One of the most exciting parts of getting the book together has been submitting it to famous business authors and noted business people. The result has been a collection of comments and reviews on how helpful the book will be to readers. I thought I would share some of the initial reviews with you. As more come in, I will share those too.
“If you are one of thousands of business owners struggling to fulfill your dream of entrepreneurialism—read this book now." Jeffrey Fox, author of “How To Become A Rainmaker
"Reality Marketing grabs your hand and leads you through everything you need to know and do to dramatically increase your revenues and profitability. A graduate degree in effective marketing concentrated into an easy to read book filled with practical advice that you can start to use immediately to pump up your sales." Steven Smolinsky, author “Conversation On Networking” and Project Faculty at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Speaker and Consultant.
“We’re big fans of Reality Marketing and have seen firsthand how these ideas can revolutionize any small business and put it on the fast track to explosive growth and prosperity. This is a wakeup call to entrepreneurs around the world: join Mike and Eric’s revolution and take control of your marketing, business and lives.” Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller, Authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers and founders of GravitationalMarketing.com
“Reality Marketing provides small businesses with exactly what they need: A no nonsense approach to improving sales, profitability and for building long-term customer relationships! I loved it!” Eyal Maoz, Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management
The book is in the home stretch. In seven days, the Reality Marketing Revolution goes to the printer. I took a look back at when we started writing the book and found an email from October 2006. That would mean we have been working on the book for 20 months, almost 2.5 years. Wow, that is really crazy. If anyone ever tells you how easy they think it is to write a book, share that story with them.
Here is the latest on our push to get the book to the printer. We are expecting the final revisions to be completed by Wednesday. We will give final approval on Thursday and then the book has to be indexed. That usually takes a couple of days. Our plan is to have indexing done on Monday of next week. Our last chance to review the book copy will be on Tuesday and then we bless it off to the printer on Wednesday.
In just 3 to 4 weeks, the book will be back from the printer and then book promotions starts. Its all about how many copies can you sell. Our plans then move from production to promotions. Did you know that you only need to sell 4,500 copies to be considered a business best seller. Thats our goal. I will keep you posted.
Since the book is at the printer, we are working on marketing and promotions for the book launch. As you would expect, one of the cornerstones of the book promotional effort will be our book website. To get a sneak peak at the pre-release version of the website click here.
Of course, we are looking for your feedback. What do you like about the site? What is it missing? Does it make you want to read the book? Do you feel like you are about to be part of a revolution? How about the free excerpt? Is that enough to get you interested? Do you know anyone else who would find value in the book? Would you forward the site to a friend or fellow entrepreneur?
Let us know what you think. Comment or email me directly.
I recently attended the MarketingProfs event in Boston. Now that I am back, and have had a chance to catch up, I wanted to share some really interesting key learnings with our readers. I think this was one of the better events I have participated in, check it out at this link. They have another event in October in Scottsdale, I would recommend it.
Over the course of the last two days, I attended sessions on email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, writing white papers, getting your website sticky and more. While I had pages of notes, there were a couple of tidbits, I thought would be helpful.
Did you know how email management systems (ESPs) track open rates on your email campaigns?
They embed a 1x1 pixel in each email and when that downloads, it triggers tracking code. The problem is that if you turn off images in your email system, no open is triggered and your open rate maybe significantly higher than you know. More and more people are turning off images, so its something to consider
Do you know what the estimated ROI is on email campaigns across the board?
$47 to $1 and thats down from last year when it was $57 to $1
Do you know how you get to be in the Sponsored Links section on Google, ABOVE the natural search listings?
If your Ad Words Ad gets more clicks than the top natural search listing, you get to go to the top.
What percentage of people use the natural search listings, as opposed to the Ad Words listings?
60%
Hope you found this interesting, I sure did...email me if you want to chat more about the conference.
The first complete pass of the book is done and we are told, it looks great. Paul (our designer) is re-working the graphics and text for Realty Bytes have not be added yet. We still have lots of edits. We should have next version later today/early tomorrow. Our page count is increasing. This is positive since it will make the book look and feel more valuable.
