caffeinenights

Darren E Laws

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Caffeine Nights Publishing. Fiction aimed at the heart and the head...

11/23/2008

'How to get a lot of money out of desperate authors...

How many 'How to write a successful novel' or 'How to become a published author’ novels have you seen advertised both on the net and in bookstores from authors you have never ever heard. Surely if someone was to be an expert on the subject they should have a modicum of success. Often when you delve a little deeper into the background of the authors of these 'successful' authors who put their names to the 'How to' brigade of books you find that their only publishing success has been the publication of the 'How to' book in the first place. Is this not a little misleading? One thing is for sure though that there is a lot of desperate writers out there who gobble up these books and their words of wisdom without stopping to check the credentials of the author or indeed have no measure or yardstick to digest what they have to say. A quick search through Amazon shows that this is a growth market with little or no signs of it being impacted by the current credit malaise sweeping through the world. It would appear that there are a lot of would-be writers keen to know the secrets to quick success and the riches it brings. If this was the case and the authors of these books were making their wealth through their own creative writing ability rather than suckering people wishing to lean the trick of the trade then surely we would be reading a lot more 'How to' books from famous authors and not unknowns capitalising on the dreams of the desperate. Furthermore, these authors by the very nature of practicing what they preach would be successful. So the next time you're tempted to buy a shortcut to success, at least stop and look at the resume of the author. P.S. This is NOT an extract taken from my latest book. How to become an incredibly successful author in only 10 days or you money back… while making a very nice living as failed author!' By Darren E Laws
11/14/2008

Tell it like it is...the power of local marketing

Tell it like it is - The Power of Local Marketing By Darren E Laws The other day I was reminded of the power of excellent local marketing when a leaflet popped through the door from a pub trading about a mile from my home. The leaflet was a folded A4 newsletter, it had spectacularly bad design. In fact its lack of design was part of its genius or rather the simplicity of it was. There was no graphic design, just a few sectioned areas that related activities the pub was undertaking through November, some samples of the food sold in the pub, and special offers. A simple message told without any distracting graphics. The result of this naive missive was that it grabbed my attention. I knew of the pub in question and of its perceived reputation, but one A4 sheet had told me more about the establishment than 13 years of hearsay. When I said genius, I meant it. Had the pub tried to fill the publication with images or even dabbled with some graphic design it would have weakened the achievement it accomplished. This newsletter, printed on the cheap, undoubtedly delivered to every home within a two mile radius managed to get its message clearly and succinctly to thousands of houses. Like all good marketing initiatives it delivered news to an audience that was unaware of its product. If the pub is really astute it will follow the process with a further newsletter before Christmas. I am not for one moment suggesting that we all follow the footsteps of this pub and abandon good graphic design to deliver whatever it is we are selling (hopefully books), but what we can learn is never to forget the message we really need to tell. No matter how good our images and design is, it is the power of the written word that really sells. Spurred on by my local public hostelry I have decided to run a test experiment within my local neighbourhood and produce a simple newsletter backed with a nicely designed postcard with some Caffeine Nights Publishing titles and target around a thousand randomly chosen houses. This will take time and effort but I think it will be interesting to monitor the response especially on the run up to Christmas. Sometimes it is so easy to spend time looking at the bigger picture that we forget our own back yard. If nothing else I am sure this form of marketing will raise the profile of our books and publishing company at a local level and this is an audience that should never be neglected, because with it comes loyalty and local pride. If this sounds hokey it might be time to reevaluate your own core values. If it sounds like something you have been thinking of doing but never got around to, now might be the time.

2 Episodes

Caffeine Nights Publishing. Fiction aimed at the heart and the head...

Creator

Darren E Laws
Years Active

2008
Episodes

2
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright 2012 Darren Laws. All rights reserved.
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caffeinenights