Authors Access » Alan E. Smith

Drew Gerber – Catapult Your Book with Media Coverage

Victor Volkman — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:19:28 +0000

On September 2, 2010 Irene Watson and Alan E. Smith spoke with author and media coverage guru Drew Gerber of PitchRate.com. L. Drew Gerber is CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc. and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists, publicists, and experts. Drew informed us on critical aspects of the interface between author and media including:

How to stand out from the crowd and brand what’s unique about your book.
How to make it easy for customers and journalists to find you and your book online.
Who wants your expertise? How to position yourself as an expert.
How to grab the media’s attention by creating the perfect pitch.
How to get to the point and use sound bites.
How to maximize your publicity by leveraging the coverage you’re getting to attract more traffic and leads to your website.

Drew Gerber

Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed.

www.PitchRate.com

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Podcasting for Authors – Roundtable with Alan E. Smith

Victor Volkman — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:49:35 +0000

On January 8th, 2010, we convened a roundtable discussion on Podcasting for Authors with Victor R. Volkman, Irene Watson, and Alan E. Smith. Each of the principals invited has been recording and distributing podcasts for several years through Authors Airwaves, Inside Scoop Live, and UnBreak Your Health, and podcast programs respectively. Our discussion ranged through a wide variety of subjects from production to promotion to book tie-ins and of course, getting started.1. How did you get into podcasting?
2. Is it hard to do, do I have to learn a lot of stuff?
3. Should I use blogtalkradio or do-it-myself?
4. How do I get guests, what do I talk about?
5. How do I promote the podcast?
6. What is RSS.XML and stuff like that
7. How can I tie my book into the podcast without making it an endless infomercial?
8. Can I integrate or interweave my book and podcast content?
9. How do I measure success?
10. What about audio quality? tips

Alan E. Smith

Victor Volkman specializes in the audio engineering aspects and has done audio editing for quality control on more than 200 podcasts, including all 102 podcasts of Authors Access. The chief problems that he works on involve noise reduction, balancing the levels, integrating background music and commercials, fixing speech problems, and maintaining quality and continuity. His audio editing suite is Goldwave Version 5.

Irene Watson is the owner of Reader Views, a full-service book marketing and publicity firm with a wide range of services from reviews to interviews to book editing and agenting. In 2005, she created Inside Scoop Live which has produced nearly 400 shows which is now primarily hosted by Juanita Watson. Inside Scoop Live is a global internet-based broadcast specializing in interviewing published authors about their current books and areas of expertise. Her preferred recording platform is Audio Acrobat dot com” Alan E. Smith is the author of Unbreak Your Health: The complete guide to complementary and alternative therapies. Alan has produced 55 podcasts since 2008 with a variety of guests from bestselling authors such as Bruce Lipton, PhD, who wrote “The Biology of Belief” which was a major influence of the infamous “What the Bleep” movie and also the creators, deans, and master teachers of many techniques such as Naturopathy, Chiropractic, Energy Medicine, Therapeutic Touch, and dozens of others.

Resources we mentioned on this show

Internet Stations to consider broadcasting on

AudioAcrobat.com
Blogtalkradio.com
InsideScoopLive.com
Global Talk Radio
BBS Radio
Achieve Radio
World Talk Radio
VoiceAmerica
HealthyLife.net

For publicizing your podcast show

Francine Silverman’s Talk Radio Wants You
Alex Carroll’s database of talk radio
Podcastdirectory.com
Podcast411.com
Podbean.com
Podseek.net
Dailyslice.com
Google’s podcast directory

Where to get great guests?

PitchRate.com
HARO (www.helpareporter.com)
RadioGuestList.com
www.mymediaconnections.ning.com

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Irene Watson – Target Marketing for NonFiction Writers: Why Some People Won’t Read Your Book

Victor Volkman — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:43:35 +0000

On August 28th, 2009, Alan E. Smith, author of the award-winning “UnBreak Your Health: The Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine” spoke with book marketing guru Irene Watson on the importance of considering target reader personas in the book writing process. Irene is the owner of Reader Views, a full-service book reviewing and marketing agency in Austin, TX. Irene’s psychology background and constant study gives her the ability to understand people and how they think, live, and for today’s interview, how they read. Some of the things we considered:

Importance of knowing your target market before writing your book
Understanding reading preferences, temperments and personalities of potential readers
Creating a profile of the potential readers/target market
Fully understanding why some readers like your book and others don’t.

Irene’s career took her from career counseling, to business ownership, to working for a police force, to psychosynthesis counseling, to teaching at a college, to retreat/seminar/workshop design and facilitation to her most recent – owning/managing Reader Views and its branches. She obtained her B.S. in psychology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX and her M. A. in psychology from Regis University in Denver, CO.After retiring in 2003 Irene authored an award winning memoir, The Sitting Swing, which was originally published in 2005. Having a hard time getting reviews for her book, she started Reader Views on a whim. Within a month it exploded to a full time business. So much for retirement! Since then she has pioneered many other innovative marketing sites including Inside Scoop Live, ReviewThe Book, BloggingAuthors, and many other services from press release writing to book videos to an international award contest now entering its 4th year.

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Carol Hoenig – Planning for Successful Book Events

Victor Volkman — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:36:58 +0000

On Feburary 19th, 2009 Alan E. Smith (author of UnBreak Your Health) and Tyler Tichelaar (author of the Marquette Trilogy) spoke with Carol Hoenig, fiction writer and book event expert, about how to plan a successful book sales event. Carol is the expert behind the new book The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events and shared generously from her hard-won experiences.Rarely do authors think about book events until they have found a publisher. However, part of being able to snag a publisher is knowing your market. Most authors immediately think they should do events in bookstores, but they ae not always the best place to do an event. Every writer who wants to have a successful book has to start first with good writing and a marketing plan. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been traditionally published or gone the r
oute of self-publishing, the author must take a hands-on approach in marketing their book.

Carol Hoenig is a fulltime freelance writer and publishing consultant. Her
novel, WITHOUT GRACE, has been given several awards, including the Silver Medal for Book of the Year 2005 by ForeWord Magazine and given First Place for
Fiction by the DIY Book Festival. Her book THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO PLANNING BOOK EVENTS was named finalist by USA Book and Reader Views and given the Gold medal by ForeWord Magazine for Book of the Year in the category of writing. Carol’s essays, articles, book reviews and short stories appear in a wide number of publications. Carol blogs for The Huffington Post covering politics, culture, the publishing industry and the writing life.

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