72 Authors joined together to share gifts and a book from Dr. Tianna Conti: Love’s Fire: Beyond Mortal Boundaries.

The publisher notified Amazon and made sure there were books in stock. All the authors involved contributed bonuses and a special offer was made for December 7th (the 13 year anniversary of the story on which the book is based). All send out email to their followers, and shared the book with social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

“We woke up this morning to a best seller” said Warren Whitlock of BestSellerAuthors.com “Amazon had run out of stock!  Fortunately, there were enough back orders for the book to be a best seller.”

By 7 AM, the reported rank of book sales was dropping while the publisher worked with Amazon to get an additional quantity of books into the system. An note of the web site was posted reading

Special Announcement:

As of 5:32 AM This morning, Amazon ran out of Love’s Fire. Thank you for making us a BEST SELLER.

GOOD NEWS: Amazon confirms more books in warehouse. While the page may say "out of stock" you can order an still get your book for the holidays.

Author Tianna Conti wrote Love Fire to share what she has learned about love and relationships after experiencing events when her husband passed right after they were married. The book launch was timed to go with a new movie Tianna’s production company is releasing and fell on the anniversary date of her late husband’s passing. Tianna was joyful when she heard the news of the book’s success:

First, thank you not only for Best Seller…it has transformed Dec. 7 one of the worst days of my life into a triumph for the message to enhance others lives and possibilities.   Today, the book is coming out, tomorrow the movie and I adore you for your expertise and timing of our launch.  It is a memory of a lifetime for me far beyond best seller…a new life and we did it together…..created a holiday miracle……heartfelt love and appreciation.

BestSellerAuthors.com is built around Warren Whitlock’s mission to help authors promote new books, share messages, and teach authors to promote their books using social media and online marketing.

Warren Whitlock is a speaker, author, and book marketing strategist. He is a co-author of the first book on Twitter “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online” and is working on a new book for 2011 called “Profitable Social Media”

After turning down thousands of Facebook friend invitations due to their cap on the number of connection one person can have, I finally put up my own page.

Now I get to write a message when someone send a friends request.. it’s got to be unique… if you cut and paste, Facebook will give you a spam warning. This would have been so much easier if I had not waited.

<===== Click on this box to see my page now

I also put great content every day. I share a lot of links and videos and articles each day, but reserve some of the best for my Facebook Page.

Three weeks into the experiment.. just a few dozen have LIKEd the page. Working on a more hyped up version with free gifts that only go to my page’s followers.

Why Do I Do All This Work?

The Facebook market is huge. Building out pages for clients, with promotions takes some work at first.. but soon the fans start to share and a community is formed.

We’ve seen unknown authors grow to thousands of followers after a few months, and much more if there’s good content and a marketing and promotional strategy.

For my own page, I’ve been forgoing a lot of heavy promotion. I share so much on Twitter and other sites.. so far I’ve not seen a need for a separate strategy. I know in a few months there will be more followers and tell myself that the frustration of watching it slowly build will add insights I can share with you.

Do you have a Facebook Page?

You likely have a profile page on Facebook, but all signs point to Facebook putting more emphasis on PAGES for everything other than your real life friends and family.

If I had it to do over, I’d focus more on the PAGE then my profile. I suggest you do the same.

I now recommend a Facebook PAGE, A blog and online radio for authors who have a  Best Seller Roadmap. If you are new to online marketing, we have resources that can set it all up for you, and a program that can build up a targeted following fast.

UPDATE: We’ve been added to this Business & Economy Directory

No doubt you are anxious to share your message with everyone you meet and talk about your baby.  You have an emotional bond with your book, your topic and are excited to share it.

Authors love their books.

Readers aren’t like you. They have motivations and emotional triggers and their own goals. You and you book are not at the top of their lists.

So How Do You Get Their Interest?

In all your book marketing, social media, interviews and interactions with readers, make it about them.

Sally Hogshead, wrote a book explaining how to be fascinating. FASCINATE: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

I just finished reading Sally’s book and have dozens of questions for her whenever I get a chance to do an interview. She’s an expert on her topic and I imagine could produce more content, talk for hours and fascinate you with what she knows.

However, on Sally’s Blog, there are interviews with other authors that would be on interest to anyone wanting to know more about persuasion and fascination.

Sally marketing is for her readers. Provides information that readers will love and draws you in with an appeal to your emotional needs, not hears.

