1) Don’t be a poser.  Don’t make false, puffy, bravado laden claims or try to be something that you are not. How do you know if you are a poser?  How much energy are you spending trying to imitate another company, person, or product?  It’s ok to borrow ideas, but make your own mark.  That is the only way you will stand out in my mind.

2) Please answer all my questions online.  Don’t make me pick up the phone or fill out a lead form to get a basic answer to my question about what it is you are selling.  Long run on FAQ also doesn’t work.  Anticipate my questions and answer them in the copy throughout your site.  Oh, and if you are afraid to put a price on your website that means you price is a little too high.  Lower it or display it proudly and tell me why it is worth that amount.

3) Do not push me to make a decision.  Everybody likes to buy; nobody likes to be sold.  Incentives and promotions are fine, but make them different and make sure they enhance my perceptions of the value you are offering me.  Pull me in.

4) Be who you are, and be it loudly.  I want to have a relationship with a human company with human people.  I don’t want to build a buying relationship with a gimmick or cheesy mascot.  I want to build it with a person or a company that shares my values.

5) Admit you make mistakes and that your product isn’t perfect. Please do no edit your customer reviews to show me only the shiny, happy ones.  That just makes me skeptical.  I don’t care if others dislike you, I can make my own decisions.  I just want to know why they do and I want to make my own call on if that is tolerable for me.  What is bad for someone else may be good for me.

6) Make it easier for me to buy. Tell me how soon it will ship, when I will get it.  Don’t sell me something you do not have in stock without telling me first.  Don’t make me uncheck or register for a membership before I finish checking out.

I could go on and on.  But this should give you a start.

Want to learn more about what your customers are asking from you specifically?

Try an uncovery.

What does your client value?

If you have followed Michael Drew, for any length of time, chances are you have heard him talk about the use of personas in your marketing.  When I first heard about this concept, I knew that there was a ton of validity to it for the simple reason that it allows you to create a story centered around real people and what they value, fear, struggle with etc.

With values at the forefront of your mind, here are a few other things to consider when uncovering your clients’ values.

One important point right up front is to get out of your own head.  You are not your client and most likely don’t value things in the same way that they do.  Unless you are God, it’s difficult for the creator to put themselves in the shoes of the end user.  Put away the attachment to your assumptions and have real conversations with potential end users of your product or service to see what it is that they truly value.  This is one of the beautiful aspects of using social media correctly.  You can engage the public to find out what it is they truly want.

When you are creating a product or service, you can design the whole product or experience around your client’s values.  This can affect how your website is designed.  How your product is packaged.  How easy it is for your product to be used etc.  For instance, you are designing a product/service for a stay-at-home-mom like a make money from home course.  You wouldn’t put together a curriculum with long modules of information that would require the mom to sit in place for an extended period of time to get the information.  Moms don’t have time for that and they aren’t going to do it when their kids are in bed, so forget that notion.

You can enhance the experience by looking at what the end user values.  In a mom’s case, it may be time and time with the kids.  In other people’s cases, it could be the environment.  Is your packaging green enough?  They may be concerned with their self image.  Is this product or service going to make me look cutting edge and smart? All of these things center around values.

It all comes down to learning where your clients are spending time, and engaging them in meaningful conversation about what they want or perceive that they need.  The better you are at putting aside your own values and understanding what your end user will value, the more likely your product or service is going to be successful.

I ask again, what does your client value? Your business doesn’t have a more important question to answer.

What simple statement about your business or brand — just a quick, clear sentence or two at most — tells your prospects that you are the only alternative for them? Sounds like a response should just jump out at you. Yet most businesses (on- and offline) cannot provide an answer that simply rolls off their tongues or, even more appropriately in the case of e-commerce, appears on their home pages.

By USP, or unique selling proposition, I don’t mean a slogan or a phrase that will appear in your advertising, although that’s one potential use for it. Rather I mean the concise and memorable phrase that answers your prospect’s always-implicit question, “Why should I do business with you and not somebody else?”

A unique selling proposition is mucho importante. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Linda Bustos, an e-commerce consultant at the Get Elastic blog wrote:

Why should your ideal customer purchase from you rather than from anybody else?

I would even go so far as to ask yourself, what one thing about your company, your product selection, your customer service or your customer loyalty is so compelling, that even if a product was out of stock, or some functionality were broken on your site, a customer would stick around and buy something?

