Waterside Productions, Inc.

“Are human beings naturally violent?”
“What is hatred?”
“How can love overcome the power of hatred?”
“How does nonviolence overcome the power of violence?

First time author and West Point graduate Capt. Paul K. Chappell provides answers to these questions and more in Will War Ever End? (104 pp., HC $14.95), in a small book the author calls “a manifesto for waging peace.”

Lt. Col. (ret) Dave Grossman, author of the now classic On Killing provides a foreword for the book, and says, “Paul K. Chappell has transformed my way of thinking about war and peace.”

Chappell demonstrates that human beings are naturally peaceful and that world peace can become more than a cliché. He lays out a practical framework for transforming the way we think about war and violence, enabling us to begin the real work we must do in order to achieve true peace for mankind.

Captain Paul K. Chappell graduated from West Point in 2002 and was deployed to Baghdad during 2006 and 2007. He now serves as the commander of a Patriot Battery at Fort Bliss, Texas. He is finishing his second book, Peaceful Revolution, which explains in detail how together we can end the wars between countries, our ongoing war with nature, and the suffering in our hearts. For more information on how we can make a difference, and to connect with others who want to build a brighter future, please go to www.paulkchappell.com.

Publisher profits and all author royalties from this book will be donated to charitable organizations that support war veterans.

Will War Ever End?
A Soldier’s Vision of Peace for the 21st Century
ISBN 978-1935073024
Release: February 10, 2009

Author David Busch published an article on his web site that anticipated the release of the new Nikon D90 and digital photography enthusiasts and bloggers did not fail to notice. The result was a viral marketing dream…with photography blogs and user sites citing Busch’s article and referring to him as a top authority on digital photography and the Nikon. His many books were subsequently plugged along the way.

“You can’t buy publicity like that!” commented his literary agent, Carole Jelen McClendon of Waterside Productions. But you can plan for it and encourage it.

One of the key posts about the author’s article is located at 1001 Noisy Cameras, entitled #1 Authority Leaks Nikon D90’s leaked specs! Take a look and see if you can’t figure out a way to make the same thing happen with your publicity efforts.

Success Author Calls for Colleagues to Forget IPO and Go for Acquisition

Multi-millionaire Jon Fisher has been an entrepreneur. Now, he’s written down his own success principles in his new book, Strategic Success, to be released soon by Select Books. Strategic Entrepreneurism shows ambitious entrepreneurs how to design their companies towards the path of least resistance, maximum payoff, and the lowest amount of risk.

The dream of nearly every entrepreneur is to create the next big name success story like Dell Computers, Amazon.com, or Google. While everyone should dream big, the reality is that most startups fail precisely because they’re trying to become the next big name success. The real secret to entrepreneurial success lies in Strategic Entrepreneurism where you design a company specifically to be acquired by a larger one.

Entrepreneurs will learn how to evaluate their business ideas, how to leverage technology to increase profits while limiting expenses, how to choose strategic customers to insure their company’s survival, how to generate revenue from their company’s inception, and how to avoid competing against larger companies.

More importantly, Strategic Entrepreneurism also explains the common pitfalls of starting a company and how to avoid them. Entrepreneurs will learn how to avoid the trap of growing too fast, focusing on the wrong product, and accepting too much funding from outside investors.

Jon Fisher used these exact same principles to design his latest startup, an online security authentication company called Bharosa. In less than three years, Jon guided Bharosa to become a leader in the online security field and eventually sold the company to Oracle, one of the largest and most acquisitive companies in the world.

Mike Adams, the founder of NaturalNews.com (read by 1.2 million natural health readers) has just launched an important new service called HealthBookSummaries.com, which offers downloadable summaries of top books on health, food, nutrition, fitness and green living to a fast-growing audience of readers.

You can see how it works at healthbooksummaries.com.

Authors already participating include Bruce Lipton, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Jonny Bowden, Ray Moynihan, Mark Schapiro and many more. Deals have already been reached with Wiley, Chelsea Green and several other publishers.

HealthBookSummaries.com was pre-announced over the 4th of July weekend as a test, and registrations hit an astonishing 10,000 readers. Adams expects to hit 50,000 registered readers by early August, then 250,000 by the end of 2008.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR AUTHORS
There is no cost to publishers to get their books covered by HealthBookSummaries.com, but Adams is very selective about which books he chooses to include, and he’s limited to 3 per month.

Getting your books / authors into HealthBookSummaries.com means:

• Enormous amount of positive publicity for the book and author.
• Strong positioning of your author as the top expert in their subjectmatter.
• Driving sales of the full book through retail, as the summary acts like a “teaser” for many readers.
• Increased title recognition for the book and name recognition for the author.
• Clickable links allow readers to BUY the full book at any URL youprovide (Amazon, your website, etc.) - No commissions need be paid toHealthBookSummaries.com, these are entirely your sales.

