First Word

Creating a best-selling book is contingent upon three things: Great promotion + great story + market interest at the time + plain old luck Every author that comes for a consult with my company 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com) generally hopes for a successful book. No one comes to me and says they want to fail. When I counsel people I always tell them that their mindset determines failure. If the one outcome is a national best seller and the dream of joining that 1% of elite authors who dominant the market then that's loftier than I can promise. Of course, as an author who doesn't aspire to be in that 1% dream slice of the pie? For the sake of not setting up false expectations, I always tell them that if the idea is for the very fact that they authored a book to create new opportunities then with all assurance I feel confident the book will absolutely reach that goal. In the meantime, authors can either hire a publicist to help them promote their books (and you can c...

The Daily Cup: Issue 4 ​   Q: What is your "boiler plate"? A: A boiler plate is a brief description of your company, product or service. It is typically about 30 to 50 words in length. A boiler plate can also be the About section of a brochure, paper, website, one-sheet or any marketing collateral. ​The boiler plate is written to let the audience know what is your company ... your product ... your service ... your program. It should cover "who, what, where, when, and why." In fact, when you write your boiler plate, use that protocol and answer each of those questions one at a time. Build on top of it with each answer. Smooth out your wording. Cut unnecessary words or adjectives, but also keep some excitement, too. If you find you've gone past 50 words, cut some more. Figure out what isn't necessary to say. Your boiler plate can also be used as your "elevator pitch" when you're out networking, too. Every time you send someo...

I am constantly telling writers one key phrase: Nothing sells a book better than the author . So when author Scott D. Roberts, whose forthcoming book Vengeance is Now, suggested we do a sea-level dog and pony show to promote his book, I considered it for all of five minutes and said yes. Why did I say yes? Because of the following points (an authors take note): Before we arrive at each new destination, we will be able to promote the book to the regional media that will be far more inclined to cover a book written by an author who is in town. This direct outreach will give the book more exposure in local media that would have otherwise ignored the author and book, because it lacked a local angle.  We will be able to stop at regional writer's groups to give talks; we will be able to stop at book clubs and promote the book to their members; we will be able to stop at local book stores to promote and leave samples to prompt purchase from our national distributor Baker and Taylor....