The Nielsen Company has released a report on the pervasive, indomitable Harry Potter brand in media, PW Daily reports. Most curious in the report is the money made from Potter transubstantiation: U.S. consumers spent $11.8 million on Harry Potter-licensed trademark cookies, candy and gum products since June 2002. Some other highlights:

• The first four Harry Potter films have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide
• The four Harry Potter movie soundtracks combined have sold more than 1.1 million copies in the U.S. There have been 180,000 total downloads of songs from those soundtracks.
• According to a recent Nielsen Cinema survey of moviegoers, 28% of persons 12+ in the U.S. have read one or more of the previous Harry Potter books, and 15% have read all the Harry Potter books to date.

According to Nielsen’s press release, of the top selling books in the U.S. since 2001, three were Potter books. Four Potter films are included in the 20 highest grossing films of all time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hits shelves in less than two weeks (if that’s too vague, there’s a to-the-second countdown here), but bets on who’s going to die, marry, or get knocked up have been going on for months.

William Hill Media, a group that collects bets on anything from Wimbledon to Oscar winners, has been taking bets on who kills Harry (that is if Harry’s one of the purported two who die in Hallows) and on whether Ron and Hermione get hitched. And, less interestingly, there’s a bet on Harry catching the snitch in a Quidditch world cup–which, to someone unfamiliar with the lexicon, might sound like a bet on supernatural STD transmission.

Lord Voldemort leads with 2/1 odds of killing Harry; Fred Weasley’s in last place with 100/1 odds.

Other Potter gambling stories here and here.

It’s been almost a year since it was first hyped, but the New York Public Library is finally displaying its espresso book machine, reports GalleyCat. Far from glamorous or futuristic, this clip from the machine’s developer, On Demand Books, plays more like an instructional video for new employees of a factory that makes bottle caps, toilet paper rolls or, well, books. And we can’t be sure, but we think the machine itself is narrating.

Naming your baby can be a hard thing to do. Parents argue for months about what to call their newborn; some parents want to continue a tradition and name the child after themselves, others simply want to know what three names will sound best together shouted across a busy toy store. The analogy of book to baby is common, and naming that book can be just as difficult as naming the baby. So unless you want your book to get shoved into lockers and beaten up on the playground every day, here are some important titling rules.

• Rule #1: Go beyond basic. You could call your book about accounting for small businesses Accounting for Small Businesses, or you could show a little flair. Give it a hook. Try it out as a question, a command, or statement. For instance, the above book sounds (a little) better as Balance Your Books in 15 Minutes: A Guide for Small Businesses. Say something interesting and you’ll stand out from the crowd.

• Rule #2: Don’t let it get too long. You have exactly eight seconds to grab a reader’s attention, and if your title is too confusing or cluttered, they will immediately move on. Boil your book down to a few words or phrases that sum up its contents. Say just enough to pull the reader in, and then stop.

• Rule #3: Make sure your title truly reflects the content of your book. If your title is Fishing in the Mountains, and it’s really all about getting good car insurance, you’re (obviously) going to attract the wrong kind of people. And all those people wondering how to buy car insurance will be forever left in the dark.

• Rule #4: Visualize the title on your ideal cover. The title will be a big component of the book’s exterior design, and your set of words needs to look good up in front. Mentally place your title on a proposed cover and see if it fits. Come up with a few fonts it would look good in. And finally:

• Rule #5: Draw inspiration from successful titles in your genre. Just like any parent, you want to believe that your book is smarter, faster, prettier, and cooler than all the other books, but it doesn’t hurt to see what’s worked for other top sellers in your category. At the same time, you don’t want your title to be a pale reflection of past hits; aim for a genre-appropriate title with a twist.

So when you’re ready to give your book a name, just think of how your own name has influenced your development, how it sums up the ineffable essence of you. Do your book a favor and grace it with a great name that will help it sell; don’t let your little baby get picked on by other, bigger books by giving it a title that’s the literary equivalent of “Norbert.”

Think you’ve already got a great one picked out? Put it to the test with Lulu’s clever but scientifically dubious Title Scorer challenge.

