The BookBuzzr Blog

Hangman Game

2011-02-07T15:06:00.000+05:30

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FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Official Theme Song

2010-07-06T17:30:00.000+05:30

Team BookBuzzr Attends Amway Presentation

2010-04-01T15:49:00.007+05:30

It was a bright sunny day and Bangalore had just got cooler with rainfall over the last 2 days. Compared to other days the climate was good enough that we did not need the airconditioner in the office. For us it was just another day of regular work trying to meet deadlines for the massive new release that's coming up in May.

The timeline below describes how the day unfolded for all of us at the office ...

11:30 AM
Srini (Our Office Manager): Vikram (our Chief Book Marketing Technologist) has informed that a guy will be coming from Amway today to address you boys by 12 Noon. If you people have any questions regarding the company or it's products, you can clarify with him.

12:30 PM
The Amway guy has still not reached our office. After sometime, the Amway guy calls and asks Srini for directions.
It’s almost 12:30 PM now and Srini sir is guiding the person to reach our office.

1:40 PM
We are feeling hungry and are about to leave for lunch.
Srini: The Amway guy will reach here in five minutes and will address you people for in 10 to 15 minutes.
Rishabh (one of my colleagues): Then we will have our lunch and come back.
Srini: Wait, have lunch later. If you want take a chocolate. That guy will be here in five minutes.

Now I'm thinking “Oh god, why should we be hungry till he finishes his presentation. Who can grasp the content of what he says when stomach is empty?”

Its 1:45 PM now and we finally convinced Srini that we'd have lunch and come back. The Amway guy still seemed to be lost. We left for lunch.

2:00 PM
The Amway guy enters the office, "I am Mr. Jayant Kulkarni, I am sorry, I am late."
Srini: Boys have gone for lunch. You may need to wait till they return back.
Mr.Kulkarni: Ok.
Srini Sir: How did you reach here?
Mr.Kulkarni: I have got a bike.
Srini Sir: Where have you parked your bike?
Mr.Kulkarni: Nearby. Behind the office.
Srini Sir: Have you finished your lunch?
Mr.Kulkarni: Yes.
Srini Sir: Please tell me about your company.
Mr. Kulkarni went on to give a description of Amway and multi-level marketing and the opportunity to create residual income.
Srini Sir: Are you working part time or full time?
Mr.Kulkarni: Part time actully. I am making around Rs. 25 to 30K per month.
Srini Sir: Please wait. Boys will be coming soon.

2:15 PM
We all returned back to the office after a hearty lunch and were ushered into the conference room for a presentation by the Amway guy.

I saw a guy sitting in our conference room. He was reading the newspaper.
I came near my system, kept my mobile there and headed towards conference room.
We all settled there. The guy was looking old, wearing glasses, with a big belly and a very funny moustache. The guy stood in front of us with head bent towards left and continuously blinking his eyes.

Srini: He is Mr. Jayant Kulkarni, working for Amway and heading Karnataka division. He will be introducing about his company.
Mr. Kulkarni: Hi Everybody. I am Mr. Jayant Kulkarni.
Do you know anything about Network Marketing or Multi Level Marketing.
All were looking at each others' faces.
Mr. Kulkarni went on to ask a number of other questions to which everybody answered. Mr. Kulkarni then asked "Do you know what is the day today?"
Ranga: 1st April sir.
Mr. Kulkarni: Hi Guys, I am Vikram. Happy fools day...(in original voice)

Bang… Hay it’s our boss. It’s Vikram in this posture with a fake moustache, fake glasses, cotton in his mouth and a complete disguise!
Only a few were able to recognize him but most were stunned to look at him in this way.
Nobody was ready to believe for a second that it was Vikram.

All we could say was "Ohh my god!” '
The seriousness of the conference room changed into laughter. All were stunned and not ready to accept ourselves as big fools. All were praising Vikram for his awesome acting.

Vikram left the office to fool someone else, but our conversation went on long thereafter discussing the same from each individual’s point of view and how each person felt...

That’s the end of this story…
But I'll end this post with another story concerning the history of April Fool's Day for you ...
April 1st is called Fool's Day after Steve April. Steve April was born on 1st April 1579. He did 105 businesses in his lifetime. He lost all his father's assets and everyone started calling him as the father of Fools. At the age of 19, he married a 61 year old woman. She divorced him after a year because of his foolishness. He used to hear all kinds of fake stories like you. It's a great idea to fool you for fools day. Happy April Fools Day!

Many Thanks
Pavan S Shetiya
Team BookBuzzr/fReado

Blogger Sidebar Problem Now Fixed

2010-02-08T18:44:00.000+05:30

A few authors wrote in to let us know that posting the widget to the sidebar on Blogger was not working properly. This problem is now fixed. Authors, please try and let us know.

Thanks
Team BookBuzzr

BookBuzzr interviews Michele Brenton – Author of Alternative Poetry…

2009-11-02T18:13:00.004+05:30

A few months ago, we had the swine flu scare in India. Everywhere I went, I saw people wearing masks. And everybody kept cleansing their hands with hand-sanitizer. You could practically cut the fear in the air with a knife. At this point, I stumbled upon a BookBuzzr book with the words "Alternative Poetry - Lite" in the title. Intrigued, I flipped through a few pages. And before I knew it I was smiling ... and then laughing! Then I came across this little verse which was so relevant to the "lets-keep-everything-clean" mania that had enveloped me and all other people in my immediate surroundings:

Where There's Dirt There's Life
Nothing good comes from sterile and pure.
The best things in life spring up from manure.

I was able to draw my own conclusions from this poem and more importantly it lightened my heart and made me understand that the fear that people were feeling at that point in time did not mean anything. So when I recently got the opportunity to interview the author - Michele Brenton - I jumped at it:)

So here goes:

Hi Michele ... Can you tell our author community of readers, a little about yourself?
Hi Vikram... I'll try.
I read fluently when I was two years old and became known to friends and neighbours as 'The Professor' and as 'Bossy Boots' to my immediate family! I was extremely pompous and enjoyed telling everyone how to behave and lost my temper if I wasn't taken very seriously indeed!
'The Professor' would be quite disgusted at the fact that I am now known as banana_the_poet – but I'm quite happy about it. :)
As I grew up I found I was much happier standing on the sidelines, observing and writing rather than trying to control everything and everyone around me. I suppose the simple fact nobody ever did what I told them might have had something to do with that change of tactic LOL

And can you tell us about your book (in verse form if at all possible :))
Alternative Poetry Books - Yellow edition
It's yellow and red and will sit on your shelf
waiting for its friends;
There will be another six
before this series ends.

It isn't exclusively funny and it isn't entirely sad
like life my poetry series
will lead you through
times good and bad.

Each Alternative Poetry Book
will be of a different hue,
To send a rainbow message
of hope from me to you.

I don't expect to change the world
or even cause a riot,
But I'll know I got my message through
If you care enough to buy it.

On opening your book, I see the Tai Chi circle in a few places. What does this mean?

