Session Title: 12 Steps of Intimacy For Authors & Their Readers

Description: SALES FUNNELS ARE DEAD: 12 STEPS TO GETTING & KEEPING MORE HAPPY READERS

Join us to discover:

• Why traditional sales funnels are dead (and what to use instead)
• The biggest mistake most direct marketers and internet marketers make when asking a visitor to opt-in
• A step-by-step approach to knowing what to say on your site, why to say it, and when to say it for maximum results
• The importance of building intimate relationships with your prospective customers. (It’s not what you think)
• How to ask for the sale without sounding salesy or sleazy
• The 12 Steps of Intimacy — the new system for taking prospects from ‘I don’t know you’ to ‘I love you.’

Bio: Michael R. Drew is a maverick who gets results. Marketing books for his entire career, he’s become the world’s most successful book promoter, having launched 79 consecutive books onto best-seller lists, many of them number-one titles. Beyond merely helping authors’ books to sell well, Michael has benefited from these writers’ insights into social trends. He himself has observed up-close the shifting dynamics of society— as with his work on Pendulum—and has seen firsthand the rapid and long-term changes in the publishing industry and how content reaches today’s varied audiences. Michael honed his skills at such respected publishers as Bard Press, Entrepreneur Magazine, Longstreet Press and Thomas Nelson Publishers, among others. He has mastered the intricacies of publishing and, in adapting to today’s fast-evolving industry, Michael founded Promote A Book to work directly with writers to help them spread their message.

Session Title: Your Social Media Book Launch Army

Description: Discover the simple strategy I used to set into action a small army of social media marketers, including a New York Times best selling author and a Forbes top fiffty social media marketer. They shared, posted and built buzz in anticipation of my book launch. This resulted in growth of my personal brand, early book reviews and hyper growth of Facebook friends and followers.

Bio: Brian G. Johnson is a serial entrepreneur who is also an engaging speaker, product creator, #1 bestselling author, nurturing mentor, and passionate poodle wrangler. Since 2008 Brian has coached tens of thousands of wealth seekers, many of whom are successfully generating life-changing income.

Brian’s high energy and zest for life translate well to his coaching programs, where he breaks down the most important elements of many profitable online businesses-traffic and conversions. His formulas are simple, his rituals are effective, and his techniques are easy to follow.

Session Title: How To Quickly Write, Publish & Profit From A Book That Will Grow Your Business

Description: Join Adam Witty, Founder and CEO of Advantage Media Group, as he shares the most exciting case studies, marketing ideas, and best-practices he has learned from helping hundreds of entrepreneurs, consultants and professionals write, publish, monetize and market their books.

Here are some of the things you will learn…

• Ways to quickly write and publish a book, and how to tell which method is best for you
• The problems that sabotage 95% of aspiring authors, and how to solve them
• Case studies from authors in businesses like consulting, medical practices, fitness training and more
• A powerful way to use your book to get publicity for yourself and your business
• How to really attract more customers at higher prices with a book
• And so much MORE!

Bio: As Founder and CEO, Adam directs the company’s strategic business development and growth initiatives. A passionate and seasoned marketer, Adam provides creative direction for Advantage’s corporate marketing strategies. Adam is a proud alumnus of Clemson University and happy to call Charleston home.

Session Title: Building A True Fan Base (Customers) with Content Marketing

Description: Writing books is important, yes, but that’s not all you must do to grow your platform and create true fans. Johnny, Sean and Dave from the Self Publishing Podcast will explain how they’ve used content marketing like podcasts, events, and products to find new readers and create true fans.

Johnny’s Bio: Johnny B. Truant is an author, blogger, and podcaster who has built a self-publishing empire. He is the author of the Fat Vampire series and The Bialy Pimps, as well as co-authoring the science fiction political thriller The Beam and the Unicorn Western series with Sean Platt. Johnny is one of the hosts of the Web’s most popular podcasts called the Self Publishing Podcast. His latest book, Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success) is a #1 best-seller in the writing category on Amazon.

Sean’s Bio: In addition to authoring dark horror and sci-fi with Dave at CI and genre benders with Johnny at Realm & Sands, Sean writes for children under the name Guy Incognito, and has more than his share of nose. He has indie-published more than two dozen fiction titles. Nonfiction credits include the freelancer’s guide, Writing Online, the indie how-to Write. Publish. Repeat., and the memoir Writer Dad. Sean lives in Austin, TX with his wife, daughter, and son.

Session Title: Running a Successful Author Business

Description: In today’s publishing world, success takes much more than writing books. You have to build out a platform and a plan that ensures your success not just today, but long into the future. When done right, you can build a business that will support your entire writing career and open up new opportunities that you never thought possible.

