April 29 is the 93rd anniversary date of the Zipper Patent. Write a short story, poem, or song using zipper as the subject, or by simply using the word zipper somewhere in your piece.
Would love it if you'd share your writing. Either post it to the blog or send it to me and I will: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com
Write on,
Nicky
Thursday, April 27, 2006
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
Email: Expense-less, Easy & Effective!
Birds do it. Bees do it. Well, no, they don’t. But we do – email that is! Most of us do it as a routine form of communication – to send back and forth quick quips of information, to make plans, to submit manuscripts to ePublishers…At least [pretty much] anyone who is reading this newsletter does.
And, I bet, many of you have used email to promote yourselves and your book. If you have, keep reading for kicks (and maybe you’ll find a little tid-bit that you hadn’t used before). If you haven’t, read on and be dazzled beyond belief (well, perhaps not dazzled, but you might glean some good ideas to promote yourself and your book).
What I am about to reveal is no big secret. In fact, it’s pretty elementary. But the main thing about email marketing, and the thing that should drive you to utilize it, is that it’s expense-less, easy & it’s golly-gosh-dang effective! Can’t get much better than that!
Let’s start with the fact that email marketing is expense-less. It doesn’t cost one extra dime to send an email no matter how simple or how fancy, how short or how long, and no matter if you send it to one or one thousand people. It will cost you zip-zip-zippo in dollars to create and send. Which means that anyone with a computer and email access can afford to email market.
It’s Easy. You don’t have to leave your house or office to email market. You don’t have to speak to anyone. You can do it anytime you want – early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night, dusk, dawn – whatever works for you. You don’t have to worry about paper – grade, color, or whether it’s matte or glossy - packaging, or postage.
And last, but definitely not least, and probably best of all: email marketing is effective! Email reaches people. It gets to whomever you send it to and it gets there in a more than timely manner: it gets there immediately.
[Most] people read their email, especially if the subject line peaks their interest. This is in contrast to being handed a paper flyer or postcard on the street, which usually gets looked at (momentarily, if that), and either, a) dropped directly into the nearest trash receptacle, b) dropped (ecologically incorrectly) on the ground, c) folded up and put into a pocket of later-to-be-washed pants that come out of the dryer with bits of freshly-laundered paper everywhere, or d) into a purse, never to be seen again until…oh, maybe the following year.
Recipients of email marketing tend to respond more readily than to snail-mail paper marketing. Unless someone specifically wants a product or service – and wants the product or service you’re providing at the moment they receive it in the mail, the flyer/brochure/letter usually gets a) looked at briefly, then thrown in the trash, b) thrown in the trash, unopened; c) looked at briefly and put in a pile that sits for about a month and then gets thrown away, or d) not looked at all, put in a pile for about a month, and – you guessed it - thrown away.
Just as a sidebar, because I definitely feel that one is needed here: I am still a big believer in paper marketing, because depending on the venue and how it’s utilized, paper can do the trick. However, with paper comes cost: the paper itself, the printing, and the time (and often money) it takes to distribute. And right now we’re talking expense-less.
I’ve digressed (I know that shocks you). Stick with me: I promise I am getting to the meat.
The best way to demonstrate that email marketing truly is effective is to provide you with a “case study”. I am going to use one of my own experiences as an example.
My job at DPP is three-fold: To advocate and serve as liaison for our authors, to write and edit the bi-weekly periodical, NewsBytes, and to market the patooties out of DPP and get it as much press and exposure as possible.
There is a local radio talk show here in Palm Springs that airs daily called The Joey English Show. What I know about Joey is that she likes fun and she likes chocolate.
At the end of February I sent her an email. In the subject line I wrote: “A Great Recipe!”
I began the email with something catchy:
What do you get when you mix a local eBook publisher and
Small Press Month?
A great recipe for a segment on the Joey English Show
(with a dash of chocolate, of course)!
I got the fun and chocolate in there, I added a “hook” (Small Press Month, which BTW, is observed every year in March), and that we are local (that’s worth support in itself), and what we do (a little out of the ordinary – eBook publishers). I made it stand out with a different fonts (though the fun fonts in my email don't come out in my blog) and different colors. Following that I gave my pitch about who we are, small press month, and that we’d love to be on her show.
