The Hartsock Agency » Book sales

Will you be at the table for fried chicken?

Nettie Hartsock — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:20:50 +0000

“If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on the fence and watch the birds.” — Wilbur Wright

Today at BEA, I came across several folks who felt compelled to tell me they did not Twitter, did not Facebook, did not DIGG and did not much “cotten” to social media one bit. In fact, they said, they weren’t ever going to use it as they thought it was a giant waste of time.

They also were worried that social media and all this exposure might not be safe in the long run because social media involves one sharing real information about one’s life.

Remember when people only used typewriters to write news stories? Remember when the Wright Brothers were chased home by bigger kids flapping their arms and laughing at them? Remember when candles were the only source of light?

We’re in that kind of place with social media. I think the term itself may be throwing folks off because perhaps it is the word “social” that scares the heck out of us. My question is, “Why should it?”

“Why would you want 14,000 people following you?” Let’s think about it, if you’re a book author and you’re carrying 4000 books you’ve got to sell and you suddenly come upon a literary gang of 14,000 book lovers blogging, Tweeting, Linking, and Facebooking toward you – are you going to run the other way simply because they’re being too social?

Would you turn down an opportunity to have a virtual community of buzzmakers who read and relish every page you’ve ever written just because they happen to be Tweeters?

My Great Aunt Florence used to say, “If you’re too clever for your own good and you can’t spin a good yarn, then pretty soon no one invites you for fried chicken on Sundays anymore.”

Don’t be too clever about social media and all that you know it will not do for you.

Just pick one tool and use it. See what happens. Who knows? You might find one day, you’ll be virtually sitting at the head of a beautiful Sunday fried chicken supper surrounded by your very own large, powerful and beloved online community.

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Obama Gives Book A Bump

Nettie Hartsock — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:38:29 +0000

Is Obama becoming the new Oprah when it comes to book sales? A book he mentioned reading is now doubling in sales.

Watch out Oprah!

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FiledBy.com Features Perseus – Go and Claim Your Author Page Too!

Nettie Hartsock — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:01:32 +0000

I’ve been covering FiledBy.com since it was in beta and encouraging authors to officially register their pages on the site and use it as another way to get some Web 2.0 traction.

This morning Tamara Crabtree was kind enough to send me their latest press release , and it serves as a good reminder to urge all of you to claim your pages. (And hat tip to my pal Charles Decker who is brilliant and was the one to tell me about FiledBy.com in the first place nearly a year ago when it was still in beta.)

Why should you take 4 to 5 minutes and fill out your profile on the site? Because it’s worth your time in Web 2.0 and it would be silly not to do it.

The site currently has over 1.8 author pages and more than 7.5 million book pages. It’s like Wikipedia for authors except without the geeks running it who are fighting over what people can submit and how to keep it pure (like they are on Wikipedia.) The site also offers really cool bells and whistles for authors to utilize.

“Go, go and do this now,” she says, (in her clean up your room voice.)

Note: I love geeks and am married to one who is taking a “hall pass” tonight with his buddy to go see Wolverine and can’t wait to see Star Trek. So geeks are good – just not when they’re fighting.

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Soliciting Author Blurbs

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:09:24 +0000

Superb PW insight and tips for soliciting author blurbs.

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Enter the IPPYs

Nettie Hartsock — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:07:15 +0000

I always encourage independently published authors to enter the IPPYs (Independent Book Publisher Awards) and the deadline is soon upon us! Go to this link and enter your book.

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Bulldog Reporter: Pitching to Bloggers

Nettie Hartsock — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:33:37 +0000

If you’re an author and you want to understand how to pitch to bloggers, I highly recommend Bulldog Reporter’s conference on this. It’s at a great and affordable price point and Brian Pittman and the speakers are a stellar roundtable. (And no, I’m not an affiliate!)

Check out more information about it here.

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How to Sell A Book (or Any New Idea)- Changethis.com

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:37:50 +0000

I love the folks at Changethis.com and all the magic they bring with stellar manifestos! And I was thrilled to find this recent one by Seth Godin in regard to selling your book or idea.

Seth’s latest Changethis is titled, “How to Sell A Book (or Any New Idea)”.

It has some very good points in it about building your tribe and as a Deadhead I was thrilled to see Seth illustrate how they built their tribe! (One dance at a time I tell you!)

If you never followed the Dead, went to a hippie college (Goddard) or don’t even have a Dead tattoo (in my case a dancing bear), don’t worry…you’ll still glean great information from Seth’s manifesto!

Go Dead. Go Seth. Go find your tribe!

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