What is the big difference between http and https? The big secret is in the little "S" that means so much! This little computer tip could save you much grief.
Ordering products and doing business on line with credit has become a daily norm. We've all seen the URLs that come with many of the transactions, but how important are they and do they hold any secrets that we should know about? Yes, they do and the secret is all about "S" for security.
HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transport Protocol.
The S (big surprise)stands for "Secure". If you visit a website or webpage,
and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with the
following: http://.
This means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular
'unsecure' language. In other words, it is possible for someone to
"eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website. If you fill
out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send
to that site.
This is why you never ever enter your credit card number in a http website!
But if the web address begins with https:// that basically means your
computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can
eavesdrop on. So why is this is so important?
If a website ever asks you to enter your credit card information, you should
automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://. ; If it
doesn't, there's no way you should ever enter sensitive information like a
credit card number, PIN, Social Security #, etc.
So, the next time you do online business, look for the little "s" that has a big job. Knowing the difference may save you from grief by keeping your transactions secure.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
THE DOCTORS
A friend sent me this joke and whether or not I agree doesn't matter as much as the fact that it is darned funny. Doctors one-upping each other. Reality Medicine?
> > A Japanese doctor said, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we took the kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks."
> >
> > A German doctor said, "That's nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks."
> >
> > A British doctor said, "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half of a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks."
> >
> > A Chicago doctor, not to be outdone said, "You guys are way behind. We took a man with no brains out of Chicago , put him in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work."
> > A Japanese doctor said, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we took the kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks."
> >
> > A German doctor said, "That's nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks."
> >
> > A British doctor said, "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half of a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks."
> >
> > A Chicago doctor, not to be outdone said, "You guys are way behind. We took a man with no brains out of Chicago , put him in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work."
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
MARKETING YOUR BOOK- A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL
PART II “Fleshing out” the MARKETING PROPOSAL.
The object of the outline in Part I of the marketing proposal was to build a good foundation for Part II. The goal of Part II of the proposal is to expand on the outline by describing, adding names, details, and statistics. They should work together and complement each other. Think of Part I as the skeleton and Part II as the skin and organs. Agents and editors can glace at what is important to them in the outline in Part I and then find the details in the information below it in Part II. I have used samples from my proposal as an example.
The market for SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing is every person or family touched by this epidemic health crisis. It is particularly aimed at people just beginning their foray with treatment. A large secondary market for my book is the alternative medicine, metaphysical, spiritual, religious, and holistic communities. I have also found that health-care professionals—whether doctors, nurses, or technicians—are fascinated by this story even if they are personally skeptical. The book deals with the intuitive side of healing, a topic women in particular will readily understand. Book sale statistics state that 78 percent of all books sold worldwide are bought by women for themselves and as gifts for other women, especially health and self-help books. My book directly meets the requirements for high-volume sales.
Promotional Possibilities:
I am willing and able to take an aggressive position in helping to promote my book once it is published. SURVIVING CANCERLAND has international appeal because cancer strikes worldwide. There is a global need for a book such as mine. It is my intention to help the publisher reach this audience and tap into the international market through the Internet, cancer organizations, their libraries, newsletters, and self-help groups, many of whom I have listed in the PINK PAGES Appendix of my book. Many of these sources were made available to me through my work with cancer associations, patients, and caregivers.
Libraries affiliated with the foundations with whom I am connected are anxiously awaiting my book. In return for the gift of books to their Lending libraries, they have agreed to post the publication of SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing in their newsletters.
I have designing a professional web site with 720Media (www.720media.com). I have created a Profile, Business and Fan page on Facebook and have connected it to other Facebook members for optimum contact. I have active accounts on Twitter, I-Blog (add all your contacts). I contribute to three e-zines—Cape Women Online (www.capewomenonline), c4women (connectionsforwomen.com), and Intuitive Now by Colette Baron Reid of Hay House (www.colettebaronreid.com). The ezines, blog and twitter sites are connected to my website. I am setting up a video on YouTube. I am continually doing promotional work on SURVIVING CANCERLAND through the many cancer foundations and associations with which I am associated and their web sites as described and detailed below and by having a cross-section of the population read and write comment endorsements on SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing. This cross-section includes authors; doctors of modern, contemporary, holistic and integrated medicine; cancer survivors; professionals; caregivers; and “stay at home women.” The comments are included in this proposal, and additional comment endorsements that are still being processed are listed at the end of this section.