On a side note, I am attending the Marketing Profs seminar in Boston this week. There is a lot of valuable information at the conference, especially in the areas of email marketing, social media, and websites. One of the interesting learnings involved the increased trend for people to turn off images in their in bound emails. Turning off images, reduces open rates and limits the effectiveness of email marketing. A few tips to deal with the "images off" scenario includes, proper taging of images and the design of email campaigns to be effective with images and without.
The conference is tomorrow as well, I will blog about additional experiences tomorrow.
Ok, its been some time since I blogged. Let me update you on the status of our project.
First, the book is at the designer. Our work is done, we have written, rewritten, and rewritten copy again. Now it is out of our hands. The words in this book fairly represent our thoughts on small business marketing and how we have to let the reader’ judge our work.
After much back and forth, the cover is completed. We have collected a ton of great quotes from respected individuals who have read our galley copy.
Currently, the book is in design. The designer is taking our copy and laying it out page by page in the attractive final form readers will enjoy.
Our book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com (click here) and BarnesandNoble.com (click here).
The promotional plans for the book are underway. We have a book tour in planning for the fall, we have a media kit in final review, we are setting up a series of PodCasts, the RealityMarketingRevolution website is under construction, and we are interviewing a personal assistant to help us with the promotion of the book. If you know anybody, have them email me at mike@square2marketing.com.
I will try to keep you posted on a more regular basis.
Our book is now available on Amazon.com. Of course there was much celebration at the company today. Despite the fact that we changed the cover again. Yes, we needed to make a couple of adjustments and Amazon still has the old cover. Barnes & Noble.com (bn.com) does have the new cover. Regardless, its the first step in getting to our goal of 10,000 copies sold in 2008.
Don't order it yet. Steve, our book partner, will give us the good word and then, of course, I will share it with all of you. Here is a screen capture for your viewing pleasure. If you want to see a bigger screen capture, just click on the image.
Our book is going to be filled with Reality Bytes. Short snippets of useful information created by noted, industry leaders who already serve the entrepreneurial community. Our team has reached out to a number of these leaders, requesting them to join our "revolution" and help other business owners through our new book.
Check out a sample Reality Byte from noted author, speaker, and business professional, John Jantsch, who wrote Duct Tape Marketing.
The final manuscript editing was completed and graphics were inserted in the correct position in the appropriate chapters. We will make one final review to make sure that grammar errors are caught and book flows constantly.
This includes figure numbers, tabbing, and punctuation. It is important we catch as many of these errors BEFORE they are sent to the designer, since it's easier to make (and track) corrections in a WORD document as opposed to a designed page. The big issue is page flow. If we have lots of corrections after the book is designed it can make lots of work later on.
We are then sending the completed manuscript to our designer along with a separate file of "Reality Bytes." These 3rd party contributions will offer an outside expert's observations, tips and advice.
Our designer will fit these pieces in after the text is initially flowed into the design template. The initial book is expected to have 160 pages. Our book template sample will be done on Monday. After this manuscript is complete, this will be merged with the template.
We expect 2 weeks of back and forth corrections and we'll be done . Our editor is working on the flaps and back cover.
Great news....we received an email (actually it was our partner Steve, but we consider him part of our team) from a buyer asking how many copies of our NEW BOOK she should order. Steve suggested 1 carton per DC(distribution center). Since she had four DCs...look at me, talking about DCs, like we are a professional in the book business. That translated into 112 books.
WOW! We sold 112 books!
Since all books are returnable, you never what to overstock and it only takes a few days to replenish. Building a relationship with your buyer is important. Ingram will be a principal distributor for both online and retail book stores until we establish demand for the book.
For example, when a person orders the book from Amazon, BN.com or local Border's store, orders are placed through Ingram. They ship fast and (books arrive to retailers in just a few days). Once Amazon starts selling they will place a stocking order for quicker shipment.
The key to book success is to drive book demand. Having you book in stores is important but nothing is more critical then sell-thru. We will focus on demand first and distribution will follow with little effort. Of course, we will implement the strategies we teach in the Reality Marketing Revolution. I am attaching a screen shot of the summary order for the viewing pleasure of our blog readers. Click the image to view it in full size.
