READER’S DIGEST GROUP TAKES A TURN TO THE RIGHT

EMPHASIZING CONSERVATIVE  & RELIGIOUS VALUES 

After years of service as Middle America’s folksy, inspirational “bible,” the venerable Reader’s Digest company is turning to religious leaders like evangelist Rick Warren as it tries to soften its financial losses  by reaching out to the nation’s religious right.  

A new program, labeled “Purpose Driven Connection,” will offer a combination of print magazine, DVDs and religious workbooks four times a year. The $30 subscription will also give participants membership in a social network. Sounds like stodgy old Reader’s Digest is coming of digital age! 

Circulation is being decreased by approximately 2.5 million and the name sake magazine will now appear only 10 months of the year. 

If it is successful, this experiment will be only phase one of the new emphasis, according to Mary Berner, the company’s President and CEO, who anticipates introducing new publications aligned with other religious leaders. 

How interesting that this icon of American publishing has to turn to the spiritual to bail it out of its financial mess. Is this some variation of charity begins at home? 

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AN INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO WHY

E-MAIL SUBSCRIBERS OPT OUT 

Every newsletter author cringes each time a subscriber opts out. Of course, the SPAM rules set forth by government are quite demanding in their requirements for easy opt-outs. eMarketer recently presented  some interesting statistics that should be helpful to those of you who market through e-mail. 

In a study done by Epsilon and ROI Research, 55% of American and Canadian e-mail subscribers opt out occasionally and 14% do so frequently. Only 5% stated that they never unsubscribe. 

The primary reason given by 67% of “opt outers” is a lack of relevant content. In addition, 64% stated they dropped out because they were sent too much mail too frequently.  About half of the respondents to the study said they left because of a concern that their address was being  shared or sold.  

There is no question that e-mail promotion is one of the most cost-effective methods of promoting books. Careful attention to these findings is critical to keeping the subscribers we try so hard to obtain.  

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THE PRESIDENT’S WRITING SUCCESS SEEMS TO HAVE INSPIRED

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE OBAMA CLAN 

The announcement that half brother George Obama has landed a healthy contract from Simon & Schuster for his memoir brings the number of books being written by relatives of the President to four. His half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and Craig Robinson, Michelle’s  brother, are both plugging away at their computers.  

The doctoral dissertation of President Obama’s deceased mother Stanley Ann Dunham, is being prepared for release by Duke University Press.  

It used to take a political connection to the White House to snare a profit-hungry major publisher; now one apparently can do it just by a family connection. Is it any wonder that publishing is in tough shape?   

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish and Promote Your Work 

THE EMERGENCE OF THE E-BOOK 

      Without question, this is the year of the e-book. Or at least the year in which it was finally given a great deal of coverage and respect. Attendees at Book Expo America can certainly attest to that. Seminars, display booths and a great deal of chit chat at lunch and other breaks were devoted to this technology so often derided in the past.

      Although relatively little has been publicized about e-books in the past, they have been an active part of the publishing world for a number of years. The earliest titles were designed for niche interests. With the encouragement of efforts like the Gutenberg Project, which was founded in 1971 to energize and promote this growing segment of the industry, e-book publishing has become widely recognized and respected.

      It is used in a number of different ways today. Because it is so inexpensive, many beginning writers choose this format to introduce themselves. Major publishers often follow print editions with an e-book for promotional purposes. Even established authors occasionally write and publish e-books and sell them directly on their web sites, capturing the entire profit.

Getting Organized

      Getting ready to craft an e-book is little different from preparing to write your print book. Whether you plan to sell it or distribute it free, the book must have worth. If it is nonfiction, it must contain information that benefits the reader. If a novel, the story line must be clear and the characters richly drawn. In other words, quality content is key for any type of book on or offline. So plan it carefully, and be certain there is an audience out there eager for the information you will impart.

      Just as any other book, it must be sequenced so that it flows smoothly, always adding new and pertinent information. If you are writing a how-to—and e-books are frequently used to impart how-to information—think in terms of the step-by-step instructions that accompany a do-it-yourself kit, and use a similar pattern for your book. Each segment, chapter or otherwise, should build on the previous ones.

      In organizing your fictional e-book, adhere to the techniques we discussed at length in earlier columns that dealt with writing the print novel. (Check the archives from March 18 to April 15.) The e-book must be designed in the same roller-coaster pattern that we emphasized for print novels to hold the reader’s attention. It must build on its opening that describes the goal the protagonist has set for him/herself, and include the obstacles that litter the way and must be overcome to reach that goal.

