BookBuzzr Expands Its Author Education Program--All FREE

BookBuzzr Offers New Learning Ops for Writers; or
How to Avoid Becoming a Book Marketing Dinosaur by Marketing Your Book with Emerging Technologies.

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The technology landscape and associated opportunities for marketing your book is changing at an unprecedented pace. Online games, mobile marketing, Facebook, Twitter, the Kindle, the iPhone, the iPad and the Android are pushing the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to promoting and marketing your book.

As an author, it is important that you keep abreast of these emerging trends and technologies so that you can take advantage of these opportunities. You don't want to become a book marketing dinosaur, do you! Ha!

The first step in avoiding the fate of the dinosaurs is to spend some time to educate yourself, and Bookbuzzr is providing a perfect place to do just that. It's a new kind of online learning environment … one that was focused on getting practical, actionable information from industry leading experts to authors in the most efficient manner.  I will be participating so I'm especially eager for you to know about it early enough to include it in your new year calendar. Here is their announcement:

Announcing BookBuzzr’s Book Marketing Technologies Center (BBMTC)

In order to help you to successfully navigate through the swarm of new technologies and separate the noise from the signal, we at BookBuzzr are launching the BookBuzzr Book Marketing Technologies Center (BBMTC.)
BBMTC is the world’s first and only online, free, learning program designed to help authors learn about emerging new technologies and associated opportunities for book promotion. BBMTC features a monthly online seminar or roundtable (aka webinar) featuring industry leading book marketing experts. Each month they will cover a new technology or emerging trend.

Our panel of experts will talk and share about technologies with authors and writers through webinars and blog posts to cover it comprehensively. This is our way of getting different viewpoints to the table about what is the latest trend emerging for authors in technologies that will help them reach out to more people.

We will have one webinar each month on the topic and as many view points as possible from industry experts as article/blog posts.
For each webinar the panel will share their views about the topic and discuss it in detail. The latter half of the webinar will be dedicated to answering questions from authors and writers. Questions can be asked before, during, and after the seminar on Twitter (with Hashtag #BBMTC) or on our BookBuzzr Facebook Page.

How much does it cost?

You can attend any workshop for free. Our generous expert partners are giving away much of their knowledge for free. Why is BBMTC free you ask? Our expert partners are doing this in the hope that at least some of the attendees will become their clients in the future. Also its our and our experts way of giving back to the author community. Of course you are under no obligation to purchase anything.

What is the schedule and what are my next steps?

The schedule is outlined below. Please bear in mind that the schedule may change and we may make changes to the format of this program or the schedule based on feasibility and opportunities. Simply sign-up to our monthly newsletter to get notified about upcoming BBMTC events.
All seminars/webinars at 2:00 p.m. Eastern / 11:00 a.m. Pacific / Noon Arizona

January Facebook Fundamentals for Authors Wednesday, 12th Jan 2011

February Using Twitter to Market your Book –I’ll be participating on this panel. I love Twitter for authors! Wednesday, 9th Feb 2011

March Formatting for the Kindle and other readers Wednesday, 9th Mar 2011

April Marketing Your Book in an Apple World Wednesday, 13th Apr 2011

May Blogger Relations for Authors I’m a panellist for this topic, too. Lots of us aren’t using our blogs to their capacity. Wednesday, 11th May 2011

June How to Create Good Book Trailers Wednesday, 8th Jun 2011

July Podcasting Fundamentals for Authors Wednesday, 13th Jul 2011

August Online Gaming - Why it Matters for Authors Wednesday, 10th Aug 2011

September Marketing Your Book in a Mobile World Wednesday, 14th Sept 2011

October Networking on Forums and Reader Sites for Authors Wednesday, 12th Oct 2011

November How Authors can Use Technologies to Market Their Books Wednesday, 9th Nov 2011

December How Authors Can Succeed in the EBooks Universe Wednesday, 14th Dec 2011
Feedback Requested

If you find a topic interesting or believe that you have the expertise to participate on a particular topic, or if you’d like to contribute and be a part of this program – drop us an email at freya [at] BookBuzzr [dot] com. We’d love to hear from you – the more views on a topic the clearer it gets : )

Our BBMTC panel page is up. Do take a look: http://bit.ly/igPsNh

Note: For an inexpensive way to educate yourself on the publicity basics please consider my The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't. You'll get the basics for publicity, writing media releases, assembling media kits and promotion ideas that don't necessarily require high-tech skills.  By the way, for newbies, the word "publicity"  is synonymous with the word "free."  There are ways to get more of it than you ever imagined.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

A Neat Affirmation of an Old Marketing Principle

I can't resist telling you about the fun thing that happened on my vacation. It is a little more bloggy and a little less like an article than my usual posts but none-the-less it was a memorable event AND it illustrates one of the marketing principles I have the most trouble getting across to my clients. It's hard because everyone naturally wants to see results from their efforts and pinpoint them.

So here is the story:

I took a short cruise from Long Beach (near Los Angeles) to Mexico. On the last night I was stopped on the way out of the dining room by a young mother. She had two daughters in tow along with the others from one of those tables that seats ten.

"Are you an author?" she says. "My daughter says she thinks she knows you."

Of course like any good author (and marketer) I wanted to know how her daughter knew me. The girl, who was about 15, couldn't remember; she just knew she knew me.

Like any good marketer (and author), I told her that she is just the age bracket I am most interested in reaching with This Is the Place because I hope young women will see that even a short time ago things were not so good for women. I also hope that it will inspire them to reach for the gold when it comes to their own futures. I even had a couple business cards (mine are designed more like mini ads) in my purse and gave some to her and her friends.

Now, I know many of you have this happen to you all the time. Janet Elaine Smith, for instance. She recently moved from South Dakota where she was a real Star with a capital "s" in her community. In Los Angeles we have thousands of stars and, trust me, one writer with silver hair doth not a dent (or an impression!) make.

If you haven't had a similar experience, I just want you to know it is great. Not because of fame, but because it is an affirmation (one that could actually be identified) that promotion does work.

And for those of you who have had a similar experience, this is my plea to subscribe to my Sharing with Writers newsletter and to then share your secrets for making promotion work. I only wish my young new -- ahem! . . . fan, could have helped me identify the one specific thing I did that had made a difference. The fact that she couldn't emphasizes the point I keep making. Marketing is almost never one project. It is the accumulation of all you do that eventually makes a difference.

So yes, Keep promoting! And yes, writing and editing, too!

Best,
Carolyn

PS: Here is a picture from Mexico. I love traveling. Everything about it! Right down to the biology and rocks. This was a mango bush (tree?) with little pubescent fruits on it. (Those who read this newsletter in plain text will need to go to my blog, www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com) to see it.)


PSS: Don't forget that Patrika Vaughn, Allyn Evans and I are teaming up to present a free teleseminar titled "How To Write Your Life Story." to writers who want to tell their own stories, as memoir or as fiction. It is for genealogists, journalers and story tellers everywhere. Writers are invited to listen and come prepared with their questions at noon on July 12th EST. Call 1-218-936-7999. When prompted use this access code: 390175. If asked, participants may need this pin number: 2823.
The teleconference will be available as a podcast afterward at:
 Authors' Coalition, www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress/podcasts_&_radio.htm
 The ACapella Publishing site, www.acapella.com/
 Allyn Evans' site, www.allynevans.com
 On Allyn's Queen Power site, www.queeenpower.com .
 And on Carolyn's Resources for Writers page at www.howtodoitfrugally.com
Those with questions may contact Patrika at acappub@aol.com. Please put it on your calendar!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal." Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.