August has been a busy month for author MaryAnn De Salva! She has appeared at several local events in her home town of Green Bay, Wisconsin, signing copies of her children’s book, PERCY’S SPECIAL GIFT.

On August 17th, De Salva was a featured guest on a local television talk show on  Green Bay’s Channel 2. Host Kevin Rompa was interested to learn that De Salva, a retired high-school English teacher, was donating all the proceeds from PERCY’S SPECIAL GIFT to selected charities that benefit children. He urged all her former students to “go buy a book, to thank Mrs. De for your great education!”  Across the screen, as they talked, ran the dates and addresses of De Salva’s upcoming book signings.

Two days later, on August 19th, De Salva had two book signing events at Seroogy’s, a family-owned chocolate maker that has been providing homemade chocolates since 1899 to people in Green Bay and neighboring De Pere. The book signings were coordinated with an annual tour of the chocolate factory by people from all over the state of Wisconsin.  Interested individuals sign up for the factory tour in advance, and Seroogy’s brings busloads of them in for the tour. There were about 500 people at each book signing, so the exposure for PERCY was excellent. De Salva said a special table had been set up for her, with a vase of flowers and a plate of chocolates, and a sign describing her as a “local author.”

De Salva had a supply of specially-designed PERCY bookmarks by PublishingGurus.com to give away with each book she signed. She was thrilled, she said, to find that many former students were there—quite a few of them buying books for their grandchildren! Each of the Seroogy’s events lasted about four hours. “There were literally hundreds of people,” she reported. “It was wonderful!”

August 29th saw De Salva at “Artstreet,” an annual juried art show for which a street in downtown Green Bay is closed for the day. She was invited to spend two hours signing books in the booth reserved for Reader’s Loft, one of the bookstores that is offering PERCY’S SPECIAL GIFT. Several thousand people attended Artstreet.

And finally, on August 30th, De Salva returned to the De Pere high school where she taught for thirty-four years. As students flowed into the building for their fall High School Orientation, there she was, set up at a table and happily signing books.

These are examples of how an author can supplement a marketing program by making personal appearances to publicize a book. There’s nothing like the personal touch: readers will gladly line up for the opportunity to buy a book and exchange a few words with the author. De Salva’s book signings also show creativity and “thinking outside the box”: Seroogy’s chocolate shops are carrying her book, and were glad to include her as part of the annual tour. Congratulations to MaryAnn De Salva on some excellent – and profitable – marketing experiences this past month!

DS: To begin with, I am a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin. After thirty-four years of teaching high-school English, I am retired. With my husband Dwight, I enjoy traveling between Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Pass Christian, Mississippi. We call both places home, and both places are fodder for my writing.

I have also traveled extensively in the British Isles and in Europe. And my enthusiasm for new adventures and challenges resulted in my most memorable and exciting experience: to celebrate my 75th birthday, I went skydiving!

PG:   What do you do with your time, now that you’re retired from teaching?

DS: I am retired, but not retiring: I travel, volunteer, knit, read, and enjoy life.

PG:   When did you decide to write books?

DS: I have always wanted to write, but with family, teaching, and general busy-ness, only my fertile imagination produced pieces. Everything I have ever done – as a child, as a teacher, as a parent –  has been a preface to my writing.

PG:   How many books have you written? Tell us about them.

DS: PERCY is my first book to reach  fruition, and I want everyone to love him as much as I do. Although he is the first, he is not the last.  Percy and Jabber are on their way to solving the mystery of The Singing River. They will be joined by Dewey, the sea turtle; Stormy, the alligator, and Lily, the mermaid.  Jabber will remain the only one who knows the power of Percy’s magic tooth.

PG:   What are some of your favorite books by other authors? How have they influenced your own work?

DS: I am an English teacher— books were and are my life.

PG:   Do you have any hobbies, things about which you’re really passionate? Other than writing, that is?

DS: As a cancer survivor, I am passionate about helping others through the American Cancer Society and the YWCA Encore program. I have always been involved with children in some capacity.  Although I taught high school, I was part of creating, producing, and hosting an annual Christmas pageant for special-needs children in Brown County, Wisconsin.  I’ve decided that all the proceeds from PERCY will go to charities that help children, like Smile Train and a couple of others I support.

PG:   Whose services have you used for designing and editing your books?

DS: With the help and guidance of Betsy Gordon, Esther Luc, Sunny Kapoor, Nancy Coate, Cathy Skeris, and Publishing Gurus, this book has found wings.

PG:   What’s your target audience? Do you only write for an American audience, or are you also interested in writing for Asia and Europe?

DS: My audience is children, but their nationality or origin is irrelevant. The lesson of PERCY is limitless.

PG:   How do you market your books?

DS: This is new to me. I’m looking to others to create the buzz. After that, word of mouth, friends, former students will take over.

PG:   What advice do you have for new writers?

DS: Write!  Use every experience and every emotion to inspire you. Be honest in your telling, and people will believe in your vision.

