There is no doubt that Spam has affected online business in a very big and negative way. So serious is the Spam problem today that many ISP filters will routinely reject and filter out messages you need from clients and business associates. Many times even email sites are trying to control ever rising Spam volumes. Many times this makes even genuine communication via email very difficult. Just try sending mail from Yahoo to AOL and you will get an idea of what I am trying to say here. Even sending out email newsletters or ezines, which are a very important online marketing tool, can be quite a challenge these days. Not to mention safe lists that are mostly a nightmare of bounced or unread emails. Out of the volumes sent, only a tiny fraction ever gets opened, let alone read. The result is that online marketing experts have been forced to look for other options and tools to help them meet their online business objectives.

Articles are proving to be of increasing importance in many Internet marketing campaigns. Well-written articles have a lot going for them. For starters when folks go to a search engine and type out a keyword, what they are really looking for are detailed and informative free articles that will give them the information that they are looking for. This means that articles have a very good chance of being read by a large number of people. And what’s more folks who read articles are very targeted traffic. There is no way somebody with no interest in Golf will read a Golf exercise article. This means that properly used well-written targeted articles can be a very potent and effective marketing tool in the Spam world that we are in today. No Spam filters can stop them and unlike safe lists, articles get read a lot.

By posting you article at article directories and high traffic free article sites, the chances are very high that they will not only get read by a large number of people, but will also be passed on via email or by getting re-posted at other sites all over the net. This will create a continuous and growing number of links pointing back at your site since your key contact information will usually be in the article resource box.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Recently an experiment was done in writing catchy titles for an online article submission website. One-hundred articles were written which started out with the title; “Read This Article if…” The experiment was to see what type of people read articles online and also to do a trial close on the reader. Commanding them to read the article if they were this thing or the other.

An expert author “Fred” asked if he should write articles with this title if he specializes in background checks for employees and driving records. This is a very good question indeed. Here are some of my thoughts on this great question. In theory Fred might consider these facts:

The practice of titling informational articles starting with “Read This Article if…” is not preferable for search engine ranking because the words “Read” and “Article” are not key word rich. Most search engines do not count “this” or “if” so actually for search engine use, this is not preferable and chances are your current articles are fine the way they are and probably better. Additionally if you wrote an article and titled it; Read This Article if You Would Like to Lose Weight. You also have non-key rich words such as “would,” “like” and “You” before the words which you need to help in search engine ranking; “Lose + Weight.”

This experiment was performed due to a theory I had that when people were searching, they might run across my article and it says to them; “Read Me” and then they would click on it. It does seem to work a little, not significantly, but it does work. These articles out perform other articles, but do not out perform more strategic key word rich titles with main subject coming in the first two or three words in the article.

The title in this experiment is selling something; “a click.” But it is not helping those who are looking to buy or searching a specific thing, because it will get rapidly buried in the search engines you see? There has been success in this experimental campaign with the articles, which are on people’s minds already when they run across the article. For instance the articles, which have worked best are; Read this if…you want to be skinny, you want to be wealthy? etc?

Fred with his specialty might try a few articles such as; “Read This Article if You Want the Best Employees” or “Read this Article to Be Sure Your Company Has Safe Drivers.” But I would only do it if Fred is going to write many articles. What could be better is to title his articles this way; “Employee Background Check; read this article to learn how” or “Employee Driving Records; read this article if you want to know the truth.”

Try these types of titles first. If you are an online writer you may Email me if you need more ideas. You will do fine, luckily you have chosen EzineArticles to post your articles and this means you already have a head start. Try to write one to two article a day until January 1, 2006 and see how well you do. Work on “key word” rich titles that grab the reader, writing titles is a skill, even newspapers are careful to have people who can write those catchy titles so people buy the newspapers in the news paper racks. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon – understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Easy Treatments

By following the path of the Hero’s Journey, the screenwriter can easily construct a step-outline and a treatment (a treatment is an expanded step-outline).

The Hero’s Journey consists of 17 major stages (excluding the Afterlife Act) and more than 188 micro stages. A solid paragraph (or two) for each major stage and you’ve climbed the mountain.

The basic outline to follow is:

Call to Adventure. Introducing the hero’s status, capabilities, nature, ordinary world, inner challenge, outer challenge, romantic challenge, the antagonism and more.

Refusal of the Call. On many levels the call is refused, including the interdictor, doves and hawks, punishments and more.