As a cancer mentor for WE CAN (www.wecancenter.org), a women’s self-help group, I have access to their newsletter WECAN and a yearly book fair that features female writers throughout the country. 2008’s featured writer was Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle, W.W Norton & Company, NY (2007). I have been invited to discuss my book on the writer’s panel. The concerns and questions I received from readers of my Q&A column and Health and Life Stories articles in CapeWomenOnline Magazine (www.capewomenonline) made me realize that we all share similar experiences when facing a disease of this magnitude. The magazine reaches women throughout the United States. I often refer to my book in the articles, which can be read on the Internet.
The Barnstable Patriot newspaper (www.barnstablepatriot.com ) did a feature article on me titled: SPIRITUAL HEALING ( kszmit@barnstablepatriot.com). To read the article on the Internet, Google Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos.
Jeanne Gardner of PROFILES and Dr. Mark Walcott of Lewis Bay Chiropractic, TV Host of Health Matters, have interviewed me on their shows.
WC TV in Wareham, Massachusetts has taped me on two of their show. We discussed my book and the importance of the spiritual world during cancer treatment. The DVDs are available for viewing.
I am now in the process of scheduling talk radio shows, inspirational talks, verbal presentations to hospital sponsored cancer groups, women’s groups, and book clubs on both the east, and west coast of the country.
(Below is an example of how to “flesh out” the marketing outline with facts and statistics. These are three of the 40 cancer institutions, foundations and secondary markets mentioned in my outline. In this example I show you how to describe the society/group and how it is connected to other groups in my proposal. This backs up my claim of viral Internet marketing.)
ACS The American Cancer Society (www.acs.com) is the leading voluntary health organization and largest non-government funder of cancer research and discovery. The ACS has more than 3,400 local offices and more than 2 million volunteers. They offer books that can be ordered online. ACS’s CURE Magazine and web site features articles and news that combine topics of hope, humanity, and science for those who have to deal with cancer on a daily basis. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute (www.nca.com) are frequent sources of referrals for the R.A BLOCH CANCER Foundation and share web site links with the Bloch Foundation, making their web sites available to me.
National Cancer Institute (www.nca.com) is part of NIH (www.nih.com) National Institute of Health. NCI has a publications locator for books available for purchase that deal with illness and healing.
Cancer News On the Net (www.cancernews.com) has an e-mail newsletter where subscribers can share their e-mail newsletter and logo. This site is linked to the R.A Bloch Cancer Foundation, and displays insightful quotes about hope from Richard Bloch, founder of the foundation.
Healthjourneys (www.healthjourneys.com) is a resource that offers a variety of public information including books to promote relaxation, wellness, and healing that is related specifically to cancer and the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. I often refer to my book when I blog on their site.
(The final part of the proposal is a short conclusion. My conclusion is meant to “wow” them yet be believable by remaining conservative in my numbers. I back everything up with facts and statistics.)
The number of members in the five largest contact groups add up to 59 million people. If I am able to reach only ten percent (a very conservative number) of those contacts, (5.9 million) and can sell my book to half of them, I have the potential of selling SURVIVING CANCERLAND to almost 3 million people in these groups alone.
About the Author- Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos is an agented author and has penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing. She is a phone counselor for the R.A. BLOCH Cancer Foundation, a mentor for WE CAN, a women’s self help group on Cape Cod, a contributor to many On Line Magazines, C4Women, Intuition Now by Colette Baron-Reid, and a volunteer for many cancer organizations and online cancer groups. She is currently working on her second book, SURVIVING RECURRENCE in CANCERLAND
A strong proposal platform will attract attention. Build it and they will come.
Follow me:
@ http://survivingcancerland.blogspot.com/
@ http://twitter.com/PsychCancerland
@ http://www.facebook.com/pages/SURVIVING-CANCERLAND-The-Psychic-Aspects-of-Healing/142803307934?ref=m
The object of the outline in Part I of the marketing proposal was to build a good foundation for Part II. The goal of Part II of the proposal is to expand on the outline by describing, adding names, details, and statistics. They should work together and complement each other. Think of Part I as the skeleton and Part II as the skin and organs. Agents and editors can glace at what is important to them in the outline in Part I and then find the details in the information below it in Part II. I have used samples from my proposal as an example.
The market for SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing is every person or family touched by this epidemic health crisis. It is particularly aimed at people just beginning their foray with treatment. A large secondary market for my book is the alternative medicine, metaphysical, spiritual, religious, and holistic communities. I have also found that health-care professionals—whether doctors, nurses, or technicians—are fascinated by this story even if they are personally skeptical. The book deals with the intuitive side of healing, a topic women in particular will readily understand. Book sale statistics state that 78 percent of all books sold worldwide are bought by women for themselves and as gifts for other women, especially health and self-help books. My book directly meets the requirements for high-volume sales.