At the turn of the century, many in the book industry excitedly anticipated the advent of the electronic book. With titles like “The Future of Cyberpublishing Is Now!“, articles breathlessly told of the undiscovered world of e-book publishing and all its implications for authors, publishers, and the reading public. Paperless books would surely revolutionize the stodgy old book industry. So now, almost a decade later, why do most consumers react to the term “e-book” with a blank stare or casual head-scratch? Should the pronouncements of the e-book future seem as ridiculous to us now as the Y2K scare? [Unrelated fact: The author of doomsday classics The Y2K Personal Survival Guide and Millennium Bug seems to have overcome his embarrassment, becoming the president and CEO of Thomas Nelson, the nation’s largest Christian publisher, in 2005.]

Some cite a general wariness with the format as the major reason the e-book fizzled so anticlimactically. Aren’t most people who buy books the types who savor sipping coffee in a bookstore, smelling the fresh paper of a printed book? Don’t avid readers enjoy coming home and curling up on the couch by the crackling hearth, a bound copy of their favorite novel nestled in their palm? And who wants to look at a fluorescent screen in their free time after they’ve done so at work for eight hours?

A more concrete answer for the sluggish e-book takeoff can be found in the mind-boggling abundance of formats in which e-books are available and the multiple platforms for accessing them. Pair that abundance with a scarcity of actual e-book content, and you have a situation in which the public won’t show interest until there is more material available, but publishers won’t put out more material until they see more consumer demand. So all we need for the e-book revolution to take place is, theoretically, an affordable, user-friendly reading device and a large enough pool of similarly formatted e-books to justify purchase of the device.

And the presence of e-books is increasing. HarperCollins, Random House, and (to a smaller extent) Penguin all offer a wide selection on their Web sites. Barnes & Noble entirely dropped e-books in 2003, but Amazon.com’s Mobipocket site continues to build an electronic catalog that includes fiction, non-fiction, and reference books, mainly for use on handheld devices. They now have over 40,000 full texts available for purchase. Independent booksellers are jumping on the bandwagon, too. BookSense, a marketing consortium for independent bookstores, just launched a program that allows consumers to purchase e-books through independent booksellers’ BookSense-templated sites. And although the American Association of Publishers estimated an overall .03% drop in book sales for 2006, e-books showed the largest gain of any sector, rising 24.1% to 54.4 million. An unimpressive number in sales, perhaps, and certainly not in line with the old dotcom projections, but the significant growth bodes well.

No matter how slowly they’re taking hold, electronic books can still be useful to authors and publishers, and may yet play a significant role in the future of the industry. Let’s take a look at the good things about e-books:

• They sell books: It’s widely believed that distribution of free e-books actually boosts traditional sales. Avant-Guide, publishers of a well known series of city guides, have adopted this strategy in hopes that they can increase brand awareness and reach potential customers. Confident that users will be impressed with quality content and head to the bookstore, they offer a selection of their most popular titles in digitial form for free. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow is also known for his forward-thinking e-book practices; he’s been giving away free copies online for years as a way to sell more in brick-and-mortar stores. In a 2006 article for Forbes, he writes:
  

  Most people who download the book don’t end up buying it, but they wouldn’t have bought it in any event, so I haven’t lost any sales, I’ve just won an audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free e-book as a substitute for the printed book–those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the e-book as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales. As long as gained sales outnumber lost sales, I’m ahead of the game. After all, distributing nearly a million copies of my book has cost me nothing.

• They provide extra content: Many e-book editions offers special features, such as author interviews or excerpts from the author’s other work, giving them an edge over their printed counterparts.
  
• They have cool features: Advanced reading devices now have excellent resolution that mimics the printed page. In addition, users can highlight passages, make marginal notes (either through keypad entry or stylus), change font size, and read in the dark. E-books also provide a great level of portability, enabling readers to carry the equivalent of a shelf of books around in a device that’s usually well under a pound. And you can read them all with one hand. Again, the success of the e-book is contingent on the development of an attractive, functional reader and a critical mass of available titles, and we’re getting close.
  
• They can earn you a bit of extra revenue: WOWIO is trying out a new model which consists of offering free e-books for download in exchange for viewing of a few ads. Full-page advertisements are insterted in the e-book documents. The ads can be quickly skipped over and are tailored to the reader’s interests based on questions answered during initial registration. Publishers are paid a small amount per download, making the site a great way for publishers and authors to expose their work and make a little money. Visit www.wowio.com for more information.