Know what? She emailed me back that day and said she’d love to have us on her show, BUT March was too busy, would I check back next month? Bummer, I thought. So much for Small Press Month! But, not to be defeated, and still left with an opening, I resolved to contact Joey again in April.
April brought to Palm Springs the Palm Springs Book Festival, and, by way of a solicitous email, I contacted the Palm Springs Writers Guild about getting table space at the Fest to display our paper materials (brochures, cards, postcards, flyers). I also let them know that we were available to speak about eBooks, marketing, and technology at any of their meetings.
Low and behold, we were given table space and we got Genene (co-founder and CEO of DPP) a speaking gig on one of the Festival panels.
There was my new hook! I sent the following letter to Joey English (yes, it’s long, so read the whole thing or skim it…the important parts are in red anyway, so look at those):
Hi, Joey!
Here I am again…Checking in the week of probably-one-of-your-favorite-days to eat chocolate (is there ever NOT a favorite day for you, I wonder?!): Easter!
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I sent you an email at the end of February and you told me to get back to you this month. So just to remind you…
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I represent DigitalPulp Publishing (DPP), an eBook publishing company located in Palm Springs. Founded just over a year ago, with new office space right in the heart of downtown (a hop, skip, and a jump away from you – we’re right above Jamba Juice), DPP was created to help authors, self- publishers and independent presses open a new distribution channel via eBooks by providing a free service that offers opportunities for increased exposure, sales and profits.
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
When I contacted you last time, it was coinciding with Small Publisher’s Month (March)…This time around, we have the Palm Springs Book Fest coming up and Easter! The PS Book Fest is pretty exciting, for all the obvious reasons. Easter is exciting because it sounds like the newly created holiday: eStir ! eStir was created to “stir up buzz about all things eWorthy…This is a great day to take time to email friends, family, and networking contacts about the new eBook you’re reading (or writing, or publishing, or selling); It’s a day to check out all the new eproducts on the market(or that will soon be on the market) – like the new Sony eReader; It’s a fabulous day to just explore and appreciate the positive benefits of all things e!” (For the origins of eStir, please open the attached newsletter and read the first column) (I had sent her an attachment).
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
With that all said, we at DPP would love the opportunity to guest on your show. The eBook and the small publishing industries are growing in leaps and bounds. Though many people are aware of eBooks, many people are not. There are many myths surrounding eBooks (i.e. they are going to replace traditional books. They’re not), and there are a great many benefits to them (i.e. you can carry 100 around with you at a time and the most it might weigh you down is a pound). Besides – how great to have some local yokels on your show who are in the publishing business when a big local event like the Palm Springs Book Fest is on!?!
Come, on, Joey – help us create a STIR: Have us on your show!
In the above email I
- Made it fun
- Made it current (used “hooks” – The Book Fest and “eStir”)
- CLEARLY asked for what I wanted
- Used multi-colors and multi-fonts
It was
- Expense-less
- Easy
- And Effective…
Joey phoned me that day (it was a Friday) and Genene was on her show the following Monday afternoon (we brought her chocolate, BTW). I sent a very short email out to the DPP emailing list that included Joey’s radio station logo and announced that Genene would be on air with the time and day. I also followed up the next day with an email “thank you”. None of it cost a dime (except the chocolate, which was, of course, optional)!
You can do the exact same thing with your book(s). Find a “hook”, don’t be afraid to have fun and ask for what you want.
My emails were simple. But I’ve seen all kinds of email marketing: beautiful flyers, photos, and MP3 offerings. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish or as you think they need to be. But they’re all expense-less, easy, and effective.
Add in a dash of creativity and repeat (if you can recall from the last marketing tip, persistence and repetition are key).
Email market. The bottom line: you have nothing to lose and only exposure (and perhaps, profits) to gain!
Birds do it. Bees do it. Well, no, they don’t. But we do – email that is! Most of us do it as a routine form of communication – to send back and forth quick quips of information, to make plans, to submit manuscripts to ePublishers…At least [pretty much] anyone who is reading this newsletter does.
