This is wise advice given by Phil Davis, book promoter extraordinaire, and I though I'd share it with you. He says... "When I published my first book, Fast & Furious Book Promotion, I was against giving it away for free. As a business person, giving away free things just didn't seem to make sense. But when one of my customers, Dr. Bill Guillory, and I teamed up to write How To Become a Total Failure: The Ten Rules of Highly Unsuccessful People, (http://www.tenwaystofail.com) Bill insisted we give away 500 hard copy books and 5,000 ebooks. Needless to say, Bill was right. Within a month of self-publishing How To Fail, we had a publisher in Germany who bought the rights to the book and we were in discussions with a US publisher. What happens when you give away copies of your book is you jump-start the conversation about your book. And when people start talking about it, you never know who might hear about it. Remember the term market influencer from an earlier tip? The result you want when you give away free copies is to get market influencers to start talking about your book. (or buying the rights to it) To get noticed in this over-crowded marketplace you need to be aggressive. I have no rule-of-thumb regarding the number of books to give away, but the numbers Bill and I used worked for us and might work for you as well."

OK, I posted that because it's sound advice from someone who knows, but the reality of it is... how many authors out there want to give away so many books? This is a decision that each author needs to think twice and three times. there are many authors that have the funds available to purchase extra books to be given away, but let's face it... those are not the majority.
I believe that if an author can afford to give away between 50 and 75 books to those he believes will be able to spread the word, he should. Among those people that will receive free books are reviewers from different newspapers and magazines because their word carry and, as Phil says in his article, who knows who will be reading the reviews?
At any rate, I wanted you to hear from someone who has been giving advice to authors for many moons and see how HE does it.
Good luck!, and remember to place your comments here so we can pass them on to other authors.

DOING YOUR OWN PROMOTION

As an author, and one that thinks all the time about the best way to promote your book, you now know we are a tribe of authors who love to promote on the Internet and with Social Media. Online book promotion is the fastest, cheapest way to grow a really big audience. But once you get that audience, what do you do with it? Today's tip is all about getting into your local bookstore, starting with your local chain stores:
1. With a big online following, you improve your chances of getting into bookstores, even if you have to do it one store at a time.
2. The key is local events. Send out press releases to local daily and weekly papers. Contact local radio and TV stations. Offer to do readings at local libraries, and then hit the bookstores.
3. The average author brings in 5 people to a book signing. Show your local bookstore owner you can bring in 50. Get creative. Offer free food.
4. Show the local bookstore owner how you promote your book and that you will be telling your audience your book is available at this particular bookstore.
5. Once you are in the store, track all receipts. The more you sell, the more likely it is that someone at head office will see a 'trend' and give you a call, as the publisher of record, to find out what the appeal is, and get your books throughout the region, or even the country. Online promotion is great, but it is really the foundation of all your book selling activities. At some point, you have to hit the streets, but when you do, everything you do offline will feed back into your online promotion. The key word is synergy.

SHARING THE LIMELIGHT

Another great way to connect with books that rank higher than yours and are in your genre is by writing "So you'd like to . . . Guides." A "So you'd like to . . . Guide" is an article about a subject you are an expert in. For example, I might write an article titled, "So you'd like to be a published author guide." When I write my article, I link to my book so the cover appears prompting anyone who reads my article to buy my book. But I also have to add another title as per Amazon's requirement. So I will select some books that rank higher than mine and are in the same genre. I try not to select too many so my book will still stand out. A key philosophy of social networking is to be social. We must collaborate with others - even competing books - to sell our own books.

This is not asking the enemy how to win the war, it's plain common sense; unfortunately not many people see it that way. In fact, I bet you that 80% of those who read this blog will be thinking "no way I am going to share my page with someone else..." but networking is alive and well and it works.

Maybe another example that I should post here is about three very well known female writers, Nora Roberts, Lisa Gardner, and Julie Garwood, who got together during a large book signing in the East Coast and shared a table signing their books and speaking to the crowds about their work. Now THAT is called networking! Would you dare to do that with tho other people that write about the same genre that you do? Those three well-known writers who have become household names in this country were not afraid to share three hours with the public. they got where they are now because they write extremely well and have the intelligence to recognize that they are not the only ones who do, and are not afraid to share the limelight.

Would you like to send me your thoughts about this theme? Please do. I'll be waiting to hear from you.

From HOFFMAN LION DEN - A reading group.

