Booklet Referrals

Are you a subscriber to my ezine? If not, go to tipsbooklets.com now and subscribe to it. Not only is there a gift you'll get for subscribing, this issue that will be sent out on Monday night next week (March 31) is addressing the topic of referrals in the booklet business.

What is the best referral you ever gave anyone else for either a sales lead or a resource? Notice I asked about what you gave as the first question. That, of course, follows with "what is the best referral you've ever received in your booklet business?" No need to name specific names as much as the circumstance or industry, and maybe even how it happened.

Please post your comments here at this blog. It may inspire someone else to give a referral to someone that just hadn't previously been considered. Ya never know!

Until next time,
Paulette - who has both given and received many good referrals over the years
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklet Promo Ops with a Smile

Somewhere earlier this week I came upon a free service of daily emails delivering reporter queries for articles or books or other media. You can register for it at http://www.helpareporter.com/

It may take you a bit to find something that's relevant for you. However it looks worth the effort so far. And you can always unsubscribe if it's not your cup 'o tea.

The guy who runs it, Peter Shankman, sounds like my kind of humanoid from New York City. Bright, quirky, irreverent, great sense of humor, has some cats. He does sound more athletic, though, than anyone will ever accuse me of being.

Until next time,
Paulette - happy to pass along resources especially when it includes a sense of humor
www.tipsbooklets.com

San Diego Publishing Event

You may know I am a board member of the Publishers and Writers of San Diego. The group includes a range of authors, publishers, and support services to the publishing industry. We are producing a special event in a couple weeks that may be of interest to you if you publish books (as well as booklets).

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Get Your Book into Barnes & Noble and Get Reviews for Big Sales — An Exclusive Seminar

ENCINITAS, CA (about 30 minutes north of downtown San Diego) —
Publishers & Writers of San Diego (PWSD) will hold a unique seminar on Saturday, April 12 from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon at the new Encinitas Community Library, 540 Cornish Drive. "Get Your Book into Barnes & Noble and Get Reviews for Big Sales" will be presented by Larry Cox, book reviewer and syndicated columnist for King Features, and Marcella Smith, Director of Small Press and Vendor Relations for Barnes & Noble.

Smith will offer an exclusive insider's perspective on the bookstore business, discussing placing and selling books in Barnes & Noble stores and online, the trends in bookselling, and what drives successful store promotions.

Cox will teach how to have the best chance of getting a reviewer’s attention, reveal the step-by-step process of how a reviewer chooses which books to review, and discuss ways to leverage reviews for marketing impact. Anyone interested or involved in writing, publishing, or anything related to books is encouraged to attend this one-time-only seminar.Space is limited, so get details and make reservations now at www.PublishersWriters.org.

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Until next time,
Paulette - bringing you all kinds of goodies
www.tipsbooklets.com

Your Motivation and Your Booklet

There's a booklet author whose primary business is selling pre-employment assessments to corporations. These are tools for making a good match of behaviors and motivators with jobs. We were having a chat the other day about the range of motivators. Some people are motivated by being helpful. They tend to give away their booklet rather than look to sell it. Other people are driven by logic and utilitarian elements. They look to monetize things. There are other motivators. These were the two we were discussing.

No single motivator is right or wrong as much as how a person is wired. Keep that in mind as you move forward with marketing your booklet.

Until next time,
Paulette - the unabashedly utilitarian one
www.tipsbooklets.com

Someone Did My Booklet Before Me

First of all, highly unlikely that someone did your booklet. You have your perspective on your expertise and someone else has their unique point of view. That's true even in the rare situation of two booklet authors choosing the same title, which is completely allowable since a title cannot be copyrighted.

Note, highly unlikely, not impossible. Let's say that there are many similar tips in your booklet and someone else's. I'm not talking plagiarism as much as the same non-proprietary concepts presented in similar ways. Here's where it really gets interesting. From my experience and observation, it's really rare that two booklet authors will market their booklet in the same way to the same people or companies. There may be some random bumping into each other if they have some similar affiliations. Even then it's been unusual that two booklet authors have the same vision, drive, or willingness to market the same way.

So when you see a booklet you think is similar to yours, go market your booklet like crazy. The other author probably isn't.

Until next time,
Paulette - who knows lots of people who wrote booklets about organizing and has still sold over a million copies in four languages, so far
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklets Coming to Phoenix, AZ soon

Are you in the Phoenix, AZ area? The Arizona Book Publishing Association had a last-minute cancellation with a speaker for their March 31 meeting, and asked if I could help. Here's the scoop. I'd love to meet you on this one-day turnaround I'll be doing.