Promotional Possibilities:
I am willing and able to take an aggressive position in helping to promote my book once it is published. SURVIVING CANCERLAND has international appeal because cancer strikes worldwide. There is a global need for a book such as mine. It is my intention to help the publisher reach this audience and tap into the international market through the Internet, cancer organizations, their libraries, newsletters, and self-help groups, many of whom I have listed in the PINK PAGES Appendix of my book. Many of these sources were made available to me through my work with cancer associations, patients, and caregivers.
Libraries affiliated with the foundations with whom I am connected are anxiously awaiting my book. In return for the gift of books to their Lending libraries, they have agreed to post the publication of SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing in their newsletters.
I have designing a professional web site with 720Media (www.720media.com). I have created a Profile, Business and Fan page on Facebook and have connected it to other Facebook members for optimum contact. I have active accounts on Twitter, I-Blog (add all your contacts). I contribute to three e-zines—Cape Women Online (www.capewomenonline), c4women (connectionsforwomen.com), and Intuitive Now by Colette Baron Reid of Hay House (www.colettebaronreid.com). The ezines, blog and twitter sites are connected to my website. I am setting up a video on YouTube. I am continually doing promotional work on SURVIVING CANCERLAND through the many cancer foundations and associations with which I am associated and their web sites as described and detailed below and by having a cross-section of the population read and write comment endorsements on SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing. This cross-section includes authors; doctors of modern, contemporary, holistic and integrated medicine; cancer survivors; professionals; caregivers; and “stay at home women.” The comments are included in this proposal, and additional comment endorsements that are still being processed are listed at the end of this section.
As a cancer mentor for WE CAN (www.wecancenter.org), a women’s self-help group, I have access to their newsletter WECAN and a yearly book fair that features female writers throughout the country. 2008’s featured writer was Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle, W.W Norton & Company, NY (2007). I have been invited to discuss my book on the writer’s panel. The concerns and questions I received from readers of my Q&A column and Health and Life Stories articles in CapeWomenOnline Magazine (www.capewomenonline) made me realize that we all share similar experiences when facing a disease of this magnitude. The magazine reaches women throughout the United States. I often refer to my book in the articles, which can be read on the Internet.
The Barnstable Patriot newspaper (www.barnstablepatriot.com ) did a feature article on me titled: SPIRITUAL HEALING ( kszmit@barnstablepatriot.com). To read the article on the Internet, Google Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos.
Jeanne Gardner of PROFILES and Dr. Mark Walcott of Lewis Bay Chiropractic, TV Host of Health Matters, have interviewed me on their shows.
WC TV in Wareham, Massachusetts has taped me on two of their show. We discussed my book and the importance of the spiritual world during cancer treatment. The DVDs are available for viewing.
I am now in the process of scheduling talk radio shows, inspirational talks, verbal presentations to hospital sponsored cancer groups, women’s groups, and book clubs on both the east, and west coast of the country.
(Below is an example of how to “flesh out” the marketing outline with facts and statistics. These are three of the 40 cancer institutions, foundations and secondary markets mentioned in my outline. In this example I show you how to describe the society/group and how it is connected to other groups in my proposal. This backs up my claim of viral Internet marketing.)
ACS The American Cancer Society (www.acs.com) is the leading voluntary health organization and largest non-government funder of cancer research and discovery. The ACS has more than 3,400 local offices and more than 2 million volunteers. They offer books that can be ordered online. ACS’s CURE Magazine and web site features articles and news that combine topics of hope, humanity, and science for those who have to deal with cancer on a daily basis. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute (www.nca.com) are frequent sources of referrals for the R.A BLOCH CANCER Foundation and share web site links with the Bloch Foundation, making their web sites available to me.
National Cancer Institute (www.nca.com) is part of NIH (www.nih.com) National Institute of Health. NCI has a publications locator for books available for purchase that deal with illness and healing.
Cancer News On the Net (www.cancernews.com) has an e-mail newsletter where subscribers can share their e-mail newsletter and logo. This site is linked to the R.A Bloch Cancer Foundation, and displays insightful quotes about hope from Richard Bloch, founder of the foundation.
Healthjourneys (www.healthjourneys.com) is a resource that offers a variety of public information including books to promote relaxation, wellness, and healing that is related specifically to cancer and the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. I often refer to my book when I blog on their site.
(The final part of the proposal is a short conclusion. My conclusion is meant to “wow” them yet be believable by remaining conservative in my numbers. I back everything up with facts and statistics.)
The number of members in the five largest contact groups add up to 59 million people. If I am able to reach only ten percent (a very conservative number) of those contacts, (5.9 million) and can sell my book to half of them, I have the potential of selling SURVIVING CANCERLAND to almost 3 million people in these groups alone.