So don’t write off the e-book just yet. Stay tuned for more; in an upcoming article, we’ll attempt to unboggle your mind to all those different e-book formats and let you know who’s closest in the race for a viable e-book reader.

When you think “book club,” you may think of old biddies, crumpets, Aquanet, doilies, and a mystery novel. Or you may think of that blasted “O” sticker you spent ten minutes peeling off your copy of 100 Years of Solitude. But the mail-order book club is a different beast altogether, supplying titles of interest to niche markets since the early twentieth century and–despite the advent of the mega-bookstore and Amazon.com–still kicking today.

This week brings news that Bertelsmann AG of Germany will acquire the other 50% of Bookspan from Time, Inc. The two companies joined forces in 2000, when Time’s Book-of-the-Month Club and Bertelsmann’s Doubleday Book Club combined to create Bookspan, which now operates over 35 book clubs. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bertelsmann (owner of Random House, the world’s biggest publisher) bought Time’s share of Bookspan for $150 million and will incorporate it into its BMG Columbia House, which currently runs the Columbia House music and DVD clubs it purchased in 2005.

Even if you aren’t familiar with Bookspan, you’re probably familiar with its modus operandi: An irresistible initial offer (”Ten books for ten cents!”) is followed by a required commitment to order a particular amount of items over a particular span of time. Customers can choose from a catalog of deeply discounted, specialized titles that are shipped to them on a regular basis, and unless they opt out, the books keep coming. If you don’t tell them what you want, they’ll just send you something and hope you like it. Discounts vary, but can be impressive, some knocking almost 80% off cover price. Other discounts can be beaten by retailers like Amazon.com or even Wal-Mart. In this case, book clubs rely on the convenience of a preselected pool of similar titles to retain customers.

Although a significant portion of Bookspan’s offerings consists of cheaper editions of already-popular books, many of its subsidiary book clubs–the more specialized ones–actively seek to acquire new material of interest to their readership. This can be a nice opportunity for authors to gain exposure and credibility. Don’t expect to make much money: Book clubs generally offer around 10% of the book club cover price, which may in turn be only 70% of regular retail price. If, however, your book is accepted into a book club, you get wide exposure to your target audience, as well as the ability to market your book as a “book club pick.” Brian Jud warns in Beyond the Bookstore to avoid making a hasty offer when negotiating with a book club; instead, ask them for standard terms and go from there. Follow these instructions when submitting a manuscript to a Bookspan club, and always submit at least six months in advance of your publication date.

It’s also helpful to check out other titles in the catalog of the club you’re considering submitting to. See if you fit in. Another helpful tip from Brian Jud: based on what you see in the catalog, draft some copy that you think would best sell your book to members.

Here are some examples of special-interest Bookspan clubs. For a full list, click here.

History Book Club: Choose from a selection of books relating to all things history, from ancient to WWII.

Equestrian’s Edge: Books of all types for horse enthusiasts, including fiction, instructional books, and horse history.

American Compass: Offers a catalog suited to today’s conservative reader. Hot titles are from names like Bill “Culture Warrior” O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter.

InsightOut: Books for LGBT readers on a variety of topics.

One Spirit: A one-stop shop for books on yoga, spirituality, nature, and, of course, the Law of Attraction.

Planned Television Arts, the nation’s largest and oldest book promoter, celebrated their 45th anniversary last month, and in honor of reaching this milestone, we are pleased to offer on their behalf 45 free tips on what authors need to know about getting published, promoted, and distributed. If you have further questions, please contact PTA’s Chief Marketing Officer, Brian Feinblum, at feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com. Please feel free to visit their website and download The Million-Dollar Rolodex, a great publishing resource, at no cost. You can also sign up for their free e-newsletter at the site.

And now, the tips.

1. Time: You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to generate publicity, but you need a lot of time. And your time is best served writing and growing your business—not tracking down media contact lists, making lots of calls, and trying to learn who to reach, how to reach them, and then what to say once you finally get hold of them. Use a publicist—it’ll save you time and a lot of headaches.

