Interview with Life Coach Sheri Kaye Hoff

Sheri Kaye Hoff is a Life Coach and owner of the Sheri K Hoff International Coaching Company. She also teaches college classes as an adjunct faculty member and has earned her Master of Arts in Organizational Management. Her new book, Keys to Living Joyfully, offers a way of living a meaningful, successful and joy filled life.

You can visit her website at www.lifeisjoyful.org.

Welcome to Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion, Sheri. Can we begin by having you tell us what Keys to Living Joyfully is about and why you wrote it?

Keys to Living Joyfully is about living a meaningful life with peace, passion, energy, and joy. The book focuses on the importance of one’s thought life, spirituality, and being motivated through inspiration. I wrote this book because I experienced the tragic death of my brother when he was 15 and I was 17. For many of my adult years, I was impacted by this devastating event. I truly felt that I did not deserve joy and that I would never find true joy again. I alternated between feeling numb and slightly depressed. For the most part, my outward demeanor was enthusiastic, and I am sure others would describe me as happy and successful. When I realized that I did have the capacity for joy and how to create it-I felt a deep desire to share this with others. I have spent years of my life studying leadership literature and I teach at a college-so I effectively combined my spiritual life with great personal leadership skills in my book.

Keys to Living Joyfully is a spiritual book. Why did you choose this genre to write? Did you choose it or did it choose you?

This genre chose me. I always thought that I would be the next Margaret Mitchell writing a great historical novel or I pictured myself writing leadership books (which are still plans that I have). However, my book seemed to write itself. Every time I sat down to write-the words just flowed into the computer-and I had very little rewriting or changing the organization of the book. I did not have one single blocked moment. I feel that this book was meant to be.
In regards to promotion, what have you been doing to promote your book online?

I have my website www.lifeisjoyful.org and I use Facebook, Twitter, AuthorsDen, and squidoo.

Of all the promotional items (bookmarks, press kits, etc…) you have used to promote your book, which one was used most effectively?

The most effective promotion has been promoting my blog on Twitter.


Do you feel that the Internet has opened doors for authors who never dreamed they’d ever see a publishing contract and how has it influenced you in regards to your own publishing journey?

Without the internet, I would not have attempted to self-publish through Createspace. It would be too hard to create buzz and reach markets. Almost all of my promoting is on the internet-though I do have some speaking engagements.

If you were in the middle of Manhattan (or any busy thoroughfare) and you wanted to call attention to your book, what would you do and what would you say?

I think I would take 100 copies of my book and hand them out to people asking them if they wanted more peace, passion, energy, and joy in their lives every moment of every day.

If you could trade places with any author just for a day, who would it be and why?

I would like to trade places with Stephen Covey. I read his 7 habits book when I was on bedrest for 11 weeks when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. When he wrote about prisoners (Anwar Sadat and Viktor Frankl) who were able to feel more free while they were in prison (because their minds were free), I realized that though I could only stand up for three minutes of every hour-my mind was free. It was an exhilarating realization at a time when I could have felt sorry for myself. I think Stephen Covey’s life work is an amazing contribution to our body of knowledge regarding personal leadership skills.

Lastly, how do you determine your book’s success?

My book is already a success. I know this because people have begun sending me their life stories (often very tragic) and they tell me that this book touched their hearts. Yes, I want to be a best selling author-but my book is here on this earth for a reason-to touch hearts and help people to move forward and grow.

Thank you for this interview, Sheri. Can you tell us where everyone can pick up a copy of Keys to Living Joyfully?

Keys to Living Joyfully is available on Amazon.

Editor's Note: Sheri Kaye Hoff will be traveling the blogosphere throughout March and April to talk about her new book, Keys to Living Joyfully. If you would like to interview her, have her guest blog or review her book for her virtual book tour, email Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. If you would like to find out more about Sheri, visit her official tour page here.

Using Ticker Countdown Clocks to Announce Your Book's Release Date

In my blog travels this morning, I happened to land on one of my favorite PUMPED UP blogs, Kathy Holmes' Women's Fiction with Attitude, and I found something that really made me sit up and take notice. Everyone's heard about those cute little ticker countdown clocks that you can put on your blog to announce anything you want to announce really, but I really liked the way Kathy used the ticker she found at CarribbeanMag.com. If you go to that link, you can see all kinds of tickers that you can put on your blog (even attach to your emails!) to announce upcoming trips and vacations. But, what Kathy did was look beyond this and came up with an idea to use this as a great promotional vehicle to announce her new book, Real Women Wear Red, that will be released on March 27th. And what really makes this so unique is that her main character will be going on this cruise which sets off the beginning of the book! How appropriate!

We will be getting into promoting our blogs to sell our books and other great book promotion ideas, but I wanted to pass this along to you to give you ideas on ways you can announce your upcoming book's release. Tickers are not new, but I was really impressed with the way Kathy did it being as her book is all about a cruise that her characters embark on and the friendships and bonds they form with one another. Makes me start thinking of ways to use this to announce my upcoming books!

If you are using a really neat book promotion tip to sell your books, drop me a line at thewriterslife@yahoo.com and you may be featured in an upcoming spot at PUMP UP YOUR ONLINE BOOK PROMOTION BLOG!