About the Author- Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos is an agented author and has penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing. She is a phone counselor for the R.A. BLOCH Cancer Foundation, a mentor for WE CAN, a women’s self help group on Cape Cod, a contributor to many On Line Magazines, C4Women, Intuition Now by Colette Baron-Reid, and a volunteer for many cancer organizations and online cancer groups. She is currently working on her second book, SURVIVING RECURRENCE in CANCERLAND
A strong proposal platform will attract attention. Build it and they will come.
Follow me:
@ http://survivingcancerland.blogspot.com/
@ http://twitter.com/PsychCancerland
@ http://www.facebook.com/pages/SURVIVING-CANCERLAND-The-Psychic-Aspects-of-Healing/142803307934?ref=m
Saturday, July 10, 2010
New Game on the Club Scene: Ice-A-Bro
My husband I were witness to a new trend apparently sweeping the country's bar scene. No, we are not bar-flies. We just wanted a night out on the town to dance and dine and got introduced to "Ice-A-Bro"-- the newest game on the bar scene.
The local band was setting up as we dined on steamers and crab cakes at a local beach bar on the way to Chapin's Beach on Cape Cod. Unfortunately for the two girls sitting behind us, the band needed more room and confiscated their space. Fortunately for us, they accepted our offer to share our table and we were instantly rewarded with a first hand introduced to an Ice-A-Broing.
One of the two attractive blonds caught the eye of a bachelor who sauntered over to our table and presented her with what appeared to be a frosty beverage in a bottle. "How nice,"I thought. "Oh my God!" she yelled,followed by,"Do I have to?" Peter's forkful of crab cake sat suspended mid-air as we watched in disbelief at the scene rapidly unfolding before us.
Suddenly a circle of laughing strangers surrounded our tiny table. Peter and I stared at each other and then down at the blond who had dropped to one knee and was preparing to drink from the bottle. "Do it right!" someone from the crowd yelled as another guy took her free hand and placed it behind her head. As she chugged the brew the crowd clapped and yelled. When she climbed back up on her stool I meekly asked,"Excuse me, but what just happened?"
"She got Ice-A-Broed!" blond number two laughed. "If someone comes up and offers you a Smirnoff-Ice and you accept it, you have to chug it on one knee with your hand behind your head. But, if you want to see something really funny, watch that girl over there." She pointed to a short brunette in a flowered halter dress who held a Smirnoff Ice behind her back. As if on cue, a tall thin man sauntered over to her and repeated the process. She smiled and immediately whipped out her Smirnoff Ice and waved it at him. The crowd went wild as she laughed and he dejectedly covered his face with his hand. "She Ice-A-Broed him back,and now his has to chug both bottles while on one knee and his hand behind his head." I was impressed that he could stand after he dutifully chugged both bottles. I also noticed that the brunette had slipped back to the bar to purchase another Smirnoff Ice while the crowd was distracted by the side show. Smart girl!
"How did that taste?" I asked blond number one who was still wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "It's really nasty. It's like a vodka spritzer. I need to go and buy one quick," she said and slid back off the stool. "Get me one, too!" Blond number two yelled after her.
"Why do you buy them if you don't want to drink them?" I asked.
"So, we don't have to!" she answered. "We hide them under the table."
"I'm not drinking that crap if someone Ice-A-Bros me!" Peter yelled for all to hear while still holding his fork in the air. "What a great gig for Smirnoff. They must have started this and are making a mint off of it! Imagine buying a drink you can't stand so you don't have to drink it." I was laughing so hard I almost fell off of my stool.
The band drowned out the laughter and cheers with Vanilla Ice's "Ice-Ice-Baby" but the Ice-A-Broing continued throughout the night. The moral of this story? If you are planning to visit 'Ol Cape Cod, come prepared! Stuff a Smirnoff Ice in you pants. Consider yourself warned.
The local band was setting up as we dined on steamers and crab cakes at a local beach bar on the way to Chapin's Beach on Cape Cod. Unfortunately for the two girls sitting behind us, the band needed more room and confiscated their space. Fortunately for us, they accepted our offer to share our table and we were instantly rewarded with a first hand introduced to an Ice-A-Broing.
One of the two attractive blonds caught the eye of a bachelor who sauntered over to our table and presented her with what appeared to be a frosty beverage in a bottle. "How nice,"I thought. "Oh my God!" she yelled,followed by,"Do I have to?" Peter's forkful of crab cake sat suspended mid-air as we watched in disbelief at the scene rapidly unfolding before us.
