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Archives for September 2012

Join in the Fun of Writers’ Week 2012–Great Prizes Await Winners

Enter writing contests to sharpen skills.

Join the fun during Writers’ Week 2012 over at Suess’s Pieces where you are invited to enter a friendly writing competition. Like last year’s contest, writers and bloggers will be given a choice of 50 weird writing prompts.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to finish what Emily started. At the same time, you’ll meet other writers and hopefully find some inspiration for your future projects. The contest is open internationally to writers at any level. Please note: if you live outside the US, they reserve the right to substitute prizes listed here for prizes of equal value.)

Whether you’re a business writer, a blogger, a high school journalist, a poet or an aspiring novelist, you can and should participate in this writers’ community event.

  • Deadline for entries is Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
    writers' week writing contest
  • The top 10 submissions will be selected by the Writers’ Week Judges and announced on October 15, 2012.

Get the contest rules, prizes and other details at http://blog.emilysuess.com/writers-week-2012-writing-contest/

 

 

Get Millions of Readers to Review, Recommend and Buy Your Book

Readers may judge a book by its cover, but they are often swayed to buy a book (or not) by the reviews.

Honest, authentic reviews from top reviewers and avid readers are respected by prospective buyers.

A book without reviews may be passed over by potential buyers.Click to tweet (affiliate link)

Do bad reviews hurt book sales?←Click to tweet (affiliate link)

When Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy
was at the top of many literary conversations, I visited Amazon to see what all the fuss was about. I expected to check out a few reviews, but I was amazed to see that it has received 12, 666 reviews as of today.

Most of the reviewers seemed to criticize the book for being poorly written, even amateurish, but almost all of them ended with one telling phrase: “but I couldn’t put it down.” While this trilogy received its fair share of put-downs, slams and outright scathing attacks, it still enjoys best-seller of the year status.

What does all this mean?

Even critical reviews may sway readers to buy a book, if for no reason than to confirm the bad reviews.

Who is responsible for getting reviews for your book?

At one time authors counted on publicists, newspapers and magazines for reviews, but no more.

The publishing landscape has changed.

You must go after reviews as a central part of your book promotion strategy, especially if you are a self-published author.

As a matter of fact, you must start seeking reviews long before your book is published. But where do you start?

Where do you get reviews for your book?

You’ve probably already heard of Goodreads, the popular site where more than 7.3 million readers are creating bookshelves with books they’ve reviewed and recommended. But this is just one of many other sites where you can find eager readers ready to review and recommend your book.

You could comb the Internet for months and find these rich review sources on your own, but that would take a huge chunk of your time that could be better spent making contacts and requesting reviews.

For this reason I was thrilled when Joan Stewart, aka the publicity hound, offered a webinar called “Where to Find Millions of Readers Online to Review, Recommend & Buy Your Books.” (affiliate link)

You will not be able to find this many review sources in one place anywhere else. Even though I’m now one of Joan’s affiliate, I’ve been a customer for a long time. I started buying Joan’s products when I began my first Internet business back in the late 90’s before webinars existed. She was shipping audio cassettes then.(Look it up if you’re under 25.)

I consider myself a pretty good researcher and yet Joan always uncovers sources I haven’t found. What I like best about this presentation is the insider information such as the right way to approach reviewers.  The last thing you want to do is commit a faux pas.

I also admire and respect Joan’s keen knowledge from her years as a journalist that makes her savvy about on and offline sources.

In her usual manner, in this webinar Joan not only gives a content-rich presentation but has made available the following bonuses:

1. a handy directory of all the sites she mentions, by category.

2. a link to the mp4 video recording so you can watch it again and again (and you will want to)

3. a pdf of the PowerPoint slides that she used during webinar ( I watch the slides from her presentations many times to review what she shared)

4. an mp3 so you can listen on your iPod

5. a selection of the best forums and listservs where authors and publishers can learn about writing and publishing.

I recommend this webinar to all my clients as part of their marketing plan.  I know  you will find it a tremendous boost to marketing your book as well.  Get more details and grab your copy now here

What to Do When You Get Stuck–Free on 9/7/12 and 9/8/12

When Walt Disney proposed the idea of Disneyland to bankers, he was already a successful graphic artist and movie maker, and yet he was turned away by bankers over 300 times before he finally found one willing to take a chance.

After all, who could believe that such a preposterous idea would be work, much less be profitable? But Walt, familiar with rejection and failure, was undaunted.

How about you?

Do you get discouraged when you are rejected?

Are there times when you feel stuck on a project or stalled when trying to get started?

If so, you’re normal. No amount of success and achievement will protect you from having moments and sometimes spells of uncertainty and doubt.

It’s essential, therefore, to be prepared for how you will deal with the inevitable.

Self-confidence and high self-esteem help us go after our dreams and reach our goals. Unfortunately, things we experience in life can weaken our self-confidence, cause us to feel stuck and defeated and even halt our move toward our goals.

In this book you will learn ways to manage your fears and self-improvement steps to regaining self-confidence, getting unstuck and feeling motivated to resume the activities that will bring you success.

Enjoy the e-book on your Kindle or free-to-download Kindle app so you can read it on your smartphone, computer or iPad. Grab it for free on Friday, Sept. 7th and Saturday, Sept. 8th.