2. Affordability: They say never gamble or invest money you can’t afford to part with. The same is true with PR. Don’t dip into a college fund, retirement account or take a loan on the house to pay for publicity. Think of PR and publishing as an experiment. It’s certainly worth trying—just don’t bet the farm on it.

3. Goals: Determine what your goals are and explore how publicity will help you achieve them. For instance, you need more than a radio tour if the goal is to be a bestseller, but you don’t have to be on national TV to sell books, build your brand, create a media resume, get a positive message out there, or to increase website traffic.

4. Control Your Ego: The worst reason to do PR is pure ego. Additionally, some people simply expect their book will be an instant bestseller and be featured on The Today Show. Instead, you should do PR because you have a useful book and a positive message that deserves exposure. The rest will flow from there. Be optimistic, but contain your expectations.

5. Have a Good Book on a Timely Topic with Good Credentials: Know your competition and determine why you offer something truly new, different, unique, or better. The consumer and the media don’t need more of the same—they need a fresh voice and perspective.

6. You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover, Layout and Title: The media is like anyone else: They look at surface and make quick judgments. Your title should be one that’s short and easy to say. Don’t use insider terms that only hold significance for a few. The subtitle should clearly explain what the book is about. As for the layout design of the contents, no one will read small print, hold cheap paper, or stare at dull chunks of text in books that just don’t feel inviting. The media also likes a cover that draws them in. Appearance counts!

7. Endorsements Only Mean Something if You Don’t Have Them: You should get testimonials from fellow experts and authors on the topic you write on. Go after recognizable names, organizations, schools, etc. Professors, heads of corporations or non-profits, politicians, and celebrities are all fair game. Once you get them, do not be under the impression that this alone ensures sales. But be aware that the media and consumer will notice if no one or only small names endorse the book.

8. Timing is Key: The merits of your book speak for themselves, but if you can also link your book to a story the media would find more interesting and relevant, do so. If it’s a parenting book, link it to the first day of school, graduations, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. If it’s a hot topic like politics, link to the upcoming elections, the war in Iraq, or July 4th. Or maybe your book ties into an anniversary of an event or lines up with an honored day-week-month such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month or Literacy Day, etc.

9. Road Tours: The use of road tours is still popular, but many people substitute or supplement road tours (physically traveling to other cities) with tours they can do from one location, such as a radio tour by phone, a local TV tour by satellite, or an e-marketing campaign online. It’s a waste of time in most cases for authors to purposely hit the road for a 10-city tour. But if you already plan to be in various cities because of business, seminars, or family matters, you can seek out piggyback media, where a publicist gets you media in the cities you are in. Just don’t hit the road solely for a book tour with no events or connections to those cities.

10. Hire a Firm, Not a Publicist: PTA is unique in that our performance is tied into our fees. We offer specialized campaigns that are customized to fit the needs, goals and budgets of authors. When a publicist is willing to be invested in the project (not necessarily to get paid based on book sales, but to get compensated based on the number and types of media placements secured), only then will you have a partner in synch with your objectives. Further, a larger firm typically has more depth of knowledge, skills, resources, tools, and media relationships than one-person operations. Though some of these small entities are very devoted and hardworking, they are often stretched to the limits. They spend more time trying to bring in business than executing it and have no support to fall back on. A firm, on the other hand, has many people who can step in and assist in a campaign.

11. Watch for Ridiculous Promises: Avoid the publicist who says he has an “in” at Oprah. She only covers a few dozen books a year in the course of doing a few hundred shows annually. 175,000 books have been published in the last twelve months. You figure out the odds. That isn’t to say you can’t be on Oprah—just don’t put too much stock in empty promises about being her next guest.

12. Money is Not the Sole Deciding Factor: When comparing publicity firms, don’t let cost be the deciding factor. Sure, have a budget in mind—or some sense of a rate of return on your investment—but you should consider the key factors: What is being promised as opposed to being guaranteed? What is the length of campaign? Has the firm promoted many authors in your genre? Is it a one-person shop or a larger firm with more resources and media contacts?

13. Know Who’s Working on Your Campaign: The person who is doing your outreach is very important. Find out who will actually be conducting your campaign. It usually is not the person who is trying to bring you in as a client, and shouldn’t be. A good client manager will stay involved, but the day-to-day media booking is reserved for experienced specialists.