Your Appeal To Readers Emotions

Watch Sally’s video below. It’s a short and simple interview with best selling author Scott Stratton about UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

This short interview asks questions that would interest readers of Fascinate, and focuses on a message Scott is sharing.

Scott practices this too. The interview is not “why buy my book” or him. His answers are directed to the subject, from the hear and great advice for any author.

Watch for the information. Watch for the method and think about how you might go beyond selling your book and think about what appeals to your readers emotions.

Thousands of Online Marketers came to Las Vegas last week for PUBCON. An conference for webmasters, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media and Internet businesses.

Many of the sessions were about Twitter and Social Media.. and how to make them work for business. In one session, “Latest Trends on Twitter,” I shared my thoughts about what make Twitter work so well in the new world of marketing and a step by step approach to getting your message out today.

I told them about Edward Bernays, the greatest marketer of the 20th Century and the 3 steps for making a message spread.

Bernays is the guy who invented Public Relations. Before Bernays, we called it propaganda. Propaganda wasn’t a negative term until much later. In fact, Bernays wrote a book Propaganda in 1928 long before the Nazi’s gave the word a bad name.

Bernays was an expert as determining the desires of the public, then crafting his messages into short, memorable ideas that people would want to share. Today, we these memes.. the smallest unit of an idea, Or the more popular term for a short repeatable message: sound byte

Bernay’s worked for pork producers. They wanted to sell more bacon. After researching how people thought about bacon and breakfast, Bernays decided to tie bacon to the more popular dish of eggs and created the phrase you likely use today: “bacon and eggs”

In 1929, Bernays placed article in newspapers from his Middle America Information Bureau featuring quotes such as “Doctors recommend that Americans start the day with a hearty breakfast such as bacon and eggs.” Before that, this popular phrase didn’t exist.

Today, one might question the health benefits of that statement, we won’t discuss that here. What’s important to our study of marketing messages is that the simple idea of attaching bacon to the more popular eggs and creating a short, memorable, easily repeatable phrase has worked over an over again.

Twentieth Century media was broadcast. Companies with money to buy enough advertising would use it to create the popular slogans and products we talked about. In the Twenty-first Century, we’ve got a fragmentation of the old media and many channels that connect person to person without a centralized middleman (ie the publisher or broadcaster) and everyone can create and choose their own messages. It’s much, much more expensive to try to buy your way into popular culture, which makes crafting your sound byte more important.

Today, more than ever, it’s vital that you distill your message into a short meme that can be shared. A sound byte version that is consistent and repeatable.

Once you have a sound byte, you next work on finding groups of people who are already having a conversation about your topic. In the past 15 years, millions of web sites, special interest forums, niche blogs and personal web sites have been created and recently, Facebook and other social media have allowed anyone with any interest to connect and identify themselves. The cost of connecting is essentially zero, so there is no longer a need to trust a centralize authority (big media) to decide what message gets spread.

You can create your own community from scratch, but the leverage of connecting with thousands of existing groups and communities will work faster. Their structure will be stronger and is now the best means to share your sound byte.

Once you have a sound byte and engage with the conversations online, the third step is one that often frustrates marketers trained in the 20th Century… you must count on serendipity to succeed.

Serendipity is not “wishing for good results”… rather, it is the essence of tapping into the market power of trillions of individual conversations going on right now.

The science of chaos theory tells us that random events are extremely difficult to predict on an individual basis, but very dependable when grouped together.

You use serendipity every day.

One example of our dependence on chaos and serendipity is a water faucet. It would be impossible to predict the flow of one drop of water from the faucet into your glass (will this be the drop that splashes onto the counter top?) but you can count on the majority of the drops winding up in your glass.

Thanks to the extremely low costs of producing and sharing media today, you can share your meme (sound byte) over and over, through text, video, audio on blogs, social networks and media sharing sites where conversations are already happening.

When your message resonates with the reader, they can easily share it with others in that group, and groups that you don’t even know about. While you can’t predict which message unit will resonate with any of the groups, once you build relationships with these groups and learn their desires, you will begin to improve your odds of resonating and serendipity will kick in.. bringing you success well beyond anything you could have predicted for one campaign.

There are still many opportunities to buy your way into a conversation. Advertising a meme that resonates will speed up the chance that it will succeed. (advertising a message that does not resonate will not. It just adds to the noise at best and could even create an backlash).

The work of Edward Bernays shows us that the principles of marketing that work best are not new. The media has changed, and the days of multi-million dollar launches over loading us to break into the conversation are pretty much over. The playing field is a level as it’s ever been.