One to Many – Expand Your Product Line and Your Customer Base

Arizona Book Publishing Association

Monday, March 31, 2008

Lunch meeting 11:30 - 1:30

Paulette Ensign, Speaker

Ø Get paid for your business card.

Ø Leverage your content into at least 7 products, with minimal costs, if any.

Ø Identify new and larger bulk sales clients, with no returns, ever.

Ø Create “rights” deals for any product, online or offline.

Ø Increase profits whether you like selling or not. (Is there an author who likes selling?)

Details and registration: http://www.azbookpub.com/category/events


Until next time,
Paulette - eager to see folks I know and meet new ones
www.tipsbooklets.com

My Book Screams Out to Be Tips Booklets

The more people realize that there's little money to be made from most books, and lots of hoops to jump through to publish a book, the more they look at how the content can go into other formats to really get the message out there and make the money they wanted.

Yesterday brought a conversation like that. Plus the person on the phone had to hear about this work from two different colleagues (Denise Wakefield from The Blog Squad and Brian Jud from www.bookmarketingworks.com / Beyond the Bookstore) before taking action.

The person on the phone has a unique perspective about how couples relate to each other and is right about tips booklets being the way to go. Whether your book has already been published or is sitting in your computer as a raw manuscript, tips booklets are still important considerations as part of your product mix.

Until next time,
Paulette - ready to help you slice and dice and put it all back together again
www.tipsbooklets.com

One Reason You're Having Trouble Selling Booklets

T'is the season. No, not the December holidays season. It's the season for kids to be selling things for their scout troops and their school fundraisers. Among the many things kids are not typically taught in school are sales skills. It is never more apparent to me than when an annual gaggle of girls outside the local grocery store (which is never how we did it when I was one of them a zillion years ago) ask "would you like to buy some cookies?" Or when a well-meaning kid comes to my door and asks if I want to buy some magazine subscriptions. It's an obvious set-up for a "no" answer from most who are asked. There is no suggestion about what these cookies or magazines will do to enhance my life experience (i.e. benefits).

One high school age young woman did ring my doorbell around dinnertime last night with a totally different approach that was lovely, in spite of the fact that I sent her on her way because I was eating dinner. She said she knew she was an uninvited guest intruding on me at that moment, extended her hand to say something about her providing the opportunity to make a new friend, and then I told her it was not the time for me to talk with her. Someone had at least given her some training about how to do it differently. And I have no idea what it was she was selling.

Why does any of this matter? Well, think about your own attitudes and self-perception of your selling skills. More booklet authors than not tell me that they cannot sell anything, don't like selling, and would do almost anything to avoid it. They hear it as brand new information when I suggest the idea of presenting multiple products to a potential buyer, with the conversation being "which of these is our starting point?" or starting with "these products will help your company sell more of your own product." This is all basic sales stuff, yet new for more people than not.

As soon as you go to anything like "do you want to buy some booklets," you are in the same arena as the gaggle of girls outside the grocery store. The odds are very high that your prospective buyer will just keep walking.

Until next time,
Paulette - which of the products and services at my site is you next step in your journey?
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklets and Almonds

A strange title, yes, I know. However...

Saturday I was shopping in my small local health food market. I wasn't looking for a business lesson, yet somehow it showed up as these things have a way of doing. Walking down the aisle of bulk grains and nuts, I saw an unusually attractive price for whole raw almonds. The self-serve bin for the almonds was empty. Asking one of the clerks if they had any more almonds, he mentioned that there was a display of them at the end of that same aisle. Well, not only was there a display of 6 of these bins full of almonds smack dab in the middle of a stand-alone section, I had walked around it already quite a few times and hadn't noticed it until I had been directed to it. If it was any bigger, it would have bitten me!

Almonds and booklets? Well, how often do you (and I) think our booklet offer is obvious to those who need and want it? And yet the questions that come from prospects and clients seem like they never saw anything about it at all? That's because they didn't. They may have looked all over your (and my) website or flier or letter or display and never noticed the booklet until they were specifically directed to it.

Once I found the whole raw almonds, I bought a lot of them.

Until next time,
Paulette - who is now just a little nuttier than before,and a lot more observant
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklets and Articles for Profits and Publicity

A colleague of mine, Jeff Herring - The Internet Article Guy, is offering a teleseminar series that couldn't be any better match for booklet authors. I encourage you to see what he has to catapult your business. Writing and submitting articles took my own business to a whole new level. Jeff is the go-to guy about this. His series starts Monday, March 17, so click through the link at the bottom of this post to get in on it right away. He's also recording all the sessions in case you can't make all of them in person.