I love that symbol so much! It combines opposite/reflecting images to create an eternal harmonious circular completeness. Life is made up of good and bad, happy and unhappy, dark and light, night and day etc
Balance can only be found by using both sides of every equation.
I hope my poetry books embody balance by alternating fun, light, amusing and silly poems with serious, dark, earnest and thoughtful ones.

Any tips for someone looking to write funny poems?
Always put as much thought and care into writing funny poems as you would into a serious one. Just because a poem is intended to be amusing doesn't mean it needn't be a 'good' one. While I play with meter, cliches and rhymes etc I always do it purposefully. I believe that every facet of a poem should always have been chosen for a reason and if asked I should be able to justify each and every choice.

I noticed that you've got over 10,000 widget views and nearly 700 full screen views on BookBuzzr. Any tips for author looking to market their book on the Internet??
The BookBuzzr widget is a fantastic little gizmo and I love it! It has a few places where it could be improved – but nothing is perfect straight away and I am confident it will eventually be pretty close to perfect due to the marvelously responsive attitude you guys have to feedback.
I put my widget on my blogs for my visitors to preview the little sample e-book I put together as a precursor for my full 84 page paperback.
I also use my Twitter presence to point people at my BookBuzzr pages and have told people about it (with the link of course) on the various forums I frequent. I recently posted to a poetry genre forum on Amazon and included a link to BookBuzzr on that – I would have been mad not to as unfortunately the 'look inside' option on my Amazon listings proved to be rather disappointing.
I've been impressed by the recent addition on the BookBuzzr format of a page at the end of the widget that highlights other BookBuzzr books for readers. That's a great idea and means that for each BookBuzzr author that gets reads a group of other authors have a chance to be spotted as well. A win win situation for readers and writers.
This is the first book I've ever tried to market and so I am very new to how this all works but I was very pleased to find Freado and BookBuzzr – it has streamlined things considerably – and most people seem to like playing with the flippy pages :)
I also started a Blog Tour to promote my book – this being one stop on the Tour for which I am very grateful. I had no idea what a Blog Tour was a month ago – but now here I am doing one – and I still don't have much of an idea, but it seems to be a GOOD THING TO DO – so I am doing it and so far it has been a lot of fun.
Time will tell if it was useful in the marketing scheme of things, but as long as we're all having fun and it isn't costing anyone anything but time – it is worth a try.

Do you market your book on Facebook? Why or Why not?
I haven't ever been able to get into the Facebook vibe. Not sure why. Maybe because it feels very complicated to me and I like simple things best. Twitter is very simple so I quickly got hooked. BookBuzzr is quite simple to use and so I found it accessible to use, similarly the Blog.co.uk blogging community I use is simple and easy to make sense of – and that is why you'll find me there.
But Facebook – I joined but I haven't been back more than twice. I have asked friends and family who are Facebook members to mention me on there – but I don't know if they have, or if anyone has taken any notice if they have.
I have a nagging feeling I ought to do more on Facebook – but I spend so much time already on Twitter, my blogs, the forums I participate in and I am busy with putting together the next books in the Alternative Poetry Books series AND I have to fit real life in somewhere too – so Facebook is lost in the 'might have been' box at the back of my brain.

You are also offering 50 embossed signed certified limited editions of your book. I think it's an absolutely fantastic idea because it's like buying a souvenir. In fact, I feel like ordering one for myself! How should people go about getting a copy?
Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly
http://TheAlternativePoetry.blog.co.uk/2009/10/16/alternative-poetry-books-yellow-edition-here-it-is-7181615/
This is the direct link to the 'buy it here' page on the blog I set up specifically for the Alternative Poetry Books series, where the special signed copies can be purchased.
This link can also be found on the 'BUY' button on the BookBuzzr widget - which lists ALL the various purchasing options/links including for standard copies via the usual online stores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble and will soon carry details of local bookshops which will stock or order the books for you. I update the 'BUY' information regularly as the situation develops and once all 50 embossed signed copies are gone I will remove the link from the widget.

And finally, can you make up a verse / poem / limerick about BookBuzzr?
Behold the BookBuzzr widget!
It is so small and neat;
if you were out of your mind
and the oddball kind,
you could work it with your feet.

You'd have to take your socks off
in the privacy of your house,
and soon you'd be flipping pages
as your toes clicked away at your mouse.
But you might find one small problem
though the widget would work with ease,
If you use your feet to access it
your mouse might smell of cheese!

(Note: This interview with author Michele Brenton is part of her blog tour. She was previously featured on Dan Holloway's blog. Her next blog interview will be with Tom the Seasideman.)

Vikram of BookBuzzr Interviewed by Chad Lilly of Inner Circle Publishing

2009-10-28T12:29:00.000+05:30

A few days ago, I was interviewed by Chad Lilly of Inner Circle Publishing. It was a fun, conversation that covered plenty of important topics related to online book-marketing technologies, internet marketing for books, book-promotion through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and much more. You can listen to the interview here or below.

Incidentally, Chad Lilly has had a phenomenal amount of interest generated in his book - "uncommon sense" ever since he put up the book on BookBuzzr. Over 2,000 people have already viewed his book and he mentions that he has experienced record sales on Amazon. So that's additional validation for BookBuzzr. You can check out Chad's book below:

BookBuzzr Interviews Chad Lilly - Founder of Inner Circle Publishing

2009-10-26T12:26:00.001+05:30

Your book - uncommon sense - has a unique style and touches the reader in a very different way. Can you tell us a little about the book?
"uncommon sense" was my second book and contains poetry focused on the development of our intuitive process. It seems as if universal wisdom has always been written in this sacred language of metaphor: Poetry. Thus the reason why all 'sacred' books were penned by Poets (and later called Prophets). Touching on topics like: Inner Learning, The Power of Day Dreams, Manifestation, and Awareness ... 'uncommon sense' was written for those with eyes to see and ears to hear the Mystery of life, through this charade of living."

What inspired you to write this book? Can you share the story behind your book?

"I believe the more we listen to that still, small voice within ... the more it will tell us. My desire to share this process with others via the words / ideas presented in 'uncommon sense' is what inspired me to write it. I think the more people directly connected to source and receiving their inner visions INSIDE ... the clearer our outer world vision will become, and the faster our dreams will manifest into the lives we live. Poetry opens our soul to hear and feel the intangible aspects of life, and I wrote 'uncommon sense' to help others hear and feel for themselves."

Chad, Your books have received a great amount of interest on BookBuzzr and Twitter. What are the reasons for this interest?
"It feels as if we're moving into a time when spirituality and awareness are becoming more common place, than taboo. We're all searching for meaning and reason, and currently, I believe we're starting to see more value in these intangible realities. In other words, perhaps people finally OWN enough to 'stuff' to know there's much more to life than just owning 'stuff'. This shift in our collective 'line of sight' may be one reason why many are now seeking insight and understanding with that same degree of passion they once sought 'stuff'. What we offer in our books (over 70 of them) ... is awareness. And it seems the interest we are receiving now (after 10 years) is party due to a conscious awakening that's rapidly spreading around the world via the most powerful of all magic: Words."