Adams requests 2-year contracts for summarizing rights in multiple languages, and permission to condense each book to 12 pages. He is also willing to consider timed announcements that coincide with book launches.

This service looks like an instant hit. Adams is a professional of high integrity, and he is already delivering substantial name recognition to the authors who are already involved.

ACTION
For any books you’d like to submit for consideration in HealthBookSummaries.com, just send Waterside an e-mail with:

• Title
• Author
• Desired release date of the summary
• Your direct contact email and phone number

“Mike Adams is one of America’s great journalists and freedom fighters. His ability to deliver important leading edge nutrition and healing information is unparalleled in all of journalism.”
— David Wolfe, author of The Sunfood Diet Success System

Bruce Piasecki has been receiving plenty of praise for his 2007 book release World Inc., which we announced in an earlier post here at Waterside.com (see world inc post). Here are some of the noteworthy comments his book has received…

“World Inc. is a manifesto for the corporate responsibility revolution.” — Jay Whitehead/CRO“It is an eye-opener.” — Charles Osgood, CBS News Ancor

“RIVETING…” — Richard H. Walker, Siemens

“This book should be on every decision-maker’s desk.” — Sheldon Drobny, Air America Radio

“Bruce Piasecki has spent his career bringing people together to discuss the challenging issues of the times…” — Sam Smolik, Shell

“Not for many years has there been the privilege of reading something quite like your new book.” — Darryl V. Poole/ Cambridge Institute for Applied Research

For more reviews and details about World Inc, the book, see the author’s website at www.worldincbook.com. Congratulations to Bruce and the Waterside team for this successful release.

Australian publishers Allan and Unwin will reveal the long-held secrets of the River Kwai Story in their April 2008 publication of A River Kwai Story, The Sonkrai Tribunal by Waterside Author Robin Rowland.

According to the author, more prisoners of war died at Sonkrai than any other camp on the infamous River Kwai Railway. The seven thousand Australian and British prisoners of war who comprised F Force were sent by the Japanese to build the toughest section of the railway in the mountains between Thailand and Burma. More than three thousand people died from slave labour, disease, starvation and exposure to the never-ending monsoon rain.

In 1946 seven former guards from the infamous River Kwai camp were put on trial for their lives before a military tribunal in Singapore, charged with the deaths of more than three thousand people. The account of the trial tells for the first time the story of F Force from all sides-Australian, British and Japanese-from the lowest private to the lieutenant colonels in command. The testimony, verdict and the surprise sentence shed new light on what really happened on the Railway of Death.

A River Kwai Story, The Sonkrai Tribunal is much more than a story of the infamous Railway of Death during the Second World War. The book is about the fairness of military tribunals/trials/commissions in cases where there are atrocities and heavy loss of life. As the United States begins trials of alleged terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, the reader discovers that the story of the River Kwai, known best through David Lean’s Oscar winning movie starring Alec Guinness and William Holden, is as relevant as tonight’s evening news, for the events on that railway led to military tribunals with almost the same rules of evidence and the same charges of unfair proceedings as are the trials now on at “Gitmo.”

Oprah is waking up with Eckhart Tolle and his book A New Earth and if you don’t believe me… just see for yourself at oprah.com. Oprah features the book in a video clip from her show where she speaks about this incredible message, its author and how the message will awaken those who read it. How’s that for an endorsement!

But that’s not even the best part. Oprah will be teaching a FREE online course with Eckhart Tolle from her site at oprah.com for any and all to attend via live online broadcast (webcast). This will be an on-going class in awakening, guided by Waterside author, Eckhart Tolle and his biggest fan, Oprah Winfrey!

What more can be said? Check it all out at www.oprah.com, sign up for the FREE class and see how books are still a powerful and important tools for life enhancement, marketing, promotion and success!

View Eckhart Tolle’s author biography.

Is being broke your habit?

Author and entrepreneur Ephran Taylor is asking the tough questions about success. And be assured…he’s the real deal. He started his own business at age 12 and had become independently wealthy by age 16. Today, he’s working on numerous real estate and business projects and has just completed his first book, which he is determined will be a best-seller. Chances are…it will!

In Creating Success From The Inside Out, Taylor presents his compelling story and explains why most people don’t reach success — and how true success begins on the inside. This inspiring and informative guide is available now at Amazon and other booksellers and we’re happy to present some of the author’s short articles in our Success content pages. Highlights include four questions to test if you are over-indulging yourself and a single word that sums up why most people never reach their goals.

Ok, that’s really a trick question. The answer is…a book is always not just a book. And now that new media has really taken hold of the Internet, books will never again be just books. As an author or book professional, if you’re not making your books part of multi-media experiences, then you’re way, way behind the curve. In fact, more and more, books are becoming the smaller part of these multi-media experiences.

