Book Marketing

The Three Principles of Marketing that Work!

Do you love helping clients? But, when it comes to sales and marketing, you can’t believe how confusing and huge it all is? You probably don’t have time to read a book, even my book, about marketing 😉 So let’s introduce three principles of marketing that I’ve learned over the past decade. 1) Build your personal brand. Simply, it really helps to connect on a personal level and show people you are both a dedicated professional and a person with substance. 2) Concern yourself with expressing your personal passion for a better outcome… not advertising and competing. Express this through books, reports, posts, and articles. (Most call this ‘content marketing’). 3) Use marketing systems, like a simple CRM and automated email marketing, to help you warm up visitors online and create a follow-up system. The Problem: Too Many Tools & Tactics…
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Book Blueprint book review
Book reviews

Book Blueprint review

Writer/editor Jacqueline Pretty has, like me, migrated from a copywriter into an editor and book publishing coach. There is no better background for a book editor to have ;-). So in this “Book Blueprint”, I expected nothing less than sheer genius. Was I fulfilled? The key to finding your message is explained both in the introduction and in Part 1: The Right Idea.  In case we think that writing and forming a book (for business) is just a matter of writing up our topic of the moment, the Grammar (Factory) girl sets us to rights:  will we still be game to promote this book’s core idea in three years’ time? She then goes into the fun stuff: “What would you love to write about (that relates to what you do)?”…. along with the practical: the target audience. “Who are you writing…
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Writing Habits with AI

My Financial Life in Books

Oh, what have I done to deserve this wretched financial life statement?  This five-digit retirement fund? Did I not start and run a freelance business, had this book, How to Start and Run a Freelance Business, that served clients well with persuasive copy? ‘Planning is the secret to success’, you say?  Well, that is my middle name. So faithfully I planned, set goals, budgeted, paid myself first, sought education and read up on Money. Just in case it found me one day. Alas, you have to go seek it. So how does one Create a New Life of Abundance?  In 2008, I thought by sacking your financial planner. But later, I realised that that’s now How to Control Your Financial Destiny. No, I didn’t spend 28 years at the university of life, typing, editing and finessing thousands of words… snipping…
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Writing Goals

Your Writing Goals and the Need for Promoting

If the goal of your writing is to develop skill, express creativity, and just be published, then you will not need a marketing plan. But if your goal is to write to disseminate ideas to as many as possible, and make it pay, then you need all the best book promotion ideas. Your writing goals actually dictate whether or not you will make money from this career. At Sandcliffe Writer’s Festival, three writers talked about their journey and message to other writers. For talented novelist Susan Johnson, having had a roaring writing career in the 80s and travelling the world for 12 years, on returning to Australia she had quite a shock. No longer did traditional publishers give big advances. Neither could she return to teach creative writing at University due to ‘qualifications’. That was until she did an adjunct…
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15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers book review
Book reviews

The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers – Book Review

Jonathan has created an ideal ebook for those who want to formalise their blogging and build authority long term. It’s called The 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers, yet it could apply to any blogger or author who is building an audience. Many of us start haphazardly, finding we enjoy writing topics, but then how do we get started with ‘branding’, getting on podcasts, adding value to readers lives, and getting over our fears and doubts? Jonathan tells us honestly what we are up for as a blogger, so that we can stop looking for the silver bullet. This long term thinking approach is what makes an authority blogger. The Mindset of Pro Bloggers I enjoyed the initial 27 reasons to Blog (motivation), especially as many of these enhance any book publishing activities. I particularly liked the talk on how to…
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Types of Interactive eBooks
Self-Publishing

Two Types of Interactive eBooks that you can Make

You might already know there are two kinds of eBooks: Fixed Format and Reflowable. Fixed format suits grand layouts with images, whereas reflowable ebooks suits 90% of text-based books.  There are also two types of interactive ebooks:  ePub and PDF. Today I set about making an Interactive ePub from a plain fixed format, directly in InDesign. While there are many more elements to discover, I think I’ve got the hang of animations and buttons. There is a handy Adobe InDesign tutorial to learn how to add animations, slide shows, and buttons to an ePub. I noticed that their “workspace” is designated as ePub, whereas my CC 2017 version says “Interactive”. This workspace helps to bring up the right menus on the side. I find it fun to put some animated graphics on pages that were blank, or where I wanted to illustrate the words.…
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