Early discounted registration for the next Author Pow Wow is now open!

800-CEO-READ AUTHOR POW WOW
January 13-15, 2013
Austin, TX

NOW THROUGH OCTOBER 1: $1250
October through event: $1500

REGISTER HERE

The Author Pow Wow will not only provide you with all the knowledge you need to do what works, but will also connect you to the people who can help you in the process. During an intimate and intensive two days, authors, soon-to-be authors, publishers, publicists, marketers, agents, speaking experts, social media strategists, and business people who have great ideas to share, gather, listen, converse, and leave more informed and better at what they do. Knowledge and insight are gained, partnerships form, deals get made, and connections are built that lead to possibilities never before imagined.

Hosted since 2005 by 800-CEO-READ at various locations in Chicago and Milwaukee, this year we'll leave the cold Midwest winter behind and head to sunny Austin, TX, and the historic Driskill Hotel. More info on panels and presentations forthcoming, but expect a broad overview of perspectives from key people in the industry.

Don’t just take our word about what a great event this is. Read what authors Chris Guillebeau and Sally Hogshead had to say:

"Why go to an 8CR Pow-Wow? Simply put: there's no other event like it. Where else can you talk book strategy with other authors, receive direct input from publishers, and - but wait, there's more - meet the folks who run the world's best business book distributorship? The gang in Milwaukee puts on a good show... make the time to attend!" - Chris Guillebeau, (author of The Art of Non-Conformity)
 
"My first year attending the 800-CEO-READ Author Pow Wow, I met the agents who changed the course of my career. The next year, I met the team who helped me launch and promote my next book, Fascinate. Last year, I gained the very specific insights that are helping to catapult my business in new ways. This event isn't just about authoring business books-- this is the must-attend conference for anyone dedicated to big ideas, high expectations, and long-lasting results." - Sally Hogshead (author of Fascinate)

Cost includes event sessions, buffet breakfast and lunch served on each day of the event, plus a special group dinner outing.

Hope to see you at the event!

Presented by 800-CEO-READ.

Cave Henricks Communications, Greenleaf Book Group, and Shelton Interactive.

Thanks to everyone who registered for this year's event in Austin, TX. We'll see you very soon!

For those of you who missed out, registration is now closed. Stay tuned here for details on next year's event.

800-CEO-READ has been developing a new product called KnowledgeBlocks that allows members to create, search, gather, and organize knowledge in order to better use it. As new or continuing authors, this tool will be an invaluable resource for researching an idea, building a concept, and general inspiration - for themselves and others.

All registrants for the 2011 Author Pow Wow will receive a Free 3 month membership to this new service when it launches in 2012.

As if signing up alone didn't have enough benefit, there's very little reason not to now. Click here to register your spot today, lock in your 3 month KnowledgeBlocks membership, and we'll see you in December!

Waiting to connect with bloggers to review your book on their site until your book launches is a great way for your book to go on deaf ears, or worse, for you to be called out as a spammer. Instead, there is a more effective way to do it.

Starting 120 days before your book launches:

1) Identify the 100 people you think would make good candidates for your book. Find their blogs, their Twitter handles, and if they're using Google+, find them there too. Create a spreadsheet with their name and all the information you can find on them, most importantly their email address.

2) Follow them, circle them, and subscribe to their RSS feeds.

Starting 90 days before your book launches:

3) Start commenting on their blogs, and sharing their articles with your followers. Don't think it pertains to your audience? Then your book likely won't pertain to THEIR audience, in which case remove them from your spreadsheet.

Starting 60 days before your book launches:

4) Find 1 chapter in your book that matters to the person. Figure out WHY it matters to them, and more importantly, to their audience. Create a special cover just for them and send it to them in PDF with a personal note telling them why you think it matters, and invite them to share it with their readers, and that you would appreciate them sharing it with their network.

5) Monitor the post for comments, and reply to each of them, even if it's just "Thanks for your input. I hadn't thought of that before."