And, I bet, many of you have used email to promote yourselves and your book. If you have, keep reading for kicks (and maybe you’ll find a little tid-bit that you hadn’t used before). If you haven’t, read on and be dazzled beyond belief (well, perhaps not dazzled, but you might glean some good ideas to promote yourself and your book).
What I am about to reveal is no big secret. In fact, it’s pretty elementary. But the main thing about email marketing, and the thing that should drive you to utilize it, is that it’s expense-less, easy & it’s golly-gosh-dang effective! Can’t get much better than that!
Let’s start with the fact that email marketing is expense-less. It doesn’t cost one extra dime to send an email no matter how simple or how fancy, how short or how long, and no matter if you send it to one or one thousand people. It will cost you zip-zip-zippo in dollars to create and send. Which means that anyone with a computer and email access can afford to email market.
It’s Easy. You don’t have to leave your house or office to email market. You don’t have to speak to anyone. You can do it anytime you want – early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night, dusk, dawn – whatever works for you. You don’t have to worry about paper – grade, color, or whether it’s matte or glossy - packaging, or postage.
And last, but definitely not least, and probably best of all: email marketing is effective! Email reaches people. It gets to whomever you send it to and it gets there in a more than timely manner: it gets there immediately.
[Most] people read their email, especially if the subject line peaks their interest. This is in contrast to being handed a paper flyer or postcard on the street, which usually gets looked at (momentarily, if that), and either, a) dropped directly into the nearest trash receptacle, b) dropped (ecologically incorrectly) on the ground, c) folded up and put into a pocket of later-to-be-washed pants that come out of the dryer with bits of freshly-laundered paper everywhere, or d) into a purse, never to be seen again until…oh, maybe the following year.
Recipients of email marketing tend to respond more readily than to snail-mail paper marketing. Unless someone specifically wants a product or service – and wants the product or service you’re providing at the moment they receive it in the mail, the flyer/brochure/letter usually gets a) looked at briefly, then thrown in the trash, b) thrown in the trash, unopened; c) looked at briefly and put in a pile that sits for about a month and then gets thrown away, or d) not looked at all, put in a pile for about a month, and – you guessed it - thrown away.
Just as a sidebar, because I definitely feel that one is needed here: I am still a big believer in paper marketing, because depending on the venue and how it’s utilized, paper can do the trick. However, with paper comes cost: the paper itself, the printing, and the time (and often money) it takes to distribute. And right now we’re talking expense-less.
I’ve digressed (I know that shocks you). Stick with me: I promise I am getting to the meat.
The best way to demonstrate that email marketing truly is effective is to provide you with a “case study”. I am going to use one of my own experiences as an example.
My job at DPP is three-fold: To advocate and serve as liaison for our authors, to write and edit the bi-weekly periodical, NewsBytes, and to market the patooties out of DPP and get it as much press and exposure as possible.
There is a local radio talk show here in Palm Springs that airs daily called The Joey English Show. What I know about Joey is that she likes fun and she likes chocolate.
At the end of February I sent her an email. In the subject line I wrote: “A Great Recipe!”
I began the email with something catchy:
What do you get when you mix a local eBook publisher and
Small Press Month?
A great recipe for a segment on the Joey English Show
(with a dash of chocolate, of course)!
I got the fun and chocolate in there, I added a “hook” (Small Press Month, which BTW, is observed every year in March), and that we are local (that’s worth support in itself), and what we do (a little out of the ordinary – eBook publishers). I made it stand out with a different fonts (though the fun fonts in my email don't come out in my blog) and different colors. Following that I gave my pitch about who we are, small press month, and that we’d love to be on her show.
Know what? She emailed me back that day and said she’d love to have us on her show, BUT March was too busy, would I check back next month? Bummer, I thought. So much for Small Press Month! But, not to be defeated, and still left with an opening, I resolved to contact Joey again in April.
April brought to Palm Springs the Palm Springs Book Festival, and, by way of a solicitous email, I contacted the Palm Springs Writers Guild about getting table space at the Fest to display our paper materials (brochures, cards, postcards, flyers). I also let them know that we were available to speak about eBooks, marketing, and technology at any of their meetings.
Low and behold, we were given table space and we got Genene (co-founder and CEO of DPP) a speaking gig on one of the Festival panels.