Supernatural Aid. A mentor is sought to provide advice, guidance, direction, magical gifts and more.

First Threshold. Has many functions including No Return, meeting of allies, a shape shifter, back-stories and more.

Physical Separation. Also known as the Belly of the Whale. Includes resistances, obstacles, encouragements and conscious decision towards the transformation.

Transformation. Also known as The Road of Trials. Transformation can include growing, learning, maturing or similar.

The Ideal and Seizing the Sword. Also known as the Meeting with the Goddess. The hero encounters an ideal that results in him seeking and seizing a Sword.

Rebirth through Death and Reward. Also known as The Woman as Temptress. The hero is tempted (often, but not necessarily, by a female) into the depths where he undergoes a near death experience.

Atonement with the Father . Confronting limitations.
Apotheosis . Attaining illumination and insight.

Ultimate Boon . Achieving the Reward. Includes synergy, leadership and reward.

Refusal of the Return. Can include escape with the boon, refusal to release something valuable, refusal to confront the antagonism and other variations.

Magic Flight. Escape with the boon, pursuit, obstacles to the escape, change, recognition, the curse of the wizened one .

Rescue from Without. Various forms of force and temptations or time pressures persuade the hero to return – resistance, obstacles, impossibility, final antagonism, encouragement are some processes that mark this stage.

Crossing the Return Threshold. Unusual confidence, a dangerous place, the magnitude of the task, increased intensity, assistance from sponsors and initial weakness of the hero are some elements that mark this stage.

Master of the Two Worlds. A final antagonism, a hand-to-hand battle, multiple catharses, and a final deception are some of the elements that mark this stage.

Freedom to Live. Physical expressions of joy, togetherness, celebration, and ascendance to the throne are some elements that mark this stage.

Afterlife Act. In many stories, the journey may not end there. The hero has an Afterlife of variations: as a ruler, through his children, his marriage to a high priestess, his rebirth after a physical death, his mentoring of new heroes, his fall, his exile, his burial, his legend, his rediscovery by future Gods and more.

The detailed, complete deconstruction and the Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/

Impressions. Clicks. Visitors. Sales.

Webmasters all over the Internet want to increase and even explode their web site traffic. It’s a never-ending quest.

And while it is sometimes hard to keep up with all the latest marketing techniques, there is one secret to traffic growth which consistently ranks among the hottest techniques.

Content is king. Are you still not sure about that? Consider for a moment:

• Getting a site ranked higher in search engines usually requires good, original content.

• Great content attracts more advertisers.

• Good content will improve earnings from Google AdSense.

• A site will have more incoming links as web sites, newsletters and blogs link to good content.

Good, original articles are in constant demand. And quite simply, that is why writing articles for web sites remains one of the best marketing techniques around. By writing articles which webmasters and newsletter editors are hungry for, you are able to drive traffic to your own web site through an author’s resource box beneath the article.

In fact, writing articles has many benefits:

• As an author, your name will become widely known.

• You will establish yourself as an authority on the topic.

• You will increase traffic to your site when people click on your link in the author’s Resource Box.

• When your article is published on multiple web sites it increases the number of incoming links to your web site and helps you to achieve a higher Page Rank.

• You may be asked to give interviews, which will give you additional exposure.

• If you sell a product or service, you will increase your sales due to having more traffic.

Of course, if you can get paid for your articles and include a byline with a hyperlink that’s great. Another option is to let the articles be published for free, knowing that you are going to get some valuable traffic coming your way.

Here are some sites where you can submit your free articles for so that webmasters and editors will find them:

• ArticleStop.com
• EzineArticles.com
• IdeaMarketers.com
• GoArticles.com
• NetterWeb.com

Getting clicks and impressions is always a challenge. By harnessing the marketing power of articles, you can make a very rewarding impression.

Scott Adams is the author of Affiliate Adventure, a remarkable system for earning thousands in your spare time by writing small ads for affiliate programs. He regularly writes articles as a way to promote his web site: http://www.AffiliateAdventure.com

Finding a publisher can be very strenuous. In fact, it may even be harder than actually writing the book itself.

There are three things to remember when finding a publisher for your book:

1) These things take time, even Stephen King was not signed the first night. Be patient, book publishers are quite busy and may take a while to get back to you. Just keep positive, if your book is good a publisher will sign you.

