February 22nd, 2010

In my never ending quest to increase book sales I’m going to attempt a move into a frightening area – I’m going to move from text e-mail newsletters to video. A camera crew will be at my office on Friday to shoot a series of on-line commercials. Ten years ago I couldn’t have imagine that there would come a day when millions of ordinary people would be creating and uploading homemade videos onto sites like YouTube each month, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! This is not some flash-in-the-pan fad; it is a symbol of the growing clout of online users who expect to get information delivered the way they want it – in video. Much of my day is spent doing the actual marketing of the books I’ve written. The ads that will be produced will be funny and catchy – at least that’s the plan. If all goes well I’ll be sending out video emails by mid-March. I spend the bulk of my day working on promotions and sales for the books I’ve already written. It’s that distasteful part of the business that my authors don’t care to participate. I was naïve enough when I started writing to think that the publisher did the promotions. Not a chance. Little did I know. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to arrange book signings at some incredible Old West sites. Last year I was in Dodge City at the Long Branch Saloon. In the coming months I’ll be in Cody, Wyoming at the Irma Hotel. As and Old West junkie it doesn’t get any better than that. Keep your eye out for the video email – coming soon to a computer near you.