You remember when adding something like “the author will create a web site for the book” was a cool thing to add to your book proposal? It made everyone feel like something extra would be done for the publicity of the book. Well, now your marketing section needs to go a lot farther; it needs to lay out a complete new media launch and maintenance plan, with the book possibly, although not necessarily, at the center of this flurry of sensory-rich experiences. Some aspects of a new media campaign may include:

• Events: The physical and/or virtual gatherings that serve to bring people together with a common interest…an interest that your book serves.
• Video: Promotional vids, book trailers, clips from the above events…anything and everything you can get produced — from home-made Youtube-type videos to complete productions.
• Other New Media Productions: Don’t forget webinars, webcasts, blogs, podcasts and other new media creations. These all need to be considered in your plan.
• Internet Channels: Now you have to think about where all this video, text, audio and new media is going to appear. Your author web site is probably the least important of these channels. But the general rule is…the more places the better. This is where you try to get a half-million hits on Youtube. More and more, this is less and less about getting lucky.
• Community & List Usage: How are you going to maintain your customer/reader lists? Will you send a newsletter, emails, or notices on a regular basis? What about finding and using other lists? What about community involvement?
• Strategic Partners: Working alone? Bad idea! That image of the lone wolf writer cranking out a masterpiece and then shunning the media and commercial interests in artistic seclusion is…well…a thing of the distant past. Now, your partnerships are as important as you are in the book-success equation. Forge your relationships and create strategic partnerships that give everybody a part of the play. The rule here is NOT “the more the merrier.”

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Well, rest assured you don’t have to do all this yourself. Nor should you try. Where authors once had publicists to help get eyeballs looking their way, today there are eyeball Pied Pipers that know how to orchestrate a new media attraction.

Here at Waterside, we’ve put together a very special team of new media marketing and publicity professionals that will work with authors and publishers on mew media campaigns — bringing as many of these strategies into play as possible. Click here for more details.

How does an online viral-marketing expert promote his own book? Author David Meerman Scott figured the best way to show how his methods work is by applying them directly to his own campaign. So he is setting out to use some of the unconventional tactics he wrote about in his new book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

Many marketers are turning to the Internet is as a way to reach their audiences, but they are often confused when their old strategies don’t work. The New Rules of Marketing & PR explains how to harness the power of the Internet, identify the right audience, create compelling messages and get those messages directly to the right people. For his campaign, Scott pioneered a tactic that has never been used before: he named over 150 marketing and PR bloggers in the acknowledgments of his book and included their blog URLs.

“These are the blogs that I read or bloggers that helped me as I researched the book,” says Scott, who thought it was only fair to credit those who had inspired him, He hoped that by mentioning them in his book, those bloggers would get some additional traffic from his readers. Clearly, he also hoped that these bloggers would want to mention their book appearances in their blogs…thus creating return buzz for Scott. It’s the “give first, get later” rule of viral marketing. Although the final list spanned eight pages in the book, it was just the beginning for Scott.

To take the process further, the author posted all the blog names and URLs on his own blog (www.webinknow.com) and added a thank you to each blogger on the original list. He also offered each of these bloggers an advance copy of the book. Almost instantly, 30 people left thank-you messages on Scott’s blog. More than half of the bloggers responded in just three days with praise and admiration. “Google will have to plug in a few extra servers just to cope with the viral juggernaut you have unleashed,” wrote Glenn Nicholas. “We almost need a new word to describe this kind of launch!”

Instead of reaching out to notify each blogger of their inclusion in Scott’s own blog, he let tools like Google Alerts inform them that they had received links. Then the viral marketing aspect took off. In just four days, bloggers wrote about Scott’s tactic 55 times on their own blogs with links to the book. Many of the bloggers copied Scott’s recommended blog list into their own blogs, thus creating a viral circle with Scott’s book at the center.

“People write blogs because they are passionate about a subject and want to deliver their ideas to the world. They don’t get paid to blog,” explains Scott. “You have to make them want to write about you.” So far, 75 bloggers have mentioned The New Rules of Marketing & PR and the list keeps growing. The online momentum will hopefully translate into increased sales when the book is published in August 2007.

If you thought that was something…there are plenty of other ways to engage the online community and Scott details many of them in this book.

THE NEW RULES OF MARKETING & PR
How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
By David Meerman Scott
Wiley; June 2007
$24.95; 978-0-470-11345-5, Cloth

On Saturday, July 14, Sun-times columnist, author of iPhone Fully Loaded and Wiley Macintosh series editor Andy Ihnatko will appear on The CBS Saturday Early Show, demonstrating software and services that can turn the smartphones already in people’s pockets into iFaux devices — sporting many of the features of Apple’s iPhone but at a fraction of the cost. The software and service enhancements do not cause users to break any contracts with their existing wireless providers.