The folks at Marketing Experiments believe so strongly in the importance of the clarity of the value proposition that Dr. Flint McGlaughlin was bold enough to say if you get your value proposition right, you can get many other things wrong on your landing pages and still improve conversion dramatically.

Several years ago at our company, we adjusted the term a bit by replacing “selling” with “value.” What we didn’t change was our work with clients, helping them clarify or even create a unique value proposition for use on their site (among hundreds of other factors).

I was reminded of this recently when our newest conversion analyst and one of his clients turned in their most recent optimization success story. A single test on this client’s unique value proposition increased overall conversion rate by 33.8 percent. What did this client do that worked so well? It hired a good writer (at our suggestion) who wrote several suggested unique value propositions, as this company didn’t have one at all. Then we tested the several unique value propositions, until we had a clear winner. Not only did our client see a conversion rate increase, it gained customer insight that can be used to optimize other site areas.

Every Landing Page Needs One

In recent years, I’ve even started suggesting clients use unique campaign propositions (UCP). These are meant to reinforce your offer from banner ad or PPC (define) campaigns by enhancing the landing-page scent. When visitors take their precious eight-second first impression, you want them to know why they should buy from you and not your competitors.

Strengthen Your Unique Value Proposition

Creating a unique value or campaign proposition isn’t for chumps or posers. Your value proposition must be clear, relevant, and easy to understand. Here’s a quick, easy process for writing a more powerful unique value proposition:

• Ask your personas what they value most about your product/service/campaign; make a list. (If you don’t have personas, you can ask a few dozen of your most faithful customers. Yes, you can ask both if you want).
• On your list, look for repeating themes and list those separately.
• Hand the list to a good writer. Ask that person to write 5 to 10 versions of a potential unique value proposition based on the list.
• Test three to five of the most promising unique value propositions.
• Pick the best-performing unique value proposition.

How strong is your unique value proposition? It could be the key to a better conversion rate.

What makes your book, publishing house, PR firm, marketing agency or other business endeavor—special?

Is there anything unique about it, or do you look, feel, and sound like your competitors?

If you find it hard to answer these questions (most do), it would be wise for you to sit down with someone you trust and conduct an Uncovery—a systematic, purposeful examination and exploration of your product, your service, and yourself, designed to uncover the story that is uniquely yours to tell.

We just spent a week in New York ‘uncovering’ the evolution of my business, Promote A Book. I am going to give you a glimpse of that process in hopes it helps you get started on an Uncovery of your own. Please note–There are many more questions in a good Uncovery than the ones included here. The purpose of this article is to simply give you a foundation to build upon.

Uncovering an Uncovery

We started with a general examination of the new Promote A Book—

• What are we trying to make happen?
  
• What is the first step in making that happen?
  
• What distractions have been holding us back?

After finishing the general inspection, we hopped into the shoes of prospective clients and continued with some more specific inquiries—

1. What do I need you for?
2. What makes you the best choice?
3. What does it cost?

4. Why are you qualified to help me, specifically?
5. Why do you have so many services to choose from? Can you help me narrow them down?
6. Why does it take as long as it does?

7. Who are you?
8. Who do you look up to?
9. Who currently uses your products and services?

10. How do you do it?
11. How will I benefit from what you have to offer?
12. How do we get started?

Did you notice I organized the twelve ‘prospective client’ questions into four groups of three? I did this to demonstrate consideration of the four basic human temperaments that exist in your target audience. The Competitives out there will consider your book or business in terms of what it is and what makes it so good; the Spontaneous-minded will be looking for reasons why you are the right choice for them; the Humanistics in the crowd will be wondering who you are; and the Methodicals will want to know how everything works.

Is It Your Story or Theirs?

The answer is both. First, you must uncover the story that is uniquely yours to tell. But then you must tell it in a way that makes it a story about them. What you can do for them better than anyone else? Why you can meet their needs quickly and effectively? Who can you be trusted to be when they are not looking? And how do you do it all?

SpenceDiamonds.com does this incredibly well. Spend fifteen minutes on their site and see if you can tell who their story is about.

