More on PMA-U

At PMA-U, not a moment is wasted. Wednesday, May 30, offered four training sessions, lunch with best selling author Robert Kiyosaki,  and countless opportunities for networking.

Class # 1, Marketing Regional Books. Three panelists dispensed more good ideas than i will be able to recall here. Dorothy Molstad from Voyageur Press emphasized taking advantage of local celebrityhood. Voyageur always queries authors for affiliations all the way back to the author’s elementary school. She schedules signing anywhere people gather including grocery stores. David Cole, Baytree Publishing, reminded us that every author is from somewhere and every book is local to someplace.  Do your market research. Where do people shop who would want the book? Jacqueline Church Simonds, Beagle Bay Books, began by saying that regional books are a very deep spring. A good book about an area can have a years long shelf life. Don’t overlook neighborhood weeklies and other small media outlets. Heritage travelers is the new travel industry buzz.

Class #2, Workable Marketing Plan with speakers Peter Bowerman www.wellfedwriter.com and Brian Jud www.bookmarketing.com. Peter spoke from experience as writer and self published author. Admonished us to know a) what kind of book are we selling — niche or mainstream, b) why was it written/published, c) how much money &/or time is available to invest? Answering these questions will make for more efficient marketing. Websites from Peter: www.booksonline.com for listing of niche bookclubs, www.internweb.com for ’cheap’ help, www.wellfedsp.com for samples of cover letters and other pr helps. Brian Jud’s take was to define the problem of the target reader, make recommendations, spell out what reader will gain by taking action or the recommendations. What you sell when you sell the book is the results or what the reader will gain. Remember that nobody cares if you wrote a book, but if you can solve a problem then they care. Another tidbit: People buy emotionally. They may explain rationally, but they buy based on emotion. And yet another pearl of wisdom: Bookstores display books. They do not sell books. Last words: Know your audience. Heard that before? Book site recommeded: http://bookcentralstation.com

Luncheon Speaker  was Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Kiyosaki is an engaging and relaxed speaker. A quote of note from his talk: “I am not a best writing author. I am a best selling author.” He emphasized the difference. I think we’ve all long known that good writing does not equate good sales, but his first person take on the difference was a strong reminder that marketing trumps. Kiyosaki said learning public speaking was a key to best-sellerdom. His book has sold by the bucket load for years, so take heed.

Class # 3, Meet the Online Retailers An hour + with Google, Amazon, Booksense, and bn.com. W-O-W. We began with Google, whose aim is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. All content in all languages, then they’ll rest. Google Book Search is a partner program that can lead to more exposure and discovery by readers. Several publisher testimonials were given. Google can match content to inquiry quite easily….so can Amazon, but more on that down the scroll. Numbers: 13% of books are sold online, but 66% of book buyers research on the web before buying in stores. Google has 700,000,000 users per month and realize 95% of their revenue through ads. For the publisher thinking that Google Book Search is a threat, here’s the deal: sign up for the program and uploading book files are free. Books listed on the GBS site can be linked to publisher’s website or to local bookstore or other. Content access is limited to 20% of the book, no right mouse functions are enabled, and all images are low dpi. GBS never posts an entire book at one time –except works in public domain. Did I say GBS implies no transfer of rights? Google will report to publisher how many visits to a title, how many clicks within the book, and which pages are clicked on. Coming soon: GBS will allow a one-week downloaded rental of any book for a fee or sell the physical book. I can’t report on how much of the rental fee or selling price Google keeps.

bn.com was next to the podium. bn.com checks in with 9.5 million visitors /month, has 10,000 vendors, and only 5% of the books sold each year fall into the category of best seller. bn.com supports online bookclubs moderated by authors. Important for publishers to add content to the book listing. Cover image will increase sales by 60%.

Amazon. Yes, it’s true, just as you suspected. Amazon is the world’s largest online selection of books. Amazon starts with the customer and builds backwards with the four pillars of Amazon: Price, Selection, Availability, Convenience & Discovery.  Publishers were strongly urged to add content such as Youtube snippets, an about the author segment, search inside, reviews, and always make sure info is correct information. As with Google, Amazon’s search inside program allows no right mouse function, and all images are low res. Amazon has a POD partner, Booksurge, and will print & ship books for delivery through the CAP or Content Acquistion Program. Would liked to have heard more about this as well as mobipocket, the Amazon subsidiary that produces ebooks. Note of interest: Amazon has partnered with FedEx for reduced shipping cost for Advantage program publishers.

Class #4 Q&A with Booksense, Ingram, Baker & Taylor and Regional Wholesalers. This session was dominated by Ingram. Speaker from B&T was not present, and there was a pitch-hitter for regional wholesalers. Points covered by Ingram — Ingram does not work with any account that does not net $20,000 in sales over a period of two years. The rule that to be part of the IBG a publisher must have 10 titles holds because Ingram figures that 10 titles should result in $20K in sales. Ingram’s biggest frustration with publishers is that so many come to Ingram without a marketing plan. Set up fee for new publishers is $750. Booksense is a marketing program for independent bookstores. They offer a low-cost advanced access program offering galleys to stores. I understood there is a discount for the advanced access program extended to PMA members. Check it out at the PMA site www.pma-online.org.