Author Blasts is the Authors On The Net Podcast. If you are a member of AON and you have a book, we would like to interview you. Simply send us an email at info@authorsonthenet.com. We are also interested in speaking with publishers, distributors, book designers, editors and other people who have a publishing or book promotion message.

Today’s Podcast is the second part of an interview with Phyllis Zimbler Miller, author of Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel. In Part 1, Phyllis tells a story from the perspective of four women who went through the military’s training program on how to be a good spouse to their husband’s serving during the Vietnam war. You can learn more about Mrs. Lieutenant by visiting the website, www.mrslieutenant.com. In this segment, Phyllis shares information on promoting books on the internent. It is a great segment and we hope you gain some valuable insight.

Click here to download and listen to the podcast. Listen to Author Blasts show now.

http://authorsonthenet.com/audio/PhyllisZimblerMiller-part1.mp3

To watch the Mrs. Lieutenant book trailer, click here.

Note: depending on the speed of your Internet connection, this file may take a few minutes to download. You can also download the interview through itunes. To subscribe to this podcast, go to the itunes store, click on podcasts and search for “Authors On The Net.” Subscribe and you will receive our podcasts directly to your itunes.

Author Blasts is the Authors On The Net Podcast. If you are a member of AON and you have a book, we would like to interview you. Simply send us an email at info@authorsonthenet.com. We are also interested in speaking with publishers, distributors, book designers, editors and other people who have a publishing or book promotion message.

In today’s podcast, we speak with Phyllis Zimbler Miller, author of Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel. Phyllis tells a story from the perspective of four women who went through the military’s training program on how to be a good spouse to their husband’s serving during the Vietnam war. You can learn more about Mrs. Lieutenant by visiting the website, www.mrslieutenant.com. Phyllis also has a lot of information for authors promoting on the internent, so much that we decided to run her interview in two parts. The file below primarily covers her book and part 2 will cover what she is doing to promote her book online.

Click here to download and listen to the podcast. Listen to Author Blasts show now.

http://authorsonthenet.com/audio/PhyllisZimblerMiller-part1.mp3

To watch the Mrs. Lieutenant book trailer, click here.

Note: depending on the speed of your Internet connection, this file may take a few minutes to download. You can also download the interview through itunes. To subscribe to this podcast, go to the itunes store, click on podcasts and search for “Authors On The Net.” Subscribe and you will receive our podcasts directly to your itunes.

The Internet ushered in a new culture of free information. Some people simply enjoy providing information to other people and are either not interested in making money or they see their free information as a way to create other income streams. In order for an enterprise to provide valuable content and be able to sustain their efforts, the enterprise must earn an income somehow.

For authors, one tactic we can use is giving away free copies of our books, either hard copy books or ebooks. Ebooks are more popular as freebies as they do not cost anything to reproduce. The idea with freebies is that we will create a grass-roots awareness for our books. But so far, a proven model has not emerged that this strategy works.

Free content has its value if used strategically. For example, many people give away free newsletters, short ebooks or CDs as a way to build their list. These authors then put their lists of contacts in an autoresponder and prompt their customer base to buy other products. This is one way to start building your platform.

I personally think this culture of free on the Internet will evolve into more pay-for-content models. If you want to read more about free content on the internet, you might want to read this article, for free of course . . .

This is the second video I took at Brandon Mull’s (author of Fablehaven) book signing. Scroll down to see the first video and more information on this book signing. Many people these days are saying that book signings are an ineffecient way to sell books, but if you can parnter with your local library and have the kind of turnout that Mr. Mull does, then a book signing can be very productive. I was very impressed with Brandon’s energy and enthusiasm as he spoke with his target audience. It was a lot of hard work, but seeing the long line of avid readers with books in their hands waiting for him to sign them was validation that a good book signing is still a viable way to promote books.

I recently attended a local book signing with my daughters who love Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. I took my video camera with me as I thought our members might like to see what a book signing looks like. I will share several videos and as you watch the videos look at how well Brandon addresses questions and at his energy level. It is also interesting to see his primary target audience sitting in front of him and his secondary target audience standing on the fringes. What I mean is that while his target audience are children, look at all the adults standing around who are now more likely to not just buy his books for their children, but to also read them. Myself included. Enjoy.