People who read at least seven business books a year earn a reported 2.3 times more than people who read only one. That stat, floating around the Internet, has been attributed jointly (and separately) to the U.S. Department of Labor and a survey conducted by Yahoo!
Whether that information is strictly reliable or not, executives and avid readers everywhere will attest to the value of professional reading—for personal development, leadership training, continuous learning and company innovation. This value can be increased exponentially if businesses get groups of employees on board with the idea of professional reading and facilitate and encourage discussions in reading groups. Reading groups go beyond boosting knowledge, too, to offer improved morale and productivity.
For small businesses, internal company reading groups may be difficult to facilitate due to smaller staff sizes. But that shouldn’t stop you. Consider instead community-based discussions, focused on business issues. Partner with other local businesses or professional associations, perhaps through the library or your local chamber of commerce, to host a book club. Sounds intriguing?

I am the owner of a smallish business (have 6 employees in site and 3 home-workers), and we have created a group in our hometown that get together once a month and discuss different issues. As a consultant for small businesses, I bring up the themes and we talk about them.

I am using a booklet that OMNI Book Publishing printed On Demand for my company, and we use it as our guide. Having a book (or, as in my case, a Booklet) helps the group and also sells it - and that is the end result I wanted.

I appreciate my associates and friends who took this idea so easily, and suggest it to others that have something to say regarding an X theme or discussion.

I have nearly ran out of copies and am printing more, but the new version will have ideas gathered from those meetings. This will show my readers and clients that the ideas given are good and that they work when we put our brains together in gear. The original booklet was 66 pages... the new version I am preparing will have 90, and I figure that in six more months I will be able to expand it to a full book.

Thank you OMNI Book Publishing for allowing me to add to your blog! One hand washes the other, and both wash our face.

Deb Sutton, hoffmanbooks@hotmail.com

READERS OPINIONS

We have received a comment in one of our blogs (Internet Fraud) in which the writer... 'Anonymous'... states that "I see Omni hides their readers opinions. Her tactics stink as much as her editing does".
Well, first of all... he is not as Anonymous as he wants to believe he is. I know exactly who he is... and I hereby want to say to him that is he wants to diminish me or my company to be man enough to do it in person or in a court of law.
Trashy creatures, those who know deep inside that they are the ones in the wrong, put down others in order to feel better themselves, and this is exactly what this person is doing.

RECOGNITION TO ONE OF OMNI'S AUTHORS

We are always proud of those authors that achieve recognition because of their work as writers - after they pour their hearts into a story that in many cases has taken many months or years, public acknowledgment is food for their souls.

In this case, such recognition has gone to a well-deserved author and the president and founder of AIPEH (Asociación Internacional de Poetas y Escritores Hispanos) based in Orlando, FL., Palmira S. Ubiñas, for her first novel Los Angeles de Poder (in Spanish).

La Prensa has given her an award for "Women That Make a Difference", not only for her literary talent but also for her past work as promoter of the Arts in her Puerto Rico and in Florida.

Palmira is a writer, poet, reporter, magazine editor, publicist, television, radio and theatre producer, and a highly regarded community leader.

Her book, "Los Angeles de Poder" is a science-fiction / fantasy story of a highly developed breed of people from another galaxy who come back in time to visit Earth and save it from the planetary changes that are predicted for 2012. It is a gripping story filled with action, adventure, humor, and the power of love.

We congratulate Palmira S. Ubiñas not only for this award but also for her past performance in the world of Art!

Internet Fraud

This past weekend we at OMNI lived through a hellish time when we found out that someone... one of those low life individuals who have nothing better to do than to create problems and havoc for others... had hacked into our email system (omnibookpublishing@att.net), stole all the names from our contact list (and left it empty), plus all our emails from April 12, 2010 until May 15th, 2010.
Then... he/she sent an email to all those people in the contact list as if it had been sent by me, Christina Coirolo, saying that I was in Wales on a short vacation and had been mugged. The muggers had taken money and credit cards and I had mo money to pay the hotel.
The request for money was not blatantly there, but it was implied.
Those concerned with "my fate" who wrote back offering me money, received another email telling them to send $2200 (one of them), or $2450 (the other) via Western Union. the kicker is... one of them was told to send the money to a fake address in "Wiltshire, Wales" (Wiltshire is not in Wales but in England), and the other to an address in London.
By then I had called the police, and when the money part was found out it became a federal crime and the police here contacted the FBI.
I received many telephone calls during the weekend, some of them were thinking of just leaving a messsage thinking that I was indeed in the UK, and others smelled a skunk and called or emailed me advising of what was going on.
The police has an idea of who the person is... someone with a criminal record for larceny, false pretenses, conspiracy, and larceny by conversion (this is what his rap sheet says), and as soon as Yahoo and AT&T come through with the name of the person who opened an account and had my emails and contact list forwarded to it, then we will act upon.
This blog is just to advise those who read "my" email not to worry and to be aware that there are many of these SKUNKS out there who will think nothing about hurting others. Karma exists and they will get what's coming to them.