In Green Bay, WI

Readers Loft

Bosse’ News & Tobacco

St. Catherine Book & Gift Store

In DePere, WI

Butterfly Books

Bay St. Louis, MS

Bay Books

San Diego, CA

Yellow Book Road

About the Author

Michelle Schulze  started out as a middle and high school French and social studies teacher.  Then, she taught K-12 English as a Second Language, and now, she teaches K-6 English as a Second Language.  Mrs. Schulze also conducts workshops, training sessions, and writes tips and materials to help her classroom teachers.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Education and French from the University of Central Missouri, a Masters of Liberal Arts from Baker University, and TESOL certification from Southeast Missouri State University.

June 23, 2010

Contact: Nancy A. Coate

Director of Marketing & Communications

619-440-7770

Nancycoate@publishinggurus.com

PUBLISHINGGURUS.COM INAUGURATES NEW WEBSITE

Kolkata, West Bengal, India and La Jolla, California, USA . . . PublishingGurus.com, a uniquely-conceived online company providing necessary services for authors since April 2009, announced today the launch of its expanded Website as a recognized publishing company.

Founded by Designer Sunny Kapoor (“Wicked Sunny”) and Editor Betsy Gordon, PublishingGurus.com combines the talents of East and West to offer new writers top-quality professional editing, formatting, and designing of their manuscripts, with ongoing personal attention and affordable prices. In the past year, some 70 titles have been prepared by PublishingGurus. April 2010 saw PublishingGurus recognized as a full-fledged publishing house, based in Kolkata. In May 2010, the USA Office of PublishingGurus was established and staffed in La Jolla, CA.

The new expanded Website (www.publishinggurus.com) offers Marketing and Publicity Tool Kits to its clients, personally developed for each book and the author’s target market. These marketing tools will assist writers with placing their books in local and chain bookstores and with online booksellers. A Showcase Web Store is provided, where books published by PublishingGurus – as well as selected books published elsewhere will be available, linking directly to other online stores giving numerous options to the authors. The same excellent editing and designing services PublishingGurus clients have come to expect will continue to be provided. Such top-quality services are also available to writers who wish to prepare books for publication elsewhere. Print Shop has been started which will help authors in printing promotion cards and flyers for their books or company.

For more information about PublishingGurus, please visit www.publishinggurus.com to view their Showcase Web Store and learn more about their world-class services and Publicity Tool Kits designed specifically for each book’s author.  The staff is always happy to answer any questions that are not covered in the FAQ section. Anyone who has ever thought of publishing a book should take a look at www.publishinggurus.com and explore the many ways they can help to make that dream come true.

Guess what? The answer is very simple. Tomorrow, simply walk to the nearest bookstore and browse through the book racks.

Ask yourself: What kind of books do I, as a reader, love to buy?

Novels? If you need some good entertainment to pass the time, then a novel or some other fiction, maybe. But what are the chances you will buy it?

The truth is, unless you have heard about the novel from your friends or colleagues, advertising or media channels, you will simply put it back on the shelf – unless the synopsis on the back is very intriguing, accompanied by an eye-catching book cover.

In 2009, about 764,500 books were self-published, vs. approximately 288,000 that were traditionally published, according to Publishers’ Weekly figures.

How many do you expect have been really successful in bringing back huge chunks of money to the authors? Maybe not even 10,000 books.

Why?

Publishing has a few rules that every author should keep  in mind when writing and publishing books:

1) The reason for Publishing:

Are you publishing only because it has always been your dream to publish a book? Or are you publishing because you want to become famous? Or do you want those hefty checks worth thousand of dollars from your publishers?

Make the reason very clear in your head before you start writing your book.

Well, let’s say you always wanted to write a poetry book. You write great poetry. Excellent – but will it sell?

After leaving high school or college, how many poetry books have you bought? See? You’ve got your answer.

In my city, I am probably one of the top ten buyers of poetry books. Being a multi – award-winning poet, it’ s my passion to read and write poetry books. My first poetry book got two awards in the United States. My poetry has been published by Forward Press. But does it bring me money? The answer is No.

It brought me fame, but not money; and I knew very well that would be the case when I started writing it. It doesn’t bother me, because that’s not my profession.

If you write something to fulfill your life-long passion, do not expect that the book will rake in thousands of dollars for you. You will be able to sell at the most a hundred, or even if you stretch it, a maximum of two hundred books. Not more than that. This applies even to those books that sell. You have to be darn lucky to have your first book become a best seller.

Poetry Books just don’t sell unless you find a publisher who can target the right audience – like poets and university scholars – who are really interested in books of poetry.

This rule also applies to many other genres of books.

So first fix in your mind – why are you writing the book?

If it’s for money, then you have to research and find out what books really sell. Do you have the appropriate knowledge, time, and money to pursue writing a book on that topic?

Do not confuse money and your dreams.

This brings us to the next rule

2) Benefits of the Book:

Is your book another cookbook with recipes easily searchable on the Internet? Is it another self-healing book with all the crap you have already read year after year, repackaged in a new style? Or is it something new and different?

And the most important question: what does your book give back to the reader?