“Have no doubts, there was a hole in my soul that was the exact shape and size of an iPhone,” exclaims Ihnatko. “My iPhone and I have been inseparable. But that’s just me. Some people are pretty attached to their Treos and Blackberries, and they’ll be glad to know about cheap or even free software that can enhance their old pals with a killer media player or a ‘Visual Voicemail’ system or even a ‘real’ web browser.”

Tune in for all the details and check out Ihnatko’s new book at your local bookstore.

Waterside author Thomas B. Gosselin’s new book, Practical Negotiating: Tools, Tactics & Techniques has recently been released by John Wiley & Sons publishers and is racking up the praise from within the industry. Here’s a sampling:

“Practical Negotiating is an innovative, resourceful, and-as its name implies-practical guide to the art and science of negotiating. Unlike many books on negotiating, which are filled with theories and anecdotes, this one is rich with examples, tactics, and tips, which makes it the indispensable book when you are going into any negotiation.” Terry R. Bacon, President, Lore International Institute and author of What People Want: A Manager’s Guide to Building Relationships That Work

“There is something in this book for the most experienced negotiator and the novice. Gosselin’s no-nonsense prescriptions and recommendations will hit home and give you new ideas for the most difficult of negotiating situations. Anyone in the business world will want this great bible of effective negotiating right near their desk and phone!” Dr. Beverly Kaye, CEO and founder, Career Systems International and coauthor of Love’ Em or Lose’Em: Getting Good People to Stay.

“Gosselin has written a thoughtful, engaging, and practical guide on a topic of increasing importance to leaders and organizations. There is something here for anyone who wants to learn how to deal more effectively with the inevitable conflicts that occur in working with clients, customers, and colleagues.” Peter Cairo, PhD, Partner, Mercer Delta Consulting and coauthor of Why CEOs Fail: The 17 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top and How to Manage Them

Congratulations Thomas and keep the praise coming!

Waterside author Stephanie Good is a woman on a mission. Her recent best-selling book, Aruba, tells the shocking story of a Natalie Holloway and her disappearance in the vacation paradise of Aruba. Now, Stephanie turns her attention to sexual predators on the Internet in her new book, Exposed, a chilling expose and personal memoir about her efforts with the FBI to bust child sex predators.

Posing as a young girl, Stephanie has helped the federal government catch everyone from common perverts to Fortune 1000 executives, even an executive from a children’s cable television channel. Stephanie reveals the near-tragic personal story that compelled her into this harrowing career and takes readers on the hunt.

Stephanie is also furthering the cause through her book publicity and online promotion efforts. Her publicist will be broadcasting a press release about Exposed to thousands of media outlets via the PR Newswire and still more directed at TV, newspapers and radio. Another 150 review copies are on their way to key reviewers.

As the interviews begin to roll in, Stephanie is updating her author website (http://www.stephaniegood.com/) to include information about the new book and her calendar of signings and appearances. She also maintains two MySpace sites (www.myspace.com/helpfindnatalee and www.myspace.com/rstephaniegood) for community involvement in the Natalie Holloway case–two public landing pages to promote her books and her causes.

With her web site, MySpace pages and author-driven publicity efforts, Stephanie is truly using the power of media to change lives and help others.

Most people just do it — without even realizing that it is a leisure activity that has become a natural part of their lives, right up there with brushing their teeth and walking down the street. I’m talking about listening to the radio. Most people don’t realize the impact it has on consumer spending. And authors overlook it as a viable means of effectively marketing, and publicizing their books.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, radio reaches 77 percent of consumers daily and 95 percent of consumers weekly. This statistic is not surprising when you consider that 82 percent of adults age 18 and older listen to it while they drive. In fact, more than other media, radio generates immediate purchases. That’s because more consumers buy products they hear about on the radio than they do seeing a TV commercial or reading a newspaper or magazine ad about the same thing.

Radio goes where other media can’t and it has a following of loyal listeners. Their loyalty is what gives advertisers the consistent audience base they want. And with over 459 national radio talk shows in North America alone, 251 syndicated radio talk shows, and over 5,102 local and specialized talk shows covering topics from agriculture and business, to small business, health, sports, finance and travel…radio provides you with plenty of opportunities to promote yourself.

Radio offers several advantages that other media sources can not. For starters, we live in the age of electronic information. People read less and watch, listen download and cast more. Therefore getting broadcast coverage either by radio, TV or satellite enables you to reach additional prospects who may not be reading newspapers and magazines.

Another one of radio’s strengths is that it doesn’t require intense concentration on behalf of the listener. So listeners do other things while remaining tuned in. Radio is especially appealing as a medium in today’s time-sensitive society.

