Logical Expressions Blog

Some things require a bit of patience...

Happy Holidays
and Best Wishes for a Great 2009
from All of Us Here at Logical Expressions, Inc.
and the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals

Here's hoping you and yours enjoy a wonderful holiday season. See you in 2009 ;-)

   ~ Susan Daffron and James Byrd

Thanks to everyone who participated in the book launch for Publishize last week. We sold a bunch of books! In fact, we sold WAY more autographed copies that I was expecting, so I actually ran out of books here and had to wait for another order to arrive from the printer.

Fortunately, people were incredibly nice when I wrote them and said their book might not make it to them by Christmas. I just mailed out a bunch today and am out again. So I'm waiting for yet another book order to arrive from Lightning Source (our printer).

As I was packing books, I realized that when you order a book directly from us, you get a little slice of Idaho with your book. Packing tape is a major dog hair attractant, so don't be surprised if you get a little gift from Cami, the wooly white dog along with your book ;-)

In other news, Publishize has also been selected to be a member benefit for people who join the National Association of Women Writers in 2009. Plus, the book got a great review in the Funds for Writers newsletter last week. The editor C. Hope Clark gave me permission to reprint it. Here's what she said:

"A remarkable book I intend to eat up over and over. Here's an author who knows how to use self-publishing. This book focuses on the nonfiction writer with a ready-market and the experts who need books to enhance their business. As Susan says, "The key is to think about your book as just another product in your line-up of business offerings." Cleanly written, Publishize is a must-have for the nonfiction writer with a service to sell."

In one of the final sections of our Publishize book, I list my 10 Keys to Success. Because I only briefly touch on them in the book, I'm expanding on them here.

Enjoy!

Key to Success #5: Ditch What Isn't Working

by Susan C. Daffron

As a business owner, you need to keep track of marketing techniques you use that work and those that don't

As promised, here's the information about the special book promotion that is happening today only - December 11, 2008.

The book is my ninth book and it's called Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book that Promotes Your Expertise.  As many of you know, I self-published 8 books in less than 18 months. Publishize is filled with all my best self-publishing secrets and online book marketing tips. Today only we are offering free shipping on the book and a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. You'll find audio and print bonuses from Marcia Yudkin, Shel Horowitz, Fern Reiss, Sheri McConnell, and many other people. Check out http://www.publishize.com/ and you'll see the incredible list of freebies we collected.

Of course, you also get the book itself, which is chock full of all the information any aspiring self-publisher needs to finally realize that dream of publishing a book.

Here's what a few publishing pros have said about the book:

A roadmap to turn businesspeople into published authors.”
   -- Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual, ParaPublishing.com

“Well-written, honest, pulling no punches, and full of good advice. Read Publishize to make informed and profitable decisions about the entire publishing and marketing process.”
   -- Shel Horowitz, award-winning author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers and six other books; www.GrassrootsMarketingforAuthors.com

Susan Daffron offers honest advice and breaks down self-publishing into manageable steps any business owner can implement.”
   -- John Eggen, President, The Mission Marketing Mentors, Inc.  MissionMarketingMentors.com

Susan Daffron eloquently nails the why’s and how’s of self-publishing in her new book, Publishize. This book is a great gift... I highly recommend it.”
   -- Fern Reiss, Director of the International Association of Writers, and CEO of PublishingGame.com

Susan Daffron explains the ins and outs of print-on-demand printing without the subsidy press stigma and offers a great overview of the latest online book marketing methods. I highly recommend this book for all the women writers I serve!”
   -- Sheri McConnell, CEO of the National Association of Women Writers

You can read more testimonials here - http://www.publishize.com/praise.htm

I hope you can take a moment today to check out my new book and all the bonuses at http://www.publishize.com/

This week's article is about how we are doing the Publishize book launch. FYI, today is the big day. I'll be blogging later with more information, but basically, we'll be offering free shipping on the book and a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. I've collected audio and print bonuses from Marcia Yudkin, Shel Horowitz, Fern Reiss, Sheri McConnell, and a bunch of other people. Check out http://www.publishize.com/ today December 11 and you'll see the incredible list of freebies folks are offering for people who buy the book. I'd like to say a huge heartfelt thank you to all my partners (many of whom are subscribers) for making the launch possible. You all are great ;-)

The article this week gives you the "behind the scenes" information about how to do a book launch.

