Brown Book Loft Blog

Next time you’re browsing around in a book shop, take a look at the names on the audio tapes. You might be surprised about how many names you recognize. Recently, publishing companies have begun to see the potential held in audio books, and have been producing more and more of their printed best sellers in audio book format. The audio book market has grown so popular that celebrities are now getting in on the action.

It is not uncommon for audio books to utilize different voice actors to portray the different characters in the book. Along with sound effects, music and sometimes a celebrity cast, audio books can become an entire production. These audio books are the ones that are getting the most exposure. Bill and Hilary Clinton, for example, achieved huge success when they produced their best selling books in audio format. This shows that people want very much to hear the stories straight out from the mouths of authors.

As with animated children’s movies, more celebrities are being drawn to doing the voices of the characters in children’s audio books. Parents are also reporting success in using children’s audio books as an aid for teaching their children how to read. With sound effects, music and songs, children are having more fun reading along; they are gaining more interest in reading books, not just listening to them.

If you are thinking right now, “Celebrities will do anything for money,” you are way off. The average pay to record a six hour long audio book, even for celebrities, is between $4,000 and $6,000. This is more like spare change for many of the higher paid celebrities out there. There are many reasons these highly paid, internationally famous celebrities agree to lend their voices to audio books. Some celebrities do it because they enjoyed reading the book so much that they want as many people as possible to enjoy the book, and help the author make the sales he or she deserves. Other celebrities do it because they want to help children learn to read, while some celebrities do it for political reasons. Whatever their reasons are, more and more celebrities are recording audio books, and sales have grown to an all time high.

Margret Lilin
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/listen-to-famous-voices-in-audio-books-136765.html

Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book. It’s one thing to write a book, but an entirely different thing to write one that’s saleable, viable, and marketable. In today’s publishing environment, a book’s success depends greatly on a strong marketing plan.

Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories. Make sure your press release spells out the ‘who, what, where, when, and why.’

Learning to write and use powerful optimized press releases can often drive tons of traffic to your website while providing multiple back links that can lead to increased page rank and numerous top ten search engine rankings for your targeted keywords. Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly. Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media.

Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book’s website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Make sure you have at least one good press release, written in AP style, which you can send out for the lifetime of your book.

Place free ads periodically for your book’s website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website. Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book. Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline.

When you get a nice write up or feature about you and/or your book, have it laminated and set it up on an easel at trade shows. Create an online contest and list it in online contest directories to drive traffic to your website. Every day it’s important to focus on a variety of marketing approaches.

Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book’s topic to drive customers to your website. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers. Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment.

Offer to trade writing a monthly column in a trade publication in your books’ genre, in trade for display ads on the same page. Contact any companies, corporations or organizations that might use your book for promotions; offer significant discounts for volume orders or for thousands of copies offer a specified amount above book production costs. If your book solves a problem, focus on this in your marketing.

If your book fits a specialty market, find a store that fits the genre and offer to leave books on consignment; many publishers have sold thousands of books this way. Get as many testimonials about your book, as possible, from experts in the field relating to your title, not customers; use on your fliers and back of books.

Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don’t assume it’s already listed. Make sure your sales letter or flier is first class; this is your formal presentation of your title to the prospective buyer.

Use your book promotion and book marketing dollars wisely; go after the free and cheap resources daily. If you apply yourself every day and you promote your book like crazy, you can achieve that ultimate goal of selling thousands of copies of your book, many self publishers have. Yes you can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget, just be careful about your marketing dollars.

Helen Hecker
http://www.articlesbase.com/publishing-articles/a-few-tips-on-how-to-market-and-sell-your-self-published-books-136707.html

One of the best things about the online audio books industry is that companies and websites can offer free audio books because they do not have to buy music literature materials for production. With downloadable music books, there are no products to purchase, which in turn gives online companies the opportunity to offer free downloads.

This is not only helpful for the company, but it also opens up a wider selection of books for consumers who are otherwise hesitant about purchasing titles in genres that they are not accustomed to reading.