14. Get Good Counseling: Part of selecting a publicist means finding a knowledgeable advisor, someone who not only generates media exposure for you but who also can coach you for the news media. He or she should also provide valuable guidance and advice on all things pertaining to marketing and promoting your book, taking both a short-term and long-term approach.

15. Press Kit Writing is Important: Your publicist should write a press kit and generate creative press releases. Typical elements include a press release, biography, Q & A, book excerpts, story angles, side bar material, related statistics/facts, and other materials that will get the media’s attention, help summarize your book for conducting interviews, and go beyond what’s in the book.

16. Get Familiar with Books in Your Field: When interviewing a potential publicist for your book, ask if they have represented books like yours and if you can see some of the placements they got. Ask for references.

17. Get to Know Bookstores Within Thirty Minutes of You: Make friends with your local bookseller(s). They can influence potential customers.

18. Study the Media: If you have no media experience, watch and listen to interview programs and critically examine what good interviewees do and how they get across their message. You will want to balance your publicity efforts—the goal is to get exposure in all media: radio, print, television, and the Internet. Secure local coverage first and then spread out to national media.

19. Learn by Listening to Yourself: It’s amazing how many people have never seen or heard themselves on tape. Practice your interview skills on videotape and audiotape as a friend questions you. When conducting an interview, your answers should not be longer than thirty seconds. Practice narrowing your comments and message down to smaller sound bites. Always say the interviewer’s name back to them when doing an interview—it sounds personal and friendly.

20. Give Yourself Online Presence: Before you even create a website for your book, reserve your personal name and misspelling of your name as a domain name. Then reserve at least ten potential titles for you book (think of having a series of books). You can reserve names inexpensively at www.rickscheapdomains.com. Remember to build your list of faithful fans and have an online newsletter. One way to build your list is to circulate your newsletter or blog through friends and family to their lists of friends and family. Another way is to circulate a freebie—something you give away for free that is of value to others—which can serve as your best advertisement and keep them coming to your site. The free item can be an ebook, an audio speech, or a teleseminar. For your website, set up a shopping cart system and a mailing list system. CornerstoneCart.com is a great site to help you set this up.

21. Do Teleseminars: Tape them every week or every other week. You can check out www.plannedtvarts.com for over 50 hours of free teleseminars. Re-purpose those teleseminars into ebooks or traditional books.

22. Go to as Many Publishing Seminars as You Can: You will not only learn from the speakers, but from fellow attendees. A good one is the Mega Marketing Publishing seminar put on by Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul ” series. It’s happening May 31st.

23. Attend Book Expo!: You should attend BEA (the first week of June in New York City this year). It’s the publishing event of the year, where thousands of publishers, authors, literary agents, editors, distributors, and other members of the publishing community gather. Visit www.bookexpoamerica.com for more information.

24. Consult the Gurus: Read publishing expert Dan Poynter’s material. Publishers Weekly is the book world’s Bible. Read it! Keep up with the publishing industry at Publishers Lunch. Think about subscribing to Publishers Marketplace and consult John Kremer at www.BookMarket.com.

25. Network with the Pros: Join Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) or the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) and learn from a group of authors like yourself. Visit Bestseller University as well.

26. Budget Money or Time: Though you don’t have to hire a PR firm, you do need to set a budget aside to invest in PR. This budget consists either of your money (if you hire help) or your time (if you do it alone). PR will pay off with book sales, prestige, a boost in your career, and possible future book deals. You should always be branding!

27. Build Up Your Media Resume: Don’t expect national TV until you do some local media or gather press clippings. You must build up experience before you can even begin to think about major media. But you have to start somewhere, and the Internet, radio, and local media are great places to begin.

28. Book Reviews are Not So Important: Book reviews can be effective, but they are not always the most effective type of exposure. Broad coverage in other parts of the paper—like in op-eds and byline pieces—attracts a bigger readership and has the potential for greater exposure. If you have a diet book, for instance, getting into the health section of your paper is more targeted than being lost in the book section. Plus, book reviews are much harder to come by these days, given limited book review space and reviewers’ biases against self-published authors or small publishers.