Starting 45 days before your book launches:

6) Reach back out to those who have posted your information already. Thank them again for doing so, and ask for a mailing address to send a book to, or if they'd prefer a book in PDF, offer to share that with them.  Offer to write an exclusive guest post or do an interview (email, phone, or Skype).

Starting 30 days before your book launches:

7) Share the heck out of any guest posts, links, or any buzz you get. Don't be spammy, but do it a lot. Use a tool like http://bufferapp.com or http://timely.is to schedule these posts into your mix.

8) Write a thank you post with links to all the early buzz you got, and include a link to buy the book

Starting 15 days before your book launches:

9) Queue up links to all the posts using http://bufferapp.com or http://timely.is again, with a note of thanks.

10) Personally thank in a separate email everyone who linked to you or posted anything, and include something special and a note about your launch.

Inspired by Gini Dietrich's 3 Steps to a Successful Blogger Outreach

There's a bit more Carol Roth and Phil Gerbyshak where the previous post came from.  Here, Carol and Phil go back to the beginning of the process: creating content, and then building a strategy for that content.

If you've got an idea, and want to get it out there, how your content is presented is important. Here are some tips from Carol and Phil about how to build quality into your content:

So, now you've got great content that ends up becoming a book. That's a great opportunity that can get ruined by a variety of approaches (or by not having an approach at all). Here are Carol and Phil's tips for developing a good strategy around your book:

I recently had a chat with New York Times bestselling author Carol Roth and marketing strategist Phil Gerbyshak about how business authors can make their book a bestseller.  It's a challenge many seem to want to solve, and more and more people claim to have the answer to.  But, it's not that simple, and those who want to sell you the answer might have found an interesting way to make a lot of money.  Nonetheless, there are certainly things to do to help your book be successful in a variety of ways. 

Here's a video with Carol and Phil sharing their thoughts:

There are a variety of ways to approach making a book successful, and these are the types of sessions we have at the Author PowWow. Stay tuned for more info as we get closer to this year's event.

Author Tim Ferriss recently announced a conference to help authors get on the NYT Bestseller list.  With books like, "The Four Hour Work Week" and "The Four Hour Body" it might appear that he's got a quick fix for everything. With his conference, it appears to be three solid days of great information for authors and publishers to better understand the process (he's teaching publishers?), which is similar to what we do with our Author Pow Wow. 

There are a couple differences though:

- Quantity/quality of speakers

- Cost

800-CEO-READ started the Author Pow Wow to help authors, or those who want to become authors.  In both cases, we match a wealth of resources with people seeking help on a budget (which is not Ferriss' objective).  To learn more about the quality of our event, please visit the Reviews page.

There are a variety of author/publishing conferences to attend, and it's important for you to understand what you'll be getting for the price you're asked to pay.  If you have any questions about this, or are interested in us featuring specific topics at our 2011 Author Pow Wow, please let us know!

As a business author, giving a good presentation is essential. I recently interviewed author Jerry Weissman about his new book, Presentations in Action, about what makes a great presentation.  Here are his responses:

Read the rest of this post »

At our last Pow Wow, Rusty Shelton from Shelton Interactive, Austin, TX, spoke about how authors can better use the internet to spread their idea.  It was an insightful talk and opened many eyes on a topic people think they have a solid grasp on.  Technology is changing fast, and Rusty showed that his thinking is ahead of the curve.

Not only was his talk fascinating, he posted this great overview of Day 1 of the 2010 Pow Wow at his blog.  Like his talk, he captured a lot of great nuggets from various people throughout the day.  I've pasted a section of this overview from his blog below:

Read the rest of this post »

We're gearing up for this year's event, and much more.  Since last year, we've had many discussions about how to make the event even better.  One of those ideas was to create a better web presence for the Pow Wow, where we can share information about the events, attendees, presenters, best practice tips, new marketing ideas, and much more.  So, welcome to that place! 

We hope you'll visit occasionally and see what's going on - and of course we hope to see you at this year's event! Stay tuned for more info...