A great place to get a number of free audio books is free-books. Like other music literature websites, you can log on to their page and download a wide variety of free books for personal and educational purposes.

If you are looking for titles from classical literature, the website provides free MP3 downloads from over 200 titles in their selection. You can also find European history titles and various other selections.

For adults looking for educational books, free-books offers many books that you can listen to and come away with information you may have not had before. “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” is an example of one of the free audio books offered to people who might find this an interesting listen.

The recently published “1492″ is a book written about the expedition that brought Christopher Columbus to America and is available as a free audio book download on the website. Another notable section of books available for download on free-books include children’s music books. Titles like “Pinocchio”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” are just a few of the music books that kids will be sure to enjoy.

For more mature kids, the site also offers free audio download books like “Jane Eyre”, “Huckleberry Finn” and “Robinson Crusoe”. Children music literatures are a wonderful and exciting alternative to the popular video games or television programs that have flooded homes today. They not only help stimulate the imagination, they are more productive and educational than many other forms of entertainment.

You can find free music books online to satisfy any of your listening needs. If you like history, you can find historical works on websites that offer free music literatures. If you enjoy Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte, you can find free audio books of their writings as well.

You can add a large number of audio literatures to your audio book library just through websites that provide free audio downloads. You can expand your library even further if you are willing to buy music literatures because many of the newer best sellers are available for a discounted price.

MIKE SELVON
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/expand-your-horizons-with-free-audio-books-136627.html

There are lots of instructional books that show you how to play classical guitar. So which one should you use? That depends on your goals with the guitar and your style of learning. Here is a guide to some of the more popular instructional books.

If you are looking for a traditional instructional book you should consider the Carcassi Method. It has been the standard guidebook for generations of classical guitarists. If you want to go the traditional route this is a solid choice. It was written over a hundred years ago and although a bit dated it is still a fine choice. There is a second part to this method called twenty-five progressive studies that are extraordinary in that they give you a solid repertoire of professional pieces to learn.

For a more contemporary guide to playing you should consider the Christopher Parking Guitar Method. It is a modern method for learning classical guitar and it comes in two books. The first book focuses on learning how to play and the second book teaches you all about refining and improving your technique while developing your repertoire. This is an excellent set of books on classical guitar and Christopher Parkening is a world class guitarist who was a pupil of Andres Segovia.

If you are looking for an easy to understand and more relaxed way to learn classical guitar consider Mel Bay’s Complete Method for Classic Guitar. Mel Bay has been publishing easy to follow, and easy to understand guitar books for decades now. And this book follows this formula. It is clearly written and easy to understand. It assumes you know nothing about music or guitar and this book is very well suited for younger players.

If you want the benefits of being able to watch someone play and hear what the guitar sounds like you should consider the Basic Classical Guitar Method books 1 and 2 by Scott Tennant. The first book has a dvd so you can see how the guitar is played and the second book has a CD so you can hear what the exercises and pieces sound like.

As your skill with the classical guitar develops you are going to want to expand beyond the traditional instructional book and choose books in two different areas. They are technique books that improve your technique and repertoire books that give you pieces you can perform. One of the best technique books you can get is Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant. This book is a practical approach to really improving your playing technique.

If you are looking for an inexpensive collection of music to play I highly recommend The Library of Guitar Classics by Jerry Willard. This enormous book covers classical guitar across centuries, genres, composers and difficulty levels. It has a great variety of works that will keep you learning new pieces for many years. I own this book and refer to it all the time.

If you are interested in getting a better look at the whole subject of music theory I recommend you take a look at a book called: Scales, Intervals, Keys, and Triads. This book is an in depth look at music theory and music composition. It is independent of any instrument and is just a self-taught course on the theory of music.

There are lots of great books that will teach you how to play classical guitar and you can almost not go wrong choosing a book that works with your goals will make the process move much faster and easier.

Will Kalif
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/a-guide-to-classical-guitar-instruction-books-136056.html