Here are a few more of radio’s key benefits:

• Economy: While I can and will show you how to use PR to get all the radio time you want absolutely free, I’d like to point out that on the whole, radio commercials have a lower cost per thousand than newspapers, magazines and television. This is because the listener’s imagination – and not a costly photographer or video production house – provides the picture.
• Selectivity: Radio also offers a wide selection of program formats – each catering to a specific segment of the population. This makes selling to your desired targets much more doable, one segment at a time.
• Penetration: Radio reaches nearly 99% of the consumer market.
• Mobility: Radio can reach customers just about everywhere, even at the point of sale.
• Immediacy: Advertisers can change their message quickly and easily and get new commercials on the air rapidly. If necessary, a commercial can be written and taped or read literally the same day.
• Flexibility: Radio enables advertisers to talk to customers during the time of day and in an environment that’s likely to induce a closing response.
• Intrusiveness: Radio can pervade a listener’s mind, even when interest doesn’t exist. An otherwise preoccupied listener still receives a forcefully delivered message, in the same way that constant exposure to Top 40 songs keeps them running through your head.
• Audience: If you’re looking to reach teens or other segments of the consumer market that don’t frequently read newspapers or retail ads and may not be a regular customer, radio is a means of promotional choice. This is also true if you’re seeking prospects for your business whose names do not appear on your mailing list, as well as those who refuse to open or read unsolicited mail. Radio also allows you to pinpoint your target audience according to demographics, psychographics (a psychological characteristic of a target market), and geography. Market research for example shows that baby boomers are nostalgia oriented. So when it comes to marketing you’re products, it makes a lot of sense to use spokespeople and images from their youth and radio stations that play music from their generation.

Janette Burke is Founding Publicist of Prime Time PR (www.primetimepr.ca) and former editor of PRtalk (Canada’s only online PR magazine). She is a marketing/PR coach for authors and and business mavericks. You can email Janet at:

janette@yourmarketingmagnet.com or visit: www.yourmarketingmagnet.com.

“Compelling”
NY Times

“An uncommonly powerful, gripping and very moving piece of theatre!”
Chicago Tribune

Announcing the LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY, Written and performed by Waterside author Steven Fales Directed by Tony Award-Winner Jack Hofsiss.

The Los Angeles premiere of the award-winning, critically-acclaimed, smash-hit Off-Broadway play with music, CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY is EXTENDING through Sunday, March 25 at the Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; Sundays at 3:00pm & 7:00pm. Ticket prices are $35.00 for Thursday and Sunday performances; $40 for Friday and Saturday evenings. Group rates are available.

Tickets are available online at www.tix.com or by calling 800/595-4849. For more information, please visit www.mormonboy.com or www.myspace.com/mormonboyz.

CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY is Steven Fales’ compelling, humorous, and inspiring true story about how a young gay man went from being a model Mormon boy in Utah to a high priced call boy in New York City. His captivating tale takes audiences through his excommunication from the Mormon church, divorce, male prostitution and drug abuse, as he struggles to reclaim his life and his children.

A breakout hit during the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival — for which the play received a coveted Overall Excellence Award — CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY also received a NY Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance. Additionally, the various productions of the show have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for many charitable organizations.

“CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY: Behind the Scenes of the Off-Broadway Hit,” published by Alyson Books, is now available wherever books are sold.

For author inquiries, please contact Steven Fales’ Literary Agent, Ming Russell here at Waterside Productions.

Bryan Au had never published a book before, let alone self-published. Now he’s a best-selling author and restaurant owner and operator. In one year, his raw organic foods cookbook has become a best-seller in its category with over 50,000 copies in print. It’s distributed by all the major book distributors, including Amazon and Ingram and has inspired the opening of a new, organic foods restaurant.

We asked Brian to share some of his experiences and advice with our authors.

How did you decide to self-publish your book?
I have more creative control and bigger royalties! I also wanted to save time, the traditional method takes a lot of time to find out if publishers want your manuscipt or not.

Often times the author loses a lot of control and creative freedom, time and royalties. With self publishing the process if faster, you will get published and listed on Amazon.com along with many other major distributors. There are a lot of positive benefits with self publishing, I can help authors with the process if they e-mail me.

Did you have experience as a writer or self-publisher before?
I have been published for Yoga articles and travel articles online previously but this was my first self published book and raw organic recipe book at that!

Why did you choose Trafford for your service?
Upon comparing services, prices and the timeline I found Trafford to be the best and I love their customer service they truly are the best!

What were the main elements in your marketing and publicity strategy?
Mostly trial and error, it would take a very long time to explain.

What worked the best for you in terms of publicity and marketing?
Well you want to get on TV and national radio that worked best for me. Also book reviews in magazines and on the internet. You always want postive book reviews and I was getting only all glowing positive book reviews at first on my Amazon.com page, because it was coming from real people and readers!