Do you have any tips for authors to get the kind of views (over 2,000 full screen views on BookBuzzr) and interest that your books have generated?
"More coffee ... less sleep. ;-) Those seeking to gain exposure for their work need to understand how to induce cooperation. It's just that simple. The problem is ... we've been too busy competing with one another to [co]operate effectively. Especially authors and artists. If you are the only one promoting your work, then you will only procure the number of views YOUR immediate network can reach. However, if 10 people are promoting the same work ... that work will receive 10X's the views with 1/10th the work. So, if you want 1 million people to see your book, which method would be more effective ... personally contacting 1 million people and telling them? Or having 1000's of people cooperating to share it with 1000's of others? (And using social media, such as Twitter ... we have this at our fingertips and can produce it TODAY, using only cooperation.)"

You also run two publishing companies - InnerCircle Publishing and Revolution Press. How are these publishing companies different from other publishers out there?
"My wife Sonja and I own and operate InnerCircle Publishing and Revolution Press. What makes us different from other publishers? ICP/Rev-Press Authors retain 100% of the net sales on every copy sold. Our Authors retain creative control over the final production of their book (Page and Cover Design), while providing world-wide distribution to every bookseller via Ingram. And while no other publisher has ever offered either of those ... what really makes ICP/Rev-Press unique is how it has been designed to market and promote the books we publish ... you see, ICP was designed to function along the same lines as Nature, via symbiotic relationships and cooperation, where the actions of one organism contribute to the benefit of the whole, and vise versa. So EVERY title published by ICP/Rev-Press receives the exponential exposure provided by each and every author actively promoting their work daily. And working together, we can produce more than any one working alone."

You also have a very strong presence on Twitter with over 10,000 followers. Do you have any tips for authors looking to use Twitter as a platform to market
their books?
"Again, learn to induce cooperation. Twitter is a great example of the real-time power of cooperation. For instance, let's say you have 1000 followers on Twitter, and I'm one of them. And you post this message in the stream to @icpchad (or DM): 'The world awaits the next level, and this is another step [YOUR BOOK LINK].' You will have just posted a promo link for your work to potentially 1000 people. And if I ReTweet it again to my 10,268 ... now we've put your work out to a combined total of over 11,268 (with only two clicks) ... what if 100 people RT this? <---- Cooperation produces exposure, and the greater level of cooperation you can produce, the greater exposure your work will receive."

Are there any other avenues that authors should keep in mind when marketing their books online (Amazon, Facebook etc.)? Do you have any other marketing tips for authors?

Put your book in front of as many people as possible ... using every possible avenue ... everyday. Social media sites offer a tremendous marketing value for those seeking to connect and promote ideas, products, or services to the masses ... provided they are used as tools to induce cooperation and they are procuring actual views to your book. To date, I have found nothing that procures more actual book views than BookBuzzr. Just getting people to go to a link and to view the description and book cover does not always result in sales, while getting people to actually READ the material the book offers has proven to be much more effective. For instance, in just over a month of using BookBuzzr, my books, 'A Day in the Mind' and 'uncommon sense' both climbed to record sales rankings on Amazon. It seems the more people who read them, the more they sell ... once people know about the books and their content. BookBuzzr is the best way to get people to actually read books online. So use ALL of your social media sites and networks as a way of placing your BookBuzzr widgets in front of more people ... while encouraging others to SHARE it. Thank you BookBuzzr for making this possible."

BookBuzzr - The One Free Tool That Every Author Needs for Book Marketing

2009-10-20T11:00:00.000+05:30

You upload your book-extract to fReado and it becomes available through BookBuzzr

Readers discover your book extract on your site, on blogs and on fReado.com

Readers sharethe book with others on blogs, social networks and forums

As an author trying to market your book online, you may find that many of the simple steps involved in Internet marketing are actually quite daunting. Consider the simplest and most important pre-requisite of offering an extract of your book online in a nice to read format that can be easily shared among your readers. 99% of author websites are unable to allow sampling of books on their websites. They simply stick in an image of their book and hope that this is enough to stimulate the desire to read the book among site visitors. You know you can do better than that!
BookBuzzr is built from the ground-up for word-of-mouth (or shall we say, click-of-mouse) book-marketing. By signing up for BookBuzzr you can allow readers to browse through portions of your book in a nice to read online, flip-book format where the experience is similar to reading a real book. Additionally, they can get a single place listing of all things related to your book such as links to where they can buy your book, where they can discover interviews with you, where they can listen to podcasts related to your book and more.
Need another reason to sign-up for BookBuzzr? Let's talk about "share-ability" or "distribute-ability." Let's say you saw a book-extract of a book that you loved and you want to share this with readers of your blog. The best most people can do is to put up a link to the book-extract. But is this enough? The era of people going to a few "destination" websites to get their content is over. Today you are as likely to see an interesting video embedded on a blog that you discovered as you are of seeing that video on YouTube. So we've taken care of this for you. Fans of your book can easily embed your book on their personal blogs and become ambassadors for your book.
BookBuzzr is intended to take care of most of the details related to online book-marketing and book promotion on an ongoing basis. At the very least, BookBuzzr helps you to:

Reach your target audience by allowing them to discover your book in various places such as blogs, websites, social networking sites and more.

Tell them that your book is available by providing links to places where they can buy your book.

Persuade them to read it by allowing them to easily sample your book with jaw-dropping book simulation technology.

As a bonus, when you sign-up, you also get listed on fReado.com where readers can interact with you and with other readers. Further, you can link from fReado to your own author-site or blog thus helping your search engine rankings. Because fReado.com is optimized for search engines and because fReado.com is regularly crawled all over by the major search engines, the information about your book will soon be noticed and your pages should be listed in response to web searches. We also have plans to connect fReado with Facebook Connect. This enables your readers to:

Seamlessly "connect" their Facebook account and information with your book

Connect and find their friends who are on fReado

Share comments made on your book with their friends on Facebook

Sign-up now for free and join other elite authors who understand the art of online book promotion!

Given the growth of Twitter and it's importance in helping authors build their platform and sell more books, a number of Twitter features have been added to BookBuzzr to help authors market their book on Twitter with a large degree of automation. The goals behind these features are:

To help the author gain more followers on Twitter

To make the book more visible among the authors' Twitter followers

To help readers of the book share the book among their Twitter followers.

These Twitter features for marketing books online include:

Authors can schedule tweets about their book in their Twitter accounts daily or weekly.

Every time a reader opens an author's book-excerpt, a tweet goes out to the authors Twitter followers mentioning that the book was opened.

Readers will find a link to follow the author on Twitter when they are reading the author's book-excerpt and when they finish reading the book-excerpt.

Readers can tweet about the book with just a few clicks.

Why your book cover image is as dead as a fish out of water when it comes to marketing your book online

2009-10-19T16:56:00.004+05:30

As an author, you know that a lot of effort goes into your book's cover - its title, the imagery and so on. Of course, the cover's aim is to get a reader to open the book and sample your writing - and then hopefully, buy the book. In terms of marketing a book, giving a reader the opportunity of glancing at the cover and flipping through the book's pages is the bare minimum required.