E-Book Style

      Online readers of nonfiction almost always prefer a fast moving style that clearly reveals fact after fact. Clarity and simplicity is key. Keep your sentences from rambling on and on. Use shorter paragraphs to break your information into kernels that can readily be digested. Remember always that your basic concern is providing information of real benefit to your reader. Make it as simple as possible for him/her to grasp it.

      The format should be highly legible with adequate leading (space) between your lines. If you are planning to give the book to an e-book publisher, check on the formatting requirements such as margins, for they often differ. If you tackle the project yourself, you can purchase programs that help you design the book and some that will train you in more sophisticated issues like HTML.

      Make the book easy to navigate by creating a table of contents that gives an accurate description of what each chapter contains. Be certain your page numbering is accurate. Include an index to make referencing parts of the book easier. Whether you choose to include a foreword or introduction is up to you. Of course, adding a foreword by a known personality in the field you are writing about is a major plus.

      The cover design is critical. It should reflect the quality of the content inside to attract the potential reader, whether you are selling it or giving it away. Because of the importance of the cover to attract the reader, it is always wise to retain a professional cover designer.

Introducing Your E-Book

      It’s fine to craft a high quality e-book, but if no one is aware of its existence, no one is going to read it. Even if you choose to use an e-book publisher/distributor, it is important for you to take an active part in publicizing and promoting the book. You will want to generate sales from potential buyers far beyond those reached by the distributor.

      Your web site in part should become a sales tool for the book. Unless your contract with the publisher restricts you from selling on your own, you should create a “landing page” on your site that gives detailed information about the book, and provides a means of purchasing it. These will be your most profitable sales, for you will be receiving the full price of the book, not just a royalty, a percentage of the profit.

      There are a variety of online “retail programs” that allow you to accept payments through your web site. The best known is PayPal. With most of these programs, your buyers are able to pay by credit card. Many people have a PayPal account and use it for all online purchases. You are notified each time a sale is completed and the monies will be added to your own account.

      An auto responder can be installed on your site that will automatically send off a letter thanking the buyer and provide access to the e-book. (Although it is part of your web site, access is available only to buyers.) Smart authors will capture the name of every buyer and save it on a mailing list to use for future promotions of other books.    

      Most of the tools that you would use to promote your print book are key to making the public aware of your e-book. These include, but aren’t limited to press releases, broadcast appearances, blogging, public speaking, writing articles and linking with other sites in your field. The effort you put into promoting your e-book will directly determine the level of sales.

      Next week we will take a look at one of the most effective promotional tools the Internet offers, writing and distributing articles to tens of thousands of eager readers. Many consider it the number one method of publicizing your book. Back in April and May, we spent several columns on the technique of writing and distributing articles to print publications. Now we’ll turn our attention to the magic of digital articles. See you then.

      Keep Writing 

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IT FINALLY HAPPENED!

FACEBOOK OUTPACED MY SPACE IN MAY 

In the nip and tuck battle for social networking supremacy, challenger Facebook has finally topped My Space in the number of unique visitors each received last month. The long-time leader’s 70,255,000 was topped by Facebook’s 70, 278,000 in a squeaker. 

But according to comscoreAdMetrix, the social network advertising leader is still My Space with 47% of ad viewers. Facebook follows as number two, capturing 37% of that market. As a result,

My Space leads in earned revenue.  

eMarketer predicts it will continue to outpace its rival this year with anticipated earnings of $495 million. Despite that, eMarketer  sen ioranalyst Debra Aho Williamson says, “Facebook is becoming the go-to social networking site for marketers.” 

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“CHRONICLING AMERICA” PROJECT

POSTS ITS MILLIONTH PAGE 

The remarkable program to create a data base of decades of American newspapers now tops one million pages, creating an unequalled research source for authors, historians and others. It chronicles major events and a variety of other pertinent information written and photographed as it happened. 

The digital project, a combined effort of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts, plans to post 20 million pages from newspapers covering the period 1880 through 1922. Included will be weeklies, dailies and ethnic newspapers.  

With the addition of seven states last week, the project is being assisted by a total of 22 states that choose the regional and local papers they want included  and digitize them. The states that have participated thus far have received $11.6 million in assistance from the NEA. 