Use this simple three step process in any media for effective promotion:

1. Distill your message into a sound byte
2. Join the conversations. Add value while using your sound byte
3. Expect serendipity

My own sound byte version of today’s marketing is “Listen and Love” When I speak about marketing, I tell businesses that the conversation is already going on, then encourage them to listen. Once they really listen to people, they find things they can do to add value and do it (the “love”).

Using this approach to creating a meme, then sharing it, is “Listen and Love” on steroids. Once you begin to see the value of listening and responding as you would to help a friend, you will find your sound byte gets picked up and repeated. People don’t want to be sold. They do want to do business with someone they know, like and trust. You can build this trust with an authentic sound byte you spread while you listen and love.

The story of bacon and eggs is just one of many case studies from the work of Edward Bernays that we’ll be sharing in a book soon. Let me know if you see value it this method, or would like to know more about marketing this way.

I suspect you’ll think of Edward Bernays next time you order bacon and eggs.

While working with authors who have joined our free Facebook page to promote good health, helping people and sharing great books during November, I found some authors are still having trouble with Facebook

That’s because Facebook is NOT a place to sell book directly.. it’s a HUGE RESOUCE for building a network that will help you sell more books than you ever thought possible.

The key to Facebook, social media, and ALL future book marketing and promotion: Today RELATIONSHIPS are more important than transactions.

Think about this.. you go into a bookstore and see a bargain bin. Do you expect to find the best ideas and help there?  NO. Those are the losers. The books that aren’t worth full price.

While some of the old rules of retailing apply to books and information products (i.e., having a sale).. for the most part, the more direct selling an author does, the lower the value of his expertise.

What you want is readers BEGGING FOR HELP and ANXIOUS TO ENGAGE. Social media is perfect for this.. and Facebook is the hands down leader.

So what do you do?

You stop saying “come buy my book” and start building relationships.. it’s as simple as that.

Here’s the action plan:

Start by finding like minded authors. I’ve talked to thousands for non-fiction expert authors over the past decade. Nearly every author I meet understands that their book is like a business card… just the start of relationship.

Finding authors in your niche, or related topics is easy today. Many of them already have a Facebook Page.

For an example.. I’ll use Brandi Funk’s “Cut Your Health Care Costs Now”

You’ll want to join us on this one.. It’s current, it’s gaining momentum fast, and (BIG HINT) It’s the one Warren is working on right now, so you know you’ll get more promotional oomph immediately

Go to Our FACEBOOK PAGE and LIKE the page

Now you are ready to cross promote with our network.

Our partners are posting on blogs, their Facebook pages, their newsletters, Twitter and more about others in the promotion. These tell people about Brandi’s book, and the idea of getting healthy information out this month. So here’s what you do:

1. Post on your blog that you are one of the authors supporting this promotion. You’ll want to mention Brandi’s book and link to the Brandi’s Facebook page.
   It can be a review of the book, a description of the promotion, or short narrative of why you are joining us to promote good health and healthy helpful authors. Anything BUT an ad for your book (we’ll get to that)
2. Tell Facebook and Twitter. Tell your readers, Tell your network.. Tell the world.
3. We will do the same. The traffic you get will be to that post.. and the world will see you are a giver
4. More people come to this page, some buy the featured book and some go back to your gift announcement.

This  publicity is permanent because the links on the web will be left up, indexed by search engines, and found by readers again and again.

Brandi will continue to post health tips here and network with the partners in the program. Soon there will be thousands of LIKEs (fans of the page) and high authority link juice (that’s SEO talk for “Google will like you more”)

When you start promoting like this… Shining the light on others besides yourself, you’ll find plenty of other pages and others to help out. They will be happy to tweet and talk about you AFTER you have done it for them. Simply LIKE their page, comment on their blog, share a link, blog about them or whatever else you can think of to promote their good work (for free and in just a few minutes of your time) and they will LOVE YOU.

Remember. You can get anything you want out of life if you help enough other people get what they want. While it’s normal for you to include your web site with your signature, mention your book or blog in a post, or share a resource that will lead to making you money.. more and more, people are attracted to those who HOLD OFF selling and help others first.

As all of your partners work to build the network. You can create your own Facebook page, cross promote new products, all that marketing stuff… but READERS want to see conversation. Makes sure you start with conversation!