There's nothing wrong with this approach except that it works only in physical bookshops - the book will ultimately sit on a bookshelf somewhere, where a reader can easily browse through the book. But as you know, the world has changed a lot and people don't buy books only in bookshops. Books are also marketed online through blogs, social networking sites and of course, your own website.

Nonetheless, authors continue to use the book's cover image - basically just a static picture of the book cover - in their online marketing efforts. This image just sits there, and potential customers cannot do what they would in a physical bookshop - open the book and start flipping through the pages right there and then.

In short, you continue to use a method that is meant for the physical world, in the online world. The fish - your book - that swims in water (the bookshop), is dead out of it (the online world).

It's a huge marketing opportunity wasted.

Your book-cover image

Your BookBuzzr Active Book Cover

This is where BookBuzzr comes in. It's a neat, nifty 'widget' (basically, a software tool) that enables readers to easily do online what they would do in a bookshop - 'open' a book and start reading immediately. Readers do not have to hunt for your book's excerpt on your site. Bookbuzzr also displays the pages as they would in your physical book - with the same layouts, fonts and so on. Best of all, the pages really flip so the reader gets an authentic reading experience. Of course, you decide how many pages of the book you want to show. Here's what the widget looks like.

What can you do with BookBuzzr?

1. Replace your book's cover image with the BookBuzzr widget.

For starters, you can - and must - replace your book's cover image with the widget wherever your book appears. This would include:

» Your website
» Your blog
» Share your widget with family, friends and colleagues on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn

2. Email signature

BookBuzzr also comes in the form of an email signature, which also looks like a flappable book.

3. Twitter integration

Moreover, given the growth of Twitter and its importance in helping authors build their platform and sell more books, a number of Twitter features have been added to BookBuzzr to help authors market their book on Twitter with a large degree of automation. The goals behind these features are:

» To help the author gain more followers on Twitter
» To make the book more visible among the authors' Twitter followers
» To help readers of the book share the book among their Twitter followers.

These Twitter features for marketing books online include:

» Authors can schedule tweets about their book in their Twitter accounts daily or weekly.
» Every time a reader opens an author's book-excerpt, a tweet goes out to the authors Twitter followers mentioning that the book was opened.
» Readers will find a link to follow the author on Twitter when they are reading the author's book-excerpt and when they finish reading the book-excerpt.
» Readers can tweet about the book with just a few clicks.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you know, it's very important for users to be able to find your book through search engines such as Google. When you sign-up, you also get listed on our sister site, fReado.com, where readers can interact with you and with other readers. Further, you can link from fReado to your own author-site or blog thus helping your search engine rankings. Because fReado.com is optimized for search engines and because fReado.com is regularly crawled all over by the major search engines, the information about your book will soon be noticed and your pages should be listed in response to web searches.

BookBuzzr Interviews Dr Mani, Author of "Think, Write & RETIRE! "

2009-10-19T14:06:00.000+05:30

Dr. Mani please share a little about yourself.

Thanks for having me on this interview, Freya. I'm a paediatric heart surgeon, and treat children born with congenital heart defects.
Since the vast majority of my patients come from families of low economic means and are unable to afford the expensive treatment, I came up with

the idea of running an online enterprise which funds these surgeries.
As a result, I now have an information business online as well as a non-profit Foundation. From a combination of business profits and
charitable donations, we have funded 52 operations until today, with many more to follow.

What inspired you to start the Children's Heart Foundation? Can you share a little about it?

Around April 1998, I first came up with the idea of using profits from my fledgling online infopreneur business to sponsor heart surgery for one child

who could not afford it. It was a vague hope, I had no idea if it would work - but to my surprise and encouragement, that happened within 2 years,

and then grew to helping three more kids.
This sparked off the bigger idea of funding many more surgeries, and that's when the formal structure for a non-profit foundation was put in place.

The Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation was registered in October 2003, that's almost 6 years ago. And over this period, it has grown steadily to

where we are today, with over 1,000 donors, having raised funds to sponsor more than fifty operations.
That's how a dream, backed by purpose and nurtured with persistence, can grow.

Your mission is to make high quality heart health

care accessible and affordable to every Indian child. How are you doing this?

There are many dimensions to this effort. First comes building awareness of the problem. Many people know that adults get heart disease, but few

are aware that children can be born with heart conditions that are just as serious and life-threatening.
Seven of every 1,000 children born alive in the world have some form of congenital heart defect (CHD), and more than one-half of them
require treatment. Many are fatal without timely correction. And almost always, the cost of this is high.
In India, there are only very rough estimates. In my home state, the figure is over 47,000 children are affected by CHD - and many more are born

every day.
So, after building awareness, the next step is to deliver thetreatment necessary to help this large group of children.
The effort involves a combination of private enterprise and Government backed action, both of which are progressing at a healthy pace. Our State

Government has recently put into place so me initiatives that have gone a long way in helping over 1,000 children with CHD in the last year alone.
Finally, the toughest problem of all is preventing CHD (or detecting it early enough to minimize the consequences of it), and that is in the realm of

research - an area where I hope to have some impact, but only later after my primary goal of helping as many children live has been achieved.

You are an author of four books. Which of them is closest to your heart and why?

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I have actually authored over 70 books in digital format, though I've only

recently build up the nerve to publish them in physical form. My first print book, "Think, Write & Retire", was well-received and reached #83 on

Amazon.com in the Business & Investing section. All profits from that launch are being used to sponsor heart surgery.
But if you ask for the one closest to my heart, it has to be the one due for publication next. Its title is "47 HEARTS - How To Live Your
Dreams And Reach Your Goals With Passion, Purpose & Persistence". It will be out soon, and you can keep up with it at http://47hearts.com

You have been active online for many years now. What are the different marketing activities you have done for your various books

and foundation?

It would be easier to list the ones I have NOT done! :-)
Name it, I've probably tried it. Email, blogs, direct mail, tele-marketing, SMS marketing, newspaper ads, articles, integration marketing, joint entures,

affiliates, online video - I've tried it all.
The ones I use most often and effectively are email marketing to my own in-house list, social networking on platforms like Twitter, blogging, and a

limited amount of search engine optimization efforts. I've found that being very good at a few channels of marketing works better than being average

at many more.

What has made a big difference? Do you have any recommendations for other authors?

For authors, my best advice would be to focus on building your platform BEFORE even writing your book. Your digital platform is a way to reach your

core audience - book buyers.
Have a blog, and post regularly to it. You could share excerpts from your book, or discuss how you wrote it, or detail the lives of your characters or,

more effective than others, use it as a way to spread your ideas even further... by discussing the THEME of your book.
That way you attract the kind of reader who identifies with you, is interested in what you stand for, and will likely buy your book when it is out.