Enjoy!

How to Set Up a Book Launch Campaign

Learn what is involved in doing an online book or product launch

While I was at the PubWest publishing show in November, I was interviewed by Chris Kenneally about my book writing process, IdeaWeaver, and of course, our new book Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise.

You can listen here:

BTB #73: Advice for Accidental Authors

Susan Daffron shares "provocative and insightful advice on what it takes to make a publisher out of an author during at break at the annual PubWest Conference.

Seth Godin recently blogged about how you have to be careful about how much importance you put on the noise you hear on the Internet. Loud does not necessarily equal important. You have to consider the source and evaluate whether what you are hearing is a harbinger of a movement or just someone sounding off.

Seth summed it up with:

  "And most of all, get straight on who you are trying to please, and why."

That's the key, right there. You can't really evaluate the noise until you know what matters to you and your customers. So, who exactly is your customer? If you know that, you can more easily filter the noise and extract the relevant messages. It is just as important to understand who your customer is when you look at the incoming noise as it is to know who they are when you start making noise yourself (i.e. marketing).

If you are a business owner who gets stressed out by prospects who reject your offer because of price, features, or some other failing to meet the prospect's requirements, I have good news: they were never your customers anyway.

If you can't close the deal because of a gap between your offer and the prospect's requirements, and neither you nor your prospect is willing or able to compromise enough to close that gap, then the prospect you are talking to is simply not a qualified customer. There's no point to getting stressed about it. Just note the customer's objections for potential future enhancement of your offer and move on, keeping in mind that not every demand is reasonable.

It is perfectly reasonable to end a conversation with a prospect with "I understand what you are looking for, and I'm sorry to say that it just isn't a good match with what we offer. I wish you the best of luck in finding what you need. If you are ever interested in taking another look at our offering, I'd be happy to speak with you again about it."

I’m not saying to just give up when a prospect asks for something you don't offer. I'm saying that you have to know when you encounter an unbridgeable gap and accept it. I know of salespeople who would shudder in response to this philosophy, but these are salespeople I wouldn't want working for me.

The last thing you want to do is acquire customers who are unhappy with the sale because your offering doesn't really meet their requirements. I promise you that they'll make a bunch of noise, and it won't be good for your business.

Posted by James Byrd, Vice President

Today, we had a great preview call with our friend Donna Kozik for a new program we're offering together called "Promote a Book in a Weekend" on December 13 and 14.

In one weekend, participants will get our help in creating a custom Web site for their book (or upcoming book), which they can later modify themselves, just like a blog. The "virtual" event combines our Self-Publisher Book Web Site with a lot of copywriting help, advice, and moral support, so people get the site DONE.

Although we'll be talking books on the weekend of the 13th, last weekend we got crafty. If you're on Facebook, "friend" me and you can see cool pictures of the sewing table James has resurrected for me from a sort of nasty Goodwill find. It's so cool! This weekend I'm going to stain it. Long-time readers know that I love bringing back old furniture from the depths of thrift store despair. It appeals to my crafty side and the cheapskate in me. In fact, being thrifty in business is the subject of this week's article.

Enjoy!

Keys to Success #4: Spend Wisely
Being a cheapskate isn't all bad; if you spend wisely, your business is better able to withstand economic upheavals

James and I will be participating in a free teleseminar with Donna Kozik, where we will explain the information you MUST include on your book's Web site.

Ideally, you should put up a Web site before you have even finished your book. In fact, our Publishize site was up for at least 6 months before we released the book. In fact, almost as soon as I got the domain name, I put up a site. Even a simple site with basic information is better than nothing because you can link to it and give the search engines time to find it BEFORE your book is out. Then once you release the book, you can swap in a more comprehensive site. (I put up the new version right before the PubWest show because I knew I'd be handing out books that have the domain name prominently displayed on the back cover!)

If you want to learn more about the key elements every book site should have, sign up on this page. After all the price is right. You can't beat FREE. Even if you can't attend live, if you sign up, you can get the recording. It's also free ;-)

6 Key Elements of a Book Web Site Teleseminar Sign Up page

A free teleseminar with Donna Kozik, James H. Byrd, and Susan Daffron