Build the network and you will build your own brand. The next step is ON FACEBOOK

Best selling author David Meeman Scott’s new book will be out next week but as usual, he’s been marketing and promoting it for some time.

Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now is already a best seller. Readers have been anticipating it because he’s built his tribe of followers and engaged them in many ways over the past few years.

In this video, Scott shows how two companies took advantage of a news event as it happened. When you watch it, think about how you can jump on stories related to your book in real time.

Los Angeles, CA

Emerging Leader of United Way Social Media Training and Workshop for businesses and leaders on October 28th at 5:30 at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP in Los Angeles

Warren Whitlock of BestSellerAuthors.com will train local business leaders on social media strategies they can use to create a buzz, draw a crowd, raise funds and build a community with a non-profit events. The live interactive training session and workshop will cover how social media can grow your business and help build awareness for campaigns such as United Way’s Creating Pathways Out of Poverty plan.

Whitlock is co-author of the first book on Twitter.com, Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online. He speaks to business and trade groups on social media marketing and is the host the syndicated Social Media Radio Show.

The workshop is open to the public. Seating is limited, RSVP by calling 213.808.6251 or via email EmergingLeaders@unitedwayla.org

BestSellerAuthors.com is a web site for authors, speakers, business professionals and though leaders sharing new ideas, best practices and promotional ideas to help experts create a presence online, share important memes and messages, attract new readers and business leads and create online marketing systems to make a book (or idea) a best seller. Warren Whitlock is the publisher.

United Way is a worldwide network in 30 countries and territories, including nearly 1,300 local organizations in the U.S. It advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all. Our focus is on education, income and health – the building blocks for a good quality of life. United Way recruits people and organizations who bring the passion, expertise and resources needed to get things done. LIVE UNITED is a call to action for everyone to become a part of the change.

United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways out of poverty by helping homeless people move into housing, providing students with the support they need to graduate high school prepared for college and the workforce, and helping hard-working families become financially stable. United Way identifies the root causes of poverty and works strategically to solve them by building alliances across all sectors, funding targeted programs and advocating for change.

 
Guest Post by Mike Saunders

• Powerful
• Relationships
• Integrating
• Social
• Media

The consumer holds the true power these days. It has always been taught in business school that you should listen to your customer so you can deliver the products and services they want and need. But now it’s even more critical because if we don’t listen to them, they will start a conversation — good or bad — about our product or service online. This may be on their Facebook page, blog or maybe even a YouTube video that could damage your reputation. This is just as important for an author to focus on and create online paths for their targeted readers to find their book.

What can be done? How can you connect with your audience to convey the core message of your book?

• Learn how to participate in social media networking that is already going on all around you.
• Find where your readers gather.
• Listen to their conversations online.
• Understand their needs.
• Participate and contribute in a helpful way to their questions and comments. Be the solution-provider.

Social media is an effective tool to analyze, as well as reach out to your readers and target audiences. The fast- changing customer behavior and market trends would take much longer through conventional methods, but with social media tools this process is expedited.

You must weave your marketing message into a “voice” that is conversational because Social media is playing a huge role in the lives of authors and you want your readers to get a feel for your style even before they buy your book.

While you cannot guarantee the level of social media success, it is a powerful force that cannot be ignored because it helps authors to get a better insight into the needs, requirements and mindsets of their readers , while deepening a more personal relationship with them.

After all, one of the biggest benefits of social media is that it is already happening online. Being able to insert your message into what is already going on makes your message well-received because it is not selling, it is participating and educating your targeted readers. You are positioned as the trusted advisor.

Let’s think for a minute about “participating and educating” in the statement above. Does this mean you pop into a forum where your targeted readers gather and start typing “buy my book because it’s the best!”? Although you may feel tempted to do this because you need sales, you must resist this urge because you immediately become a nuisance.

In conclusion, you must clearly define your unique message your book offers as well as well as exactly who your targeted reader is. This is critical because once you know this information, your job is to deliver your message to them using social media in ways that draws them into your content and eventually to buy your book.

Today’s special post is from Rebel Brown, author of Defy Gravity. To receive a free workbook with your copy of Defy Gravity, click on the book cover now.

How Big is that Dinosaur?

Publishing has to be one of the largest Gravity markets I’ve seen in years. By hanging on tightly to the way they’ve always done it – publishing status quos can make it really difficult for innovative authors to do their thing. Talk about dinosaurs!