Targeting the right audience is what matters, not size of audience alone.
Use social networking to reach more people and invite them to your blog. I would focus on two or three social networks and go 'deep'. My favorites

are Twitter, Facebook and forums. Yours may be different.
Finally, get 'launch partners' involved. Anyone with an audience that may be interested in your book is a good fit. Let them preview your book, so

they can write about it to their followers. Allow them to give away a few copies in a contest. Offer to 'guest blog' for them. Try to get in front of

their audience - but in a way that also gives THEM value.
All of these worked for me. But then, my experience with book launches is pretty narrow, so take this advice for what it's worth! :)

Do you have a message for authors and readers out there?

Dare to dream.And dream big.Then, do not give up on your dream - no matter what happens.Dreamers see the world, not as it is, but as it should

be. Remember, nothing worthwhile happens in a short time. Or easily. Or effortlessly.
Be prepared to put in the effort that your dream demands. Be prepared to wait for as long as it takes to make it come true. Be happy at all that

happens along the way as you move towards your goals.
And trust that it is worthwhile - because when dreams come true, even in a small way, it is magic! And it will completely transform your life!

An Interview with Author, Marketer and Surgeon: Dr. Mani

2009-10-19T09:30:00.000+05:30

I am glad to have Mani Sivasubramanian or Dr. Mani (as he likes to be called) with us today. Dr. Mani is an author, an internet marketer and a pediatric heart surgeon. He lives in Chennai, India where he runs the Children's Heart Foundation.

1. Dr. Mani please share a little about yourself.

Thanks for having me on this interview, Freya. I'm a paediatric heart surgeon, and treat children born with congenital heart defects.

Since the vast majority of my patients come from families of low economic means and are unable to afford the expensive treatment, I came up with the idea of running an online enterprise which funds these surgeries.

As a result, I now have an information business online as well as a non-profit Foundation. From a combination of business profits and charitable donations, we have funded 52 operations until today, with many more to follow.

2. What inspired you to start the Children's Heart Foundation? Can you share a little about it?

Around April 1998, I first came up with the idea of using profits from my fledgling online infopreneur business to sponsor heart surgery for one child who could not afford it. It was a vague hope, I had no idea if it would work - but to my surprise and encouragement, that happened within 2 years, and then grew to helping three more kids.

This sparked off the bigger idea of funding many more surgeries, and that's when the formal structure for a non-profit foundation was put in place. The Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation was registered in October 2003, that's almost 6 years ago. And over this period, it has grown steadily to where we are today, with over 1,000 donors, having raised funds to sponsor more than fifty operations.

That's how a dream, backed by purpose and nurtured with persistence, can grow.

3. Your mission is to make high quality heart health care accessible and affordable to every Indian child. How are you doing this?

There are many dimensions to this effort. First comes building awareness of the problem. Many people know that adults get heart disease, but few are aware that children can be born with heart conditions that are just as serious and life-threatening.

Seven of every 1,000 children born alive in the world have some form of congenital heart defect (CHD), and more than one-half of them require treatment. Many are fatal without timely correction. And almost always, the cost of this is high.

In India, there are only very rough estimates. In my home state, the figure is over 47,000 children are affected by CHD - and many more are born every day.

So, after building awareness, the next step is to deliver the treatment necessary to help this large group of children.

The effort involves a combination of private enterprise and Government backed action, both of which are progressing at a healthy pace. Our State Government has recently put into place some initiatives that have gone a long way in helping over 1,000 children with CHD in the last year alone.

Finally, the toughest problem of all is preventing CHD (or detecting it early enough to minimize the consequences of it), and that is in the realm of research - an area where I hope to have some impact, but only later after my primary goal of helping as many children live has been achieved.

4. You are an author of four books. Which of them is closest to your heart and why?

I have actually authored over 70 books in digital format, though I've only recently build up the nerve to publish them in physical form.

My first print book, "Think, Write & Retire", was well-received and reached #83 on Amazon.com in the Business & Investing section. All profits from that launch are being used to sponsor heart surgery.

But if you ask for the one closest to my heart, it has to be the one due for publication next. Its title is "47 HEARTS - How To Live Your Dreams And Reach Your Goals With Passion, Purpose & Persistence". It will be out soon, and you can keep up with it at http://47hearts.com

5. You have been active online for many years now. What are the different marketing activities you have done for your various books and foundation?

It would be easier to list the ones I have NOT done! :-)

Name it, I've probably tried it. Email, blogs, direct mail, tele-marketing, SMS marketing, newspaper ads, articles, integration marketing, joint ventures, affiliates, online video - I've tried it all.

The ones I use most often and effectively are email marketing to my own in-house list, social networking on platforms like Twitter, blogging, and a limited amount of search engine optimization efforts.

I've found that being very good at a few channels of marketing works better than being average at many more.

6. What has made a big difference? Do you have any recommendations for other authors?

For authors, my best advice would be to focus on building your platform BEFORE even writing your book. Your digital platform is a way to reach your core audience - book buyers.

Have a blog, and post regularly to it. You could share excerpts from your book, or discuss how you wrote it, or detail the lives of your characters or, more effective than others, use it as a way to spread your ideas even further... by discussing the THEME of your book.

That way you attract the kind of reader who identifies with you, is interested in what you stand for, and will likely buy your book when it is out. Targeting the right audience is what matters, not size of audience alone.

Use social networking to reach more people and invite them to your blog. I would focus on two or three social networks and go 'deep'.

My favorites are Twitter, Facebook and forums. Yours may be different.

Finally, get 'launch partners' involved. Anyone with an audience that may be interested in your book is a good fit. Let them preview your book, so they can write about it to their followers. Allow them to give away a few copies in a contest. Offer to 'guest blog' for them. Try to get in front of their audience - but in a way that also gives THEM value.

All of these worked for me. But then, my experience with book launches is pretty narrow, so take this advice for what it's worth! :)

7. Do you have a message for authors and readers out there?

Dare to dream.

And dream big.

Then, do not give up on your dream - no matter what happens.

Dreamers see the world, not as it is, but as it should be.

Remember, nothing worthwhile happens in a short time. Or easily. Or effortlessly.

Be prepared to put in the effort that your dream demands. Be prepared to wait for as long as it takes to make it come true. Be happy at all that happens along the way as you move towards your goals.

And trust that it is worthwhile - because when dreams come true, even in a small way, it is magic! And it will completely transform your life!

All success

Dr.Mani

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions Dr. Mani. Best of luck in all your endeavors. To know more about Dr. Mani and the Children's Heart Foundation visit his website.

Links to resources mentioned in the interview:

About the CHD foundation

Little smiling hearts we've helped

About Dr.Mani

Think, Write & Retire

Dr.Mani's blog

BookBuzzr Interviews Nick Daws, Author of 'The Festival On Lyris Five'

2009-10-09T14:01:00.000+05:30

Please let us a little bit about yourself and your work?

I am a self-employed freelance writer, and have been for almost twenty years now. I have both online and off-line clients, including some I have worked with for ten years or more. I write mainly non-fiction, including articles, training materials, distance-learning courses, advertisements and other sales copy, website content, newsletters, quiz books and other novelty products, and so forth. And, as you say, I've written over 80 published non-fiction books, from Living & Working In Germany to Advertising for the Small Business. I also write fiction, and hope one day to have a bit more time for that.

