HOW TO SELL MORE BOOKS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014
7:00 PM
Got books of your own—or your other authors’—to sell? Need ideas on boosting your sales? This panel of experts will show you step-by-step how to sell large volumes of books, in both print and e-book forms.
Specific issues will include:
How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon: Penny C. Sansevieri
Amazon is a great place to sell books, but most authors don’t realize that Amazon has an internal sales machine that will actually help you market your book, for free, if you trigger it. It’s called an internal algorithm and, not that dissimilar from ranking on Google, once it kicks in, you could see a boatload of free promotion come your way from Amazon. You will find out how to optimize your information for Amazon, plus how to find more reviewers and get more reviews—and why/how selling an e-book for free may earn you a lot more money!
Direct Sales: How to Sell Large Volumes of Books as a Speaker and through Other Corporate Sales: Brenda Avadian, MA
When you start out as a speaker, you want to be able to sell books at the back of the room, or BOR. Find out not only how to make sure you can do this but what it takes to make your books actually sell. Also, find out how and when you can command advance bulk sales—and how these sponsored sales can get you impressive numbers of volumes sold per appearance before you even show up at the door.
How to Boost Both E-book and Print Sales through Special Promotions and Reviews: Marvin J. Wolf
Marvin J. Wolf has a record of solid sales for traditional print books as well as e-books of different genres. Find out his secrets on getting to the top of Amazon’s own best-seller list, scoring reviews, and harnessing the power of e-book promotions in a unique way.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
PENNY C. SANSEVIERI, founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an adjunct professor teaching self-publishing for NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative social media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of twelve books, including How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon.com and Red Hot Internet Publicity, which has been called the “leading guide to everything Internet.” AME was the first book marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author TourTM, which strategically harnesses social networking sites, Twitter, blogs, book videos, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the online community. AME has had eleven recent books top best-seller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com.
BRENDA AVADIAN, MA, founder and publisher of North Star Books, is a 22-year veteran of the publishing business, who believes that to be successful, we need to produce quality products and search for nonstandard sources of income to augment retail book sales. She will discuss North Star Books’ commitment to partner with talented designers and editors to produce print and e-books. To survive, even with a few titles, North Star Books receives 78-95% of its annual revenues from non-standard sources. As a paid speaker for 34 years, she uses BOR sales occasionally but depends on advance-of-event (AoE) sales. Brenda launched TheCaregiversVoice.com in 1998. Her caregiving titles have been translated and sold internationally. Four months after launching STUFFology101.com, named after her ninth book, worldwide audio rights are pending. She was recently elected to the board of directors of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) of which PALA is an affiliate. You can find out more about Brenda at http://www.NorthStarBooks.com and http://TheCareGiversVoice.com.
MARVIN J. WOLF, photographer, photojournalist, and author, penned his first book in 1983, The Japanese Conspiracy. An investigative report detailing the Japanese government’s secret collusion with enormous industrial conglomerates in violation of international trade agreements, the book won critical acclaim and widespread media coverage. Between 1983 and 2001, Wolf published 14 nonfiction books, often collaborating with nonwriters as coauthor or ghost writer to produce, most notably, well-regarded autobiographies of ABC Broadcasting founder Leonard Goldenson (Beating the Odds) and Native American leader Russell Means (Where White Men Fear To Tread). A number of his own books, both nonfiction and fiction, including four coffee table books of photographs, have also been published, and he wrote a screenplay, Ladies Night, which aired in 2005 on the USA Network. Wolf’s writing is informed by his early years—for example, at age nine, he walked three miles in a blizzard to pay an urgent family debt—and his experiences as a military photojournalist during the Vietnam War, where he earned the Bronze Star, Air Medal, and Purple Heart and became the Air Cavalry Division’s first and only only noncom to receive a battlefield commission. His eye for the visual and ear for dialog and storytelling of course are basic to turning his books into page-turners. And his experience as a best-selling author also has led him to master many tricks of the trade to boost sales of both print books and e-books. Wolf’s newest work, Abandoned in Hell, The Fight for Vietnam’s Fire Base Kate, will be published by Penguin/Random House in February 2015. You can find out more about Marvin at https://www.facebook.com/marvinjwolf and http://www.abandonedinhell.com.
OUR MODERATOR
INA HILLEBRANDT, speaker, author, publisher, writing coach, and editor, will moderate the panel. Known for her memoir classes and guide, How to Write Your Memoirs, Hillebrandt’s first book, Pawprints, which will be available soon as an e-book with new material and the subtitle Your Furry Home Companion, is being considered for a webisode series. Launched at the L.A. Zoo, Pawprints led the author to TV and web appearances and, following work with educators for the Jane Goodall Institute, to developing a literacy program, Pawprints Literacy Plus, with a curriculum guide, Pawprints: The Student Prints. Both Pawprints and Hillebrandt’s memoir students’ Stories from the Heart, vol. 2, were named best sellers on Amazon.com. Hillebrandt has also been working as a writing coach/editor on a book about the survival of a man lost in the desert for almost a week without food or water. Working with writing partner Todd Liebman, she has also adapted one of her books into a screenplay for film and TV. They are currently working on a treatment for a television series for other projects, including a scripted “dramedy” based on characters and writings in her memoir workshops. For more information about Ina, visit http://www.InaTheMemoirCoach.com or http://www/.InasPawprints.com.
DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 2014.
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Veterans Memorial Building, 4117 Overland Avenue, Culver City. Corner of Overland & Culver. Parking is free on site. The parking entrance is on Culver. Meetings are on the first floor, down the hall to the left of the front doors. The PALA sign will be on the meeting room door. NOTE: Wear layered clothing. The room is usually comfortable, but the temperature may vary.
COST: FREE for PALA members; $15.00 for nonmembers. Advance admission can be purchased until the day before the program with PayPal on our website:www.pa-la.org.
QUESTIONS: Sharon Goldinger, Program Chair, pplspeak@att.net, 949-581-6190.
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