Thank you
Hi there;
At least a couple years ago now, I did stop by, but too late to find this thread to benefit from it. I learned a hard cold lesson at that time.
I want to thank Mr. McDonald though because he said in one of the few threads directed to me, that he wanted me to stop back by in a year and see if I was still going-
Well- I am- but I still get these stupid emails from that horrible company- and they are now saying that if you aren't trying to sell your book- then they will let you "fade away"
It's pathetic really and I even had to threaten them to get them to send me what few royalties I had. I sent an email saying I would join the suit unless they paid me the little bit as it did meet their requirement to do so, but, they hadn't months past the time they were supposed to. I didn't get a reply but I did get paid.
Here is what they sent me- as well as my response- to them. I haven't sold many more of my books, but I am still writing, staying away from them, lurking here, and working with the top E zine (free) for horror and poetry- (snm horror mag. com) I'm actually listed on P & E on the good side now! LOL
Just wanted to stop by- show you their latest, and say thank you- again- for helping me learn!
Kerry Morgan
(The Astral Avenger)
their two:
Kerry Morgan
The Astral Avenger
From: Robert - CEO
Re: Book Marketing Series: L.I.S.T. O.F Acronym
Overview And What You Can Expect from the Marketing Department in 2011
This is a followup to this email sent this weekend with some additional information. We received a number of questions like this from the prior email and we want to apologize for any confusion:
hello..just some questions re this email..if i dont sell over 1000 this year, will my book stop being printed with you? Should I send you press spots that I get so you see I am working on marketing my book? and may help you as you market it as well? I have been able to get it in Chapters.ca here in canada which will help with sales as well! working on getting more TV spots and radio spots. currently sold over 300 on my own, looking to reach that 1000 for sure!
OF COURSE WE ARE NOT GOING TO TURN YOUR WORK "OFF". No matter what happens your work will remain for sale in all channels and in the same way as always. We are expanding globally and we want your work in our catalog. Even if your sales are small, we realize that it takes time to build sales channels.
WE ARE NOT GOING TO LEAVE ANYONE IN A LURCH. If you are trying, if you are new to the industry and finding your way, of course we are going to continue to help you. That's the point of this email, we have a lot for you to work with and we want you to succeed! We help authors that help themselves. You can count on our support if you are helping too.
Please take it in the way it was intended and written, if you are trying, if you are working, if you are getting your feet on the ground so to speak, then you can count on us being here for you.
If you are in the "I write and you sell" camp, then those are the authors that will naturally fall away next year.
Keep us posted as to what you are doing. We know that it takes time and energy to sell books, believe me.
We are sincerely sorry if anyone took offense and we apologize for any confusion. Now let's go sell some books.
Robert
Hello To The Best Group of Authors on the Planet. Let's increase your sales ten-fold!
2010 was frenzied, fast, and furious. We learned, we grew, we made mistakes. We had great success and we see ways to improve. The purpose of this email is to set our marketing expectations of you, and to address your marketing expectations of us.
Before we begin, let me give you one of my favorite sites. I am a big believer in visualization. This site is the Wiki site that lists all the best selling books around the world Can you visualize your book selling 100 million copies... 30 million? As your publisher we hope so. We think you will find this list quite instructive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books . Consider printing this and visualizing it every day. I was amazed at the different genres and countries represented in these best sellers. Truly "it could happen to you".
Better Communication: One of the main complaints from authors last year concerned the multiple marketing emails that we sent to our authors. We have a duty to communicate these marketing techniques to all of our authors though, so, we've listened and we think we have a better way to communicate these important techniques to you. Last year was a time of extreme growth in our book marketing team and we admit that it was too much, too fast. We think we've organized our communications about marketing much better for the new year. Please take the time to understand our communications approach as detailed below in the L.I.S.T. O.F. format. Even if you already have done the service or technique we will send you the email for filing and thinking about it again. You can always optout if that makes you crazy.
Clear Expectations: The second main group of complaints that we received were in the vein of "what has my publisher done for me?, and, "why do I have to pay anything at all for marketing?" As you read the book marketing L.I.S.T. O.F. below, please take a minute to think about the magnitude of effort that it has taken to bring these techniques into focus, hire and train consultants, and provide the infrastructure needed. We see our mission as to bring the best marketing techniques and people to support our top authors and their sales. We do NOT see our mission as to call your local bookstore. We would rather bring a new technique into focus for 3000 published authors than spend time dealing with a slow , or non-paying bookstore. As for the money question ... we spend our money defraying costs and hiring people to work on your behalf. . We have some incredible consultants in our family now and believe me, they are working much more cheaply for you than if you hired them directly, simply because of the volume we send them. And, try as we might, they just won't work for free, smile. (Actually we do provide free marketing services when you get above 1000 sales).
We Want Selling Authors; Many of you have seen our new contracts where we allow authors to presell 100 books and then we publish them at no charge. (If you want that contract for your next book, contact Lynn the contract manager). We want selling authors. We'll spend our money on supporting selling authors. We've published 3000 authors now and in that group we still have old-school authors that say, "I write and you sell". Correspondingly, their sales are typically less than 100 books and they drain our resources without return on our investment.
