Books on Shelves at Barnes & Noble
Great news!
Tourist Town Guides are beginning to appear on bookstore shelves, particularly in Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
With few exceptions, Barnes & Noble is places these books regionally. The closer you are to the destination, the more likely you will be to find the book on the shelf. A few of the larger stores, for example in New York City, will carry a wider variety simply because they are flagship stores.
This could be great placement, especially during the current high-gasoline-price situation. People will be traveling and vacationing closer to home, so these guides near the location might be ideal.
In any case, if you're up to buying a
Tourist Town Guides book, please make a visit to your friendly neighborhood B&N.
Labels: bookstores
To eBook or Not to eBook...
I am seriously considering releasing all TTG titles as eBooks as well as physical books. But it is a proposition that leaves me with a few concerns.
One the one hand, eBooks are a definite wave of the future. Amazon's new
Kindle has become the talk of many in the industry, even though electronic portable book readers have been around for a while.
However, the problem is, like the online music business, there is not much structure or supporting data yet. Amazon seems to be setting the standard for eBook fees at $5 for electronic versions of books released as paperbacks. I'm sure the kinks will be ironed out in the next few years, so I guess it is an advantage to get into the format while it is still young, and grow with it.
It is my opinion that travel books would be an ideal test for eBooks, for several reasons. First off, the content of a travel guide is not as creatively unique as, say, a fiction book Plus, the books get quickly dated, so the old Bbooks would have to be updated regularly. Finally, the portability of ebooks make it more ideal to go on vacation with than a physical book (stores in your cell phone or portable reading device).
These reasons make the eBook market appealing for me.
Labels: ebook
Another Good Yahoo! Travel Article
Yahoo! seems to have a bit more about tourist towns than the standard Internet news compendium. Here is a great article (with a link to
Forbes Travel) with the top 25 American tourist destinations, based on annual visitors:
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-22888930Labels: travel article
Exciting Possibility
Today I got a call from a local television affiliate requesting an interview with one of my authors. I hope it works out, a television interview would be fantastic publicity!
Labels: television
A Breakdown of 2008 Marketing Plans
There are a good number of books yet to be sold that are sitting in a warehouse in Kansas. In order to move them out and onto store shelves, and in turn off the shelves and into people's homes, spreading the word is a necessity. So, for those who are interested, following is a very general breakdown of the four main marketing points for the immediate future:
1.
A web site. Obviously! The official website is located on the back of each book, and attached to whatever marketing plans and correspondence is generated. All book information is available on the website, including links to purchasing from various online merchants.
2.
Blogging, ezine contribution, and social networking. The obvious way to get the word out is to connect with people who may share interests in traveling to a Tourist Town Guides destination.
3.
Review books. 150+ books have already been sent to pertinent media outlets, along with press releases. Hopefully some of the books will generate press. Hopefully good press.
4.
Representation at regional trade shows. This is where the distributor helps out. The books will be on display and represented at various regional book shows. We're not doing BEA this year because - I'm told - the market for these is regional, not national.
5.
Paid ads to wholesalers and retailers. This is another point where the distributor is immensely important. They will help to organize, design, and place appropriate ads in appropriate trade magazines. Though this method gets books into stores, it doesn't necessarily get the ultimate consumer to buy.
Of course, there are specifics to each of these that I'm not going to get into here. I'd like to hear any additional marketing ideas.
Labels: marketing
Talking Too Much About Marketing...
I know I have been focusing a lot on book marketing in this blog, but only because that is what I'm currently most involved with. I promise there will be more information about other aspects of publishing as soon as I start to work on the "next round" for the next year(s).
Labels: marketing
Website Pros and Woes
These days, a website is as important a selling tool as door-to-door and direct mail have been historically. Whenever a company representative is interviewed, one of the first questions is "What is your website?" (not "Do you have a website?" - since it is automatically assumed that you do). It is
that important.
This is especially true with companies that sell information - like books and newspapers. It is hard to find information online that you have to pay for that isn't readily available elsewhere for free, or (in the case of copyrighted works) a free alternative. So a website for information companies must be designed with great care.
My ultimate goal for
TouristTown.com is to provide free travel information online, but without losing book sales. I want customers to be able to view the site not just as an online store front, but also as a place to communicate with other users, find peer reviews for tourist attractions, and learn generally about the covered tourist destinations. These kinds of sites already exist, so the important thing is to make sure the site stands out - still, without detracting from book sales.
I just got around (this past weekend) to uploading the new cover designs to the Bookstore pages of the site, and I realized how far behind I was in keeping it updated. The site should be my next big important step since the books are already starting to show up on store shelves, and the website traffic is inevitably going to increase as more people become aware of the series.
Labels: marketing, website