Other Insights Gained Through an Uncovery

Once you determine what you are trying to make happen, you know how to end your story. You want your business to act like a gravity well, pulling prospective clients deeper into your world until they have enough confidence in you to do the thing you most want them to do. Lead them gently to this place, one step at a time. In determining that first step, you are also finding out where to begin your story. And by looking at the distractions that have been holding you back, you are figuring out what to leave out of your story. Do not waste your time on things that do not contribute to your ultimate goal.

So what is it that makes your book, publishing house, PR firm, marketing agency, or other business endeavor special? Are the benefits obvious to prospective clients, or might a professional investigation help uncover and tell your untold story?

Questions about how to uncover the story that is uniquely yours may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at michael@promoteabook.com.

Hurricane season doesn’t start until the beginning of June.

Yet some of you agents, publishers, authors, and promoters probably feel like you’re already looking into the eye of the storm. Keeping your business on course during a recession is hard enough. But when consumer confidence plummets at the same time, and a wind called Technology blows the entire book industry adrift, it gets awfully tricky trying to determine which way you’ll be heading when the storm dies down.

Are you searching for a lighthouse to fix your position on? Remember, no matter how choppy the Sea of Change gets, your Core Values will be your lighthouse and will never lead you astray. Strong brands embody strong core values. Like Harley Davidson and freedom. Like Apple and self-empowerment. Like Jimmy Buffett and fun. Like you and …

Like you and what? What are your core values, anyway? I’ve provided you with a partial list (below) to get you started on what I think is an extremely value-able exercise. What I’d like you to do is go through the list and choose the seven that you hold higher than the rest in your own life (if you don’t see one you’re looking for on this list, feel free to add it on your own):

Guess what. Not only do you use these seven core values to run your life, but you also use them to run your book business. It is utterly impossible not to take them to work with you. They’re a part of your fiber and, whether you realize it or not, they guide almost every decision you make. Your customers can see evidence of them. But which one of these core values do you do the best job of delivering to them?

Did you identify it? Congratulations. You’ve just found your lighthouse. Make decisions around it. Construct policies and procedures that support it. Create a message about it. In fact, create many messages about it, and make them stand out. Let it be your guide as you navigate the choppy waters of the Sea of Change.

After all, it’s gotten you this far, hasn’t it?

Questions about how to stay relevant in a changing book industry may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at michael@promoteabook.com.

Wouldn’t it be nice to pen a brilliant book and have the world instantly adore your genius? It doesn’t work that way, of course: “The End” means the beginning of your transformation into an industry-savvy member of the writing community. You’ll take away huge benefits if you are aware of the myriad available resources for independent authors like yourself. Here’s some advice to help you take advantage of them:

Become a member of guilds and other associations: Don’t be a starving artist type, beleaguered with the financial repercussions of your writing profession. That’s so cliché. These groups can get you discounts, health benefits, and free stuff:

• MediaBistro’s AvantGuild – As if MediaBistro wasn’t resourceful enough, its AvantGuild membership gives you access to a wealth of additional tools. For $49 for a year membership or $78 for two years, you get access to “Pitching an Agent” articles, discounts to writing and publishing courses and workshops, free magazine subscriptions, and even discounts on yoga and acupuncture–you know, stress relief for all of that writing, rewriting, editing, and rejection.
• Authors Guild – Established in 1912, the Authors Guild provides health insurance, legal services, and advocacy for authors of all types. Dues for the initial year of membership are $90; after that they are calculated by the member’s income from writing.
• PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association – Dues for membership to this organization start at $160 for non-publishers, and the benefits include (among many others) discounted shipping and ad rates, health and liability insurance, discounted access to Neilsen Bookscan, and participation in Publishing University Online, which offers interactive Web/phone seminars.

Read blogs: There’s a wealth of blogs out there offering news and more with fresh voices and uncensored opinions. By reading a sampling of these, you’ll have a finger on the pulse of the book biz, catching the latest trends, news stories, and advice. Explore the book blogosphere and navigate blogrolls to find something you like. Some of our favorites:

• MediaBistro’s GalleyCat – The self-described “First Word on the Book Publishing Industry,” GalleyCat blogs all day about industry happenings, authors, and the scandals that occasionally arise in the industry.
• Book Slut – Interested in hearing what literary luminaries, agents, and editors have to say? Book Slut interviews some of the latest, greatest minds in literature and publishing and posts the interviews for all to read.
• Grumpy Old Book Man – Is publishing a very friendly business? That’s the title of a post by the Grumpy Old Book Man, an English writer who blogs about his experiences in the industry.
• The Millions – Blogger C. Max Magee and a host of contributors have kept The Millions up-to-date for well over four years, making this site respectably middle aged in blog years. Bibliophiles will salivate over entries like “Hard to Pronounce Literary Names Redux” and “Pagination Blues.”