Suddenly a circle of laughing strangers surrounded our tiny table. Peter and I stared at each other and then down at the blond who had dropped to one knee and was preparing to drink from the bottle. "Do it right!" someone from the crowd yelled as another guy took her free hand and placed it behind her head. As she chugged the brew the crowd clapped and yelled. When she climbed back up on her stool I meekly asked,"Excuse me, but what just happened?"
"She got Ice-A-Broed!" blond number two laughed. "If someone comes up and offers you a Smirnoff-Ice and you accept it, you have to chug it on one knee with your hand behind your head. But, if you want to see something really funny, watch that girl over there." She pointed to a short brunette in a flowered halter dress who held a Smirnoff Ice behind her back. As if on cue, a tall thin man sauntered over to her and repeated the process. She smiled and immediately whipped out her Smirnoff Ice and waved it at him. The crowd went wild as she laughed and he dejectedly covered his face with his hand. "She Ice-A-Broed him back,and now his has to chug both bottles while on one knee and his hand behind his head." I was impressed that he could stand after he dutifully chugged both bottles. I also noticed that the brunette had slipped back to the bar to purchase another Smirnoff Ice while the crowd was distracted by the side show. Smart girl!
"How did that taste?" I asked blond number one who was still wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "It's really nasty. It's like a vodka spritzer. I need to go and buy one quick," she said and slid back off the stool. "Get me one, too!" Blond number two yelled after her.
"Why do you buy them if you don't want to drink them?" I asked.
"So, we don't have to!" she answered. "We hide them under the table."
"I'm not drinking that crap if someone Ice-A-Bros me!" Peter yelled for all to hear while still holding his fork in the air. "What a great gig for Smirnoff. They must have started this and are making a mint off of it! Imagine buying a drink you can't stand so you don't have to drink it." I was laughing so hard I almost fell off of my stool.
The band drowned out the laughter and cheers with Vanilla Ice's "Ice-Ice-Baby" but the Ice-A-Broing continued throughout the night. The moral of this story? If you are planning to visit 'Ol Cape Cod, come prepared! Stuff a Smirnoff Ice in you pants. Consider yourself warned.
YOUR PLATFORM: Build It & They Will Come!
MARKETING YOUR BOOK-A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL
PART I: A DETAILED OUTLINE
Authors have asked me repeatedly, “What is the most important part of your Book Proposal?” My answer is always the same, “The marketing platform.”
One of the most difficult aspects of writing the Book Proposal is the Marketing Platform Outline. Blame it on “left-brain/right-brain differences.” Writing is artistic and therefore right brain oriented. Marketing is statistical left brain work. Few of us have “ambidextrous brains” and are proficient at using both sides equally well.
I have used some of my own outline and first person narrative nonfiction proposal from SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing as an example. However, fiction can be substituted and tweaked to fit. Print out my proposal and fill in the blanks with your own information. Study my examples and then replace them with your information.
The proposal outline is more important now than ever before in the publishing world because of the reduced help in marketing offered by publishers. The statistics and details contained in it will help get your book into the hands of an agent because the agent will see its marketing potential at a glance. That will give the agent confidence to take your book to the big publishing houses. Agents don’t like to get turned down, either. It effects their reputations. So help your agent help you. Work as a team.
Big publishing houses are not in the business to publish books. They are in the business to make money. Until the day that you become an author of Dan Brown’s caliber, you will be required to show the steps of how you plan to market and sell your book beyond what the publishing houses can or will do. Stating that you will use your social networking skills to promote your book will not suffice. You must prove it with names and numbers, facts and figures. One of the first steps in that sequence is to identify your audience which will later become your market.
Answering the question, “Who will want to read my book and why?” will identify your audience. The next question, “How and where can I find them?” will help discover how and where to market your book. Identify your audience, and then decide how to “reach out, and touch them.” Those are the important components of a successful marketing platform.
The Internet has made finding and touching audiences easier than ever before in recorded history. I’ve developed a preliminary marketing plan that leverages my social, and viral networking through online channels.
Today writer’s can have conversations with hundreds of thousands of worldwide followers instantly through the Internet. Writers are now active partners with publishers in conversations that market and promote their books. Viral networking is a marketing technique that uses pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness, product sales, etc. Users accept ideas (become infected) and then share those ideas with others (thus infecting them.) Twitter lends itself to vital networking; tweets can be personalized for intended audiences.
Twitter is projected to have 40 billion users by 2010. It is a viral networking vehicle that can promote market and create a quantitative potential readership for my books that has quotable numbers to indicate a demand.
Let’s begin with the outline. This will be the foundation for your marketing platform.
An outline gives the reader quick information assessment. You want to make the editor’s job easy, and make yourself look knowledgeable, and professional. My college professors required an outline for every essay test question to make grading papers quick. The marketing outline accomplishes the same task for the agent and editor.