On the Internet, I am probably best known for the range of freelance writing courses I have written for the electronic publishing house, The WCCL Network. These include Write Any Book in Under 28 Days, Quick Cash Writing, Essential English for Authors and my latest, The Wealthy Writer, a guide to making making money on the Internet for writers, co-written with Ruth Barringham.

You have written over 80 books, which of those is closest to your heart. Why?

That's a hard question to answer. But maybe if I had to pick I'd choose a book I wrote about 15 years ago called The Internet for Writers. I'm proud to say that this was the first ever book about the Internet published specifically for writers. Of course, it's out of print now, but it was beautifully produced and illustrated with cartoons, screengrabs, and so on. It's only a shame that it went out of date so quickly. That's the trouble with printed books about the Internet!

What are the different marketing activities you do? What modes of marketing have been most successful?

I don't actually market my writing services very much these days, because I don't need to. As I mentioned, I have a group of regular clients for whom I work most months, and other semi-regular clients I might work for a few times a year. Then there are other clients who come to me via my blog or homepage, or (very often) by personal recommendation.

I do, of course, use marketing to raise awareness of my books and courses, and help promote sales. Nowadays I make a lot of use of social media, including blogging, forum posting, Facebook, Twitter (follow me at http://twitter.com/nickdaws), and several others. Probably the most effective for me has been blogging, however. I've been running my blog at www.mywritingblog.com for nearly four years now, and it's really - along with Twitter - the hub of my social media activities.

Please tell us a little more about your newsletter and forum.

My e-mail newsletter is called E-Writer. Anyone is welcome to subscribe via my homepage at www.nickdaws.co.uk. I've been running E-Writer for a long time now - longer than my blog or forum, for example. I used to send it out every week or two, but nowadays I've reduced the frequency to monthly. People nowadays have lots of other ways to connect with me if they want to!

I use E-Writer to update subscribers, some of whom are not heavy Internet users, on what has been going on at my blog and forum, and highlight any particularly interesting posts I think they might like to check out. I also reveal a bit about what I am working on at the moment, and try to offer a few useful hints and tips. I regard many of my E-Writer subscribers as old friends now, and I'm able to discuss things in the newsletter I might not always feel comfortable discussing in more public media. And finally, I sometimes mention opportunities that might be of interest to writers but again, for one reason or another, it's not appropriate to advertise too widely.

My forum at www.mywriterscircle.com is a free, open-access forum for writers and aspiring writers. It's actually owned by my publishers, The WCCL Network, but I handle the day-to-day running (aided by a wonderful team of moderators). MWC has built a reputation as the Internet's friendliest writers' forum, something I'm very proud of.

Recently you used BookBuzzr for marketing and publicizing your book ‘The Festival on Lyris Five’. What are your thoughts on the tool and how is it different from other marketing tools (how does it benefit you as an author)

The Festival on Lyris Five is a humorous science-fiction novella I wrote a while ago, when I had a bit more time for fiction writing. It was published by Salvatore Publishing, a small publishing house run by Guy Cousins, a member of my forum. They also organized the wonderful illustrations by Louise Tolentino.

I'd been aware of BookBuzzr for a while, and The Festival on Lyris Five seemed a great opportunity to try it out. I found it easy to set up, and was impressed by the wide range of features it offers. I like the way it allows potential buyers to read an extract from my book, then click through to the sales page. I've embedded the widget in my blog (twice!) and linked extensively to my page on the fReado website. I've also used some of the special marketing features, e.g. the facility to schedule regular 'tweets' about the book from my account.

As an author, BookBuzzr benefits me by providing (free of charge) a smart, professional-looking widget that lets readers preview my book and acts as a very effective marketing tool, with a range of cutting-edge, Web 2.0 features. I definitely intend to use BookBuzzr to help promote more of my books and courses in the future.

Nick, would you like to share about the range of services you offer?

I offer a full range of freelance writing and editing services - please visit my homepage at www.nickdaws.co.uk for more details. It's only fair to say that I have a very busy schedule, so these days I am quite selective about what work I take on. But if I'm not able to fit in a particular job myself, I have various professional contacts I can normally recommend.

Incidentally, I'd love to do more paid fiction writing, so if any publishers or producers out there need, say, a novelization of a TV show or a set of short stories on a particular topic, drop me a line via my blog or homepage and we can discuss terms!

Do you have a message for authors and readers out there?

Only to say that if your dream is to become a full-time writer, stick to your guns, and don't let the nay-sayers (of which there are plenty out there) drag you down. I don't pretend it's easy, especially in the beginning - but I firmly believe that if you persevere and work hard to achieve your writing goals, you WILL succeed in the end. I'd like to conclude with one of my favorite inspirational quotations: "Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by those who are doing it."

How to Build a Great Author Website

2009-09-22T13:19:00.000+05:30

Today, I came across an excellent blog entry written by Thad McIlroy.

Thad is a veteran in the publishing industry and lists 15 points that a good author website must have in order to engage the reader. While you can read through the points on the original blog entry, I wanted to give some additional (and complimentary thoughts) related to the entry.

1. Magic Content - Thad calls these backgrounders, audio-podcasts, videos from YouTube, discussion points. etc. It's vital to engage readers and offer them valuable insight, information, inspiration or entertainment without asking for anything in return. I've seen too many authors hold back on information in the hope that it's too valuable. A better strategy would be to give away as much content as possible for free so as to gain mind-share. Obscurity is the enemy of the fledgling author and free magic content is one weapon to overcome this enemy.

2. Share-ability - This is Thad's 15th point. Allowing your reader to share your work with their friends and contacts is crucial. Done right, this can help your book go viral. At the very least, portions of your website (articles, videos, blog entries, book-excerpts) should be share-able on all of the major social networking sites and book-marking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc.) And readers must be able to share information with just one click.

The BookBuzzr widget is like a portable author website. It contains plenty of magic content (the book-excerpt) and allows users to share information with just one click. Check out the sample widget below.

Nick Daws Writes About BookBuzzr!

2009-09-09T14:37:00.000+05:30

I woke up this morning to a blog entry by Nick Daws at his Writing Blog.
Nick, who is the author of the tongue-in-cheek science-fiction novella The Festival on Lyris Five writes, "I've been very pleased with the additional publicity (and sales) BookBuzzr has helped to generate for The Festival on Lyris Five. If you have a book or e-book yourself, I recommend visiting the Freado site and creating your own BookBuzzr widget today."

Thanks Nick! I felt like I'd woken up to the music of Mozart this morning!

Do check out Nick's BookBuzzr book-widget below. I personally enjoyed reading the first few pages (complete with illustrations!)

BookBuzzr Featured By Book Publishing News

2009-09-03T18:01:00.000+05:30

A few days ago, we were featured by Book Publishing News. Book Publishing News is a unit of Book Catcher - and features an excellent book marketing FAQ.

It's posts like these that grease our daily activities and motivate us to provide the most innovative book-marketing technologies for authors.