There was my new hook! I sent the following letter to Joey English (yes, it’s long, so read the whole thing or skim it…the important parts are in red anyway, so look at those):
Hi, Joey!
Here I am again…Checking in the week of probably-one-of-your-favorite-days to eat chocolate (is there ever NOT a favorite day for you, I wonder?!): Easter!
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I sent you an email at the end of February and you told me to get back to you this month. So just to remind you…
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
I represent DigitalPulp Publishing (DPP), an eBook publishing company located in Palm Springs. Founded just over a year ago, with new office space right in the heart of downtown (a hop, skip, and a jump away from you – we’re right above Jamba Juice), DPP was created to help authors, self- publishers and independent presses open a new distribution channel via eBooks by providing a free service that offers opportunities for increased exposure, sales and profits.
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
When I contacted you last time, it was coinciding with Small Publisher’s Month (March)…This time around, we have the Palm Springs Book Fest coming up and Easter! The PS Book Fest is pretty exciting, for all the obvious reasons. Easter is exciting because it sounds like the newly created holiday: eStir ! eStir was created to “stir up buzz about all things eWorthy…This is a great day to take time to email friends, family, and networking contacts about the new eBook you’re reading (or writing, or publishing, or selling); It’s a day to check out all the new eproducts on the market(or that will soon be on the market) – like the new Sony eReader; It’s a fabulous day to just explore and appreciate the positive benefits of all things e!” (For the origins of eStir, please open the attached newsletter and read the first column) (I had sent her an attachment).
Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!
With that all said, we at DPP would love the opportunity to guest on your show. The eBook and the small publishing industries are growing in leaps and bounds. Though many people are aware of eBooks, many people are not. There are many myths surrounding eBooks (i.e. they are going to replace traditional books. They’re not), and there are a great many benefits to them (i.e. you can carry 100 around with you at a time and the most it might weigh you down is a pound). Besides – how great to have some local yokels on your show who are in the publishing business when a big local event like the Palm Springs Book Fest is on!?!
Come, on, Joey – help us create a STIR: Have us on your show!
In the above email I
- Made it fun
- Made it current (used “hooks” – The Book Fest and “eStir”)
- CLEARLY asked for what I wanted
- Used multi-colors and multi-fonts
It was
- Expense-less
- Easy
- And Effective…
Joey phoned me that day (it was a Friday) and Genene was on her show the following Monday afternoon (we brought her chocolate, BTW). I sent a very short email out to the DPP emailing list that included Joey’s radio station logo and announced that Genene would be on air with the time and day. I also followed up the next day with an email “thank you”. None of it cost a dime (except the chocolate, which was, of course, optional)!
You can do the exact same thing with your book(s). Find a “hook”, don’t be afraid to have fun and ask for what you want.
My emails were simple. But I’ve seen all kinds of email marketing: beautiful flyers, photos, and MP3 offerings. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish or as you think they need to be. But they’re all expense-less, easy, and effective.
Add in a dash of creativity and repeat (if you can recall from the last marketing tip, persistence and repetition are key).
Email market. The bottom line: you have nothing to lose and only exposure (and perhaps, profits) to gain!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Author! Author!
Law and Grace
by John Bourne
For more than 18 years of my life, I served as a Police Officer in Kent, in southeast England. In that time I saw many dreadful sights, I saw the depths that human behaviour can sink to, I saw and experienced hatred and violence. I also found comradeship, courage and human decency in adversity. As part of the self-discipline that being a Police Officer requires I kept a diary of those years, and learned to be a student of human behaviour in all its many forms.
After 18 years of service, I experienced the call of God into the Christian Ministry and left the Police to begin training for the ministry.
During this time, I had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s poorest countries. We live a privileged life in the West compared to so many of our neighbours in the so-called Third World. We have all been touched by television and newspaper reports of starvation and drought and its terrible consequences for millions of people. Most of us have seen so many images that suffering has less impact on us, we become tired of requests for help and our hearts can become hard and our purse strings closed. However, if we actually went to a poor country, walked among the poverty, saw the suffering, smelt the decay; surely then the effect would be life-long. That was certainly true for me, when I visited Bangladesh in 1989 with four friends. It was for all us, a life changing experience, an experience that we desperately wanted to convey to others. One of the ways we sought to convey something of our experience was by means of a diary. I kept notes during the visit and produced a 60-page diary on our return. The diary sold over 1000 copies and attracted many comments about the writing. The reaction to it struck a chord with me, I had always enjoyed writing and hoped to have the time, one day, to do some more.
