Emdashery Blog

Book Trailer Friday--

I've posted plenty of book trailers periodically on Emdashery. I'm going to make that more of a routine with a posting of an interesting book trailer every Friday. Sometimes, I can't find a good one, so we'll see how often I can make that happen. But I'm going to try...

Here's the first trailer, which is for Deadline by Chris Crutcher. It demonstrates that a trailer doesn't need to be long, complex, or expensive to get your point across. Sometimes brief works...

And speaking of Fridays, I'm jammed for the next several days, so next Friday will probably be the next time I post. As always, thank you for stopping by!

Advertising books directly to readers--

I'm seeing an increasing number of books advertised on blogs. Consumers of blogs are, by definition, readers, so it would make sense that blogs would offer a good place to advertise books (at least intuitively; I don't know about in reality). BlogAds was one of the first companies to facilitate these types of advertisements. Now, AuthorBuzz (which I blogged about yesterday) is offering a product specifically for writers.

Authorbozz's additional marketing vehicle - blog ad campaigns - are a way to reach the niche markets your book will appeal to via well read blogs. We've created ads for top publishers and bestselling authors, reaching from 400,000 readers to 14 million.

Campaigns start at $1500 and go up in increments of $500. Generally -- depending on your audience -- we reach a minimum of half a million people a week. Often several million.

More here...

Authors a-buzzing--

Shelf Awareness is a e-newsletter that I receive, and that I actually enjoy reading. It's geared toward booksellers, but often contains tidbits on books or the industry that I find interesting. Many newsletters I receive are sent by someone who is trying to promote something--often his or her books. I have no problem with that, but so often, the authors don't have enough good content to keep me interested for long.

Not only does Shelf Awareness have interesting content, but it also a tool to promote books. It partners with AuthorBuzz, a marketing service that facilitates authors getting in touch with boosellers, librarians, and readers.

[It allows authors] to offer excerpts, phone chats or visits with reading groups, material for newsletters, info about contests and freebies, mentions of new reviews — anything and everything authors want to buzz directly to the people who buy, read and sell their books.

AuthorBuzz notes will go directly to 330,000 readers, 3000 library systems (reaching over 10,000 librarians) and over 2000 booksellers. All of whom are currently subscribed to both newsletters.

Read more about AuthorBuzz here. Or about Shelf Awareness here.

What mood is your book in?--

Potential buyers make subconscious impressions about your book based on the color of the cover. In the Big Bad Book Blog, cover designer Lisa Woods takes a look at colors and the different moods and ideas they express.

So… What Color Should My Book Be?

When choosing a color scheme, you and your designer must consider the target audience of your book, the mood you want to evoke, and the symbols that best connect to your book’s content. Then capitalize on the power of color to send your audience cues about how perfect this book is for them. The covers below show how color, paired with compatible symbolism, serve as emotional triggers and help support a book’s primary message.

Read the rest here...

Medieval helpdesk--

Today, writers sometimes feel both excited and overwhelmed by the changes in technology. Present advancements are dramatically changing the many ways words are published. It's easy to think that this is a new development and to look back on the sweet and simple ways of the past. But the past was filled with its confounding changes as well. Just check out this video for proof...

(Thank you to Dale Moses for helping me find this video again...)

Getting someone else to do the trailer--

Radio personality and blogger, Hugh Hewitt has written a book about presidential prospect, Mitt Romney. The book is titled, A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney. Hewitt is big fan of the potential of YouTube and recognizes the value of book trailers. But with name recognition and a loyal following working in his favor, he doesn't need to produce his own book trailer. Recalling that Doritos used an ad contest to allow amateur ad producers to make commercials for the superbowl, Hewitt is offering $1,000 to the person who can produce the best  trailer for his book.

Not a bad deal if it works. That's less than most book trailers cost, and he might get several good ones to boot. 

An amazing and enduring device--

The digital age has provided us many new ways to enjoy a book--an electronic reader, an e-book, or a podcast, for example. But none may have the enduring qualities of the Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (aka "BOOK").

The Librarian Yellow Pages offers a overview of this amazing device in its LYP Newsletter:

It's a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere--even sitting in an armchair by the fire--yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM.

With all the latest advancements, its important to remember that simple works. Read more about the BOOK here...

Podcasting 101--

Want to know what you need to produce your own audio podcasts? You can check out the teleseminar and podcast by Mike Stewart and Rick Frishman on promoting yourself through the internet.

They discuss online audio, online video, podcasting, blogging and video blogging. They're promoting their own stuff, but there's also offer lots of good general information on the benefits of new technology and some of the equipment you need to pull it off.

Check it out here...

Titles that sell--

From the SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America) Connection newsletter, Judy Cullins offers the Top 10 Tips for Book Titles that Sell Well. It's for nonfiction titles and has some good advice.

For fiction titles, there's always the Lulu Titlescorer to test out the possibilities and consume hours in "work-related" distraction...

Turning the pages online--

This is a cool innovation. Novelist Dale Moses is providing his horror novel, He Still Watches, online for free as he writes it. But it's not just any old e-book in Word or Adobe format, it's an actual book with flipping pages and bookmarks. And he's not going broke because he's giving away the book for free. He has sponsors who advertise at the bottom of each page.

Here's more:

This is a free online horror novel in progress, being created one page per day and posted once a week online in order to bring readers back repeatedly, and offering graphic advertising spots on each and every one of those pages. This gains wonderful exposure for the advertisers, and a free reading experience for the horror reading public worldwide. This is your chance to follow a novel being created! It's a revolution in self-publishing that is sure to change the way you view novels.

Check it out here...