But as soon as I reached some success the “haters” came out and you can’t avoid jealous people or competitors, you can never avoid stepping on some toes. They started to write lies and post really mean harsh reviews that were totally fake, they would say that certain recipes were really bad when everyone in fact loved them and things like that.

People tell me to just accept it and to view it as a sign of my success. They say when you reach some success that “haters” will start to come out and that I should either ignore it or get used to it as a sign of my success. For me it seems really mean, uncalled for and wrong but as an author you will enjoy perks and also annoying aspects, they can’t be avoided. Also I tried to post info about myself on some websites and Yahoo Groups, while this got me a lot of sales and fans it also got people that got jealous or accused me of “spamming” which is nonsense because I stayed on the subject. Also why can’t people just ignore a posting on a Yahoo Group if they don’t like the message they can just erase it, but many people go on and on about who is spamming and how horrible it is. So marketing and publicity can get you a lot of sales and fans but also get some “haters” and jealous mean people who can write mean reviews and lies. I am thankful that professionals that I now work with and real readers can tell which are real reviews and which are fake.

The fake ones are so obviously full of hate and jealousy and not based on any real reviews at all. But as an author you have to promote yourself and enjoy the process. For me promoting healthy food and a new cuisine that I really believe in and love is my passion so I try to enjoy the perks and positive like when people e-mail me and tell me how much they love the book, or a recipe or for me going for it. It makes me so happy there are no words for it. Some people send me gifts, cards, and are mostly really kind and supportive. So you try to overlook your mistakes and the negative aspects. But it is all fun everyday is an adventure and a new experience.

This is my first self published book and so it is all very new for me. Just try to flow with it, learn from mistakes, try not to “spam” or overdo it or anything that can be perceived as such.

How much has your site played a role in the success of your book?
A LOT! Having a good website really helps and in my case it was a way for me to have color photos too. Many recipe books don’t have any photos! My self published book only has black and white photos so to make it better I did color photos on my digital camera and put them all on my Website for people to enjoy: http://www.RawInTen.com I can’t stress enough the importance of a really good website it would take a long time to explain each reason. It got me sponsors, success, tv, media and much more.

What were the main elements of your distribution strategy?
To get the book listed by as many distributors as possible Trafford helped a lot with that.

What were the main obstacles in getting the book out?
Time, money.

What do you think are the most important factors in the success of a self-published book?
You have to be ready to market yourself, do everything yourself it is the best way. You have to be ready to do it 24/7!

How much time to you spend marketing vs creating content? I mean, what’s the ratio?
I am on 24 hours a day and love it! It is my passion, your book must be something you are very passionate about.

Any special tips or advice for other authors who might want to self-publish?
Learn how to market and do everything yourself!

You can reach Bryan through his site: http://www.rawinten.com/main_page.html

Disappointed in your publisher’s publicity efforts for your book? Most authors are. It’s probably the number one complaint we hear from published authors. But publishers don’t usually have the resources to promote each title into the many nooks and crannies of the market. Besides, it probably wouldn’t be cost effective for them if they did.

But the Web 2.0’s community driven content model provides a solution that was never before possible. Free online press release and article distribution services. You can post your press release or book excerpts to a handful of these online services and create your own self-publishing publicity plan.

There are a number of different services, but the idea is roughly the same for each: Companies, organizations, or private individuals post their news or advertorial content for free (or a moderate posting cost) and the service posts it and/or sends it to their email list for you. They get the advertising and page views while you get the distribution of your content and links.

Want to give it a try? Here are a few for starters:

http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://express-press-release.com/
http://news.thomasnet.com/

These are free online press release boards. Log in, create your account and start posting. A slightly different approach are the free content banks. You post your article/advertorial along with byline and links, and they post it or distribute it for you.

http://www.submityourarticle.com/
http://www.contentmart.com/

Naturally, the best articles are the ones more often published. Outright commercials are probably ignored as spam. And some of these services reserve the right to remove any posting that is too self-serving. So take your time and write good material — whether a press release or article. And keep track of your site statistics to measure the effect of each service you use.

With Web 2.0 content-driven services, promotion and publicity are accessible to everyone. Good writing is still not.

Congratulations to Agent Bill Gladstone and his author Bruce Piasecki whose Sixth Book is Set to Launch April 3, 2007! World Inc: How the Growing Power of Business is Revolutionizing Profits, People and the Future of Both can be viewed at www.worldincbook.com.

What is all the excitement about World Inc.?

Consider these facts:

• 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are corporations.
• 40 percent of global commerce takes place between corporations.
• Each of the six largest multinational corporations have annual sales revenues larger than the gross domestic products of all but 21 nation-states.