The following year I completed my training for the Christian ministry and was ordained into the Church of England. Over the next dozen years, I managed to revisit Bangladesh twice more, cycle 300 odd miles from Kent to Cornwall to raise funds for the Church, go on a mercy mission to Romania and form a link with a disadvantaged parish in inner city Liverpool. After each adventure, I wrote and produced a diary. They circulated within Church circles and were all well received, and each one kept my interest in writing alive.
One of the things that worried me about being a Vicar was the requirement to preach at least once, and often three times or more every week. What could one say that was different, week in and week out? I liked the story of the new Vicar who delivered his first sermon on how Christians should show the love of Christ in their lives. It was a great sermon and warmly received. The next Sunday he preached exactly the same sermon, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that. A Churchwarden was given the task of challenging him about this, which he duly did. The Vicar replied; “When you are all living out the love of Christ I’m preaching about I will move on to another subject!” I found that the way to prepare a different sermon every week was to continue with some of the discipline from my police days; to be a student of human nature, an enthusiast for current affairs, an observer of life and nature. From those sources there would be endless material to build a sermon on, applying the word of God to everyday circumstances.
Ill health forced me to retire in 2003 and I moved to the Sussex Coast. Finally, I had some free time. I now spend my days in writing. My first book Coppering The Cannon was about my first 6 years in the Police. Death of Innocence followed, together with quite a few short stories. I am just completing another novel before embarking on the task of finding a publisher. I have the plot for another novel in note form and I want to write some more biographical books, including my journey into the Church. I have much to learn, I am far from the finished article, but they say ‘practice makes perfect’. I do not believe that perfection is attainable but improvement and proficiency are. I have no particular system of writing. I try to have an outline prepared and then work to it. I am not the most disciplined of writers so I do meander away from my plan. I like to imagine the scene and I live the story and sometimes feel led in another direction or the idea does not work. In the novel I am working on now, I had plotted out the story, which involved the death of a group of people. When I came to write it, I lived the story and became so upset at the deaths that I changed it. The power of being a writer!
The idea for Death of Innocence came from my experiences in the police, where temptation is something often encountered. It comes in many forms but always has consequences. In my story temptation arises which seems to have no consequences, but of course it does. If one thinks about it, nearly every time anyone succumbs to temptation they do so believing that they will get away with it. Prisons are full of people who made that mistake, and for every one in prison there are many others who avoided that penalty, but have to live with disgrace or shame, the pointing finger, the reluctance to trust again or any other of the myriad consequences of yielding to temptation. In my story the consequences of temptation are awful, the discovery of unsuspected depths of evil shocking, and the call to reassess life’s values compelling. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you will enjoy reading it.
John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories.
The Death of Innocence by John Bourne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com
by John Bourne
For more than 18 years of my life, I served as a Police Officer in Kent, in southeast England. In that time I saw many dreadful sights, I saw the depths that human behaviour can sink to, I saw and experienced hatred and violence. I also found comradeship, courage and human decency in adversity. As part of the self-discipline that being a Police Officer requires I kept a diary of those years, and learned to be a student of human behaviour in all its many forms.
After 18 years of service, I experienced the call of God into the Christian Ministry and left the Police to begin training for the ministry.
During this time, I had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s poorest countries. We live a privileged life in the West compared to so many of our neighbours in the so-called Third World. We have all been touched by television and newspaper reports of starvation and drought and its terrible consequences for millions of people. Most of us have seen so many images that suffering has less impact on us, we become tired of requests for help and our hearts can become hard and our purse strings closed. However, if we actually went to a poor country, walked among the poverty, saw the suffering, smelt the decay; surely then the effect would be life-long. That was certainly true for me, when I visited Bangladesh in 1989 with four friends. It was for all us, a life changing experience, an experience that we desperately wanted to convey to others. One of the ways we sought to convey something of our experience was by means of a diary. I kept notes during the visit and produced a 60-page diary on our return. The diary sold over 1000 copies and attracted many comments about the writing. The reaction to it struck a chord with me, I had always enjoyed writing and hoped to have the time, one day, to do some more.
