Kendra Bonnett

Kendra and I just returned from the 2008 East of Eden Writers Conference. As you might guess, the conference is held in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California, known as the “salad bowl of America.” Driving there, we passed the spring-like pale green, red-tipped, and dark kelly green tops of the numerous lettuce varieties growing in the nearby fields. A treat for the eyes.

Kendra’s presentation focused on Using the Internet to Write Your Way to More Book Sales. As the audience gathered, she talked individually with those on the front row about their current use of the Internet.

The workshop participants were eager to learn the differences between “old school” and “new school” approaches to marketing your book. As Kendra says, “Classic approaches to marketing are always effective. But now the Internet means authors can directly build readership for their books.”

Kendra urges all writers to begin to build their brand and their future readers as soon as they start writing their book.

She highlighted the importance of branding yourself and building your audience with the following statistics for the most recent year available from Nielson’s Bookscan: 1.2 million books published. 950,000 sold 99 copies or fewer (that’s 79%). 25,000 sold more than 5,000 (that’s 2%). 500 sold more than 100,000 copies (that’s an infintesimally small %). “Think getting a publisher who places your book in all the bookstores is your ticket to sales and fame? ” continues Kendra. “Well, think again. Seventy percent of all books in bookstores are returned to the publisher. That means no royalties for the author.”

Still want to go with a big publisher? “Hey, that great,” says Kendra.”But the best way to get an agent and a publisher is to prove that you already have readers who like your voice, your style, and your content. Creating a popular blog, driving traffic from social networking sites, and developing relationships will help you land the deal you want. Get started now.”

Think it was all work and no play at the conference? Heck no. Kendra and I took off between our workshops to go over to the coast. Here’s a photo of us when we stopped along the 17-mile drive to watch the fiery red sunset.

Post #10 Capture your book’s message in audio and video.

As Matilda explains in her ebook Top 10 Reasons to Write Your Memoir, (see column to the right) writers are motivated by many things in their lives. Capturing the distant details of our lives is important to many of us. Some others want to set the record straight by telling our side of a story or event. For many of us, however, it’s about healing or finding direction in our lives. I think these last two describe Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

We found this wonderful video on YouTube; it’s produced by Borders. Writers this is something you should all be thinking about creating for your books. Audio and video play very well on blogs and websites. And it’s easier than you might think. Please watch and tell us what you think.

Our new ebook, Using the Internet to Write Your Way to More Books Sales, has been more than 20 years in the making. It’s crazy but true. I’ve been an author since 1983 when Simon & Schuster published The Everyone Can Build a Robot Book and Ace It! Using Your Computer in School. I received a $5000 advance ($2500 per book) and thought I was rich. I soon learned better.

Now, 25 years, 7 books, 3 magazines, 200+ magazine articles and 18 years as a marketing executive later I’ve figured out a few things…to be a successful author you must be an Author-Entrepreneur. Or an Authorpreneur, as Matilda and I now call ourselves.

If you want to be a more successful author and become an Authorpreneur, then please sign up for our ebook. Use the opt-in box in the right-hand column.

Oh by the way, because this book is a work in progress and I’ll be updating it regularly for the next several months, I’m currently giving it away free. If you sign up before I put a price on this, you’re guaranteed to receive all updates free too.

All I want in exchange is your feedback. Thanks.