In my own personal journey toward the publication of Defy Gravity, I’ve learned a lot about avoiding the publishing tar pits where the dinosaurs exist. Here are some tips I’d like to share with you.

1. Independent is a good thing. Publishing is the only industry I can think of where being an independent entrepreneur is viewed by some as a negative. In technology, financial services, small businesses and more – being innovative, striking out on your own and choosing to be different gives rise to resounding applause. In publishing – if you choose to independently publish your book – some of the old guard will say you’re not a real author. What rubbish!

As an independent author I had the chance to make my own decisions about everything from content to book cover design to promotion. I had the opportunity to do things differently, to stand out above the noise – and most of all to stay true to myself and to my vision for the book. Those are all things I would have lost at the hands of a traditional publisher. They’d own the book – not me. They’d make all the decisions – not me. And they would do it exactly the way they’d always done it. Where’s the innovation in that?

2. Dare to be different. I’ve been a consultant for twenty something years, yet I’ve never heard so many rules about what you can and can’t do when it comes to a book. All based on the way it’s been done in the past, all designed to have you conform to those who came before you – all designed to make you a follower and not a leader. I’ve never heard a business want to make their products conform to what everyone else is doing – where’s the value in that?

Maybe that’s why so many people tell me I’m an original voice in this market. I chose to ignore the rules and do what I thought was best –based on my own experiences and knowledge, which after all is what my book Defy Gravity is all about. I wrote the book the way I thought it needed to be written, zany humor, commentary and all. I focused on my own voice and I didn’t listen to what others were writing about. Write your own book, not everyone else’s.

3. Stick to your guns. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “That isn’t done in this business.” My response was, “Well, maybe it should be!” Then there was the time when one of the retail chains told my publisher they wouldn’t carry Defy Gravity unless I changed the cover art. The reason? It didn’t look like every other business cover out there. Here we go with the status quo again. Well, I’d just returned from a conference where some 500 people showed me how much they loved the cover on the Advance Review Copy. So I wasn’t about to back down. And I didn’t. I decided to keep the cover – because I knew it was the right cover for my book. If that retailer didn’t carry the book, so be it. There was a lot of consternation in certain quarters about my decision, but I stuck to my guns because my readers had spoken.

Today, that cover gets more positive comments than I would have ever imagined. It’s the thing that gets people to pay attention to the book – and isn’t that what a cover is all about? It wasn’t very easy to follow my intuition and stick with the design I believed in. As an author, I want every retailer to carry my book and get the word out there. But, I’m happy to say that despite their initial reluctance, the retailer in question wound up coming around and placing a substantial order. When you stick to your guns, dinosaurs either evolve, like they did in this case, or they go away and become extinct.

4. You don’t need millions. The first three publicists I spoke with asked the same first question. “How much money do you have?” The story was that I needed 5-6 full time people, a million dollars and a corporate backer, and of course a nice big retainer with a big fat publicist to launch my book if I wanted any attention.

More Gravity! That’s like saying you have to advertise and do mega email blasts to communicate with your customers. That’s such OLD news. Thanks to social media and the internet – you can create a groundswell of momentum behind your book without breaking your bank. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Darned near every person who supported my book with endorsements, promotions, interviews and more – I met on Social Media! Not my clients, of course, but everyone else.

Social media gives us the opportunity to form relationships, share ideas, get to know one another – all in a down to earth, truth on the table fashion. What better way to create momentum for your book than through the people who appreciate your messages and story. Forget the big dollars – be yourself, make friends, share your views and let social media build the momentum for you.

Most of all – write the book you want to write. Believe in yourself and be unique. That’s the best way to ditch Gravity, dump the dinosaurs and power your success.

Read Fast Company Article “13 Business Books That Will Blow Your Mind” here

Rich Brooks

President, flyte new media
Portland, ME

Rich listed some of the best books any business person could read. I’ve listed the titles here that are clients or friends (Dale Carnegie and Ayn Rand are the exceptions.. two people I wish I had met)

• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath
• Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin
• Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presenting Design and Delivery 
• Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
• The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• Crush It! Why NOW is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
• The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

There are many seminar events where you can learn more about learn about blogs, online marketing, speaking, writing and publishing, but one group stands out for having the best group of veteran web people who have been working in the trade for as long as it’s existed

The education choices at PubCon are emended, but make sure you attend the expo, the parties and mingle with the people outside the sessions too. Easy to meet people who have worked full time on designing the web for 15 years, or bought and sold multi million dollars companies.

