Book marketing guru Brian Jud spoke at the September CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association) meeting about ways to sell books to other markets besides bookstores. He published the book Beyond the Bookstore back in 2009, and has a new updated edition, How to Make Real Money Selling Books. These books show you how to reach unique retail and non-retail market segments, where you can sell mass quantities of self-published books at a time. Many independent publishers have realized the unfortunate impact of returns when working with bookstores. Returns are shipped back to the publisher at the publisher’s expense and often arrived…
Smart self-publishers have their manuscripts edited and proofread by professionals. To meet this need, we offer an assortment of editorial services, from content editing to proofreading. Our award-winning team of editors and proofreaders specializes in a wide range of genres with a variety of skill sets in both fiction and non-fiction. It’s so important to find the right fit for each client, and we feel it is our responsibility to educate our clients about the different types of editing and proofreading services. As a visual person, I like to make analogies with visual images. I think about editing from the…
Here are the Details of Our 7-Step Brand, Marketing and Website System Are you a new speaker, author, or consultant? Perhaps you’ve been in business for a while but want to raise your presence in the marketplace. We can guide you through the process of branding and marketing your business online. Our experienced team of branding experts, graphic designers, copywriters, website designers, programmers, and search engine specialists will create a dynamic brand and powerful website to help you meet the marketing goals you’ve set for your business. We’ve developed a seamless 7-step system that builds on and leverages the content…
Testimonials, endorsements and case studies are such an important part of marketing yet most small business owners just don’t take full advantage of their power. We all know that referrals from others are our best prospects. Why is that? When a prospect hears good things about you from people they know and trust, they get a sense of confidence you can deliver. In that sense a referral is like an endorsement. How to Get Endorsements Endorsements and testimonials are the bedrock of any marketing program. As a business owner you should ask for endorsements and testimonials immediately after any job…
Our client, Shima Shanti, of Peace Waters Publishing came to us with a collection of illustrations and text to combine and arrange into a children’s book. The picture book design and layout needed something to tie all the pages together and unify the collection of drawings. I came up with the idea of using stock images of abstract watercolors in the backgrounds of all the pages to enhance and support the drawings. My designer, Kerrie Lian looked at the book one spread at a time to coordinate the watercolor backgrounds with the colors, patterns and imagery in the drawings. Shown…
Heartbleed is a computer security issue that got world wide notice in early April. It affects websites and computer systems that use the OpenSSL encryption. It is not a virus or trojan horse or scam. OpenSSL had a type of encryption vulnerability that was discovered by security engineers at Google and Codenomicon. The world became aware of the problem on April 7th when a fixed version of OpenSSL was released. It is possible that some criminals or hackers may also have been aware of the OpenSSL vuneraliblity and exploited it by stealing identities, passwords, financial information or other data. However,…
I’ve compiled a list of typical items a speaker may include in their speaker media kit. These items may also go on the “media” page of a website. Meeting and event planners should be able to easily download these items from the media page. A press kit can be electronic (a multiple-page PDF file), or printed and placed in an attractive folder with a logo, photo or graphic on the front. The PDF file should have an attractive cover page too. Some of these items can be compiled into a speaker one-sheet which should be made into a PDF file…
I’ve asked one of my team members, Patrice Rhoades-Baum to share an article. These valuable tips are from a recent post on her blog. Patrice is my go-to expert for branding, website and speaker one sheet copywriting. Your clients love teaming with you. When you ask for testimonials, they happily agree. BUT … They are crazy-busy. They don’t get around to it. They forget. You are uncomfortable reminding (and pestering) them. Sound familiar? You’re not alone! Getting client testimonials is a universal challenge for small business owners. Here is the key issue: You are giving them an action item When…
We’ve created dynamic brands, eye-popping logos and attractive business cards for many clients. Here’s how we design effective business cards that become powerful sales tools. The secret is in crafting layouts that are full of power, punch and purpose . . . John Hall’s speaking platform is built on his 6-Step “Do What You Can” System. We designed his abstract logo with six 3D blocks. This image is the basis of his brand and book cover design. As a vital, motivational speaker it was important to show John’s engaging photo on the front of his card. To make him really…