Thank you Brian Scott!

BookBuzzr Interviews Prolific Author Clint Adams

2009-09-02T15:43:00.000+05:30

Can you tell us about yourself?

First off, thanks so much for the interview, Vikram. I sincerely appreciate what you do. Summing up 51 years…OK, let me try. Done. Well, since genetics made becoming a male stripper an impossibility, I turned to writing instead.

Wholeheartedly I believe that we're all here for a reason. Mine (I feel): to help adults and teens who struggle. Whenever I write a novel or even blog, I always try to imagine how my words are relevant, or perhaps helpful to readers, folks of any age who wish to overcome. In addition, I'm both an Italian and American citizen, love tennis, can't get enough of 80's music, relish alone time (preferably in nature), was a professional actor in film and TV, have been a published author for the past 16 years and am currently living in London indefinitely.

Your novel 'The Seventh Ritual' is based on a real-life murder. Can you tell us about the story behind your book.

Straight to the point! I can tell you're not shy. Yes, a covered-up murder truly existed in my childhood, a murder I hadn't known about until 1991. That discovery changed my destiny forever; my life would never be the same. THE SEVENTH RITUAL, an occult crime novel for ADULTS, is based on the following premise:

<<"You must discover the cause of your unhappiness by the end of this year…or you will not live to see the next." Disgusted and disbelieving, 34-year old Paul Jacobson dismisses what he's told by a Greenwich Village psychic. Only days later though, while running in the New York City Marathon, Paul's mind positions him back…to a past he's never known. This journey begins the race for his life.>>

This premise (cover copy) really happened. Many pages of TSR are true, many are not. Fiction's better. Much time has passed since 1991. I'm not the same person I once was. Firmly believing that 'the truth will set you free,' I now feel liberated, mostly because, during those in-between years (1991-2009), I learned compassion, forgiveness and patient acceptance to the best of my ability.

Among all your books, which one is closest to your heart? What makes it special?

Good question. The correct, and most time-sensitive marketing response should be THE SEVENTH RITUAL, of course. Truthfully though, the closest is DON'T BE AFRAID OF HEAVEN, a middle-grade/teen novel. It was written as a tribute, a colossal 'thank you'…to my cat, Samantha.

DBAOH was the third in a series of four 'No Time for Fear' books I was writing. I was living at Lake Tahoe, Nevada at the time, and Samantha had been sick with an 'unknown' diagnosis for over a year. Before a HUGE winter storm was about to come in, she was pawing to get out the window, something she'd never wanted to do before. My instinct told me that she wanted to go out to die; Samantha was unafraid of going to heaven. I just knew it wasn't right for me (selfish) to want her to continue living while she, perhaps for many months already, wanted to go. During a break in the storm, my neighbor and I took Samantha to the vet so she could go to heaven. Since that time I've met many people who've told me stories about their own pets that had left to go away to die. Animals don't seem to be afraid of death. Why are we?

What are the different marketing activities you have done for your various books?

In 2001, I went back to school to earn a master's degree in marketing (for the express purpose of being better able to market my books). A true oddball alien at San Francisco's Golden Gate University; a teen-novelist among employees of HP, IBM, Apple, Sun MicroSystems, hoping to advance in their corporate careers.

You name it, I've done it. Launching JUST SAY MIKEY as an exhibitor at BookExpo America/L.A. and FEAR AIN'T ALL THAT and DON'T BE AFRAID OF HEAVEN at the Bok & Bibliotek in Göteborg, Sweden. Attending bookfairs in Frankfurt, London, Chicago, Pisa, Bologna and San Francisco for the primary purpose of selling foreign and domestic rights. Writer's conferences, print ads, online advertising, procuring book reviews, promotions, hosting my FEAR BYTES radio show in 2007, having my own website (being ultra-aware of SEO), e-mail campaigns, public speaking, lectures, writing related articles and many, many other techniques.

Don't forget, it's now 2009, and marketing methods have changed radically in the past few years. Very little of what I'd learned in my master's (marketing) program is relevant anymore. Social Media Marketing is taking over. Any writer would be a fool not to hop aboard this new wave; primarily because it's free AND (I feel) quite effective.

What modes of marketing have been most successful? Do you have any recommendations for other authors?

1) Creating a 'platform.' Turning fiction into a vehicle that HELPS readers directly…more than just entertaining them. Clint Adams is not a household name. And, as I had mentioned prior, my foremost goal, years ago, was to 'get the truth out.' I never wanted to become a writer, but while writing, I realized I wanted to help people through my books. As my fourth was about to come out (all having to do with 'living without fear'), I created NO TIME FOR FEAR workshops, a closely-related medium that would accompany my book pursuits.

2) School visits. My first NO TIME FOR FEAR workshop took place at the same time MY WATCH DOESN'T TELL TIME was released. This was in Copenhagen in 2006. Since then I've conducted several throughout Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Italy and the U.S.

3) Interviews. Yes, I'm talking directly to you, Vikram. I'm grateful. Interviews, especially online, never seem to die…they're around forever, appear on every search engine imaginable, and I don't have to pay for them. I have a lot of control as to what info. I wish to get across, and therefore, can't be misquoted.

I heartily recommend these three modes. But, by having learned by trial and error over the past 16 years, write this down, "DON'T EXPECT ANYONE TO EVER HELP YOU! INSTEAD, DO IT ALL YOURSELF!" By anyone, I'm mostly referring to literary agents, editors and publishers. Your dream is uniquely yours; no one else is ever going to care, be as passionate, as you.

As a BookBuzzr user what are your thoughts on the tool, and how is it different from other marketing tools (how does it benefit you as an author)?

Whenever I see those widgets, I feel like a kid. "Whoa…look at that!" Those flipping pages – how'd they do that? I'm sure I'm not alone here. One word: Interactive. BookBuzzr widgets do everything, and they can be posted nearly everywhere. Like I'd said about Social Media Marketing…they're also free. I learned about BookBuzzr/fReado just prior to THE SEVENTH RITUAL coming out, and I'm glad I did.

A standard icon/non-widget does little more than display an image. BookBuzzr widgets allow readers to view excerpts, sift through reviews and interviews, examine and rate, and finally, buy the book. I've made widgets for all five of my books. They benefit me mostly because the use of online book marketing tools, not to mention, online sales will continue to expand and grow.

You offer 'No Time for Fear' workshops to help teens. Do you have any learning or inputs you would like to share on them?

Right, I'd talked about my NTFF workshops a bit before. Turning fiction into a viable vehicle to get the message across, good. Unfortunately, since I no longer write teen fiction, I no longer conduct these workshops. I still want to continue this 'NO FEAR' theme/platform though. At this moment, I'm marketing THE SEVENTH RITUAL and what I'd like to do most is lecture to university students. If there's a connection to what I'd done prior, TSR is a great demonstration of the 'origins' of fear and how its impact exists even decades later. The purpose of the lecture: how to overcome this learned-fear.