The Market for This Book
MARKETING OUTLINE
CORE MESSAGE
In one line write what you want to convey to the reader? (example: Awaken and
believe in your intuitive powers.)
2. AUDIENCE (Who is interested in your subject matter? Brain storm and list them
all primary and secondary markets.)
A. the primary market with statistics
B. groups related to group A (the secondary market with statistics)
C. groups related to group B
D. Research Institutes interested in those groups (with statistics)
3. MARKETING STRATEGY
A. Primary—Create Internet web site, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube video, blog sites, etc… as central platforms to:
1. Broadcast my message
2. Display testimonials
3. Receive feedback
4. Discuss current and real time issues
5. Allow for book ordering
6. Establish cross-links to marketing outreach sources described below
7. Use my web site to establish credibility and credentials
8. Use my Tweeter site to build awareness, followers and network
9. Use my Facebook site to build awareness, followers and network
9. Use my YouTube video to connect to international viewers
10. encourage book signing parties
B. Secondary—Creation of Awareness by utilizing existing outlets to network the
message through organization
(list all of the networks available on the Internet using Newsletters, web sites, Tweeter sites, I Blog, Facebook, online magazines, etc.
a) (name the newspapers and their readership numbers, etc.)
4. CONVERT MARKETING ACTIVITIES TO SALES
A. Use my web site as the primary medium to immerse the prospective buyer in the
book, then convince them of my credibility and the book’s worth
B. Prominently reference my web site in all articles for publications
C. Establish reciprocal web links with prominent related sites
D. Direct social networking outlets to my web site
(Refer to previous information that pertains to the proposal.)
The details for the Marketing Strategy are in the Promotional Possibilities section on page 13 of the book proposal.
I hope PART I of the proposal I developed with my agent will be helpful with you. I will post PART II in the next week.
PART I: A DETAILED OUTLINE
Authors have asked me repeatedly, “What is the most important part of your Book Proposal?” My answer is always the same, “The marketing platform.”
One of the most difficult aspects of writing the Book Proposal is the Marketing Platform Outline. Blame it on “left-brain/right-brain differences.” Writing is artistic and therefore right brain oriented. Marketing is statistical left brain work. Few of us have “ambidextrous brains” and are proficient at using both sides equally well.
I have used some of my own outline and first person narrative nonfiction proposal from SURVIVING CANCERLAND: The Psychic Aspects of Healing as an example. However, fiction can be substituted and tweaked to fit. Print out my proposal and fill in the blanks with your own information. Study my examples and then replace them with your information.
The proposal outline is more important now than ever before in the publishing world because of the reduced help in marketing offered by publishers. The statistics and details contained in it will help get your book into the hands of an agent because the agent will see its marketing potential at a glance. That will give the agent confidence to take your book to the big publishing houses. Agents don’t like to get turned down, either. It effects their reputations. So help your agent help you. Work as a team.
Big publishing houses are not in the business to publish books. They are in the business to make money. Until the day that you become an author of Dan Brown’s caliber, you will be required to show the steps of how you plan to market and sell your book beyond what the publishing houses can or will do. Stating that you will use your social networking skills to promote your book will not suffice. You must prove it with names and numbers, facts and figures. One of the first steps in that sequence is to identify your audience which will later become your market.
Answering the question, “Who will want to read my book and why?” will identify your audience. The next question, “How and where can I find them?” will help discover how and where to market your book. Identify your audience, and then decide how to “reach out, and touch them.” Those are the important components of a successful marketing platform.
The Internet has made finding and touching audiences easier than ever before in recorded history. I’ve developed a preliminary marketing plan that leverages my social, and viral networking through online channels.
Today writer’s can have conversations with hundreds of thousands of worldwide followers instantly through the Internet. Writers are now active partners with publishers in conversations that market and promote their books. Viral networking is a marketing technique that uses pre-existing social networks to increase brand awareness, product sales, etc. Users accept ideas (become infected) and then share those ideas with others (thus infecting them.) Twitter lends itself to vital networking; tweets can be personalized for intended audiences.
Twitter is projected to have 40 billion users by 2010. It is a viral networking vehicle that can promote market and create a quantitative potential readership for my books that has quotable numbers to indicate a demand.
Let’s begin with the outline. This will be the foundation for your marketing platform.
An outline gives the reader quick information assessment. You want to make the editor’s job easy, and make yourself look knowledgeable, and professional. My college professors required an outline for every essay test question to make grading papers quick. The marketing outline accomplishes the same task for the agent and editor.
The Market for This Book
MARKETING OUTLINE
CORE MESSAGE
In one line write what you want to convey to the reader? (example: Awaken and
believe in your intuitive powers.)
