Publishers & Writers of San Diego -- Newsletter -- July 2005
== Paulette shares her slice-em-and-dice-em techniques ==
At the last meeting, our very own Paulette Ensign spelled out the
multitude of ways you can take what you've written and "re-purpose" it
for additional profits. Of course, we all know her as The Booklet
Queen, but in reality, there are many ways you can take what you've
written once and sell it several times -- and a booklet is just one of
them. She also dispelled the myth that the content has to be
non-fiction. In fact, our resident performance poet, George Goddard,
took copious notes and wrote us a thank-you email afterward, saying it
was a "big help." Remember, the most successful writers and authors are
the ones who learn the secret of "write once, sell often". If you think
you're missing out on potential income in this way and weren't able to
attend our meeting last month, check out www.tipsbooklets.com and
contact Paulette if you need a consultation.
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== Our next meeting: Saturday, July 30 ==
It's that time of year again! One of our favorite meetings of the year
is when we have our brainstorming session. It's free for members, only
$7.00 for non-members, and free for non-members who join at the
half-year membership price of $37. Whatever particular question or
quandary you may have (related to publishing!), the collective wisdom
and experience of the group is sure to have an answer. For more details
and to RSVP, go to www.publisherswriters.org/newsletter.html.
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== Member suggestion ==
J.R. Horton suggested PWSD set up a discussion board for members to
communicate between meetings and otherwise. Following on this
suggestion, we've investigated a number of ways to implement this --
each with various advantages and disadvantages. To help us decide
whether to move forward with this, please let us know your answers to
the following:
1. In general, how much would you like to stay in contact with other
PWSD members? (A lot, some, a little, every waking moment, not at all,
etc.)
2. How likely would you be to use a PWSD discussion board for this?
3. Would you be willing to provide info to participate? (Some
discussion boards require contact info, setting up passwords and IDs,
etc.)
Thank you for your feedback, and you may provide your answers by simply replying to this email.
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== Author/book branding seminar -- Thursday, July 28 ==
Are you looking to sell more books? Are you trying to catch an agent's
attention? Then, you need to create a solid, memorable impression. And
that's where branding comes in. We've all heard that a book's or
author's success is 10% writing and 90% marketing -- branding is the
key to your marketing success. Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Chicken Soup,
Harry Potter, The Dummies Guides, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and Tony Robbins
are all brand names in publishing. And all followed the principles of
branding that you'll learn in this unique seminar. Presenter Andrew
Chapman is a 20-year publishing expert and has worked on brand-building
for major corporations and marketing agencies. He will teach you the
branding secrets of the "big guys" and how you can use them to build
your brand. You're guaranteed to leave with a better vision for how to
promote yourself and better focus for what to do next!
For more info and to register, go to www.julypublishing.com/branding.
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== Membership directory ==
Hey, have you forgotten about our membership directory? The PWSD
website includes a directory of members, and right now most of you
aren't listed! While we can't make guarantees as to results, some of
our listed members have received inquiries from visitors to the site
(which numbers in the hundreds each week). You may be missing out on a
key contact or potential prospect! To see the current directory and for
instructions to add your listing, go to
www.publisherswriters.org/members.html.
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== PMA and SPAN ==
This is probably as good a time as any to remind everyone that PWSD is
an affiliate of Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) and Small
Publishers of North America (SPAN). And as such, our members are
entitled to a discount membership with both organizations. As national
organizations with thousands of members, they offer tremendous
benefits, such as discounts on printing, shipping, and travel with
their preferred vendors. There are many other advantages to membership,
and we suggest you visit their websites at www.pma-online.org and
www.spannet.org to learn more.
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== Interesting fact ==
In 1980, there were approximately 12,000 publishers in the U.S.
Now, according to ISBN records, there are nearly this many start-up publishers each and every year!
For more interesting facts and stats, go to http://parapub.com/statistics.
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== Marketing tip ==
When sending out media releases via email, put "Media release" and a
short description (four or five words) in the subject field. Editors
and producers say too many authors and small publishers simply put
"Media release" or "Press release" in the subject line, making it hard
for the editors and producers to quickly organize and scan the tons of
email they receive.
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== GooglePrint ==
Have you heard about GooglePrint yet? If not, you will soon. It was
quite the talk at this year's Publishers Marketing Association
University and BookExpo America. Basically, GooglePrint is a search
engine of book content. Just as with a regular Google search, you type
in what you're looking for -- except that it searches the content of
books! Best of all, the results provide where the searcher can buy the
book. (Google is integrating this into their regular search engine, but
there is a specific GooglePrint search engine as well.) There are some
authors and publishers who see this new technology as a threat, much as
Napster threatened the music industry. However, other more progressive
authors are seeing this as a whole new frontier for promotion. For one
thing, Google has cleverly protected the content in a number of ways,
such as: (1) the searcher only can see five pages of the book at once;
(2) the searcher can only access 20% of the book total; and (3) random
unrelated areas of text in the book are blacked out. So, the potential
for someone to get all of your book for free is virtually nil, whereas
the potential exposure to readers *specifically looking for what you've
written about* is tremendous, with an immediate link to where they can
buy the book. Lastly, as a point of clarification and reassurance,
Google is only scanning books that are in public domain or with the
publisher's permission. For more info or to participate, or to check
out how it works, just go to the regular Google page (www.google.com)
and click on the link to the right for "More"... then once on that
page, click on the link in the right column labeled "Print".
If you are a PWSD member and would like us to publicize your upcoming event or news, please inform us by emailing andrew@achapman.com.
If you are on this newsletter list but are not a PWSD member, join
now!! PWSD accepts notice of non-member events, but will choose to
publicize them on a case-by-case basis.
PWSD (Publishers & Writers of San Diego) is a
not-for-profit unincorporated association of publishing professionals
in San Diego. Our goal is to offer resources, share information,
present relevant topics at our event meetings, and provide a networking
forum for our members. Membership is $67 per calendar year; memberships
commencing on or after July 1 of the year are prorated at $37 for the
balance of the year.
Copyright 2005 Publishers & Writers of San Diego
