This class will teach you what you need to know about media training. We’ll also share with you the media mistakes you never want to make.

Media Training Magic takes place August 9, 2010 at 7pm EST at a computer near you!

Introducing our partner, Wattpad

Read what you like. Share what you write.™

What is Wattpad?
Wattpad is the world’s largest eBook community, and a platform for remarkable writers, just like you, to connect with readers, collaborate with fellow authors, and expand your fan base.

How many authors & readers use Wattpad?
Over 10 million authors and readers visit Wattpad every month, including the active author message board as well as Facebook and Twitter (@wattpad) communities. Through these channels, your stories will be “liked” on Facebook, “tweeted” on Twitter, and voted for on Wattpad.com by the community, expanding your promotional reach.

How can sharing my work with Wattpad help me?

Research
Allowing your stories to be read for free on Wattpad will give you 24/7 access to your reader’s imagination. Your new fans will give you impressions, suggestions, comments and insights into which story lines are resonating, and which characters are most compelling. Trying out a new genre? Ask your new fans for feedback. Think of it as a marketing research focus group just for your project.

Network
Your newest fans will want to give back. They want to be a part of your life, just as your words have become a part of theirs. Authors on Wattpad have found artists to create original artwork for their books, editors offering complimentary services in appreciation for remarkable storytelling, and promoters willing to sing there praises, simply because they’ve become such big fans.

What are authors saying about Wattpad?
“I just wanted to say what a brilliant idea you had with Wattpad. I really love the site! It gives me immediate feedback and the encouragement needed to keep pushing through 100K+ words over long periods of time. I have never had a negative experience with any of the users, and there seems to be a level of respect established all around. It is wonderful!” – Jolyn Palliata, author of Impending Reprisals

How do I get started on Wattpad?

Registration
Signing up for Wattpad is free and takes just a few seconds. Start your Wattpad experience by clicking here.

Featured Story
Wattpad is also looking for new stories from Lulu authors to include in theFeatured Works section. To be considered, simply sign up for a Wattpad account and email contact@wattpad.com.

Marketing on Wattpad
Checkout this great link, dedicated to how best to optimize you Wattpad experience. From blogging to making connection, Wattpad’s got you covered.

A few months back, we announced that we’d be offering FREE Shipping for the entire summer. You may be thinking, “that’s great and all, but my shelves are packed.” Well, if you’ve recently published with Lulu, now is the perfect time to tell your readers. Create a press release and let your fans know they can get your book this summer with FREE shipping. There’s no better time.

If you need help creating your own press release, we’ve got you covered.

In a recent post, I wrote about how treating yourself as a business can positively impact the way you market your DIY book.  While changing your perspective, researching what works with other companies, and coming up with a plan that you can follow through with are all huge steps towards reaching more readers and selling more books – that’s only part of coming up with a successful marketing strategy.

By completing your book, you’ve done something remarkable.  You’ve put so much hard work and energy into, it can be difficult not to be emotionally attached to your work.  But the key now, is to take a step back and start setting realistic expectations to go along with each of above steps. Otherwise, you may become frustrated or disappointed if you don’t think your book is gaining a large enough readership as quickly as you’d like.

Build a Genre, Build a Brand

All successful writers had to start somewhere.  Authors like Stephen King and Dan Brown are continually at the top of The New York Times Bestseller list because after years of work, they have figured out the formula for attracting their readers.  Part of their formula is knowing what their genre is and sticking to it.  In that way, these authors have created a brand for themselves.  Everyone knows you read a Stephen King book if you want to be scared, you read Dan Brown if you want to figure out a mystery.  Obviously, some genres are going to sell better than others based on how reader-friendly they are.  It isn’t realistic to expect a niche-oriented book about nanotechnology to sell as much as a young adult title about sexy vampires, no matter how cutting edge and revolutionary it is.  You must determine what genre you’re trying to fit into and go after the readers that are interested in that genre.  Creating a solid personal brand will greatly help you gain momentum as you build your readership.

Find the Right Audience

Many of the books on Lulu are written with a very specific audience in mind.  And are great because they offer knowledge on topics that can’t be found anywhere else.  In fact, some of our bestsellers are books from these niche genres.  What makes these books bestsellers is that the authors took the time to zero-in on the right audience – the readers that their content matters to.  As much as you want your book to sell millions of copies, you must realize that you’re not writing for everyone – not yet at least.  At first, you’re writing for a very specific and small group of readers – maybe just family, friends, and colleagues. Building a loyal following is something that comes with a lot of time, patience, and research.  You must constantly be in the habit of self-promoting your work.  The good news is that with the internet, it is easier than ever to find your audience and promote your work. For example, if you write a book on photography, start spending time on all of the top photography blogs. Network and become a part of the conversations and prove to those communities that you are a reputable and reliable source of information, then begin to introduce you work.  Be sure to play by the rules too, no one likes a spammer that sends a link of their book out hundreds of time a day.