Tags: How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, online book promotion, online marketing, Kathy Holmes, book publicity, Women's Fiction With Attitude, ticker countdown clock, Real Women Wear Red", CarribbeanMag.com

How to Use YouTube to Land a 7-Figure Publishing Deal

Just read this in Publisher's Weekly. A man by the name of Rupert Isaacson got the interest of Curtis Brown agent Elizabeth Sheinkman in representing him for his book, The Horse Boy, about his forthcoming trip to Mongolia with his son on horseback to visit shamans, which had a mysterious calming impact on his son, who had autism. After it piqued Sheinkman's interest, she immediately began proceedings to pitch it to the big publishing houses. But, as he was putting footage together about this trip, and was tinkering with the idea of putting this footage up at YouTube, Sheinkman decided to wait until it was up, then she pitched the idea to Little, Brown sending them the link to the trailer with the proposal. Isaacson ended up with a seven-figure major publishing deal. Sheinkman hesitates to say whether the trailer was the selling point, but she does think it helped.

I would say it definitely didn't hurt. Visual aids sell. Picture this. The main bigwigs are sitting at a big, oblong shiny mahogany table puffing cigars and listening to agents give their proposals and in walks Sheinkman with not only a proposal, but a video of the book. Well, actually, it was all done by email or sent by snail mail, but think about it. The bigwigs have called it a day and are sitting back in their boxers, chilling in their million dollar homes with a fire burning, a few martinis have been consumed, and the last thing they want to think about is more work. For kicks, one opens up his laptop to check on something not really important...maybe play a few online video games or check or a few games of online poker...and he sees an email from an agent. He groans as he's been doing this all day long, but something makes him do it...I call it the obsessive glutton for punishment syndrome.

He clicks on it and the proposal sounds interesting, but he yawns for lack of sleep. Not that the premise is bad, he thinks, but after all, this is HIS time and he knew better than to even bring his laptop home in the first place.

So, his eyes are glazed and he's not really making out the words (the martinis are starting to kick in) and he clicks on the link that the agent sent him.

It leads him to YouTube. By now, he's a little curious. Why did she send me to YouTube?

And...he watches...real footage of this guy and his son traveling to Mongolia by horseback to see shamans to help his son who has autism. Real footage.

He spills his martini in his lap as he's frantically searching for his cell so that he can call his comrades that run the big publishing house...and the rest is history.

And...Isaacson climbs out from obscurity into fame and fortune.

Interesting story and it really makes you wonder just how powerful book trailers have gotten in the last few years. Where once they were used for entertainment purposes (I still get a kick out of watching them), now we're using them for promotional vehicles to sell our books, whether it's to our readers...or perhaps...that NY publishing house.

So, let's give this another perspective. What if we made a book trailer of a book that we are pitching to agents and sent them the link in our proposal for them to check it out at YouTube? Would that entice them to ask for at least a partial?

And, what about pitching to movie directors for books that are already published?

I'd be curious to find out.

Tags: How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, YouTube, free book promotion workshop, book trailer, online book promotion, Publisher's Weekly, Rupert Isaacson, Curtis Brown, Elizabeth Sheinkman, The Horse Boy, movie directors

How to Get Your Book Trailer # 1 at YouTube

Before we continue with the "HOW TO PUMP UP YOUR BLOG TO SELL MORE BOOKS WORKSHOP," I have a little whoo-hoo news I'd like to share.

The book trailer for the paranormal novel that Heide Kaminski, Pam Lawniczak and I wrote, The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, is the #1 book trailer at YouTube this morning! If you'd like to see it, go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=book+trailer. Out of over 2,000 book trailers up at YouTube, ours came in first. Incredible.

If you were paying attention to what we were talking about concerning using search words to create a powerful online presence, this has a lot to do with it, even with what I've learned by studying how YouTube's ranking system works.

Before I even explain what I've learned, let's first touch on what makes one book trailer more professional over the other. I make book trailers for authors and the number one thing I've learned is that you have to really, really, really know what the book is about. Self-explanatory, but if you don't zero in on the main conflict of the book in 2 or so minutes or less, the book trailer isn't going to do any good. Also, bloggers talk about trailers. I've heard some bloggers really condemn some, leading them to the page on YouTube where you can see it for yourself. Don't let that happen to you.

Your book trailer must be entertaining, of course, but it must be used as a "teaser" to get people to order the book. The music you choose must match the theme of your book, and the photos you use to include in your trailer, must help the potential buyer to get an idea of what the book is about. Self-explanatory, but I've seen trailers, while they looked pretty well done, didn't give me that conflict that I needed to entice me to buy the book. Trailers are promotional videos for your book. They are not used solely for entertaining...they are a vehicle that you can use to tap onto the visual aspects of your book. To get an idea of what a trailer is supposed to look like, look at the opening promotional commercials before movies. How many have you said after watching them, "Oh man, I've got to see this movie when it comes out!"?

That's what you want your book trailer to do.

So, let's get back to YouTube. YouTube has various criterias on what trailers land in the number one spot. Let's use my book trailer, for example. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOklaNgirZI and look directly underneath the trailer itself.