And if you think you’re addicted to coffee, just wait until you get hooked on a morning injection of publishing news via a daily email. Sign up for Shelf Awareness and PW Daily to ensure you’re in the know.

Know how to find an agent: If you’re going through an agent, you’re surely tired of boilerplate responses from literary agents that “regret to inform you that unsolicited manuscripts are not reviewed.” Try here:

• Litmatch – Like eHarmony for unpartnered authors, Litmatch not only provides comprehensive profiles but will list agents looking for books just like yours!
  
• AgentQuery – Another database, but also features a conference listing and MySpace-like author/agent networking site.
• Everyone Who’s Anyone in Adult Trade Publishing – A long list of literary agents, interspersed with the compiler’s eccentric but often illuminating correspondence with them as he tries to find representation.

Become a regular at a relevant forum: Online forums are a great way to network and learn from the successes—and harrowing failures—of your fellow authors. Don’t be a lurker, flamer, or troll. Be active, make connections, and get the inside scoop on a wide range of industry topics with these communities. And don’t forget to take what you read on message boards with a grain of salt. You may run into a crazy or two.

• Absolutewrite.com forum – Want some pre-submission advice from writers who have lived to tell the tale? Check out the “Bewares and Background Checks” section in AbsoluteWrite’s Water Cooler discussion forum, where authors exchange advise and issue warnings about their experiences with certain literary agents. Other forum sections include “Networking: Sharing Leads,” “Grammar for Grasshoppers,” and “Rejection and Dejection.”
  
• Yahoo Publishing and Promoting group – Learn how to beef up your readership with promotion and publicity tips other authors have used.
• Yahoo Self-Publishing group – Sponsored by SPAN, you can find spirited discussions here from self-published authors and small presses about how to publish and market your own books.

“I’d love to write a book, but I don’t know how.”

Sure you do. You learned how in elementary school, remember? Words become sentences. Sentences become paragraphs. Paragraphs become chapters. Nothing to it, really.

“But joining words into sentences doesn’t make me a great writer.”

So greatness is the mountain in your path? Let me help you tumble over it. The first step in becoming a great writer is to know in your heart that “anything worth doing is worth doing badly until you’ve learned to do it better.” Every writer stinks at first, even the great ones. The second step is to read great writing.

“Can you suggest some things for me to read?”

I could but I won’t, because as you read, so will you write. Fill your ears with the voices of writers you admire and soon you’ll be writing as they do. It’s important that you choose these voices for yourself.

“But how do I choose?”

Go to the library or bookstore and select a fiction, science fiction, fantasy or poetry book whose title or cover art attracts you. Turn to a page at random and read two paragraphs. If at the end of two paragraphs you want to keep reading, flip to another page at random and read two more. If again you want to keep reading, take the book home with you. Devour every author that keeps you awake at night. When new and different phrases begin springing to mind, your journey will have just begun.

“Why didn’t you include magazines, newspapers and non-fiction books in your list of things to read?”

A writer constrained by the facts is an animal in a cage. Consequently, reading non-fiction is like walking through the zoo with an ice cream cone. To arouse the magic of the words within, you must walk naked through the jungle alone. Even if your plan is to write non-fiction, a plunge into the crocodile waters of dangerous fiction is often needed to awaken your inner voice.

“It’s awake! It’s awake! So what’s step three?”

Some people go to the gym daily without fail. Some jog. Some meditate or pray. The third step in becoming a great writer is to write a little each and every day. So what will you write this day? A paragraph? A poem? A love letter? How about framing the outline of that book that I see crouching beneath the horizon of your mind? Can you see the whiskers of it there? Below that memory of the summer you turned fourteen?

Find out if you’re really Oprah worthy. Take the quiz built on an insider’s experience and a thorough analysis of every author who has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show since November 2005.Every publicist, publisher, and distributor in the book industry has heard it a million times from authors: “I think I’m perfect for Oprah!” After booking an author on Oprah and watching the truly unbelievable—more accurate description: utterly frightening—effect the appearance had on sales, I understand your hunger for the booking. On the other hand, Oprah is the pie in the sky media hit and most authors are not appropriate for the show. The following quiz is an attempt to either (a) save you from becoming a cliché—you need to know if you’re making people’s eyes roll behind your back—or (b) validate your belief that you are indeed a good fit for Oprah.

