These Infinity professionals, in diverse areas, effectively share years of experience through their published books. Nothing will speak with greater volume about your status as an expert than when you express your thoughts on a topic by publishing a book on your special area of interest. When a presenter speaks at a seminar, their books are the valuable take-away materials that go home with the attendees. Of course the revenue from back-of-the-room book sales is a benefit for the author expert who invested their time and effort in writing the book.
Ariane Goodwin - April 2011 Top Selling Author of: Writing the Artist Statement.
"I'm just a bit surprised by this as strong sales promotion has never been my strong point. One of my colleagues, for example, drop ships 1,000 books every few months for artists, so clearly whatever I'm doing is only a fraction of what I could be doing.
That said, here's how it's played out since 2002 when the book came out (time for a 2nd edition, yes?) It helps to have the only book ever written on a subject that is a significant piece of an artist's marketing puzzle. So catching the need and then writing to that need with a combination of psychology, philosophy and practicality is the first tier of my promotional strategy. Seems kind of obvious, except I'm always surprised by how many books aren't, in fact, paying attention to the needs of a specific audience. The next step was that I built a following around my expertise on artist statements and slowly expanded that to a larger vision of helping artists bridge the gap between making art and making a living, with one venture clearly standing out: creating and running (for 5 years) the only professional development, art career conference online or off, the smARTist Telesummit. This allowed me to create mini-partnerships with 45 other art career experts - who all promote what I do to their lists.Alongside that, I've created an entire social media presence, a blog, and a private coaching practice. Promotion is a coat of many colors. Visit my website at: http://www.smARTistCareerBlog.com"
Bridging the Gap Between Making Art and Making a Living
Terrence Daryl Shulman - Top Selling April 2011 Author of: Bought Out and $pent! Recovery from Compulsive $hopping & $pending
If You've Got a Niche, Scratch It!
(And Keep Scratching and Make It Spread!)
"From the time I wrote my first "real" poem "My Island" in 5th grade-which I won praise for and entered in a school poetry contest-I knew I wanted to be a writer. Over the next few years, I penned a few more poems-and a guitar or piano song or two-but I focused my interests and talents more on sports. In high school, I shifted from sports to art and-while I loved English, vocabulary, and continued to write here and there-I planned on applying to art colleges in my senior year. A romantic break-up altered the arc my journey. I became depressed and lost all interest in art! Instead, I began shoplifting to numb my pain, through repetition, became addicted. During my undergrad years at The University of Michigan I majored in English Lit. I had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) but enjoyed reading and writing. I kept a journal wherever I went. It helped me stay grounded even when I relapsed into shoplifting and, later, stealing from several part-time jobs. I decided to major in English and thought I'd be a high school or college English and creative writing teacher. Instead, after graduating, I spent a year drifting-waiting tables, painting houses, donating plasma-and then did what any desperate lost soul with does: I went to law school. After 3 years of relative hell I hit a bottom in my life and got into therapy and into recovery from my primary shoplifting addiction. There were no books on this problem and I vowed to one day write one. After several years of practicing law, I went to grad school for my masters in social work. I had a rough manuscript for my book by 1997-the year I graduated and began full-time work as a therapist. I shopped it around and got nibbles and one publishing offer-but it wasn't meant to be. I didn't know about self-publishing and my book project languished for five years. Then, in 2003, I found Infinity and my niche: therapy for shoplifting addiction and recovery. I set up websites and began offering therapy by phone. By summer 2004, I was on Oprah and things really took off! I began writing articles, doing interviews, and attending and speaking at conferences. When you've written a book, you're automatically viewed as an expert-but you have to be ready to back it up! I got friends and clients to post Amazon reviews. And I continued to expand my niche. I vowed to publish a new book about every 3 years. In 2005, I published a book on the related topic of employee theft. Three years later, I got on the shopping addiction bandwagon and I'm preparing to publish a book later this year which includes material on the recently popular hoarding disorder. My four niche topics are all related to mental health, addiction and recovery, are lesser-written about and lesser treated, and all can relate to legal issues as well. I maintain a passion about my work and, besides making a decent living, I stay focused on my primary intent: to educate and help people. I am grateful my books do that and they also lead to counseling, speaking, and further writing opportunities. Visit my website at: www.theshulmancenter.com Today, I can proudly say that I am a therapist, attorney, consultant and author. Thanks Infinity!"
Sueann Kenney-Noziska - April 2011 Top Selling Author of: Techniques-Techniques-Techniques: Play-Based Activities for Children, Adolescents & Families
"I wish I was able to define book promotion for the Author's Advocate but, truth of the mat ter is - I don't promote the book. It is for professionals in the field of play therapy and book sales depend on the conferences I present at."