2) Start big and work down. Submit your book to the largest publisher first, then work yourself downward. Chances are, if a large publisher signs you the more money you will see in return. However, don’t get too stressed when the first notice comes and says you are not signed, there are many other publishers who would love to see a new book come their way.

3) An easy way to get started yourself, if you do not wish to mess with publishers, is to find a publishing company who will do it for free without the advertising. A great place to start looking is at cafepress.com. They have a great selection of book styles and offer a great pricing for self publishing.

The most important thing to remember while looking for a publisher is to stay positive and keep trying. There are many publishers in this world and at least one is bound to sign you.

Gary R. Hess is a writer and owner of Love Poetry along with numerous articles, essays and poems found around the web.

We writers are a powerful lot. We control time. We dictate actions. We control destinies.

We can make two completely opposite people fall in love with each other, and we can create family feuds that can last for centuries.

We can make our heroine travel back in time to rescue her soulmate, and we can give the most villainous person the punishment she deserves.

We can take our characters to the most exotic places and give them their own adventures.

Simply put, we writers can create our own possibilities. In our world, nothing is impossible.

Try creating your own possibilities using the given prompts below.

There are 4 givens: theme, setting, character and key object. Randomly pick 1 from each and use these to start off your piece.

Themes: deception, irony, love lost, infidelity, rejection

Characters: chemist, divorced woman, doctor, teacher, singer

Key object: yellow bag, pen, knife, shoe, fuse box

Settings: space colony, gym, park, lab, retirement home

Here are a few examples using the above prompts:

• Write a story about love lost, with a doctor as the main character and a shoe as the key object. Set your story in a park.

• Write a story about infidelity, with a chemist as the main character and a pen as the key object. Set your story in a gym.

• Write a story about deception, with a singer as the main character and a yellow bag as the key object. Set your story in a space colony.

• Write a story about rejection, with a divorced woman as the main character, and a knife as the key object. Set your story in a retirement home.

• Write a story about irony, with a teacher as the main character and a fuse box as the key object. Set your story in a lab.

Mix and match the themes, characters, key objects and settings. You can come up with more than 30 possibilities just using the ones already given.

Write stories… write your possibilities!

About The Author

Copyright © 2003-2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

Shery is the creator of WriteSparks! – a software that generates over *10 million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks! Lite for free – http://writesparks.com

The short story market is one of the hardest to break into. There are thousands of well-known writers pumping out short fiction, and thousands more just like you, struggling to get themselves published for the first time. But there are several things you can do to set yourself apart from the rest and start working your way to the head of the pack.

Attention to Detail

First things first, make sure your manuscript is professional. Use a plain, 12-point font, times new roman is the norm. Double-line space the entire manuscript and only left-justify your text. Use a minimum one inch margin on both sides of the page, and top and bottom. Put your name, address and contact number in the top right-hand corner of the coversheet, put your story’s title and your byline in the centre of the page. Rights being offered should go on the bottom-left corner and approximate word count on the right. Thereafter, make sure the first three words of the title and the page number appears in the page header on the right-hand side. Place your title about two-thirds of the way down the first page, your byline immediately underneath, and start your story one double-spaced line below that.

If this manuscript was for a short story competition you would normally need to remove the coversheet and delete any occurrences of your name from the final draft. Though you should always check the competition’s guidelines as some do differ.

If you can submit an error-free, professional-looking document, you will already have beat out all the dreamers who think they’ll get their story noticed if it’s printed on pink paper, bordered with little stars, or hand-written in old gothic. None of these strategies will give you an edge; they will only make you look too eccentric to be worth an editor’s trouble.

Choosing a Title

Though an editor may want to change your title, a title can sometimes make or break your entire submission. Don’t alienate yourself by selecting a title like ‘My Dog Rover,’ or ‘The Story of My Father.’ Instead, go for something mysterious or edgy, like ‘Bark the Dead Down,’ or ‘The Meanest Old Bastard from Here to Melbourne.’

Know When to Take Instruction

Get on-line, not just for e-publishing, but for print publications as well. Find out what your target publishers are looking for in terms of genre and submission criteria, such as format and word length. You would be surprised at how many new writers will attempt to submit a piece that is 3,000 words too long, or is on a topic completely unrelated to the regular content of the publication they are attempting to break into. If you can follow a publisher’s submission criteria to the letter and are sensitive to what their publication is trying to accomplish, you will find yourself pulling even further ahead of the other writers.