Publicize with Passion

If a bookstore sells a biology book that is a bestseller, but you have written a biology book that you want them to sell instead, even if you know its better, you’re going to find it pretty hard to convince them to stop selling that bestseller if you can’t stand by your product.  Who else understands the topic of your book better than you, the person that wrote it?  Even if you have an army of publicists, no one can represent and promote your content better than you can. When you’re starting out, your name and your book’s title should always be mentioned in the same sentence. You are the authority and you must show conviction in your work.  Do not expect to sell anything if you’re not willing to put in the effort, time, and energy required to convince readers that your book is the only one they need in their hands.  Your personality and passion play a large role in this, but you should always make sure to list your credentials, experience, or qualifications whenever you’re publicizing your work.  You must also be willing to attend book fairs, trade shows, signings, lectures, and publicity events.  Once you have determined how much time and money you are willing to invest the publicity of your book, you can begin to set realistic expectations for how successful your book will be.  The most important part however, is to always give it your best.

Much like Bigfoot and Chupacabra, ISBNs and Distribution remain a mystery to many Lulu authors. While we can’t explain Chupacabra or Bigfoot, we can help you understand Distribution and ISBNs.

What is distribution?
Distribution is a service that gets your book out to the world. We make your book available through bibliographic databases, online marketplaces and distribution catalogs. Lulu currently offers 3 distribution options: extendedREACH, globalREACH, and marketREACH. I will explain each of those in a little bit.

What is an ISBN?
An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a controlled, 10- or 13-digit identification number that allows publishers, libraries, and book dealers to locate books. You may get a free ISBN from Lulu or you can bring an ISBN you own and assign it to your book.

In September 2009, Lulu separated distribution and ISBNs so authors could get distribution for ISBNs that they own and bring to Lulu. We offer distribution options for ISBN and non-ISBN titles. Each Lulu project may have one distribution option and/or ISBN. Once an ISBN or distribution option has been applied to a project, you cannot change it.

Our current distribution options:

extendedREACH – Free This distribution option can be applied to books with a free Lulu ISBN that are an eligible size. When your book is approved for extendedREACH distribution, it is submitted to bibliographic databases, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

globalREACH – $75 This option can be applied to an eligible size book with an ISBN (bring your own or Lulu ISBN). When you approve your proof copy, your book is submitted to bibliographic databases, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and other online retailers. Your book will also be listed at Ingram Book Company. Most brick and mortar bookstores can order from this listing.

marketREACH (non-ISBN distribution) -$25  This option is for non-ISBN paperback books, paperback photo books, and calendars. Hardcover books, eBooks, CDs and DVDs are not eligible. Your project will be listed in Amazon’s Marketplace and eBay.com.

You can view the eligible sizes for extendedREACH and globalREACH here.
Read more about getting distribution for your book.

Our current ISBN options:

Lulu-owned ISBN: You can get an ISBN from Lulu FREE in the Lulu Publishing Wizard. You will need to purchase a Distribution package to have your ISBN submitted to Bowker’s Books in Print and Nielsen Book Data (ISBN agencies).

Bring-your-own ISBN: Assign an ISBN you already own to your book. The imprint (publisher name and information) attached to your ISBN will remain the same and Lulu.com will not be listed as the publisher. You must be the owner of the ISBN and cannot use this ISBN with any other distributor. You will need to purchase globalREACH for Lulu to distribute your book.

yourISBN: This is a service for Lulu to obtain an ISBN for you from the US ISBN agency using your registered details as a publisher.  You must be a resident of the U.S., Guam or Puerto Rico to order this service.  After you receive your ISBN, you may assign it to a project as a Bring-your-own ISBN. You will need to purchase globalREACH for Lulu to distribute your book.

Recently in the forums, mark_sheldon1221 made a post about Pre-Publication Marketing that generated some interesting discussion. Mark asked:

“Since I’m not going to be publishing the first book for another nine months, is there any way to set up some sort of marketing here on Lulu that I can refer users to between now and publication?”

Several of our forum mainstays like Keith Dixon and veinglory have chimed in with suggestions for Mark. What are your thoughts? Should you market your book before it’s released? What are the pros and cons?