There's no question that my life has benefited greatly from the workshops I'd done with teens. I loved every minute. Just like social media, they were interactive. But, it was the stories the KIDS shared that will be with me forever. Students that had never read a book before having read mine, students that told me they were going to take more risks, students that were no longer afraid, students who want to do better in school, students who don't need anyone else to tell them they're 'good' enough. I could go on and on. No publisher advance or royalty could ever come close to the many valuable experiences I've had with teens.

Do you have a message for authors and readers out there?

Yes, absolutely. I've made a ton of mistakes along the way (in life, in publishing), yet I regret none of them. Instead, I chose to learn from them. As an author, never ask ANYONE, "What do you think of my book? Is it good enough?" Of course it is, YOU wrote it. If you want to find out how to make your book better, learn more about the craft of writing and keep at it.

As a reader, my message would be, "Continue to discover new authors, authors whose names you hadn't known about before." There are some real gems out there. I admire authors who have developed their own distinctive brand. While at a book event somewhere a while back, an editor had mentioned, "Every story's been told by now. The only thing that makes a story different these days is the WAY it's told." I agree with this completely. What I like most about a book is the voice in which it's told. The more distinctive, the better. My message for readers, "Seek out new voices, and in the process, you'll probably find them refreshing and miss them when they're gone."

Noted Book-Reviewer Asks Authors to Send Books in BookBuzzr Format

2009-08-31T16:11:00.000+05:30

Today were super-delighted by the words of noted book reviewer (and author of 14 books) - Yvonne Perry. In her blog entry, she says, "I love their features so much, I’ve had all my books made into flip-books ... When you send me a book review to include in WITS monthly e-zine, I would appreciate it if you provide an image of your book or the code for your BookBuzzr flip page. I won’t be able to include it in the newsletter, but I will use it when posting on our e-zine blog. It would greatly enrich the visitor’s experience."

Below is a sample of one of Yvonne's 14 books. You can check out more books on her fReado profile.

New Media Kit Released

2009-08-26T19:24:00.000+05:30

Of late, we've been getting plenty of interest from some very respected bloggers. To provide these bloggers and other news people with ready information, we've released a new media kit. We'll be updating the media kit as new features are released and new developments happen at BookBuzzr. So visit back often!

Here's the link to the media kit (PDF version)

Dan Holloway Says, "Bookbuzzr is the Best Widget I've Ever Found on the Web"!

2009-08-24T16:00:00.000+05:30

Today we were absolutely thrilled by a comment made by noted novelist and champion of the Free e-Day movement - Dan Holloway in his blog.

In the entry Dan says, "not only do they care about writers - they listen to writers. They respond swiftly to feedback - they will even try to make changes. They actually want to give writers a tool that works for them. And they've succeeded. Bookbuzzr is the best widget I've ever found on the web. And would go on my essential top 10 web toolkit for writers."

Thanks Dan! You've made our day. It's words of appreciation like these that make us jump out of bed and look forward to Monday mornings!

PS: Dan's entire book is available for a free preview in BookBuzzr format. Just click on the Read Now button below to view it!

PPS:
If you'd like to promote this book on your blog or website, you can click on share in the above widget. Or if you want the lightweight version, you can simply copy-paste the animated gif below:

BookBuzzr Now Used By Italian Author!

2009-08-06T13:24:00.000+05:30

This morning Pavan saw a post by an Italian author and were thrilled. This authors book-widget is embedded below:

We used Google Translate to translate it into English. Here is the translated version ...

**************
Spread the word: BookBuzzr
We all know that, once published a book, not even a half of work, because the real difficulty comes with the promotion. Visibility, visibility, visibility is what you need, and publishers, especially small (but not only) anzichenò niche. So here's the medium-small author who became promoter of himself.

Therefore, as for many other things, fortunately there's the internet, with tons of virtual squares and marketing tools, more or less useful, more or less easy to use to spread the word about our book.

Lately I have taken this path. I opened a site entirely dedicated to the book, I made and published a book trailer, vo bizantinerie of studying the social networks and social bookmarking sites, and this morning I came across this: BookBuzzr.

BB is not a social network, and is presented specifically as a marketing tool. In essence, provides access to an excerpt of our book in a format agreeable to see, including information and links, and make it available through a number of channels, both through the features of the site and through the use of a code "embed "(to understand how the video on YouTube). What is potentially interesting and, I can testify in person, easy to implement.

When I opened my site, I would have liked in the beginning it was included in downloadable PDF format, but after a keen study of the wonders of Wordpress I had to withdraw due defeat. The beginning was there, on a page, copied and pasted ... duh!

Now I have my bank, complete with information, links, embed code and effect "turn the page", here:

Account as soon as possible to make accessible via the site also excerpts of my novels before.

Working? We shall see. For now I think a potential good idea, with a number of PRO is completely free and is simple to use, allows you to promote several books simultaneously, allowing easy access to major social networks (FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and so on. ..) and social bookmarking sites (Delicious, Google, Yahoo, Reddit and many others), has a feature that allows you to send a link to extract all your contacts via email GMail, Yahoo and Hotmail ...

... and a few caveats: it is calibrated on a decidedly Anglo-Saxon market, so I do not think we can rely too much on internal traffic information to the service, at least not until BB is not known to the Italian public, the interface is in English, for social networks, if you are not already included and you do not already have a good number of contacts, the usefulness is limited: first you need to build a spin, then advertise the book ...

However, if only for the possibility of spreading to the four winds the beginning of our widget, I think it is worth trying."

BookBuzzr Is Now More Readable on a Mac

2009-07-29T14:20:00.001+05:30

Books available in BookBuzzr format are now more user-friendly for Mac users. We've implemented neat vertical and horizontal scroll bars. Special thanks to Henry Baum for first telling us about this issue!

A Delightful Email from Author Lee Murphy

2009-06-22T11:18:00.001+05:30

Over the weekend, we received an email that had us all pumped up. The important part from the email is reproduced below:

"I think you have a terrific service and I know I have already sold one copy on Amazon as a direct result of it."

Lee Murphy, Author of YGOR

www.leemurphyauthor.com

We love this mail because it demonstrates that BookBuzzr has made a quantifiable difference in selling more books!

His book is embedded below:

Thanks for your support

Vikram Narayan
CEO
www.bookbuzzr.com
Free, Online Book-Marketing Technology for Authors

Alexa Rank 16566!

2009-06-19T19:12:00.000+05:30

Today is the first entry on this blog. I'm Pavan - one of the developers for fReado / BookBuzzr.
I'm pleased to report that our Alexa rank touched 16566 today. Of course, the Alexa rank goes up and down ... but it's always a pleasure to see a rising Alexa rank and growth in traffic. And the number of books being uploaded everyday is also growing. This also means that we're needing to work harder than ever to support our growing base of users and authors. But that's part of the fun isn't it?

Here's a little verse that I wrote describing our current state of mind :)
"Whenever someone shares BookBuzzr widget, we get motivated.
Whenever website gets lot of visitors, we get excited.
Though feedback email with problems makes us scared.
Whenever issue gets solved, our success stories get updated."

Thanks for your support!
Pavan Shetiya
Team BookBuzzr