The astonishing increase in the size and global scope of a few key companies defines today’s corporate world - and the great opportunity awaiting forward-looking business leaders. For with new levels of wealth and power come new possibilities and responsibilities for social change.

Business leaders from Lockheed Martin, Anheuser-Busch, ARCO and Dayton Power & Light as well as from thought leaders such as Patricia Aburdene, bestselling author of The Megatrends Series, and Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat is On endorse this new book.

Digital Traveler on the Move Matthew Bamberg, author of Digital Art Photography for Dummies (Wiley, 2005), comes along with a new blog titled The Digital Traveler, already finding a decent readership.

Like many authors, Bamberg designed his blog to extend his name and “author brand,” to his readership and beyond, while focusing on his specialty, digital photography. You can see the author’s new blog at blogger.com

The blog highlights the author’s travels–both on the ground and online–and helps people with everything from “the inward search for great shots with meaning” to “Photoshop tweaks that’ll knock your socks off.”

Digital Art Photography For Dummies has received great reviews from Library Journal, Blogcritics Magazine and Kickstart News.

You’ve probably seen how the customer reviews at amazon.com can be as trustworthy as a cornered snake. If you’re like many authors, you’ve been the victim of sabotage by your competition. It’s not difficult to recognize flaming, slashing reviews that come from an “interested” party. Frankly, there’s not much you can do about it and, thankfully, most publishers know that this happens, just as they know most authors put their friends up to writing loads of good reviews too.

And if you keep a blog, then you’ve probably seen how Internet marketers systematically and shamelessly plug their URLs and SEO keyword phrases into the comments of others. It’s a kind of parasitic activity with which the Internet is now seething.

Frankly, the use of public posting areas, such as amazon.com reviews, blog comments, and the many public page hosting sites like myspace.com, has made the whole “representative of the users” idea of the Internet a pie-in-the-sky idea of the past. Fact is, internet marketers make their living from manipulating as many of these online resources as possible.

Are you an Internet marketer? Don’t want to enter that sleazy world? I don’t blame you. But there are a few things you can do to maximize your product plugs, keywords, and name recognition without lowering your standards or being associated with those who create spam, bogus content, and auto-spawning windows (oh, I hate those guys!).

Use the power of duplication. Post your blog or informational copy on multiple hosts. Make sure you have a few blogs going on blogger.com, Typepad.com, and as many others as you can find. Mention your book and your name on each. Use flickr.com to post your covers, and keep a YouTube and MySpace profile going. If you’re not using these hosts for self-promotion…uh…I mean…to distribute your personal press releases to each community, then you’re simply not keeping up with the times. No need to be sleazy or post bogus content. Just have a presence on each of the main communities.

Oh, and if that nasty review on amazon.com just won’t go away, you can always make sure you click the “No” option under “Was this review helpful?” to force the review to the bottom of the list. Do it as often as it takes. After all, parasites have to be fought off or they’ll end up controlling the system. Just check the Health & Wellness articles on this site for proof of that.

Here…click these and start setting up your accounts…they won’t bite:

       Del.ici.us   

Independent natural health news and information website NewsTarget.com (http://www.newstarget.com) will be joining Waterside Productions, Inc. (http://www.waterside.com/) as a strategic content partner for natural health, nutrition, wellness and other health topics important to consumers. NewsTarget.com will supply Waterside’s Health & Wellness feeds with cutting-edge content from its many staff reporters, adding a major source of news and information to Waterside’s content feeds. Waterside represents a number of best-selling authors in the alternative health genre, including many published by NewsTarget parent, Truth Publishing.

Syndicating our news content with Waterside represents a continuation of our mission to get uncensored, independent health news to as many consumers as possible, said Mike Adams, Health Ranger and Editor at NewsTarget.com.

Under the agreement, NewsTarget.com will supply daily news and information to be syndicated to Waterside’s content subscribers and corporate customers. The move joins expert content creation with digital aggregation and distribution, and will help bring important health information to online and print publications worldwide.

“The NewsTarget alliance adds an important brand to our lineup of Health & Wellness content and fills out our daily feeds with current, well-researched articles, said Christopher Van Buren, Syndication Coordinator at Waterside. I expect this to bring good things to all parties involved–especially the readers who need this health information the most.”

About NewsTarget Read by over 500,000 unique readers monthly, NewsTarget (http://www.newstarget.com) is a progressive, independent natural health news site that teaches consumers how to improve their health through foods, herbs, exercise and natural therapies. The site also warns consumers about the dangers of processed foods, pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy, environmental toxins and the failure of government regulators like the FDA. See the NewsTarget content at Waterside here.

Waterside is pleased to announce its new short-length content syndication initiative, designed to bring article-length content from our authors to online and print publishers worldwide. This initiative gives our authors more ways to produce income from their writing and expertise. Rather than posting headlines that lead visitors away from their sites, companies can post full-text content from our feeds and keep visitors from clicking off the site.

