Shannon Vargo and Chris Brogan by Chris Brogan, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA
Chris Brogan made a great post over on his blog about marketing his book, Trust Agents - Marketing a Book.
I'm remixing his post to give you an update on where I'm at in marketing my book, Get Seen: Secrets of Online Video.
Chris and his co-author Julien, are a few months ahead of me since their book comes out in August and mine comes out in December.
Chris says:
Neither Julien nor I have ever marketed a book like this before. We’ve helped friends promote their books, and we are both avid readers, but the difference between marketing something and liking something are the differences between a marriage and staring at a picture of someone you’ve never met in person. Along the way, I want to share some of what we’ve learned, especially because Trust Agents is a very different kind of book.That's excellent.
I want to do the same.
The Story So Far
Where I am in the writing process:
I've written the book and sent it in to Wiley. It's being edited now and I expect to get it back shortly to go over their edits and make changes and additions. I'll have two more chances to edit the book before it's final.
If you are reading this and are involved in online video, and have something you are releasing later this year, let me know know so I can consider adding it to the book. :-)
Where I am with marketing:
Site:
SteveGarfield.com/getseen – After talking with my editor Shannon Vargo at Wiley, we decided to host the book's page under my own domain. I put out a survey to my twitter followers to determine whether the book page should be a marketing site or a community. I went with community.
Community:
I built the site with Ning. The splash page has a picture of the book and some marketing info at the top, so it also acts as a marketing page too.
People have already started joining the community. It's going to become a great resource for both readers and non-readers to exchange their experiences with putting video online. I've got a lot of information in the book about cameras too, and this site is going to grow and change with new product releases from vendors. The community has 37 members. Join in to talk about your questions and help others.
Twitter:
@GetSeen – I made a Twitter account for the book to send out major announcements. This account is for people who want to make sure they get announcements about the book on twitter.
People are posting about the book on twitter and I appreciate it.
Facebook:
Get Seen Page – I built a Get Seen Page on Facebook. As of this writing, there are 37 fans. I haven't promoted this page yet, other than having a link to it on SteveGarfield.com and on the Ning Community Site.
Amazon.com:
Get Seen is now available for pre-order on amazon.com.
Speaking:
I'm lining up speaking engagements for this year and next.
I'm also starting to plan the book tour and looking for sponsors for air, hotel and meet up locations.
I've got some ideas about combining the book tour with tweetups and Media Makers meetings.
When I traveled to Phoenix, I brought that community together and this past week I went to Nantucket where they had their first tweetup. I'd love to help kick start ongoing events in your town.
Interviews:
I've started mentioning the book when doing interviews. It's still early for interviews, but if a show is ongoing I'll do an interview now so that the host can see how it goes and have me back on again.
I've recently been on the Mashable Lounge and CNN.com/Live. Appearances there will continue.
Other Touchpoints – Following Chris' example, I edited my email signature to include a link to the book. I’ve added a link to the book into my Facebook bio.
What’s Working?
Here’s some things I know:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,116 in Books
Here are some things I don't know:
I don't know how to see the ranking in specific categories. I'll have to ask Chris how he gets this.
Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Manager’s Guides to Computing
Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Systems & Planning
I'm not listed in Barnes & Noble yet.
What's Next
Here are some of the things I'm working on:
Get on National TV. Explaining how to put video online will be a great show segment and I'm starting to contact shows about this. You know I'm already talking to one special late night show.
Recruit other video producers to join the community and to share their skills.
I'd love to hear your ideas and get your help. Thanks!
Update:
Here's a short URL you can use to link to the book http://bit.ly/GetSeen