What is our vision for the near future? We want a tribe of selling authors and we all make great money together, have fun, and enjoy working together. We look forward to significantly increasing sales with you next year. There has never been a better time to be in the book business, both as an author and as a publisher. We hope you will be as excited about the future as we are.
Robert Fletcher - CEO
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The L.I.S.T. O.F. Book Marketing:
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Book marketing techniques can be organized into the following broad categories: We call this our L.I.S.T. O.F acronym. Clearly there will be some overlap of the book marketing techniques below but this is a handy way to think.
L = Local Author Initiatives
I = International Book Marketing Techniques
S = Social Media
T = Technology
O = Other
F = Free
Now, let's examine each category.
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L = Local Author initiatives. This includes book signings, libraries, schools, author displays, author posters & bookmarks, reaching local media, local press releases.. and more.
I = International. This includes our Expo outreach to international publishers who may want your book for their country. This also includes selling ebooks around the world as we think that is going to be the biggest market in publishing in a few years.
S = Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and all the upcoming new internet ways of marketing to groups and 'tribes', Public Relations, Press Releases, Electronic Press Kits all feed the internet and social media.
T = Technology. Amazon Optimization, Author Domain Names, Article Submission, Audio Books, Ebooks, Kindle, Websites, Domain names, Search Engine Optimization, Author Video, Author Radio,
O = Other Ideas. Personal Assistant, and other ideas that help you succeed.
F = Free Ideas: Google Alerts, Contests, Public Appearances, Book Reviews, Contact Local Media. (We'll be constantly on the lookout for more of these, don't worry).
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What is your "to do" from this email?.
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There is really nothing to do from this email other than understand what we are going to be sending you throughout the year and to setup a filing system to keep them available for reference. We also want you to understand our philosophy of how we allocate resources and for you to understand that we are here to help you succeed, not make you succeed.
What's Next? We are going to send you one email from each L.I.S.T. O.F group in the next couple of weeks. . If you don't have time to read them, that's OK, just file them and read them later.
These are what we think are the most important L.I.S.T. O.F. Techniques for you to start with.
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Local: We want to 're-release' your press release. We want to revise it, add anything that you need and let's issue it again for you. If you want to get ahead of the curve, please email [email protected] . We will be sending you this email too.
International: We will be sending you an overview and an update to our Expo outreach. The deadlines continue to march on and we've never seen a better time for you to expand globally. If you need to contact someone about the expos, please email [email protected] .
Social Media: We are having incredible success with Facebook now. Al, our consultant, has "cracked the code" and we want as many authors as possible to get into the Facebook world. They aren't going away as you know. If you want to get more into Facebook, either let your PA do it, or email [email protected]
Technology: We have added a fantastic new platform for our author websites and author domain names. The new website platform is search engine optimized and most importantly YOU can make changes and keep it updated. If you want to upgrade your website please email Lee at [email protected] .
Other: Please consider using a personal assistant. The only caveat is that she is completely booked and we are hiring at this time, so she may not be able to get started on your work right away.
The Personal Assistant offer is win-win for the author and the publisher. It's inexpensive and it works! The email is [email protected]
Free: Please review www.StrategicBookMarketing.com and check the "free" ideas. Many of our services you can do yourself.
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We hope you will be as pleased about this organization as we are. 2011 will be a time of incredible expansion for all of us.
Sincerely,
Robert "Smile" Fletcher - CEO
P.S Please note that I am happy to discuss marketing ideas and techniques with anyone. I am NOT a resource for royalty questions, production questions, contract questions, etc. And, I must constrain myself to personal consultations for authors with more than 500 book sales. I'm sorry for the hard line, but leading this company is like riding a tiger, one slip and I'm a goner! smile.
(Did you know that the use of "smile" has become my moniker given to me by our detractors. Frankly, I would LOVE to have people remember me as a smiler. To quote Jimmy Buffett, "If we weren't all crazy, we' d just go insane!". Let's enjoy our business together. We hope to be working with you for decades, smile).
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Hello there;
It just depends on how much you are charging us for you r help. Some of us just can't afford your help anymore. It isn't that we aren't trying or haven't been working for ourselves- but every little bit of help you offer comes with a price.
It's dis-hearting- and I wish I would have known this before signing on. No one helped me one whit bit- unless I paid more and more and more-
So yeah I'm still working on selling my book- have been- but damn create a space is a hell of a lot cheaper and I do the exact same thing as with your help.
And I'm also writing- I had to ask you people to send me my pitiful royalty even though it met your criteria.
Very disappointed "customer".
Maybe I would have been impressed is after 700$ I didn't have to pay another whatever it was to be included in the book fairs. But this has been a horrible experience.
So go ahead- drop me- my sequels oh and the movie deal with my children's book won't be going through you. Yeah- I write children's books and agents are so jazzed they have brought it up with distribution companies and the screen writer is jazzed. You guys never even talked to me about that. The only help I got from you was where to send my payment.
You could have been named in a movie deal. Oh well. But I will NEVER pay you people again. Ever. This time I am on the reputable side of Predators & Editors as a top poetry E zine editor.
So I've been going strong actually. Without paying you. I wish I had seen The Absolute Writers thread before I signed with you. But thankfully, they did help me, and I'm still going and I've saved a LOT of money because of them!
Kerry Morgan
Maybe it was a little silly- but they piss me off with each and every email.
*shrug*
lol
K