I am going to give you an example:

Chris Coyier is a real-world web designer who has been reaching for WordPress to power client sites for many years. He is regarded as the Guru of WordPress Coding. With Jeff Starr, he published the book “Digging into Wordpress”. The eleven- chapter book, packed with more than four hundred pages of  WordPress tutorials, techniques, tips and tricks was released after a year of production, design, planning  and writing.

By the time I am writing this post, all their printed books have gone out of stock. Sold out completely. Only ebook formats are available, and they are looking for more printing options.

Both of these guys are among the best in their fields. The book shares a lot of professional tips and how-tos of their knowledge regarding WordPress for professional web designers.

You must be good in some field, too. Ask yourself, what practical knowledge can you share through your book?

Emphasis is on the practical. A book with long paragraphs on hypotheses and theories doesn’t sell anymore. Practical knowledge is the key.

3) Target Audience:

How did Chris and Jeff manage to sell their complete print stock of books?

They started staying in touch with their target audience, from a year before publishing their book, through different blog and social media sites.

Even today, you will find them active on many social networking sites like Twitter.

First, pinpoint your target audience. Then stay focused on your target audience, stay in constant touch with them, answer their queries, help them when you can. It’s exactly like building relationships in real life.  The important thing is to do it long before publishing your book.

Don’t do it only because you want to sell your book. Make it a habit – and it’s a good habit – to socialize and help others.

This applies to all genres of books. If you know how to approach your target audience, you can even make money out of selling poetry books!

3) Presentation:

This is probably the most important rule, because even if your content is great, your book will not sell if it’s not presentable.

Your book needs to be properly edited, formatted and designed. This is one rule often completely ignored by self-publishing authors, and is the major reason their books are unsuccessful.

The reason why this rule is ignored is because professional help costs a lot. Authors try to save money for the marketing of the book, and tend to bypass editing and formatting. They may either try to do these themselves, or they may hire an English teacher for editing or freelance designer to design and format.

The worst thing authors can do for their books is to ignore this rule. Their ignoring the rule is one of the prime reasons why bookstores refuse to accept their self-published books.

Never Edit Your Book Yourself!

You are bound to miss something, because it’s your dream book and you love it – maybe even more than your spouse at that time. Love is always blind.

Never try using non-designing software like Ms Word /Open Office to format your book!

You will spend more time getting rejected by printers if you use them, as down the line something will happen which will not match with the printer specifications.

Never try to design yourself an “adequate,” “okay” cover for your book.

Your cover should be mind-blowing, so attractive that potential readers will pick it out of a hundred books on the shelf.

Get professional help for these. Period!

4) Synopsis of the Book:

If the cover is the face of your book, the back cover synopsis is the hand of your book.

I have designed so many books; but almost every time, I find the synopsis has been written in haste and at the last minute.

When a person searches your book online or pick up your book in a bookstore, the synopsis of the book is going to make or break the sale of your book. These days, no one has time to go through books. Readers will open it only if they find the synopsis interesting.

Give yourself enough time to write an interesting and innovative synopsis.

5) Marketing:

At the end, it all boils down to how you market your book. Again, this is an area in which you should seek professional assistance. Of course, you could go to a coffee shop every day with a stack of books under your arm and place them on your table, in the hope that people will ask about them, and ultimately buy them. How many will you sell this way? How long will it take to make a few hundred dollars? How many cups of coffee will you have to drink? How long will it take you to feel discouraged, disheartened, and incompetent?

Most publishers have staff members who are knowledgeable and experienced in marketing techniques. They can tailor their suggestions to you, your book, and your target audience, so that the time and money spent in marketing is well spent rather than wasted. Yes, a marketing package will cost some money. But if you truly want your book to sell to more than just your relatives and close friends, you do need the services of a marketing and communications professional.

Conclusion:

These rules are not written in stone. You can always be innovative with them. But you should keep them in mind when writing, publishing and selling your own book. You’ll find they are well worth your consideration, and will contribute to your success as an author.

Wicked Sunny
Founder and Director
www.Publishinggurus.com

If your book is selected for our Showcase Web Store, PublishingGurus will take no part of the royalties from sales of your book through the Store. We have no connection with other online stores to which your book is linked.

But when you sign a Publishing Contract with PublishingGurus, we will market your book online and offline, and PublishingGurus will pay you royalties from sales we make, according to the terms agreed upon in your contract.

So, when your book is published by PublishingGurus, it will be placed in the Web Store FREE. PublishingGurus take no royalty out of any Store sales through other online stores to which you’re linked.

However, any direct sale through our marketing efforts entitles both the Author and PublishingGurus to Royalties, according to the contract.

We only accept good books. Perhaps a few of them will be best sellers – but what about the rest? All Authors would like to earn money from the sale of their books. The best option for most Authors will therefore be to sign a non-exclusive contract, giving them the option to publish their books as well with other publishing houses providing a similar non-exclusive contract.

Our focus on quality means that the books we select and publish will sell; so whichever of the two contracts you select, you will make money from your work, and so will PublishingGurus.

This is a win-win situation for Authors who publish with us.