In this session you will learn:
– What it means to build a platform for you business, not just a book
– How I leveraged a small, self published book into a six figure income
– Case studies of authors leveraging their writing into extremely successful business

Bio: Tim Grahl is the founder of (http://outthinkgroup.com), a firm that helps authors build their platform, connect with readers and sell more books. He is the author of Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book (http://bit.ly/yf1000c) and works with many of the top authors in the world including Hugh Howey, Daniel Pink, Dan and Chip Heath, Barbara Corcoran and many more. He has launch multiple New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling books.

Through his work with over 100 authors across all genres, Tim has learned and practiced the secrets behind successful marketing campaigns and teaches the strategy and techniques through his website http://outthinkgroup.com.

Session Title: Reader Magnets: Find your First 10,000 Readers (and keep them)

Description: Reader Magnets are what draw readers in to your work – the promise of irresistible content and building a valuable connection. I started using Reader Magnets a little over six months ago. I didn’t even have a term for it back then. Since I put these measures in place, I’ve built my publishing business to over $10k a month in revenue and grown a platform of over 15,000 hungry readers. I’m going to show you how you can do the same – and see results in less than five days.

Bio: Nick Stephenson was born and raised in Cambridgeshire, England. He is a non-fiction author and novelist. His approach to writing is to hit hard, hit fast, and leave as few spelling errors as possible. As well as writing, Nick teaches other authors how to effectively market themselves and their books – focusing on how to build up huge author platforms on autopilot.

In a previous life, Nick Stephenson has worked as a lawyer, marketer, chef, and paid assassin for the UK’s Tax Authorities. If you ask him about it, he will deny ever having worked as a lawyer.

Session Title: Hit the Bestseller Lists with Ebook Preorders

Description: Imagine if you could push a magic button and make your next book release land higher in the bestseller lists. This magical button is real. It’s called an ebook preorder. Preorders are probably the single most important ebook launch tool introduced in the last five years. Learn how to implement Mark’s exclusive strategies that have helped dozens of Smashwords authors hit the bestseller lists. A great preorder starts with smart planning, strategy and execution. Mark will show you how! The session is intended for indie ebook authors and book marketing professionals.

Bio: Mark Coker founded Smashwords in 2008 to make it fast, free and easy for writers to self-publish an ebook. Today, Smashwords has grown to become the world’s largest distributor of self-published ebooks. Today, 100,000 authors and small independent presses around the world publish and distribute over 300,000 books with Smashwords. Smashwords distributes globally to Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, OverDrive, Kobo, Scribd, Oyster and Baker & Taylor Axis 360. Follow Mark on Twitter @markcoker. Mark blogs at http://blog.smashwords.com.

Session Title: Building Amazing Author Websites: The Absolute Necessities

Description: Author’s need a website in addition to a social presence as a home base to build their platform. What are the absolute necessities to building an amazing author website that attracts readers?

Bio: Deborah Carney of Bookgoodies has over 20+ books published and over 30-years of Web marketing experience. She is not only an author; but also a powerful Internet marketing professional.

Session Title: Avoid the ‘Amateur’ Label: Produce Your Book Like a Pro With the Help of a Team

Description: Many authors make the mistake of trying to do it all. Writing the book. Editing their own draft. Designing their own cover. Doing the ebook conversions on their own. Creating the marketing strategy. Organizing everything. The list goes on and on. This mistake leads to big problems: a book with gaping holes and humiliating errors, a shallow and ineffective marketing plan, a bad first impression due to an amateurish cover design, launch delays, and more. No wonder so many authors burn out these days, publishing their book short of its potential or not at all. Thankfully, your author career doesn’t have to suffer these tragedies. With the help of a team, you can concentrate on what you do best without stressing out about everything else. What does an effective author team look like? How do you build one of your own? And what steps do you need to take to make sure you’re maximizing the value of working with one? This presentation will answer those questions, preparing you to harness one of the best competitive advantages available to authors today: a team.

Bio: Matt Gartland is the founder of Winning Edits, a creative agency for authors specializing in the strategy and production of books, podcasts, and products. If you are in the business of books and growing your author platform, then Matt and his team may be the competitive advantage you’ve been looking for.

Session Title: Path To A Bestselling Book Launch: Multiple Books & Multiple Promotions

Description: Discover the secrets to launching your books to best seller status. Best selling author Joel Comm takes you on a journey of how he’s written and launched multiple best selling books and how you can follow his lead to do it yourself.

Bio: Joel Comm is an entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author, and new media innovator. An expert on harnessing the power of the web, publishing, social media and mobile applications to expand your brand’s reach and engage in active relationship marketing, Joel is a sought-after public speaker who leaves his audience inspired, entertained, and armed with strategic tools to create a new media campaign that will explode their business.