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"Article Writing and Article Marketing - Endless
Waves of Prospects, Publicity and Profits”

Here's just a tiny bit of what you'll get in this teleseminar series. I am actually amazed by how much more he's covering. You can see for yourself on his site at http://snipurl.com/21s2c

==> The 3 mistakes even experienced article writers make and what to do instead.

==> The most powerful article writing template.

==> How to write articles for more traffic, prospects, publicity & profits.

==> The 3 most common near fatal article submission mistakes.

==> 5 strategies to get your articles picked up and published over those of the competition

==> The 3 most limiting article marketing mistakes.

==> How to get creative when marketing your articles to beat the competition.

==> The 3 most profit killing mistakes just about every article marketer makes.

==> How to monetize your articles.

==> How you can turn just one article into multiple products!

==> And Of Course Much More!!!

http://snipurl.com/21s2c
Take a look for yourself.
He's making this easy to pay and offers an outstanding guarantee.

Until next time,
Paulette - bringing you valuable resources to make you money
www.tipsbooklets.com

The Non-Project Booklet

This takes about 10 minutes of your time, and that is no exaggeration.

This is not "another project" to add to your list of things to do.

Have you gone to www.CollectionofExperts.com yet? Whether you've done your own complete booklet yet or not, this is one of the easiest, quickest, least-expensive ways you can have a product and be marketed by other people.

Really, truly, 10 minutes of your time. NOT a project. Talk with me about any questions you have or sign up today at www.CollectionofExperts.com.

Until next time,

Paulette - valuing your time and talent

www.tipsbooklets.com

Connecting Booklets to Everything Else

You just never know where a booklet will lead. Personal connections, professional connections, new ideas, new opportunities, -- it's endless.

This morning I did a interview with the publicist for a book author. The book author wrote a lot about booklets in a new book and happens to be a subscriber to my newsletter. The publicist is someone whose name I've seen for many years yet we had not ever connected. It looks like the publicist and I will be doing some exciting joint venture business projects together as a result of this interview.

This is the kind of thing that has happened throughout my entire booklet journey. A person got a single copy of my booklet either as a purchase or a gift, and it led to all kinds of other things that have enhanced their life and mine.

Got booklet?

Until next time,
Paulette - who loves observing and living connections like these
www.tipsbooklets.com

Another Excellent Booklet Site Offer

The following is an example of what is sent through a Google Alert. It happens to be the site of one of my clients, who happens to have quite a niche. See for yourself what they are doing.

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Media Tip 23
Booklets customizable for your organization. This tip is from our booklet, Media Relations Tips: 102 Secrets for Finding Success in Public Relations. Practical tips for anyone who works with the media, works with someone who works with ...
Hobnob Blog - http://hobnobblog.com/

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Until next time,
Paulette - delighted to see the results of client efforts
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklets, Definitions, and How It Works

I saw an article on a colleague's blog about what to call a particular information product and why to call it that. The article was referencing Marcia Yudkin's opinion about booklets and other products.

Marcia is a colleague whose opinions I regard highly. You can see some of why I appreciate her by visiting her site. Marcia indicated that calling a booklet a booklet rather than a special report or some other name was making it sound small. She's right. I agree 100% with her. She intended for that to be a negative in the particular recent context where she said that. Even that prompts agreement from me. In certain situations, yes, the underplaying of the size is detrimental. However, put that all in a different context, and small becomes a Good Thing.

When seeking to sell single copies at a price that makes it worth it, sure, call it a Special Report if that's intended to be a major revenue stream for you.

Calling it a booklet in a setting that makes it more approachable to large companies to buy in bulk because the per-unit cost is so reasonable and the size is so manageable and flexible all of a sudden turns that smallness into a big sale.

Like so many other things in life, it depends.

Until next time,
Paulette - who appreciates Marcia Yudkin's contributions to information products www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklet Covers and Bulk Sales

There's a reason to have an obvious blank space on the cover of your booklet. It's so the decision maker for bulk sales will realize you've anticipated their interest in having their logo or other contact information right on the cover when they use it to promote their own product, service, or cause. Expecting that decision maker to connect the dots on their own could set you up for an unexplained rejection of your product. The decision maker may not even realize why they are saying no. You haven't left space for them, and they don't realize you can, in fact, accommodate any customization they want. Make it easy for them to buy.

Until next time,
Paulette - who sees some lovely covers that are self-defeating
www.tipsbooklets.com

What's Your Favorite Color?