Did you know Lulu has a free marketing tool that allows you to share books with your Facebook friends? Did you know that the entire process could be done in less than a minute? Here’s how…

That’s it! You’re now sharing your book with your entire Facebook network.

Promote your books on Facebook.

Here at Lulu, our goal is to get our authors’ works in front of as many readers as possible. And it sure is nice to have partners helping us out with that goal.

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has expanded the availability of its iBookstore. This is the bookstore application it released in April along with the iPad tablet, which the company has sold 3 million of in the past 80 days. The iBookstore is now available on newer iPhones — the 3G, 3GS, 4 — and the iPod touch with the release of the new ios 4 operating system that runs the devices.

What does this mean for you, the Lulu author?

You can reach more buyers.

Lulu is one of a handful of aggregators selected by Apple to get books directly into the iBookstore. In recent posts, we’ve shown you how to get your Lulu published eBook into the iBookstore and onto the iPad. Now that the iBookstore is available on other Apple devices, you have the potential to reach millions of additional readers. For free. We don’t charge anything to submit properly formatted files to Apple for inclusion in the iBookstore.

Keep in mind, too, that the iBookstore is just one channel that we can help you reach. We offer distribution to our own, expanded marketplace, to Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and other retailers as well.

What does this mean for you, the Lulu reader?

You have more ways to read books from Lulu authors.

Lulu adds to the iBookstore catalog every day — new titles just waiting for you to digitally crack open on whichever “idevice” you prefer.  What’s more, you can now share your iBooks between devices.  If you bookmark a page or save a passage on your iPad, for instance, you can pick up right where you left off on your iPhone. That could come in handy this summer when you’re in the middle of a great beach read.

Change Your Perspective
The first step to getting a better hold on your marketability is to change your perspective of yourself as a writer, to an entrepreneur starting your own business. You’ve done the writing, but now you have a product to sell. Whenever you take the time to put yourself “out there,” your ultimate goal should be to make a good impression on people so they’ll want to read your work, keep coming back, and recommend your book to others. You’re building your reputation – your own personal brand, and you need people to trust that brand in order to grow a loyal fan base. This is something that takes a lot of time, planning, and strategizing. Any successful business, big or small, starts with a list of goals and then creates a plan to achieve those goals. A successful business also remains flexible and responsive to its customer’s needs and the current trends of the market. You can do this by having backup plans in place for whenever one of your plans doesn’t work or you need to change something on the fly.

Research What Works
Think about successful companies you know of and research the components that made them that way. You’ll find that many businesses share common fundamentals that aid in their success such as mission statements, budgets, and timelines. You can adopt and adjust these to build your own business model and better market your book and your brand. Remember, though, that a business is an investment. All new businesses spend money to move forward and it typically takes about 3-5 years for a startup to become profitable. You must be willing to invest both money and time on your entrepreneurial venture and have a solid plan(s) in place that will allow you to break even until you eventually turn a profit or move large volumes of your book.

Come Up with a Plan and Follow Through
Once you have some clearly defined goals (such as getting your book on a retail shelf, or selling X number of copies, etc.) and a plan(s) (attending X number of book fairs, or creating a Facebook fan page, etc.) the next thing you need to do is come up with a realistic timeline to achieve those goals. I think one of the best practices a new author can do to gain traction on his or her book is to create a timeline that lays those goals and plans out with feasible deadlines associated with each one. I almost never get anything done unless I know it is due soon. Moving towards a goal with a deadline can greatly help to keep you motivated. Otherwise, you might find yourself flying blind and quickly becoming demotivated because you don’t feel like you’ve accomplished anything. It is also crucial to be as realistic with your deadlines as you are with your goals. Don’t expect to hit the New York Times bestseller list overnight, start with selling 50 copies of your book, then 100 and check off when you’ve completed a goal. If done correctly, a timeline with realistically achievable goals can reinforce your sense of accomplishment and will excite you as you continue to reach more readers.

Running a business isn’t easy, but none of this is meant to be scary. It is just meant to make a new author think about his or her approach in the journey to become the next bestseller. Be sure to check back for part 2 of “Setting Realistic Goals” next week when I’ll discuss setting realistic expectations and how your mindset can make all the difference with how far your book goes.

Lulu empowers creators with the tools needed for success. Our FREE Lulu University webinars provide you with the knowledge and know-how to get the most out of your work. You can register for the Book Signing Gold class by adding the free service to your shopping cart and checking out.

You will be emailed with instructions on attending this free Lulu University webinar from lulu@amarketingexpert.com a few days prior to the event. Webinars are held at 7pm EST/4pm PST and require computer access.

See you in class!