“At first, we will be focusing on a few main feeds in the Computers & Technology field: Computer Industry News, Web Development Techniques, and Expert Analysis & Commentary. We may add a Marketing feed too,” says coordinator, Christopher Van Buren.

Besides the computer oriented content, Van Buren plans to offer feeds in the Health & Wellness field, bringing in cutting-edge content from major names in the genre.

“We also plan to feature certain authors with stand-alone columns–especially in the Marketing and Health feeds,” adds Van Buren.

Authors interested in pariticpating as contributors should contact Waterside through their agents or through the administrative offices.

One of the best resources for book promotion tips and techniques is the classic “Buzz Your Book” e-book by M.J. Rose and Doug Clegg. The e-book was originally offered in 2001, and the authors hosted an accompanying website for buzz success stories. The site is defunct now, but the book, although a bit old, still contains some valuable tips for creating hype, publicity, or buzz for your books. You can purchase it from the authors here.

Send use your book promotion tips and techniques for this blog and let’s create some buzz together.

Websites have become crucial marketing tools for authors and are a great calling card. Create a website that provides value to your audience and lets them get to know you and your work. Give people extra tips and tricks they won’t find in the book, update any outdated information and provide news and reviews of your books and news that you know of in the community. If you are really ambitious you can create your own community around your website. Some good examples of great Waterside author websites include:

Danny Goodman: http://www.dannyg.com

David Iseminger: http://www.iseminger.com

Robert Cowart: http://www.masteringwindows.com

Deborah Shadovitz: http://www.shadovitz.com

Web Diner: http://www.webdiner.com (this site also has great tips on creating your own website)

Teaching is a great way to develop your pedagogy. It’s also a great way to understand how people learn the technology, what their frequently asked questions are, and how you can best improve your books so that they are most easily understood. If you are not interested in teaching at the local university or community college, you might want to consider teaching online courses. There are numerous online education companies looking for authors to help teach their courses. Most authors have found teaching online to be enjoyable, lucrative, and something that can be done almost simultaneously with writing books. Ask your agent about online course opportunities.

Positive book reviews are always a great way to sell books. Keep an eye out for bylines of reviewers in magazines and journals particular to your book topic and coordinate with your publisher to make sure that the reviewer receives and early copy of your book. Trumped up reviews on Amazon are easily seen through and don’t do much for an author’s reputation, but if you get a genuine email from a reader with positive specific comments, you might want to ask him or her to post their comments on Amazon.

Discussion Groups are a huge part of any community these days. By participating online you are getting your name out in the community, staying current with all of the latest developments, and making crucial contacts that can include book reviewers, magazine editors, book editors and the real gurus of technology.

Newsgroups on the Web, including chat and message forums on proprietary services like AOL and Compuserve, are great places to make yourself known and promote your books, your website, and your career. Many authors have gained prominence on the newsgroups, particularly in the web scripting and programming area. It’s important to be helpful, answer questions, and make yourself available without pushing your books too obviously or obnoxiously. If you spam the newsgroups or forums it won’t serve you in the long run.

You can find more information about marketing and promoting your book on John Kremer’s BookMarket website. John is the author of 1001 Ways to Promote Your Book .

A great resource for adding advertising to online publications is Advertising.com. They sell the banners and sefve them to your site. Advertisers pay per click, and you receive a ercentage of what the advertiser pays. It’s an excellent way to create extra income from your out-of-print books or supplementary material on your site.

Telephone Support Services such as Keen.com are an interesting idea for increasing your exposure and community. Customers can go online to find an expert who can answer their questions about a topic (any topic), then call the person for a telephone consultation. The fee per consultation varies and you can set your own schedule for availability. Perhaps a great way to promote your books.

Congratulations to Waterside Agent Carole McClendon and Waterside author James Gonzalez, whose Flash book, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Hands-On Training, is a worldwide best-seller, now that’s H.O.T.!

Congratulations also go to her author David Busch

Busch now has an amazing six titles on the Amazon digital photo bestseller list: #1,#2, #5, #9, #18, and #23! No author has had three books on top before, Busch has them all beat with this litany of popular titles!!

Busch now has an amazing six titles on the Amazon digital photo bestseller list: #1,#2, #5, #9, #18, and #23! No author has had three books on top before, Busch has them all beat with this litany of popular titles!!

• Digital SLR Cameras and Photography (Wiley)
• Nikon D70 Digital Field Guide (Wiley)
• Nikon D50 Digital Field Guide (Wiley)
• Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies (Wiley)
• Mastering Digital Scanning (Course Technology)
• Mastering Digital SLR Photography (Course Technology)

Waterside author Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity in his first book since the highly lauded THE POWER OF NOW.