This project will result in records that are easy to access. No longer will authors and researchers be forced to wade through endless reels of microfilm scattered through a number of libraries to be able to pinpoint the information they need. The project deserves our thanks and our support. 

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KEYWORDS ARE GROWING LONGER AS

SEO PROVES A MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR CONVERSIONS 

Two helpful studies were released recently that can assist authors in generating increased book sales. The Forbes “2009 Ad Effectiveness Survey” released earlier this month found that 48% of the marketers surveyed believe that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most effective method to turning a person’s interest into a sale. 

E-mail and ezines (newsletters) were almost as effective. They were chosen by 46% of the respondents. Pay-per-click searching, although far more costly and at times more risky than either of the two, garnered just 32%. 

At the same time, Hitwise reveals a strong trending to longer keywords by marketers using SEO. Searches using eight words or more have grown by 22%, which is really amazing. However, it has always been recognized that using phrases or multiple keywords in a search pinpoints results with greater precision.  

So as you optimize your articles and press releases, consider these trends. They may help you reach page one ranking and a resulting bump in traffic on your web site. 

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SIMON & SCHUSTER JUMPS ABOARD THE E-BOOK TREND

PLACING 5000 TITLES WITH SCRIBD  

It looks as though Amazon has another strong competitor for its Kindle products. Simon & Schuster has announced that it is placing 5,000 titles in a special section of the Scribd bookstore. They all will be in e-book form. 

Scribd, in existence for only two years, has already amassed a total of 60 million viewers. With the addition of the S&S titles that include books by some of the industry’s most popular authors, traffic is expected to increase.  

Subscribers to the Scribd site can read or download a wide variety of material including music scores, research reports, recipes, travel guides and more. Just recently it opened a digital storefront and will devote a discrete section to S&S titles. They will be displayed and can be purchased. In contrast to Kindle whose $9.95 fixed price has been an issue with publishers, S&S will be allowed to determine the sale price of its e-books.. 

Simon & Schuster is somewhat of a trend setter with this latest deal. It is wisely tying in with a company that has an established network of more than 50,000 Internet surfers.  

While there has always been a concern on the part of publishers that their e-books could easily be stolen, Scribd maintains a Copyright Management System relieving publishers of their worries over piracy. The system blocks the uploading of books that have not been authorized. 

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JUSTICE DEPT INVESTIGATIONS STEPPED UP

PRIOR TO COURT HEARING ON GOOGLE BOOK SETTLEMENT 

With a hearing in Federal Court scheduled for September, the Department of Justice has begun investigating the settlement that was struck covering Google’s controversial program to scan and index millions of books. The anti-trust challenge was introduced by critics of the settlement who claim it gives Google preferential treatment. 

The settlement was reached between the “King of the Internet” and organizations of publishers and authors, but continues to suffer from substantial opposition. 

Spokespersons for Google have indicated that it will consider changing the disputed portions of the agreement if “compelling arguments” are made, but added that none have been proposed so far. Google insists the program is designed to give the public far greater and easier access to books, both in and out of print. 

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish & Promote Your Work 

USING E-MAIL TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS

OR SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND BELIEFS 

      In all the excitement over social networking—Twitter, Facebook and endless numbers of new niche networks, far too little recognition is given these days to the tried and true online communicator, e-mail. This incredible workhorse has a variety of uses: sending personal messages, conveying business communications, sharing professional knowledge and of course promoting .

      It has been and continues to be a superb vehicle to introduce the public to your book and to your thoughts. It is an essential tool in the effort to brand yourself as an expert in a given field. As you read in the first post of today’s blog, 46% of the marketers who responded to a survey conducted by Forbes stated that e-mail was the most effective online marketing tactic for generating conversions (sales).

Signature Blocks

      One of the simplest ways to use your e-mail to promote your book or your expertise is to create a signature block that automatically appears at the end of every e-mail you send out, whether business or personal. It should be short and to the point. For example, my signature block touts my latest book and the honors it has received. And it provides a way of ordering it.

      Creating the signature block is easy. In AOL, simply click on “Mail” in the upper navigation bar and scroll to “”Set Mail Signature.” You can then enter your desired text in the box that appears. In the case of Gmail, go into “Settings,” scroll down to “Signature” and fill the box with your sparkling copy. While I am not familiar with them, I am sure every other program includes this option as well.