However, you don’t always have to listen to the dictates of publishers. Many editors will tell you that if you are submitting a piece to them, do not submit it to any other publisher at the same time. If they find out they have been wasting their time on your piece while you’ve gone with another publisher, they could blacklist you. Although, authors will tell you a different story. Rather than having eager publishers fighting over your work, the truth is that you will probably submit your story, wait for months to hear from the publisher, and then get a letter of rejection. Is your time really that much less valuable than that of an editor? Experienced authors say submit, submit, submit. Just be sure to keep a list of all the places you have sent your manuscript so you can withdraw it if you get lucky.

Writing Competitions

While it may be hard or even impossible for a never-published author to get their manuscript in front of an editor, one strategy for breaking in is to enter short fiction contests. These contests usually come with some prize money and an opportunity to be published. However, beware of scam contests. Any contest that says you’re a winner and then asks you for money is a scam. Any contest that says you’re a winner but wants to publish your work without paying you is a scam. Don’t be fooled – research contests as thoroughly as you would a publisher. A reading or entry fee is pretty much the norm, but again beware, watch out for high fees in return for small prizes.

Get Tough or Get Out

Being neat, professional, competitive and a contest-winner may help to put you at the head of the pack, but these do not make up a never-fail formula for success. The truth is, your stories are going to be rejected a disappointing number of times. Just remember that this does not mean your story is bad, and it does not mean that you will never succeed. It just means that you are going to have to learn to accept rejection. Some of the greatest authors in literary history have been able to paper their walls in rejection slips.

If a rejection contains comments of any kind from an editor, you know you’re on the right track. You made them care enough to want to teach you something, and this is no small feat. Whatever an editor has suggested, consider it carefully. Try making some of these changes and resubmit.

Don’t Forget that this is a Job

Like every other stage of the process, this is hard work. Writing is like any other job, to do it well, you have to work your butt off, and deal with bosses that are going to give you a hard time every chance they get. The biggest mistake a new writer can make is to give up when things stop being easy. As soon as the creative juices don’t seem to be flowing, or they can’t get part of the story just right, they quit. This attitude is all wrong. Writers that are getting published aren’t better than you; they’re just working harder than you. Authorship can offer huge payoffs, but only to those who are willing to quit playing and do some real tough storytelling.

One last thing you can do to advance further ahead of the pack is to do your research. Writers used to depend on annually published directories like the Fiction Writer’s Market to get the scoop on submission criteria and publisher addresses, but today the Internet is the place to be for the short story writer. The new frontier when it comes to short story publishing is on-line. The form is ideally suited to on-line publications, websites and as a downloadable for hand-held devices. So warm up your mouse and start pounding that keyboard, you’ll never know unless you give it a go.

How does a person bridge the enormous gap between a manuscript and a book? There are three options: trade (commercial) publishing, subsidy (vanity) publishing, or self-publishing.

Commercial publishers are the so-called “giants” in the industry. Forty-five percent of all sales are monopolized by five major publishers today: Unfortunately, they’re so big they no longer hear the voice of the little person. Continuing corporate mergers and take-overs compound the problem. Unless you are famous (or infamous), your manuscript has little chance of making it through the corporate front door. And even if it does, this can be more of a curse than a blessing. Trade publishers typically offer a $2,000 to $10,000 advance against royalties. Yet industry statistics show that only one in 10 books ever earn back that advance. That’s a 90% failure rate! It means you’re unlikely to ever get any more than that paltry initial payment.

Those who sign with commercial houses have no guarantee their book will be properly presented to the public. A disproportionate chunk of advertising dollars is spent on authors with established track records or well-known names. We hear many horror stories about authors who make media appearances to promote their work . . . yet customers can’t find their books in bookstores.

In desperation, many novices turn to subsidy (vanity) presses. Beware! Here the ink hits the paper only when the author underwrites the cost of the entire venture. But despite the investment, the author is expected to sign away most rights and receives only a partial royalty for books sold. Plus the vanity publisher’s name on your book stigmatizes it, causing it to be shunned by important reviewers and booksellers. Marketing efforts by vanity houses are dismal to nonexistent. Most Print on Demand (POD) companies fall into this category.