Anyone who knows me for a quarter of a second knows my favorite color is purple. For most things, that is. I had an interesting conversation with my hair stylist the other day that's worth sharing with you about his favorite color and what this has to do with your booklet business.

His favorite color is gray. Well yes, that's one of the reasons I sit in his chair about every 6-8 weeks. Every six or eight weeks he sees me, usually when the gray around my hairline on my face is more obvious than I want it to be. That's usually the ultimate motivator unless the curls have just gotten too haywire to manage or the sun from having my convertible top down has made it straw-like. As he says, the color gray puts money in his pocket and makes his clients feel good. What better combination is there?

So what is consumable or prompts repeat sales with your booklets? Is there updated information that means publishing a new version on a regular basis? Is your booklet packaged with someone's product, requiring a steady flow of inventory from you? Do your buyers want to alternate among various formats of your content, keeping that flow going from year to year? Is there a new crop of clients or members from year to year, requiring more copies? (new college students, new graduates, new moms, new retirees, new members to an association) These are just a few ideas. Once you ponder it, you'll probably see more.

Think about what you can do to move your products into an ongoing demand instead of a one-time sale. It makes marketing easier and dramatically increases cash flow.

Until next time,
Paulette - who also enjoys green, the color of cash in the US
www.tipsbooklets.com

Update on Flurry of No

Yesterday I told you about the booklet author whose booklet was peppered with one negative after another. Our 30-minute consultation netted a realization on the part of the booklet author that it made a lot of sense to have the booklet edited, and that I was the one to do it. The point the author made was one I knew -- the author held a certain perspective, and, being so close to the content and point of view, was hard-pressed to be able to turn it around. My carefully chosen candor was well received. .

And a different booklet author who asked for a no-cost review and no-cost input about how to market a booklet was thankful for a quick reply, lots of guidance to free resources I provide, and expressed understanding my point of view.

The no's were short-lived. The yes' prevailed. One great vote for humanity!!

Until next time,
Paulette - happy to be helpful in positive ways
www.tipsbooklets.com

A Flurry of No

In the past 24 hours there seems to be a flurry of no floating around with booklets. One person sent me the draft of a booklet that is full of "don't," "avoid,""ways not to..." -- a steady stream of this from one end to the other. The person has expressed pride of accomplishment. I have an appointment to speak with this author later today. And this person is in a helping profession, to boot. It'll be interesting to see how the consulting session turns out. The reader of such a booklet would have no clue what TO do after reading this booklet as it is right now.

Another person contacted me this week, to ask if I would review the booklet at no cost, give some ideas at no cost about the booklet and how to market it, and like that. I wrestled with a way to say "no" as gently as possible. After all, I've gotta believe it took courage for the person to ask in the first place. My response was to point the person to all the free info I have on my site, in this blog, and in my newsletter, and also the product I have that truly answers all the questions that were asked. I made it as positive as I could without coming right out and saying "no."

What's up with all this "no" stuff? Take a look at your own approach. Make it as positive as you can. It's a kinder, gentler, more helpful way of being and contributing on the planet.

Until next time,
Paulette - looking for as many "yes" answers as appropriate
www.tipsbooklets.com

Booklets and Time Management

You may know I earned my living for 16 years as a Professional Organizer. That's what prompted my booklet, "110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life," and subsequently this entire business, Tips Products International.

One of the things I count on about myself is an incredibly good relationship with time. That is not the case for many people I know, including some of my very closest friends, wonderful colleagues, and cherished clients.

Although I was suddenly forced to buy a new computer last Thursday and lost about 30 hours of time having to reinstall software and do tweaks on all kinds of things on the computer, I was confident in meeting deadlines. All of this was a reminder to me when speaking with a client this morning about her own frustration with time management. She's at the other end of the spectrum from me on this one.

I encouraged her to take small bites of the elephant so she could move a lot of things forward and feel a sense of accomplishment in the process. She has quite a juggling act to do, as do many people I know. A family, an outside job, lots of projects, writing, producing, and marketing her products, and on and on. Not so unusual out there.

Years ago, one of my closest friends had an ongoing to-do list of about 100 entries at any given time. His wife was all over him about being busy yet not bringing in much money. I encouraged him to put a green dollar sign next to the entries on his list that were revenue producing. That helped focus. Yes, it's important to bring in the money so you can then do Good Work -- take the oxygen first so you can then be helpful to others.

Crreate your booklets bits and pieces at a time if that's what's necessary in your world. Market in bits and pieces if you have to. Just keep doing the do. You'll be surprised by what you get done and the fun you can have in the process.

Until next time,
Paulette - who is all caught up now
www.tipsbooklets.com