29. 15 Seconds of Fame: Know how to summarize your book in fifteen seconds. That’s how long you have to convince someone your book is worth looking at. Whether it’s a consumer, member of the media, bookstore manager, or organization that you want to speak before, be concise. You need a sentence or two to summarize your credentials, three bullet points of what’s in the book, and a reason why people should care. Blabbering on won’t sell it—being concise, creative, and timely will. Writing a 250-page book is not as hard as reducing all of that to a 15-second sound bite, but that’s exactly what you need to do when promoting and marketing your book. When you meet a stranger or want to explain to a friend what your book is about, you need to do it in a quick and interesting way. By the end of your description, they should want to buy it or ask more questions.

30. Timing is Important: A key to promoting yourself is to do it with great timing. If you want to be featured in a magazine, you have to send a galley of your book three to four months in advance of the book’s official publication. If you want to visit a city and get local media coverage, it helps to call them about 4 weeks ahead of your arrival. Once a book has been out for 3-4 months it is deemed “old” by most media.

31. Create Your Own Virtual World: Creating a new blog, podcast, or teleseminar is easy and effective. Check out the audio and video resources for authors here. Your book is a tool to drive people to your website, and having audio when they get there is a huge plus. Get an Audio Generator. Have a shopping cart and mailing list system. You should also have a way to capture their e-mail address with an “ethical bribe” and then send them newsletters. Once you get them in your “funnel,” you can sell them more books, e-books, CDs, teleseminars, seminars, and any other services you might offer.

32. Traditional Publishing: When considering your options for publishing, realize that if you want a mainstream publisher to publish your book, you’ll need to first get an agent. To get an agent, who takes 15% of your lifetime earnings for that book, you can consult The Literary Marketplace for a list of agents that represent your type of book. This process—finding an agent and a publisher and then seeing the book finally get into print—could easily be 18 months to two years from start to finish.

33. Print-On-Demand: You can also go POD (print-on-demand) with companies like iUniverse. They charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars to up to a thousand to get your manuscript set up and printed as a book. Copies are printed one at a time, based on actual orders. You will likely keep about 50-60% of the book’s cover price in this format, though authors generally sell fewer books with POD as opposed to traditional or self-publishing.

34. Self-Publish: If you don’t want to use traditional publishing or POD, you can self-publish and print the book on your own. You’ll lay some money out, but you will get to keep all of the money from the sale of each book, as opposed to earning a smaller royalty when someone else publishes your work. However, it helps to get a distributor—a middleman who will sell the book into bookstores and libraries—which usually costs you about 25-30% of the net proceeds. A list of distributors can be found in the Literary Market Place.

35. Killer PR!: One look at the headlines and you’ll see that, unfortunately, the best way to make the news is to commit a crime. So how do you compete with murder and mayhem, as well as celebrities, weather, sports, terrorism, and the latest Hollywood blockbuster? The first way to get media coverage is to tie your book’s message to stories that are making news. Can you comment on the latest court case or media tragedy? Do you know anything about Anna Nicole Smith? If you’re an expert on paternity, celebrities, law, marriage, or self-destruction, you can get media coverage discussing some aspect of her life or death—even if your book never discusses the case.

36. Predict the News: You don’t have to be Sylvia Browne to anticipate the news. Check your calendar for upcoming holidays. Memorial Day means war, security, international relations, death, history, etc. Father’s Day means dads, grandfathers, parenting, family, etc. Can you speak on those topics? How about the seasons? Summer brings stories about travel, camp, droughts, picnics, West Nile, baseball, etc. Think of how your message ties into a holiday, a season, or an honorary day, week, or month (e.g., February is Black History Month, March is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, April is National Autism Month).

37. Create Your Own News: Make news with the results of your research, surveys, interviews with important people, or the uncovering of hidden facts. Even if your book lacks original earth-shattering discoveries, perhaps you can create a poll of 500 people on your subject and report those results. If you can shed light on the newest treatments for a disease or effective parenting strategies or tell us the three smartest ways to save for retirement, people will listen.

38. Keep It New: An old book is only promotable when it becomes new again. Revise and update your book if it’s older than six months and you want to hire a publicist. Or even better—build on the book and create a sequel.

39. Raise an Issue or Ask a Question: Declare something interesting or controversial. Should pets be allowed to sue for health care? Should we eliminate the presidency and instead have three co-presidents? Should there be a legal limit on how much someone can weigh? Should people who have cosmetic surgery be forced to disclose this to the people they date? Tactics such as these are great attention-grabbers.