2. AUDIENCE (Who is interested in your subject matter? Brain storm and list them
all primary and secondary markets.)
A. the primary market with statistics
B. groups related to group A (the secondary market with statistics)
C. groups related to group B
D. Research Institutes interested in those groups (with statistics)
3. MARKETING STRATEGY
A. Primary—Create Internet web site, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube video, blog sites, etc… as central platforms to:
1. Broadcast my message
2. Display testimonials
3. Receive feedback
4. Discuss current and real time issues
5. Allow for book ordering
6. Establish cross-links to marketing outreach sources described below
7. Use my web site to establish credibility and credentials
8. Use my Tweeter site to build awareness, followers and network
9. Use my Facebook site to build awareness, followers and network
9. Use my YouTube video to connect to international viewers
10. encourage book signing parties
B. Secondary—Creation of Awareness by utilizing existing outlets to network the
message through organization
(list all of the networks available on the Internet using Newsletters, web sites, Tweeter sites, I Blog, Facebook, online magazines, etc.
a) (name the newspapers and their readership numbers, etc.)
4. CONVERT MARKETING ACTIVITIES TO SALES
A. Use my web site as the primary medium to immerse the prospective buyer in the
book, then convince them of my credibility and the book’s worth
B. Prominently reference my web site in all articles for publications
C. Establish reciprocal web links with prominent related sites
D. Direct social networking outlets to my web site
(Refer to previous information that pertains to the proposal.)
The details for the Marketing Strategy are in the Promotional Possibilities section on page 13 of the book proposal.
I hope PART I of the proposal I developed with my agent will be helpful with you. I will post PART II in the next week.
BUSY MAY & MOTHER'S DAY
May is a busy month for women. Health and celebration is in the air! Mother’s Day, May 9th, marks the start of National Women’s Health week, coordinated by the US Department Health and Human Resources Office on Women’s Health. It is also Colon Cancer Awareness month, which heralds in the month of June’s Cancer Awareness Month.
Colon cancer is especially concerning to me. My mother died of it four weeks before Mother’s Day, twelve years ago. My first Mother’s Day without her was a rude awakening. It would have been so easy for her to have had preventative colon cancer screenings. Today’s health education and the Internet brings so much helpful information to our fingertips. Colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to detect and treat early by having a colonoscopy by the age of 45 and then once every five to seven years. It is also one of the deadliest cancers because it often displays no outward symptoms. My mother didn’t have a clue, until it was too late. Now, rather than celebrating Mother’s Day with her, I must endure it without her.
As natural caregivers, women are programmed to put their family, and often everything else, first and their own needs second. But who will put your family first if you are “gone” from lack of personal attention?
Take your health seriously, celebrate many more Mother’s Days with your family who needs, and love you. Early and preventative screening is an excellent way to empower your sense of well-being and thereby ensure greater health. Living a healthier longer life can benefit everyone, including your loved ones. Do it for them.
To find an event for National Women’s Health Week near you, visit: http://www.womenshealth.gov/whw/events/.
Colon cancer is especially concerning to me. My mother died of it four weeks before Mother’s Day, twelve years ago. My first Mother’s Day without her was a rude awakening. It would have been so easy for her to have had preventative colon cancer screenings. Today’s health education and the Internet brings so much helpful information to our fingertips. Colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to detect and treat early by having a colonoscopy by the age of 45 and then once every five to seven years. It is also one of the deadliest cancers because it often displays no outward symptoms. My mother didn’t have a clue, until it was too late. Now, rather than celebrating Mother’s Day with her, I must endure it without her.
As natural caregivers, women are programmed to put their family, and often everything else, first and their own needs second. But who will put your family first if you are “gone” from lack of personal attention?
Take your health seriously, celebrate many more Mother’s Days with your family who needs, and love you. Early and preventative screening is an excellent way to empower your sense of well-being and thereby ensure greater health. Living a healthier longer life can benefit everyone, including your loved ones. Do it for them.
To find an event for National Women’s Health Week near you, visit: http://www.womenshealth.gov/whw/events/.
A BAND OF MOTHERS
May 9th is Mother’s Day. Being raised as an Army Brat gave me insights into the inner sanction of female friendship that others may never have experienced, until now. With my father constantly off defending our country on foreign soil with his Band of Brothers, the wives who were left behind protected each other and became a Band Of Mothers. Age, rank, education and personal gain was secondary to mutual support. Even if you were childless, you became a part of that special group. Although my mother passed on more than 12 years ago, I find that I am not alone. Now, as a grown woman wading through the sea of Internet information, I am meeting a new Band of Mothers who have taken me under their wing to help me spread my story about surviving recurrent cancer.
