Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – April 1, 2016

How do you learn a buyer's need for your content? One way is to ask, "If you were to hire a product manager today, what would you want him or her to accomplish in the first 90 days?"

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 31, 2016

Be persistent: "The time required to sell something to a company (B2B) has risen 22% in the past five years as gaining consensus from one or two buyers has turned into five or more." (Fortune, Feb 1 2016, page 43)

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 30, 2016

The Top 10 Colors for Genre Book Covers: 1. Self-Help – Mellow Yellow; 2. Western -- Hi-Yo Silver; 3. Yuppies – Purple Haze; 4. Medical – Gang Green; 5. Humor – Tickled Pink; 6. Political -- Better-Dead-Than Red; 7. Cookbook – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Lime; 8. Entertainment - Moulin Rouge; 9. Fiction -- Dorian Gray; 10. Fiction -- Back to the Fuchsia

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 29, 2016

Have a new book by tomorrow! You don't have to write a new book, just describe it differently. Tell retailers your content will help them be more profitable, Tell librarians it will help their patrons. Tell associations it can help them increase their membership. Tell corporate buyers it can help them solve a business problem. Your content will seem pertinent to them, and that can help you sell many more books. Your book is not what it is, but what it does for the buyer.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 28, 2016

Micro media (targeted promotion) can reach more potential buyers than mass media directed to a large, uninterested audience.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 27, 2016

Find balance. Business excellence and individual fulfillment need not be at odds.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 26, 2016

"The churn rate (lifetime) of a business is 20% of what is was in 1935. To succeed today you have to cannibalize yourself. You have to make business-model disruption part of your performance metric," says Dominic Barton, managing director of McKinsey.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 25, 2016

When driving your car on a foggy evening, you can usually see far enough ahead to make slow, but steady progress. Fog lights may help. As a metaphor, planning serves as your book-marketing fog lights to help you see into the "Fog of the Future."

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 24, 2016

Years ago I (Brian Jud) was a sales manager for a Fortune 250 company. When I was interested in hiring a salesperson I would tell him or her that I was not going to hire them. If they gave up and left, they were not hired. But if they tried to sell me on themselves, I would hire them. I wanted a salesperson who would not give up when hearing "No."  Think the same way when corporate buyers say no to your proposal. Consider that they are simply testing your belief in your recommendation. Continue by asking why they do not feel your proposal is right for them, then counterattack.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 23, 2016

Don't let buyers say, "I'll get to it tomorrow." Increase a sense of immediacy: "As you said, employee absenteeism is increasing daily," or "Your membership is decreasing as we speak."

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 22, 2016

Consider the word "discoverability." How will people find your book? In a retail store, your book is one of many purchase options. People make an immediate comparison of your product (content, price, value). In corporate sales, you bring your content to the attention of buyers one at a time. Then their focus is only on your book.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 21, 2016

Malcolm Gladwell said, "Goliath lost because it never occurred to him that the battle could be fought on anything other than his own terms. The lesson is that victory is yours when you surprise your opponent." The lesson for us is to be creative when making your proposals to corporate buyers. Do the unexpected.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 20, 2016

"If you're going to be an author in today's publishing world, you absolutely have to market. You need to build a platform. You need to learn how to effectively use social media." – James H. Pence

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 19, 2016

"The most important relationship I will ever have in business is the relationship I have with my audience. Pay attention to who you do business for." Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 18, 2016

"Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes." Eleanor Roosevelt

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 17, 2016

People have on outcome in mind when thinking about buying your book. Reinforce that image and you get the sale

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 16, 2016

 "In labors of love, every day is payday." Gaines Brewster

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Brian Jud is the Executive Director of APSS (www.bookapss.org) - formerly SPAN. He is also the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books. Brian offers commission-based sales of books to buyers in non-bookstore markets. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT  06001-0715; (860) 675-1344; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or www.premiumbookcompany.com   twitter.com/bookmarketing

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 15, 2016

Bookworms are actually beetles. They proliferate in libraries where dust, dirt, heat, darkness and poor ventilation are prevalent. The mature female lays her eggs on the edges of books or in the crevices of bookshelves, and when hatched the larvae burrow into the books (from the book, "That's A Fact Jack!" by Harry Bright).

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 14, 2016

"A leader's job is to build the company's culture. A culture is going to form whether you like it or not, and if you pay attention to it you can craft something that makes the company stronger." Biz Stone, Twitter cofounder

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 13, 2016

Turn loyal customers into brand advocates. Get your friends and customers to tout your brand to their friends on social media. "60% of consumers trust suggestions from people they care about, while only 18% trust the information a brand puts out on a social network." Software is available (Refer-A-Buddy and Friendbuy) that lets you run refer-a-friend programs and what's known as A/B tests to compare the performance of different offers. (Fortune)

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 12, 2016

"Many of us think of salesmen as people traveling around with sample kits. Instead, we are all salesmen, every day of our lives. We are selling our ideas, our plans, our energies, our enthusiasm to those with whom we come in contact." Charles M. Schwab

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 11, 2016

Borrow ideas. Thomas Edison said, "Keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you are currently working on." Watching an armadillo lead to the idea for the military tank. World War 1 military designers borrowed from the Cubist art of Picasso to create more efficient camouflage patterns for the tanks. Observing a bat lead to inventing radar. What ideas can you borrow?

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 10, 2016

A mini case history on special sales: I wrote a job-search book and tried to sell it to college students. It was too much for them to read, and $14.95 was too much to spend. I converted each chapter (prospecting, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, etc) into a 32-page booklet and sold them to colleges. They paid me $.50 each if they bought 10,000 or more, and then gave them to the students. My unit cost was about $.10 when printing 100,000 at a time. I only made $ .40 on each booklet, but a sale to one college was worth about $4000 to me. Many colleges bought them.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 9, 2016

Sometimes we get so caught up with "hardware" and "software" that we forget "peopleware." The right human expertise can make a business or process run more smoothly and successfully.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 8, 2016

Test titles, cover designs. Use digital printing to create several different cover designs and solicit opinions from educated sources for their opinions. Tell them it is OK to be candid with you.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 7, 2016

"You know you have read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." Paul Sweeney

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 6, 2016

Know your Pub Date. "Bound Book Date" refers to when the book comes off the press. "Ship Date" refers to the time when you begin to ship your books to distribution partners. The "Pub Date" is when you really begin to market your title to the consumer.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 5, 2016

Book printers offer high quality, low cost and quick delivery. But they can only give you two out of the three on any one printing job

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 4, 2016

Ideas that are truly innovative -- those that can reshape your business model (i.e., selling to non-bookstore buyers) -- typically go against the grain of conventional understanding. Take bold, creative, yet considered action to reach your goals in 2016.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 3, 2016

Watch this fun, three-minute video with several significant lessons about building a following for your book or business: http://tinyurl.com/yc8cncj

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 2, 2016

Malcolm Gladwell said, "Goliath lost because it never occurred to him that the battle could be fought on anything other than his own terms. The lesson is that victory is yours when you surprise your opponent." The lesson for us is to be creative when making our proposals to corporate buyers. Do the unexpected.

Book-Marketing Tip of the Day – March 1, 2016

Take a broader view of your potential. The video program "You're On The Air" trains authors to create and perform on television and radio shows. It also helped train civil engineers to perform on the air when they were called upon to do so as the local expert. How many other people can utilize the information in your books?