40. Don’t Give Out the CliffsNotes: When you tell someone about your book, the goal isn’t to provide them with CliffsNotes for your project. You don’t want them to know about everything in the book, only something that will tease them, whet their appetite, make them drool for more. Less is more. Also look at the vocabulary you use. Move from the functional to the descriptive. Load up your verbal diet with adjectives and use verbs that have some sound effects. Don’t merely say your book is about how to invest money in the stock market; it’s really about how to use the same proven strategies and loopholes rich people use to turn hard-earned money into bigger pots of gold. With this book, you’ll retire early! See the difference? Finally, always give an analogy or metaphor, something people can instantly relate to. Make it funny, timely, or eye-opening. Use your words wisely and always remember that when it comes to PR, style trumps substance.

41. Word of Mouth: It’s what sells books, so get the word out early and often. Tell everyone you know and everyone you meet about your book. Initially, you’ll need a grassroots campaign. Where appropriate, speak before any group that will have you—a church or temple, a college, a library, a bookstore, an association, a book club… anyone! Partner with others to cross-promote each other’s book, service, or product.

42. Find an Internet Guru: Learn from people who have made a ton of money on the Internet. Check out Tom Antion’s Internet Marketing Training Materials Package.

43. Get a Knowledgeable, Experienced Publicist: Get a publicist who has a track record of success, familiarity, and interest in your genre of expertise. This person should share your vision and see beyond the book. Conducting a PR campaign has a bigger potential payoff vs. one-time advertising. Ads rarely pay for themselves. Do not expect a publisher to do everything or anything for you. It’s up to you as the author to promote your book. If you self-publish your book, seek to arrange for distribution before hiring a publicist.

44. Sell More Than Your Book: Have other products and services to sell, so that when your book generates publicity and traffic to your website, you’re building customers for life.

45. Make It Personal: We know that creating your book is a labor of love—and of time and money. But the biggest step you have to take comes once the book is printed and ready to be sold. You need to have an aggressive publicity and marketing plan, or your book will get lost in the tsunami of new books published every year. And when you’re promoting your book (particularly to the news media), you need to make it stand out. The best way to show off your book’s uniqueness is to make it personal. To differentiate your book from others on a similar topic is not to highlight the contents but to spotlight your very own story. No one, regardless of the subject they write on, can have your story. You are one of a kind, at least until cloning takes over. Link your work to who you are—your experiences, your credentials, and your personality. We must be able to hear a distinct voice from the author even when the books begin to look alike. So the next time you discuss your book, discuss yourself. Lastly, whatever you say in describing your book, be positive, smile, and give off a confident, inviting look. People must feel they need, like, and trust you before they’ll buy from you.

After spending years carefully crafting your manuscript, it’s tough to subject it to the judging eyes of others. Typically, the first round of reviews brings mostly positive feedback: Family and friends will read your work and be impressed by your tenacity and hard work. You’ll probably enjoy an ego-stroke or two when they ask for autographed copies, looking forward to having a published author as a friend or relative.

The next round may be a little tougher. Industry people won’t candy-coat their opinions, and you may receive feedback that’s less than rosy. Take the good with the bad when it comes to criticism of your book, remembering to appreciate fresh perspectives that may illuminate problems you couldn’t see before. No matter how it may feel at times, most people don’t enjoy raking you over the coals–they just want to know if this is a book they can sell.

So what matters to these book people as they evaluate your work with an objective critical eye? Here are six factors they’ll always look at:

• Platform:� How many people already know you and want the information you are selling? Do you have a preexisting base of consumers for your book?

• Content:� Fancy design work and a big publicity push will sell books for a few months, but continued sales rely on� � word-of-mouth advertising. Word-of-mouth advertising, in turn, relies on quality content that readers will find interesting over a span of time.
• Marketing: How will you persuade people to run to the bookstore and buy your book?
• Genre:� Is the material appropriate for current trends in the genre? Will it stand out among other books of its type?
• Design: Books are always judged by their cover. Click on the Design & Production tab for all kinds of great info.
• Price point:� Price the item appropriately for its genre, length, and trim size. You may think a consumer will not mind paying an extra buck for your book, but bookstore buyers purchasing large quantities of the book will mind that extra dollar very much.