The following year I completed my training for the Christian ministry and was ordained into the Church of England. Over the next dozen years, I managed to revisit Bangladesh twice more, cycle 300 odd miles from Kent to Cornwall to raise funds for the Church, go on a mercy mission to Romania and form a link with a disadvantaged parish in inner city Liverpool. After each adventure, I wrote and produced a diary. They circulated within Church circles and were all well received, and each one kept my interest in writing alive.
One of the things that worried me about being a Vicar was the requirement to preach at least once, and often three times or more every week. What could one say that was different, week in and week out? I liked the story of the new Vicar who delivered his first sermon on how Christians should show the love of Christ in their lives. It was a great sermon and warmly received. The next Sunday he preached exactly the same sermon, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that. A Churchwarden was given the task of challenging him about this, which he duly did. The Vicar replied; “When you are all living out the love of Christ I’m preaching about I will move on to another subject!” I found that the way to prepare a different sermon every week was to continue with some of the discipline from my police days; to be a student of human nature, an enthusiast for current affairs, an observer of life and nature. From those sources there would be endless material to build a sermon on, applying the word of God to everyday circumstances.
Ill health forced me to retire in 2003 and I moved to the Sussex Coast. Finally, I had some free time. I now spend my days in writing. My first book Coppering The Cannon was about my first 6 years in the Police. Death of Innocence followed, together with quite a few short stories. I am just completing another novel before embarking on the task of finding a publisher. I have the plot for another novel in note form and I want to write some more biographical books, including my journey into the Church. I have much to learn, I am far from the finished article, but they say ‘practice makes perfect’. I do not believe that perfection is attainable but improvement and proficiency are. I have no particular system of writing. I try to have an outline prepared and then work to it. I am not the most disciplined of writers so I do meander away from my plan. I like to imagine the scene and I live the story and sometimes feel led in another direction or the idea does not work. In the novel I am working on now, I had plotted out the story, which involved the death of a group of people. When I came to write it, I lived the story and became so upset at the deaths that I changed it. The power of being a writer!
The idea for Death of Innocence came from my experiences in the police, where temptation is something often encountered. It comes in many forms but always has consequences. In my story temptation arises which seems to have no consequences, but of course it does. If one thinks about it, nearly every time anyone succumbs to temptation they do so believing that they will get away with it. Prisons are full of people who made that mistake, and for every one in prison there are many others who avoided that penalty, but have to live with disgrace or shame, the pointing finger, the reluctance to trust again or any other of the myriad consequences of yielding to temptation. In my story the consequences of temptation are awful, the discovery of unsuspected depths of evil shocking, and the call to reassess life’s values compelling. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you will enjoy reading it.
John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories.
The Death of Innocence by John Bourne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!
Guerrilla Marketing: Go Bananas!
Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!
Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!
For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”
Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.
What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!
The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.
At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.
Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:
When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.
Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).
So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!
But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.
By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.
Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).
I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.
Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.
Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!
“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).
If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!
Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!
Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!
For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”
Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.
What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!
The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.
At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.
Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:
When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.
Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).
So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!
But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.
By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.
Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).
I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.
Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.
Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!
“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).
If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!
Author! Author!
Innerview: Lewis James
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I have two writing styles: one romantic and one pragmatic. In the romantic style I use a pen and notepad and physically place myself in an environment (café, park, hotel lobby) that is a novel break from the norm. In the pragmatic style I go to my office, sit in front of my computer, and begin typing.
I know you were in Calcutta when you finished writing Beating Kings, Burning Angels. Where did you write when you were abroad?
I wrote in cafes and youth hostels mostly.
What is your ideal writing environment?
I have found that being in a café or writing in a place surrounded by people, usually moves me into a more flowing creative state. I also know that the flowing creative state is an illusion and that to write, you must simply take the time to write. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Perhaps it is the beer that can be ordered while in a café that is important because it numbs the monotony of rewriting.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
Grin and bear it and keep writing. I’ve written junk while thinking I was inspired and I’ve written good stuff when feeling unconnected to the moment, myself, or any wellspring of mystical union.