We have all read articles or books on the positive aspects of the Internet’s social networking with its capability to spread information using viral networking. I want to tell you about another aspect of the Internet—It’s ability to connect with strangers in far-away-places allowing friendships to grow despite the limitations of daily life, time and distance. In an age of Internet overload, these friendships are priceless and may be a key to success on many levels. Differences between the groups are secondary to their main purpose, mutual support.
Large Internet groups reach wide ranges and numbers of readers. Groups with blog sites such as the spiritually minded Jason’s Network http://jasonsnetwork.com/PsychicHealing/,combined with writer specific sites like Scribblerati http://liakeyes.ning.com/main/index/addContent?xg_source=msg_wel_network and WRITER’S DIGEST COMMUNITY http://writersdigest.ning.com/profile/KathleenOKeefeKanavos http://writersdigest.ning.com/ allows writers to post their work with like-minded readers.
Articles shared with e-magazines such as Colette Baron Reid’s Intuitive Now http://www.colettebaronreid.com/intuitivenow , CapeWomenOnlineMagazine http://www.capewomenonline.com/, and ConnectionsForWomen http://c4women.ning.com are instrumental in circulating content on a grander scale.
However, single friends are as important as large groups because they reach individual hearts that set viral networking in motion on a different scale—re-tweeting on Twitter and sharing websites distributes information exponentially.
Radio host Hailey Wiseman http://www.haileywiseman.com/blessings-for-your-soul spread my story over the airwaves, while fellow author Pamela Ferris-Olson blogged and wrote articles about me and invited me to join her “Tribe” of women who promote each other’s work http://www.livingintheheartland.com/.
I have not experienced emotional support of this magnitude since I was a little girl, surrounded by my Band of Mothers, as we celebrated Mother’s Day in our backyards. The feeling is the same. It was impossible to be afraid or to feel alone when surrounded by so much support.
However, my latest internet friend, Catherine Anne Clark, has gone beyond my wildest dreams by promoting my story as a Woman of Action in A Celebration Of Women.
http://www.acelebrationofwomen.ca/?p=6512
If you are a woman reading this article Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to the Internet’s Band of Mothers by joining me on FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos/1345885644 LinkedIn- http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_tab_pro and Twitter @ http://twitter.com/PsychicHealing and my website @www.survivingcancerlande.com
We have all read articles or books on the positive aspects of the Internet’s social networking with its capability to spread information using viral networking. I want to tell you about another aspect of the Internet—It’s ability to connect with strangers in far-away-places allowing friendships to grow despite the limitations of daily life, time and distance. In an age of Internet overload, these friendships are priceless and may be a key to success on many levels. Differences between the groups are secondary to their main purpose, mutual support.
Large Internet groups reach wide ranges and numbers of readers. Groups with blog sites such as the spiritually minded Jason’s Network http://jasonsnetwork.com/PsychicHealing/,combined with writer specific sites like Scribblerati http://liakeyes.ning.com/main/index/addContent?xg_source=msg_wel_network and WRITER’S DIGEST COMMUNITY http://writersdigest.ning.com/profile/KathleenOKeefeKanavos http://writersdigest.ning.com/ allows writers to post their work with like-minded readers.
Articles shared with e-magazines such as Colette Baron Reid’s Intuitive Now http://www.colettebaronreid.com/intuitivenow , CapeWomenOnlineMagazine http://www.capewomenonline.com/, and ConnectionsForWomen http://c4women.ning.com are instrumental in circulating content on a grander scale.
However, single friends are as important as large groups because they reach individual hearts that set viral networking in motion on a different scale—re-tweeting on Twitter and sharing websites distributes information exponentially.
Radio host Hailey Wiseman http://www.haileywiseman.com/blessings-for-your-soul spread my story over the airwaves, while fellow author Pamela Ferris-Olson blogged and wrote articles about me and invited me to join her “Tribe” of women who promote each other’s work http://www.livingintheheartland.com/.
I have not experienced emotional support of this magnitude since I was a little girl, surrounded by my Band of Mothers, as we celebrated Mother’s Day in our backyards. The feeling is the same. It was impossible to be afraid or to feel alone when surrounded by so much support.
However, my latest internet friend, Catherine Anne Clark, has gone beyond my wildest dreams by promoting my story as a Woman of Action in A Celebration Of Women.
http://www.acelebrationofwomen.ca/?p=6512
If you are a woman reading this article Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to the Internet’s Band of Mothers by joining me on FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos/1345885644 LinkedIn- http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_tab_pro and Twitter @ http://twitter.com/PsychicHealing and my website @www.survivingcancerlande.com
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