At the end of the day, no one can predict how a book will do. The unknowns are scary but inevitable. Make sure the variables you can control are all working for you so you’re in the best position to face the unforeseen. Don’t be discouraged if someone says “no,” and don’t be offended by criticism. Learn what you can and keep pushing forward. This is the entertainment industry after all, and for its author, a book is a bit like a lottery ticket.

Literary agents specialize in many kinds of books. But even when you find an agent who specializes in your book’s area, that agent might not be right for you–or you might not be right for him or her. How can you tell?

First, you have to find an agent with the right specialty. Usually, an agent’s areas of interest are listed in writer’s market guidebooks and on his Web site. Authors also generally thank their agents in the acknowledgment sections, so you may also find names by picking up books with topics that are similar to yours and looking for the acknowledgements. Agents who specialize usually have terrific contacts with editors and publishers in their areas of interest. They are familiar with all of their books, the competition, their current lists, and their wish lists.

But once you’ve found a specialist, have you found an agent who’s right for you? Let’s say you approach the agent who just sold the hottest diet book with your time-tested diet book, based on your long-running newspaper column called “Eating Right.” You’re a certified nutritionist who lectures frequently—that certainly doesn’t hurt.

Since this agent has experience with diet books plus the connections and knowledge of what diet books editors and publishers are buying, you just might have contacted the right agent.

But on the other hand, she might not be right. Due to her recent success, she may have ascended to another level, representing only high-profile chefs and foodies with the most established national platforms. The bar might be set so high that you don’t have a chance. Sometimes the only way to find out is to approach her.

But don’t give up yet. Some agents represent a variety of authors who write about many different fields. Some literary agencies have agents who specialize in different areas. If an agent or an agency doesn’t handle your type of book, he or she usually can refer you to someone who does. And their recommendations can make a difference. Start thinking of yourself in terms of your specialty areas. Are you a parenting writer, a memoir writer, a true-crime writer, a business writer, or a gardening writer? The more precisely you describe what you do, the more effectively you will be able to communicate with agents or people who can connect you with agents.

An excerpt from the national bestseller Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman with Mark Steisel

Every literary agent and agency operates somewhat differently. Some agencies may specialize in building and managing their clients’ careers, while others concentrate on making individual books into blockbuster hits. But when it comes to choosing clients, they all follow a basically similar pattern. If you want to find an agent, you need to know how agents work.

Contacting an Agent
Most writers initially contact agents via e-mail. Agents like e-mail inquiries because they’re easy to answer. Most of the queries agents receive are about books they are not interested in handling, so being able to save time responding is critical. A declining number of holdouts prefer to receive query letters sent via postal mail, but they’re in the minority. Check each agent’s Web site to see how he or she prefers to be queried. Authors can also make initial contact with agents at conferences and other events. For information on writers’ conferences, see Writer’s Digest and ShawGuides.

Many agents won’t accept unsolicited telephone queries, and if you call, their screeners generally won’t put you through. If you do get through, most agents will still ask you to submit something in writing: a query letter, a book proposal, or your entire manuscript, if it’s written. Agents want written submissions so they can get a sense of writers’ ability to express themselves clearly. Written submissions also let agents see how well writers are organized and their skill in presenting themselves and their ideas.

Think Like an Agent
If you want to find an agent, ask yourself this simple question: Where do agents go? To be more specific, what conferences do they attend? Where do they speak? What organizations do they belong to? Although we certainly aren’t suggesting that you follow them around, if you start thinking like agents think, it will improve your chances of being at the right place at the right time to meet the right agent. Research the literary and publishing scene in your area. See if, when, and where writers’ associations, publishers’ groups, and literary clubs meet. Are any nearby bookstores, libraries, or cafés conducting interesting programs or hosting book signings? Are local colleges or universities offering lecture series featuring writers, agents, or publishers? Agents get a lot of their new clients through referrals from their existing clients and their publishing contacts, so you may want to seek out those people too. Investigate whether any well-known authors are teaching courses that you could attend in your area, even if it’s just to sit in. Go where book people congregate and make contacts.

An excerpt from the national bestseller Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman