The CT Chapter of APSS holds quarterly in-person meetings to give members book-marketing help as well as a networking opportunity. Their September meeting was hosted by Chapter President Dan Blanchard and featured a Shark Tank program in which members described their books and marketing actions to a panel of experts who offered feedback on writing, publishing and marketing.

Here, APSS-CT member Casey Morley describes her book, Crawling Out, to panel members Brian Jud, Richard LaPorta and Chuck Miceli (seated, l to r)

Instead of having “Tunnel Vision” where you only see sales opportunities through bookstores, acquire “Funnel Vision” where you regularly add potential non-bookstore buyers into your prospecting funnel and qualify those who are most likely to buy; then contact them.

If you do not think your content is suitable as a promotional item, find a way to make it happen. This opportunity is too lucrative to ignore. Charles Stahler (The Vegetarian Resource Group, http://www.vrg.org) thought restaurants would be a good place to sell books, but restaurants did not want to sell someone else’s book of recipes. So, Charles created a guide to natural-food restaurants in the United States and Canada. Then he contacted the restaurants listed to sell the guide in their restaurants, which they did. He also provides his frontlist books as premiums to other companies. According to Mr. Stahler, “Vegetarian Times magazine bought 10,000 of our Meatless Meals for Working People from us for a premium.”

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“I listen to many webinars but your APSS talk is one of the most outstanding I've heard - you had my full attention. (I just watched the replay now.) So much valuable information given in a clear, concise manner. It really inspired me to want to learn more about getting Facebook to work for me. I believe (APSS) is an answer to a prayer.”

      Lee Jackson

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

      Ray Bradbury