Creating a Newsletter

      I know that everyone reading this blog uses e-mail on a regular basis for personal or business purposes. You probably send queries to magazines or to literary agents by e-mail. But I suspect that number would drop precipitously if I were to ask how many use e-mail to promote your book or send out a newsletter (also known as ezine) on a regular basis.

      It’s not terribly difficult to create a newsletter. If you have some degree of artistic flair, you can develop the design yourself. Perhaps you have a talented friend who can help. If you use a mailing house like Constant Contact, you have the option of using one of the basic formats it offers or you can upload a custom design of your own.

      An attractive design is certainly an asset, but the success or failure of your newsletter will depend on the quality and the currency of its content. When Hostway, a Web hosting company, conducted a survey of pet peeves of Internet users, more than 80% of the respondents complained about content that was out of date. It is essential to include fresh copy in each edition and to set a specific schedule for distributing your newsletter.

      Beyond that, there are no hard and fast rules that must be followed. It is up to you to decide what it is that you hope to accomplish with your newsletter. Is your goal to sell your books? Are you trying to develop your reputation as an outstanding resource in your chosen field? Is it your intent to share your knowledge? Are you using the newsletter as an income generator by including advertising?

      The tone of your message is set by you. Will it be a rambling, chatty narrative? Or a series of short news blurbs? Will you write in a light hearted mode or a very direct journalistic style? Will you invite guest authors? Or produce it all yourself?

      Consistency is essential both in the physical appearance of your newsletter and in the approach you take with your content. I strongly recommend you carefully consider all of those questions and formulate an approach you are fully comfortable with before you ever introduce your newsletter to the public.

Distributing Your Newsletter

      The initial challenge is developing a list of people to whom you can send your newsletter. As you will see in a moment this is extremely important and not just because you need recipients to make your newsletter worth the effort to produce. You also must take every precaution to avoid being charged with Spam and have your newsletter blacklisted and consequently not delivered.

      The most common way to develop your list is to offer a gift to anyone who subscribes. This is usually done on your web site. Many in the industry refer to it as an “ethical bribe.” Among the more widely used offers are an article on an interesting subject or an e-book you have written.

      There are any number of online mailing houses that can maintain an address list for you and send out your newsletter, and I strongly recommend using one of them. The task of updating your mailing list can become onerous as more and more people sign on.

      Equally important, when someone opts-out of your mailing list, it is essential that you remove that subscriber or you open yourself up to a charge of spamming. I suggest you click onto the Can-Spam Act of 2003 on the Internet and read and understand at least the summary. It will show you how to protect yourself from charges that you have spammed.  

      It is important to place an opt-out capability in every edition of the newsletter. The Spam act states, “Unsolicited commercial e-mail messages must include opt-out instructions and the sender’s physical address.” This normally appears at the end of the newsletter.

Insider Tips

      If you want to e-mail someone, but do not have their online address, try using  www.emailfinderpro.com. The low cost is $1.95 monthly.

      When someone signs on to your mailing list, be sure to capture the first name and use it with a greeting on each newsletter edition or other correspondence you mail. The better mailing houses can provide this service at no additional charge.

      If you promote different products or different books, you will want to have your list segmented so you can target recipients more exactingly. A study by Marketing Sherpa reports that lists that are segmented produce a 72% higher click-through rate than those that are not.

      Tying the “Submit Box” on your web site electronically to your mailing house eliminates a great deal of your time and effort. Install an autoresponder to send out a welcome message to all new subscribers.

      Check out the following three excellent newsletters to get some ideas. They all deal with the same subject: how best to promote your book. But they all take a very different approach. Look up Book Promotion Newsletter published by Francine Silverman, Book Marketing Expert published by Penny Sansevieri and Book Marketing Matters published by Brian Jud.

      An alternative to sending a newsletter is to extract a portion of your blog, if you write one, and send it as an e-mail to subscribers. Those of you who are reading this probably are aware that Charlie’s Choice is a portion of my complete weekly blog www.retirement-writing.com/blog. I extract it and e-mail it to my subscribers at no cost. 

      Next week we’ll turn our attention to another superb tool offered by the Internet: the eBook. As those of you who followed news of this year’s Book Expo know, eBooks have suddenly surged as a respected segment of the publishing industry. So it is important to become familiar with them. See you then.

Keep Writing! 

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