DISCLAIMER AND A NOTE ABOUT THE “X” FACTOR: First, I’d like to clarify that this quiz tests an author’s chances of being booked as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, not a book’s chances of being named a selection for Oprah’s Book Club. Second, I’d like to point out that, obviously, there is no scientific formula to assess your Oprah worthiness; however, this quiz will measure five key indicators. I don’t believe that the sixth—and perhaps most important—indicator can be measured in a self-assessment quiz, so I purposefully omitted it. The “X” factor I’m referring to is quality. More specifically, I’m referring to the quality of the content (i.e., message) and the product (i.e., production quality—editing, design, packaging—and distribution). Only the best make it to Oprah, so appreciate the weight of this factor when reviewing your score, and make tempered adjustments as you see fit.

THE QUIZ: Number a blank sheet of paper from 1-5, and record your answer to each question beside the corresponding number. For questions that require a rating of 1-5, assume 5 to be the highest possible score. Good luck!

1. Record the number next to the topic/genre that best describes your book.

Choose only one:

Celebrity Biography/Memoir: 5
Current Events: 4
Addiction: 3
Health/Beauty/Aging: 5
Personal Finance: 4
Cooking: 2
Fiction or Noncelebrity Memoir: 2
Relationships/Sex/Sexuality: 5
Home Decorating/Domestic: 3
Other: 1

2. Rate your celebrity (or the fame of the subject of your book, if a biography) on a scale of 1-5.
REALITY CHECK: I would be a 1, the average NY Times bestseller would be a 3, Michael Jordan would be a 5.

3. Rate the level of inspiration in your book on a scale of 1-5.
REALITY CHECK: Try to be as objective as possible.

4. Are you working with a publicist who has booked an author on Oprah in the past?
Yes: 5, No: 1

5. Have you ever appeared on national television?
Yes: 5, No: 1

THE RESULTS: If your total is 13 or less (maybe that number really IS unlucky!), you need to take a couple eggs out of the Oprah basket. Though dark horses often land Oprah appearances, it’s not likely that you’ll get a booking, so be sure to spread your publicity efforts around to other big—and small—media outlets.

If you scored a 14-20, you have a real shot at Oprah. The factors that will most likely determine whether or not you make it on the show are timing, the quality of your connection to the show’s producers, the quality of your book and its content, and luck (i.e. relevance to Oprah’s planned show topics). You should be working on your message, your media skills, and your timing. Communicate with your publisher and distributor, and make sure you have a supply chain ready to support an appearance on Oprah. Give your publicists everything they need to land the booking, and provide them with only positive support. Negativity and nagging do not inspire publicists. Believe in them and trust in their abilities.

If your score is above 20, you’re likely a great fit for Oprah. Your chance of landing a booking will probably depend on timing and luck. Of course, the powerful variable—the quality of your book and its content—is not measured in this quiz. If you don’t get a booking on Oprah or another big show, you may consider soliciting honest feedback from industry insiders (who are NOT on your payroll) to see if your quality needs attention. If you get great reviews and other big media hits and still no Oprah, you may consider investing in a lucky charm of some sort, coming to peace with the idea that some things are simply not meant to be, and start working on your next Oprah-worthy book.

Check out what shows Oprah has in the works, and see if you’re a good fit for the topic.

When she heard that Walker Percy was teaching a writing class at a university not far away, Thelma marched into his office, thrust the weary manuscript into his hands and proclaimed, “It’s a masterpiece.” Politely, Percy looked at the first page. Strangely, he didn’t hate it. Minutes later he was surprised to notice that he was already several pages into the story.

In 1980, Louisiana State University Press published the colorfully comic, raging satire Thelma’s boy had written 20 years earlier. The following year it won the Pulitzer Prize. Millions of people have since found laughter among its pages.

But recognition came too late for Thelma’s child. Weary of waiting for a publisher to bring his book to life, young John Kennedy Toole decided to take his own. His car was found outside Biloxi, Mississippi on March 26, 1969; a length of garden hose stretched from the exhaust pipe to where he sat inside.