I recently read an interesting article on how to save the book publishing industry. The link to the article is below, but first my thoughts. The problems facing the book publishing industry will create opportunities for creative-thinking publishers and new entrants. If we think about driving forces, we still have millions of people writing books and even more people seeking to be educated and entertained.

As a short-run digital printer, I’ve often looked into the future and thought that in this new age, digital printers may be in a good position. The way I see it, once ebooks find their place among readers and are downloaded much like music is on itunes, then an entire new distribution system will emerge. Readers may use ebooks to browse/read many titles and then some of these readers may order hard copies. In addition, while hard copy book sales may decrease, I doubt they will go away entirely in my lifetime.

The key to driving this change may be as simple as changing the pricing structure. This is the point of the article I found at http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/how_to_save_the_book_publishing_indus You might want to click on over and read. It’s quite interesting.

When making your book promotion plan, one concept I like is the idea that each author needs to invent his or her own strategy. In the past, I’ve written about targeting the top 10 literate cities in the states when planning your book launch. Today I read the following article listing the 10 brainiest cities in the US. Depending on the type of book you have, you might consider promoting your book in these cities. Here’s the article:

The 10 Brainiest Places to Retireby Liz Wolgemuth
Thursday, June 5, 2008
provided by U.S. News

. . . U.S. News consulted our list of more than 1,000 Best Places to Retire and came up with 10 retirement destinations that attract highly educated folks.

One brainy spot that won’t surprise: Berkeley, Calif., where residents might head for a screening of a film on urban organic farming in Cuba at the local Unitarian Universalist congregation, attend a University of California-Berkeley professor’s speech on counterinsurgency in Iraq, or get a tour of the UC Botanical Garden. While traditional bingo is on tap at the South Berkeley Senior Center, residents can also learn a less common skill like self-acupressure or take a class on the millinery arts, says director Larry Taylor.

Across the map in Chapel Hill, N.C., residents might spend their evenings paddling out in kayaks to watch the stars with an astronomy educator from the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Boulder, Colo., may be best known for its environmental-protection efforts and green savvy, but this city offers its residents a wealth of cultural activities. Albert Boggess, former project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, and his wife, Nancy, also a former research scientist for NASA, retired to Boulder in 1994, drawn by both the climate and an academic community that included many of their colleagues. “It’s a university town, which is important to us, and there are all sorts of activities which come with that automatically,” Albert Boggess says. “There’s lots of good music here, both classical music and popular music. And that appeals to us.”

Upper St. Clair, Pa., is near Pittsburgh and has 29 area colleges, including Carnegie Mellon University, while the quintessential college town of Ann Arbor, Mich., offers an array of intellectual and cultural programs through the University of Michigan’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

West Lafayette, Ind., is home to Purdue University, which hosts lectures and brings in ballets and plays—”a variety of different programs that you wouldn’t necessarily normally get in this size community,” says Joann Wade, president of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city’s nearly 29,000 permanent residents can also get “bigger-city opportunities,” Wade says, by driving an hour to Indianapolis or two hours to Chicago.

Hoboken, N.J., and Brookline, Mass., also have the big-city experience close at hand. Hoboken is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, while many Brookline residents commute the short distance to work in Boston’s medical centers and universities.

Some suburbs have a main attraction all their own. Reston, Va., was developed as a planned community or “new town” in the 1960s, and it’s only a half-hour drive to Washington, D.C., and its panoply of world-class museums. Out west, Lake Oswego, Ore., hugs the city of Portland but also offers culture and beauty of its own, making the most of its 405-acre lake.

The brainiest places to retire:

1. Ann Arbor, Mich.
2. Berkeley, Calif.
3. Boulder, Colo.
4. Brookline, Mass.
5. Chapel Hill, N.C.
6. Hoboken, N.J.
7. Lake Oswego, Ore.
8. Reston, Va.
9. Upper St. Clair, Pa.
10. West Lafayette, Ind.

Copyrighted, U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.