Self-publishing is a viable option for many. This “do-it-yourself” method places you in complete control of the entire process. Critical decisions concerning the title, cover design, editorial content, marketing, and distribution are made by younot by some executive sitting in a remote New York office. Yes, you invest in your project. Done properly, however, this is a prudent investment in your future.

In the past ten years, overall quality in the industry has skyrocketed. Well-edited manuscripts, eye-catching covers, and high-tech marketing techniques are the norm. Privately published titles typically command respectand profitsfor their authors. Proactive authors selling and promoting into nontraditional markets can be very effective.

Here’s the approach many savvy people are taking today: They self-publish initially and promote their book to success. Then they leverage this successful track record by “allowing” a trade publisher to buy the rights to their proven product. This way they have the clout to command a higher advance and can negotiate more favorable terms. By removing the risk for the commercial publisher, you put yourself in a more powerful position. Success can be yours. Self-publishing your book is often the profitable alternative.

Many dramatic success stories have left their imprint on the entire self-publishing movement. Such was the case of Louise Hay, author of a phenomenally successful line of books, who chose self-publishing to launch her works. She began with a 48-page staple-bound edition of Heal Your Body; her second venture, You Can Heal Your Life, captured the #9 spot on the trade paperback best-seller list for 1988! Her books and resulting tapes and seminars have helped hundreds of thousands to discover the pathway to well-being. And they’ve helped Louise to wealth.

Consider the example of self-publisher Ted Nicholas. His How to Form Your Own Corporation Without a Lawyer for Under $50 started its journey with $5,000 borrowed from a life insurance policy. The result? Over 800,000 copies sold to date. Entrepreneurs of America, a service for independent business people, is just one of his latest spin-offs. Capitalizing on his direct mail wizardry, Nicholas published The Golden Mailbox, a how-to guide for selling books through the mail.

The classic career counseling handbook, What Color Is Your Parachute? originated its climb to best-sellerdom as a self-published title. Author and clergyman Richard Nelson Bolles eventually sold the rights to Ten Speed Press, where the book continues to move at a rate of 300,000 copies a year. The total number of copies sold so far is over five million!

These dramatic success stories have left their imprint on the entire self-publishing movement. Today, more and more people are deciding to publish their own books and keep all the profit!

© Copyright 2005 Marilyn Ross

Marilyn and Tom Ross are the coauthors of 13 books including the best-selling Complete Guide to Self-Publishing and the award-winning Jump Start Your Book Sales. Through phone consultations and ongoing coaching/mentoring, Marilyn empowers authors and self-publishers to realize their dreams. She can be reached at 719-395-8659 or Marilyn@MarilynRoss.com.

Visit http://www.SelfPublishingResources.com for free meaty information on writing, self-publishing, and book marketing strategies.

Like her contemporary Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen also fictionalized middle class society; however in Larsen’s works, there are undercurrents that imply middle class values are not always ‘good.’ Nella Larsen’s only two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) were ‘novels of passing’ but unlike their predecessors, these two novels are “more complex and ambitious” (Davis 560). In these works, Larsen “explores the relationships between appearance and reality, deception and unmasking, manipulation and imaginative management, aggression and self-defense” (Davis 561). Perhaps Larsen is able to delve deeper into the consciousness of people torn between two worlds because she herself had experienced living in both the ‘white’ world and the ‘black’ world. Larsen’s mother was an emigrant from Denmark, and her father was from the Virgin Islands. During her early childhood, she lived in a “white working-class neighborhood of Chicago,” and attended an elementary school which consisted mainly of the “children of German and Scandinavian immigrants” (Wall 91). However, Wall reports that Larsen suffered “alienation” in her home life, and was “ostracized at school and in the neighborhood” (Wall 91).

In her teen years, Larsen attended Wendell Phillips High School, and later “enrolled in the high school department of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee” which put Larsen among middle class African Americans (Wall 92). But Larsen left Fisk after only one year, apparently “she was no more at home in an all-black community than she had been in a white one” (Wall 92). After leaving Fisk in 1908, until she enrolled at New York’s Lincoln Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1912, there exists no evidence of her life in the intervening four years (Wall 92). Larsen says that she spent some time in Denmark attending the University of Copenhagen, but Wall asserts that “in fact, Larsen did not leave the United States” (Wall 92). Wall further states that what Larsen did in that period of her life “remains a mystery,” that Larsen “went to great lengths to conceal” (Wall 92).