As John Toole drove out of town for the last time, his typescript lay quietly in the top of a dark closet. The New York Times would later write of it, “A masterwork of comedy. The novel astonishes with its inventiveness, it lives in the play of its voices. A Confederacy of Dunces is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.” The Chicago Sun Times would echo, “What a delight, what a roaring, rollicking, footstomping wonder this book is. I laughed until my sides ached, and then I laughed on.” Then The Washington Post threw gas on the fire, “A corker, an epic comedy, a rumbling, roaring avalanche of a book.” But the ultimate praise came when Rolling Stone wrote, “A Confederacy of Dunces has been reviewed almost everywhere, and every reviewer has loved it. For once, everyone is right.” But John Kennedy Toole never read those words.

He hid his book where we might find it. But he hid his life where we cannot.

I tell you this story not to bewail the tragedy of young John Kennedy Toole and the long-delayed success of his brilliant book, A Confederacy of Dunces, but to herald one simple question: How many other Pulitzer-worthy efforts lie buried in drawers because there is no Thelma Toole to be their champion? What if Louisiana State University Press had said “no” like all the other publishers? These are the thoughts that haunt me, and the reasons why Wizard Academy Press exists.

Most people have a book in them. And like John Kennedy Toole they believe, “It could never really happen. I’m just a hopeful amateur.” But in the words of Richard Bach, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

You haven’t quit, have you?

I imagine you’ll have a similar look on your face when the latest book your publishing firm has decided to publish becomes the bestseller you believe it will be. Achieving “bestseller” status is the equivalent of winning the Super Bowl. It’s why your publishing house is ready to invest heaps of hours editing, designing, printing, distributing, and marketing that new manuscript.

Unfortunately, producing a fantastic book is only 10% of the battle. It’s not going to get your publishing house anywhere if hardly anybody buys it, right? So how can you know if people will buy the book before you invest all those hours? The fundamental questions that you and your publishing house should ask are:

1) How many people does your author know, right now?

And more importantly,

2) How many people know of your author, right now?

The answers to these two questions about groups within your author’s fan base tell you the size of the marketing platform you have to work with.

The first group——the number of people your author knows, right now——has only the power of personal influence and includes the writer’s social and business networks: family, friends and acquaintances, professional associates, and customers. These are the most loyal and dedicated ambassadors you have to work with. They’re incredible at word-of-mouth. But the reality is, there are a limited number of people in this group, and their influence most probably won’t spread far enough to create a significant ripple in book sales.

The second group——the number of people who know of your author, right now——has to include a large number of people in multiple towns and communities who recognize your author by name and who associate that name with something specific that they value or are interested in. Like the way you associate Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman with apple trees or link Edward “Blackbeard” Teach to piracy and pirates.

That last example brings up a good point. The recognition is not so much about being liked as it is about being respected as important or as an authority in a given field. I mean, c’mon——if Blackbeard had penned an autobiography, wouldn’t you find yourself at least a little bit curious?

So, how many people should know of your author for your publishing house to be confident of his selling power? I tell authors they need to have had some contact with about 150,000 people in the last three months to even stand a chance at having a bestselling book. If there aren’t that many people out there who have either seen your author speak or read his newsletter or think of your author first when it comes to a particular subject——that bestselling book is most probably dead in the water, not going to make a ripple, not going to happen.

It’s not my intention to discourage. But I do feel obligated to share the truth about what I’ve learned in helping put thirty-three books on the major bestseller lists in the last decade. Bestsellers can be achieved. But you have to believe in seed time and harvest time. When an author comes to you with their manuscript asking you to publish it, your author has to have already invested a lot of time, energy, and money by establishing their fan base, their reputation, and their marketing platform. Otherwise, there’s little hope of reaching Bestseller Land.

Let’s close on a promising note. Your author with promising manuscript can come at that 150,000 number of people from a different angle. You see, everyone has their own personal associations with about 250 people. So all your author has to do is electrify 600 individuals to reach that 150,000 number, inflame their hearts and minds so powerfully that they charge out there singing praises to everyone they know about your author and his book, and you’re on your way to building a marketing platform that could launch both of you to the moon.

At the very least, you’ll be riding shotgun on Peyton Manning’s trip to Disney World . . . .
Questions about developing and using marketing platforms may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. Contact Michael via email at Michael@promoteabook.com.