The networking is what makes any such event. Pubcon is founded on that. It literally started as a conference in a pub when WebMasterWorld folks decided to get together to strengthen relationships formed online and help each other build better performing sites.

If you ever had a job like this, you know about PubCon. If you are new to business on the Internet, Pubcon is a great place to mingle and learn fast. That why I’ve attended for many years, and why I’m speaking at Pubcon again this year.

Come Join Me And Save 20%

When you come to Vegas, let’s plan to meet. Click on the banner above and use Code: rc-4514615 to save 20% on your already reasonably priced ticket when you order now. Then drop me a note and let me know you are coming. We can meet after my session, or at one of the tweet ups or parties.

Tweet me at @WarrenWhitlock or a comment below to let me know you will be here.

My friend Michael Port has been posting fascinating videos like the one below.

Here he talks to Bob Burg, best selling author of “Endless Referrals” and “The Go Giver” series about the similarities of these two authors books.

Selling books is not a competition. With webcam technology, you can put two authors on the screen and explain concepts from each others work with very little cost in time and effort.

If you’re not getting enough interview requests for you book, maybe it’s time you learned one of these systems and started asking other authors. I know dozens of authors, big name best sellers and up and coming smart experts who are anxious to share.

Got a video or radio interview program? Let me know. I’d like to feature best author interviews on this blog, especially topics that will help other authors. And by the way.. I’m available for interviews too :)

Michael Port and Bob Burg on Relationship Building, Book Shrinking, and More… from Michael Port on Vimeo.

Authors need to have a tribe to read what they write.

Publishers don’t build tribes, they print and distribute books.  This business model has served them well in the past when there were limits on ways authors could reach readers.  All authors and publishers would do well to study Tribes

Seth announced his intentions on his blog

Authors need publishers because they need a customer. Readers have been separated from authors by many levels–stores, distributors, media outlets, printers, publishers–there were lots of layers for many generations, and the editor with a checkbook made the process palatable to the writer. For ten years, I had a publisher as a client (with some fun self-published adventures along the way). Twelve bestsellers later, I’ve thought hard about what it means to have a traditional publisher.

Traditional book publishers use techniques perfected a hundred years ago to help authors reach unknown readers, using a stable technology (books) and an antique and expensive distribution system.

The thing is–now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn’t help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive…. I honestly can’t think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade. The question asked by the corporate suits always seems to be, “how is this change in the marketplace going to hurt our core business?” To be succinct: I’m not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.

We know that publisher can still serve an author. If you have build a two way dialog with your tribe (say, you are on TV but have never blogged) then a large check from someone betting on your title to click with their distribution is a no-brainer.

Seth has been teaching us to build a tribe for years. Now he’s broke ties with the old model that used to serve him. No doubt he’ll do well.

What’s your strategy to build a two way dialog with your readers?

Laura Stack’s new book came out today and while she is already established as an author, she know the market and pulled out all the stops to have a fabulous launch day.

My gift will be one of the many bonuses you find on Laura’s book site.

She didn’t stop there. As we suggest, she has a presence in social media.. a real presence with two way conversation and a lot going on. Plus a lot more than just a book with bonuses over at her site.

Here’s a bit about the book.. read more at her site

In this competitive economy, just being able to do your job is no longer enough, and competence is expected. To be successful in the business world and reach your full potential in life, it’s not enough to be simply competent. Our modern, super-competitive world is full of opportunities for the go-getter, but to take advantage of them, it’s essential to become "Super Competent." The SuperCompetent person is one that companies fight to get, fight to keep, nurture as team players, and see as future leaders in their business growth.

But SuperCompetence isn’t something you’re born with—it’s something that you can learn, no matter where your strengths lie or what industry you work in. In SuperCompetent, productivity expert Laura Stack identifies the behaviors that build leadership skills, boost organizational efficiency, and blast high-potential producers to the top of their fields. With Stack’s Six Keys, you’ll be able to consistently improve your performance, develop the confidence that will propel you forward, and achieve breakthrough results in your career:

1. Activity: the value and importance you place on your tasks
2. Availability: your mastery of your schedule
3. Attention: the capacity to focus intently and concentrate on your work
4. Accessibility: the ability to organize the inputs and outputs in your life
5. Accountability: the extent to which you take personal responsibility for your actions and outcomes
6. Attitude: your motivation, drive, and proactiveness

SuperCompetent will give you proven methods to reach your maximum potential and achieve breakthrough results.