After graduating from nursing school in 1915, Larsen accepted a position as an “assistant superintendent of nurses at Tuskegee Institute” (Wall 92). While working at Tuskegee, Larsen discovered that “along with their academic and vocational training, students were also schooled in subservience and docility” (Wall 92). Larsen left Tuskegee after one year. She returned to New York, where she quickly became discontented with nursing and obtained a position as an assistant with the New York Public Library; this move put her in contact with the New Negro intelligentsia (Wall 92).

Larsen’s personal life, like her characters, exhibits a continuous quest to establish an identity for herself. But Larsen, if she ever did succeed in her quest for a sense of self, adroitly concealed it from her contemporaries and from the rest of the world. This concealment of her self is described by Wall in an interview with a reporter:

The interview concentrated on more personal concerns. The “unforgivable sin” was being bored, so [Larsen] selected only amusing and natural people, not too intellectual. She would never “pass,” because “with my economic status it’s better to be a Negro. So many things are excused them. The chained and downtrodden Negro is a picture that came out of the Civil War.” And while she claimed to be “not quite sure what she wanted to be spiritually,” she knew she “want[ed] things – beautiful and rich things.” (Wall 120).

Wall describes many more instances of Larsen’s flippancy in public, detailing the “considerable lengths” that Larsen utilized to “project a frivolous image” (Wall 120). The reasons for Larsen’s deceptive image is unclear, but Wall surmises that “behind its mask, one supposes, [Larsen] felt safe” (Wall 120). This “masquerade of femininity” is a major theme in Larsen’s novels, as also is transgressing social, racial, and gendered boundaries. The themes Larsen employs mark her as a Romantic novelist.

Bibliography

Davis, Thadious M. “Nella Larsen.” The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 427-28.

Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995.

Ever since the BEA (Book Expo America) there’s been a lot of buzz about Google’s latest endeavor: Google Print (a service technically still in Beta testing but launched by the company in October) which allows prospective readers to take a quick peek at the book they’re considering purchasing. Some in the industry have come out quite vocally against Google largely because of potential copyright issues (these same issues were brought up when Amazon launched their “Look Inside the Book”).

The concept is this: authors and publishers sign up for this free program and Google makes up to 20% of the book available for viewing on their Google Print site. If a reader decides to purchase it, Google refers them to an online bookstore (such as Amazon). Pretty simple, right? Yes, in fact it is. While I was at BEA I got a walk through this program and it’s simple in execution and powerful on the consumer end. A recent article in PC World (see link: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,121247,pg,1,RSS,RSS ,00.asp) discussed at length the issues related to Google Print – many of which I disagree with. One issue in particular that was brought up was that “if readers see the actual content of the book they might not be inclined to purchase it” – Huh? So, let me see if I get this straight. It’s ok to sell a book but let’s not let the reader see what’s in it or they may decide not to buy it? What about people browsing bookstores, doesn’t the same apply there?

So how about this: write a great book, so great in fact that *even* if readers browse it, they’ll still want to buy it. What a concept.

The idea my friends is that we live in an electronic society, meaning that we live and die by email and the internet, bookstores are not dinosaurs but they soon might be and browsing a book “electronically” is in my opinion the next big thing. Google gets it because they are visionaries. Yes, there are copyright issues. I’m sure that Google in its wisdom isn’t going to jeopardize a program they’re putting so much muscle behind to list books that aren’t supposed to be listed (i.e. publishers or authors who haven’t signed up for this program). They are, in fact, doing us a favor. Let’s face it, Google’s got clout. It’s the biggest search engine on the net right now, so big in fact the competition can’t even keep up. Now, they’re offering authors an additional way to get their books noticed. I say let’s stand up and applaud them.

As a publicist I’m front line everyday trying to push my authors into the spotlight and the facts are brutal: with 477 books released in this country each day authors need every bit of help they can get. I have seen authors with great books struggle to get *anyone’s* attention. To me, Google Print is another way for them to get noticed in a noisy world and it’s another way for readers to find the books they might not otherwise be exposed to. Forgive the cliche but it sounds pretty win-win to me.

So if you’re an author looking for another way to “get out there” give Google Print a look-see. In my opinion if you’re not using every avenue to promote your book then you’re not only doing your career a disservice but cheating your potential reader out of some pretty great stuff.

Here’s the link: http://print.google.com/googleprint/about.html