This Time I Really Mean It

Being that it's Tuesday, I would normally already be in my post Monday euphoria, thinking, "only four more days until the weekend." But, as yesterday was a holiday, this is really the start of the week, so I'm actually in my Monday morning funk ... beating myself up for another wasted weekend ... and I'm still depressed that the Tigers dropped 3 out of 4 to Boston.  Well, none of that matters now ... what's important is that I have some tangible goals to work on this week. I stumbled onto Tony Eldridge's blog:

http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2011/05/7-weekly-book-marketing-goals-you-can.html

and found these seven great marketing tips ... all but two of them are imminently doable for me (the one about the SEO strategy ... I've got no clue ... and the other one, about getting testimonials for my book ... it ain't gonna happen). So, five are reachable and I aim to work on them ... right after lunch ... tomorrow.

Diary of Narcissistic Bloodsucker

No, that's not the title of this post ... it's the title of a book by Lynda Hilburn ... but it got your attention, didn't it? I was rooting around the 'Net, as I often do, and stumbled onto Ms. Hilburn's website (http://www.lyndahilburn.com/author.htm) and saw this title and thought, wow, this is big league imagination ... my title's are single 'A'  bush leaguers by comparison. Now, I'm not necessarily a fan of vampire erotica, but I might have to check this out. Book titles are paramount for getting attention and lackluster titles may be one reason why I have to blow the dust balls off my book shelves. I wonder if BLOOD, SEX, and ROCK'N'ROLL would have worked better than HEADWIND?

Play Ball

The list thing was amusing ... but that's about it ... I mean, really, how far can you take a gimmick like that? Okay, by what I've seen in the grocery checkout line, you take it pretty far ... but I'll leave the list making to the professional marketing screeds. So, now what? Each day I go to my Amazon e-shelf-space (exactly what  do you call that?), blow off the dust, and wonder, "how can I entice more folks to give my books a serious look ... or any other kind of look?" I keep reading about people who have whipped the Internet audience into a frenzy over their latest offering and I just don't get it. Sure, maybe they have a better product .... maybe they're better organized ... maybe they have a better understanding of social networking ... maybe they have better contacts ... maybe they have more perseverance ... but other than that what am I missing? There's something ... and I know I can figure out what it is ... and I'm going to start work on it, just as soon as the Tiger's finish off the Rays tonight.

5 Reasons for this Reading this Post

So, I'm surfing the great north shore break of the blogoshere, blissfully shooting the links on my keyboard, enjoying the spray of ads in my face, when it hits me! Lists! They're everywhere.  Of course, I see them all the time on the covers of magazines when I'm standing in line at the grocery checkout: 10 Methods to Sew Coconuts together, 8 Ways to Financial Insanity, 12 Reasons Hemorrhoid Suffers Prefer to Stand ... but I've never noticed how prevalent they were in blogs. I probably would have noticed this sooner if I was prone to notice things ... but, as my wife will tell you, I'm not ... so when this phenomenon finally registered, I realized, ah ha, what a great way to attract an audience. Why? Who knows ... there must be some deep-seated psychological reason why we love lists ... but that's big-brain stuff ... not my milieu. All I know is that we love 'em. I mean, Dave Letterman practically built a career on his famous Top Ten list. Well, it's never too late to climb on the bandwagon, so here's my list for why you are here:

1. You've spent all morning (writing/avoiding writing/snorkeling) and you needed a break
2. You Googled 'lists' and this popped up
3. Your pet (cat/dog/orangutang/bandicoot) walked across your keyboard and here you are
4. You were doing research for an article on the Oil War of 1872, started idly clicking links, and wound up weaving past coconut stitching, around financial advice, and through hemorrhoid ads only to end up here
5. You won a bet that you could find the lamest post on the Internet

If you read this far, I'm either a marketing genius or you have way too much time on your hands. I'd prefer to believe the former.

Duel of the Titans

I heard a news report this morning that the big, mainstream publishing houses are going to get into the Internet book marketing business.  Now, you must remember that my exposure to news ... especially business news ...  is limited at best ... I'm much more interested in how the Tigers are doing than what's happening on Wall Street (the Tabbies took 3 out of 4 in Toronto, by the way), so please don't put much stock in anything I say. Heck, this could be old news to you, but was new to me and if it's true you know what it means ... the publishers are going big game hunting in the Amazon. What does that mean to those of us who provide content for these giant book marketers ... especially those of us who are the bottom feeders? Probably nothing ... it's kinda like the peasants who tilled their meager gardens in medieval Europe while the lords and barons fought wars over the next rise ... we just go on hoeing our potatoes, knowing we'll be obliged to somebody, but not really caring who. But, then, I suppose there is always the chance that the battle might spill over onto our little truck patch and swallow us up.

Department of Redundancy Department

When I got into this game, everyone told me (and don't make me explain who 'everyone' is) that I need a website so people can find out about my books. So I spring for a domain name and a host, then spend umpteen hours (and copious amounts of frustration) designing a site.  Next, 'everyone' tells me I have to blog ... so I register with the great Internet blog administrator, wrack my feeble brains for a blog idea, and commence to bloggin' (the good news here is that this blog thing appears to be free ... ya gotta love that part).  So now here's the question: with all these Internet marketing tools to maintain ... like Fazebook, emails, and ... God forbid ... Twitter ... do I really need a blog AND a website? I mean, don't they both do the same thing, more or less ... sit in Internet back alleys, waiting forlornly for some innocent web-surfer to stop by and 'get to know me' ... especially when one of those things is actually costing me hard currency (okay, it's credit ... but you understand)?