your business plan the best it can be with the following chapters: 1. Do You Need a Business Plan? 2. Start Selling with the Executive Summary 3. Describe a Winning Team and Company 4. Will the Market Sustain Your Business? 5. What are Your Products or Services? 6. Can You Meet or Beat Competitors? 7. Operations: Developing, Producing and Delivering Product 8. Putting it all Together: Compelling Financials 9. "The Ask"--Goal of Your Plan 10. The Right Presentation for the Audience Book reviews on Amazon help your book get higher rankings and more sales. Don't be afraid to ask people to review your book. Send out e-mails or ask on social media. Include a link to make it easy for them to click and write a quick review. You can also ask Amazon's top reviewers to review your book. You may need to send free copies to people you are asking.
Here is an article called, "Why Book Reviews are Important on Amazon," with eight reasons your book should have at least 10 reviews. Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was challenged by some friends to write a story using only six words. Hemingway responded to the challenge with the following story: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. The story tickles the imagination. Why were the shoes never worn? Were they too small? Did the baby die? Was the baby not able to wear shoes? Any of these are plausible explanations left up to the reader’s imagination. This style of writing has a number of aliases: postcard fiction, flash fiction, micro fiction, and sudden fiction. A dear friend and fellow author, Tom Fowler, introduced me to this style of writing over coffee. I was entranced with the style of writing and started thinking about how a sudden fiction writing style could be adapted to how-to books. I took to task and wrote the first book, Six-Word Lessons for Project Managers. In writing the book, I set out several guiding principles, as follows: · Every lesson had to be exactly six words · The book would have exactly 100 lessons · Each six-word lesson would have a brief explanation of the lesson which must fit on a single page in the book. No droning on and on about a lesson. I finished the book in the spring of 2009 and published it on Amazon and ebook platforms. Here’s what a lesson looks like: Lesson 20 Good PMs don’t boil the ocean. Over-zealous PMs hyper-focused on pleasing their sponsor at times are too eager to inflate scope. Keep scope right-sized to the problem statement and use seasoned advisors to help you not say “yes” too much. After finishing the first book, it became evident to me that the six-word lessons format wasn’t specific to project management or even business for that matter. If an author was passionate about their area of subject matter expertise, then there could be a six-word lessons book on the topic. We now have 24 books on a wide range of topics such as being more productive, starting up a business, utilizing social media, surviving divorce, and coping with grief. Even our son Trevor wrote Six-Word Lessons on Growing Up Autistic, which describes his experience growing up with autism. Our vision is to have hundreds of six-word lessons books on just about any topic imaginable, all written by passionate subject matter experts and easy enough to read in about an hour. Reading hundreds of pages looking for those few nuggets of wisdom is no longer necessary. Today’s reader wants concise and relevant information at their fingertips. That’s what The Six-Word Lessons Series is all about. Come see all of our six-word lessons books at www.6wordlessons.com. Lonnie Pacelli is an author, entrepreneur, and creator of The Six-Word Lessons Series. Save the date for October 10, 2015 (10/10!) I will be hosting a vendor table at this event and would love to invite you to stop by and see our books, talk about becoming an author, and learn and grow from the fabulous line-up of speakers throughout the day. You will learn how to be an influencer, leader, and reprogram your mind to increase your business. You'll learn how to create a system for follow-up with clients, and there will be breakout sessions and structured networking to make sure you connect with those most important to your business. Here are the inspiring and educational speakers you'll learn from: Heather Picken, Leadership and Mindset Influencer, who will teach and motivate you to make more money than ever before Tracey Warren, Social Media Influencer and author of Six-Word Lessons for Successful Social Media, who will teach you social media strategies to increase your visibility, credibility and cash flow. Lisa Fischer, Style Influencer, who will help you create a million dollar first impression Jason Suess, Networking Influencer, who will teach you to stand out in your networking and connecting Amin Lakhani, Authenticity Influencer, whose amazing story will inspire you to be authentic and attract the best in life You can attend as an individual and hear all of the speakers, visit the vendor tables, and enjoy lunch and musical entertainment by Chris Hendricks. Or, sign up as a vendor or sponsor. The website has MUCH more information, so please click here, and I hope to see you there! If you are working on writing your book, set aside at least 20 minutes a day, for as many days of the week as you can realistically commit to. This will keep you in the habit of writing and you will get better and more comfortable with it. Keep track of how much you can get done in each session and estimate your time for finishing your first draft. This will help you determine when the book can be published. Allow several weeks for any peer reviews you want done, and time to make your reviewers' changes. Lastly, you will submit the manuscript to an editor, and it will enter the final phase of editing, formatting, and publication. Just remember, at least 20 minutes a day! If you are still writing your first book, you should call yourself a "writer." If you have published your book, call yourself an "author." Tell everyone you talk to what you do when they ask ("I'm a writer/author") and tell them about your book. Spread the word! Use social media that you are already using to post about your writing process and ask for advice or opinions, or post excerpts from your book. The Six-Word Lessons books are perfect for short tweets with a brief description and a link to the book. Even before your book is published, it's a good idea to start thinking about how you will market your book. Who is your target reader, and how will you reach them? What kinds of events should you host to launch your book? It can be overwhelming, but this book by local author Margo Myers, who is an expert on marketing and communications, will answer your questions and give you concrete ideas for marketing your book. |
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