You will see how many people have rated my trailer, how many people have viewed it, how many people have commented, how many have put my trailer in their favorites, how many have given it honors and how many have linked to it.

As you can see, I've been rated five times. This is one of the criteria for getting top placement in YouTube. But, it's only part of the reason.

I've had over 400 views, but I really don't think this has to do with anything. I've seen way more views on other book trailers.

I have no comments, so I really don't think this makes any difference.

Now, I've been favorited three times. This is very good, but still, there are more book trailers up on YouTube that are favorited more.

I have no honors, so I really don't know how much importance this would have, although I'm sure it's a good thing. But, in my case, that's obviously not the reason my trailer came in at first place.

I have four people linking to my trailer, which is a really good thing, too, but still again, I had four people linking to me days ago and my trailer wasn't in the first position, and I don't even think I was on the first PAGE of top book trailers at the time.

So, what's this all mean?

All the things I've mentioned DO have importance in ranking, but if you want the #1 spot, the answer lies in your tags and this is what I've been talking about in the workshop. Those key search words that you put in when submitting your book trailer to YouTube makes a very BIG difference as you can see.

Although these search words have been up since I put the trailer up on January 4th, and it's just now getting in the #1 spot, I have learned that it takes a combination of things.

1.) Using key search words efficiently
2.) Getting people to rank you
3.) Getting people to "favorite" you
4.) Getting people to link to your trailer directly at YouTube
5.) Having a professional-looking book trailer so people will do all these things

If you do all these things, I'll guarantee your book trailer will hit #1, too, but I can't stress this more...what I have learned is that those tags are going to play a very important factor in this, so make sure you choose them wisely.

That's it for now...I'll be answering a few questions that people have asked about what we've covered so far, then we'll move on to the next step to PUMP UP YOUR BLOG TO SELL MORE BOOKS!


Tags: How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, YouTube, free book promotion workshop, book trailer, online book promotion, The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, paranormal novel, key search words

Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion Through Blogs

Pumping up your online book promotion requires a lot of things as you know, but one of the most vital elements in getting your book noticed requires a vehicle that requires a little maintenance, but will result in getting the attention you need.

It's called BLOGGING.

Everyone by now understands what blogging is, so that much I won't go into. But, does everyone realize how important they are in everyday book promotion?

Seth Godin says, "Blog mentions...matter a lot" in promoting your books.

David Torturelli tells us "Blogs can bring a new dimension to a writer’s work because everything written immediately has an audience. "

Rick Reed tells us how to use MySpace as an author promotional tool.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D, gives us some good tips on how to market our blogs.

Listen, folks, these guys know what they're talking about. Blogs are great vehicles to sell your books. They're picked up in the search engines rather quickly, and the more you know your way around how a blog works, the more familiar you get as to how to use them correctly to promote your books.

Jamieson Wolf does an interesting thing with his blog. He serializes his books. Now before you start thinking, "If he publishes it on a blog, how will get get a publisher to accept something that's already 'published'?" Jamieson's intent is not to publish with a known publisher; but, instead, he's self-publishing through his blog with no intent on making money off of it. What he is doing is generating interest about his work which will pay off later on down the road with his other books. The book he is posting in serial form is called "The Book of Sacrament." If you go to his blog, you can sign up for installments which will come to your email box. An excellent way to promote your books through blogs, Jamieson!

Even authors have deadlines, kids to feed, other jobs to go to, but blogging only takes a few minutes of your time, and is so important. You don't have to update every day (kudos to those who can), but every three or four days will at least keep you up and running in the search engines.

In my own experience, I have maybe five or six blogs for the different things I do. I have one to talk about my daily life, plus any promotional things related to my books or appearances, on my blog at www.overthehillchick.blogspot.com. It is through that blog where I have found many acquaintances and downright salt-of-the-earth people who have bought my books or hosted me on my virtual book tours. I have sold lots of copies of my soul mate anthology, Romancing the Soul, this way.

I also have a blog for my writing website, The Writer's Life, called appropriately The Writer's Life Blog. I host author interviews, first chapters of published books, first pages of unpublished books and a myriad of other things to help others promote. While I am helping others, a picture of the covers of my books are on the blog in case anyone wants to check them out.

Another blog I have is called How to Promote Your Self-Published eBook (or Print!). Again, my book covers are listed there, and I'm basically using this blog to show my expertise as a self-published eBook promoter.

And these are just a few.

So, if I can do it, and work outside of the home, you can do it, too.

I find it interesting that some NY published authors are telling me that their publishers are recommending them to build a blog and start talking up their books. They know what good book promotion takes, and that is to make yourself visible.

As an author, you are a celebrity. I don't care if you are published by a vanity press, self-published, or have gone all the way to becoming a NY bestselling author. People are hungry for this information so that maybe they can find out what it takes to write their own books.

Never miss an opportunity to pump up your book promotion!

What are your opinions of promoting books through blogs? Please leave your comments!

Tags: blogs,promoting your books, online book promotion, Author Promotional Tool, Jamieson Wolf, promote your books