What authors inspire you most?
Steinbeck, Heller for Catch 22.
In your essay, Journals in the Attic, you discuss your obsession with Pulp Fiction and that Beating Kings was, in part, inspired by the film or your reaction to the film. Can you elaborate on that?
I got into a funk in writing, thinking it was important to try and just reflect reality for reality’s sake. Pulp Fiction snapped me out of this by making me realize that trying to reflect reality for reality’s sake really doesn’t really mean anything and is pretty boring. Would someone want to watch some random video taken at a street corner or footage from an ATM surveillance camera? This is reality but damn boring. Pulp Fiction made me realize that a novel is about the story stupid.
You wrote Beating Kings, Burning Angels pre-Crash. What was your reaction to the parallels in the two stories?
About 10 years pre-Crash. The parallels in the story are setting (LA), content (characters working through their individual dramas with race relations as a backdrop), and style (individual story lines with intersecting threads). My reaction was enjoyment and envy. Enjoyment of a well-crafted movie and envy that it made to the big screen and I haven’t.
I appreciated that you shared your fantasies about winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Beating Kings, as I always have fantasies about the fame and glory of publishing something extravagantly spectacular. What’s your earth-bound, bottom line hope for your novel?
My hope is that I make money, lots of money, off my novel because I would like to live a life where I have the financial resources to do whatever the hell I damn please. Once I have enough money in the bank, I will change my position and preach that writing for money is crass and destroys the integrity of the artistic impulse.
Favorite quote?
“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of Crash, explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution.
The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
Describe your writing routine…if you have one.
I have two writing styles: one romantic and one pragmatic. In the romantic style I use a pen and notepad and physically place myself in an environment (café, park, hotel lobby) that is a novel break from the norm. In the pragmatic style I go to my office, sit in front of my computer, and begin typing.
I know you were in Calcutta when you finished writing Beating Kings, Burning Angels. Where did you write when you were abroad?
I wrote in cafes and youth hostels mostly.
What is your ideal writing environment?
I have found that being in a café or writing in a place surrounded by people, usually moves me into a more flowing creative state. I also know that the flowing creative state is an illusion and that to write, you must simply take the time to write. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Perhaps it is the beer that can be ordered while in a café that is important because it numbs the monotony of rewriting.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?
Grin and bear it and keep writing. I’ve written junk while thinking I was inspired and I’ve written good stuff when feeling unconnected to the moment, myself, or any wellspring of mystical union.
What authors inspire you most?
Steinbeck, Heller for Catch 22.
In your essay, Journals in the Attic, you discuss your obsession with Pulp Fiction and that Beating Kings was, in part, inspired by the film or your reaction to the film. Can you elaborate on that?
I got into a funk in writing, thinking it was important to try and just reflect reality for reality’s sake. Pulp Fiction snapped me out of this by making me realize that trying to reflect reality for reality’s sake really doesn’t really mean anything and is pretty boring. Would someone want to watch some random video taken at a street corner or footage from an ATM surveillance camera? This is reality but damn boring. Pulp Fiction made me realize that a novel is about the story stupid.
You wrote Beating Kings, Burning Angels pre-Crash. What was your reaction to the parallels in the two stories?
About 10 years pre-Crash. The parallels in the story are setting (LA), content (characters working through their individual dramas with race relations as a backdrop), and style (individual story lines with intersecting threads). My reaction was enjoyment and envy. Enjoyment of a well-crafted movie and envy that it made to the big screen and I haven’t.
I appreciated that you shared your fantasies about winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Beating Kings, as I always have fantasies about the fame and glory of publishing something extravagantly spectacular. What’s your earth-bound, bottom line hope for your novel?
My hope is that I make money, lots of money, off my novel because I would like to live a life where I have the financial resources to do whatever the hell I damn please. Once I have enough money in the bank, I will change my position and preach that writing for money is crass and destroys the integrity of the artistic impulse.
Favorite quote?
“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”
Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.
Interwoven vignettes, in the style of Crash, explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution.
The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.
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