The last question our personal branding panel got at Affiliate Summit West was, to me, curious, “What would you do if someone hijacked your brand?” Being an overly trusting person, I never thought about the possibility of someone intentionally hijacking your brand – or your work. Yet, it’s happened to me before. Recently I discovered that it’s happened again. Can people really be that clueless? After dashing off a quick email with links to the sites to a few peers and getting their advice, I’m coming out with a warning: take it down or I’m coming after you. And, I’m also telling you how we can work together. Here’s why . . .
Posts tagged: Books and Authors
Hijacker Awareness Alert for Brands and Creative Work
Great Book Plus Reading List 2002-2010
Almost two years ago, I shared my book group’s reading list. This post attracted lots of traffic from people searching for book group suggestions. If you’re one of those folks, browse this list and also check out Kathleen’s Parker’s new blog, Marian’s Library for reading recommendations for all ages.
Before you dig into the lengthy book group list below, check out a great book that came out last month.
Photo caption: Kathleen Parker, Barbara Rozgonyi [me!] and Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been, a book Publisher’s Weekly calls book group gold. [Disclosure: I've know Melanie and her family for many years. I was thrilled to be invited to her book publishing party and share in the celebration with complimentary refreshments for all. Thanks Melanie and Dennis and to Kathleen for driving in for the event!]
Melanie tells the story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who was the inspiration for “Alice in Wonderland,” and her relationship with Charles Dodgson, who wrote the book under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Read the reviews of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Where is my review? My book went out on loan to friends before I had a chance to read it. Now I’m ordering a back up copy for me and as a second loaner. Judging from the reviews and knowing Melanie, this is a book that you’ll be happy to read, recommend and give to friends who love historical fiction.
Looking for more good reads? Here’s the list from my book group. What books would you add?
Update February 28, 2008
A few qualifiers: credit for the title selections goes to the book group; members collectively recommend titles and make final selections. Our leader is a very organized and dedicated person. She gets credit for keeping track of the list. 
2002 Book Group Selections
All Over But the Shoutin’ Bragg
Palace Walk
Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Five Quarters of the Orange Harris
Bel Canto Patchett
Nickel and Dimed Enrenhreich
Things Fall Apart Achebe
2003 Book Group Selections
Niagara Falls all Over Again McCracken
The Secret History Tartt
The Hatbox Baby C. Brown
The Secret Life of Bees Kidd
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai
Atonement
The Life of Pi
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
2004 Book Group Selections
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
Year of Wonders: a novel of the Plague Geraldine Brookes
The Nine Parts of Desire Geraldine Brookes
Cry the Beloved Country Paton
Patron Saint of Liars Ann Patchett
The Devil in the White City Eric Larson
The Other Boleyn Girl Philippa Gregory
The Rich Part of Life Jim Kokoris
2005 Book Group Selections
The Kite Runner by Hosseini
The Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund
Dubliners by James Joyce
Interpreter of the Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Purple Hibiscus by Adichie
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
2006 Book Group Selections
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
A Curious Incident of A Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
The Dress Lodger by Shari Holman
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
March by Geraldine Brooks
Prairie Nocturne by Ivan Doig
The Wild Girl: the Notebooks of Ned Giles by Jim Fergus
2007 Book Group Selections
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Retrospective of Jon Cleary books
The World Below by Sue Miller
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Poetry ideas from Marion
Them: a Memior of Parents by Francine du Plessix Gray
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Female of the Species (short stories) by Joyce Carol Oates
2008 Book Group Selections
Saving the World by Julia Alvarez
Echomaker by Richard Powers
The March by E.L. Doctorow
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Miss Lonelyhearts by
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
2009 Book Group Selections
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Seeing by Jose Saramago
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy by John Updike
The Girl Who Loved Anne Frank
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini
The Ha Ha: a novel by Dave King
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
2010 Book Group Selections
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff
Little Bee by Chris Cleve
Blog to Book-12 Keys to Posting for Publishing
You could call this a high-click post. It gets more traffic than some blogs will ever get. It won a trip to BlogWorld. A national association just asked for republishing rights. More sites link into “Becoming a Subject Matter Expert on LinkedIn: The Top Ten Ways” than any other post on my blog. And, now it’s in a book.
In the video [I still can't believe I had the courage to make this with NO makeup - at all!], you’ll see how and where the post appears in Larry Weber’s new book “Stick & Stones: How Digital Reputations Are Won Over Time and Lost in a Click.”
Although Wired PR Works is mentioned in David Meerman Scott’s book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” this is the first time my words are in someone else’s book. Thanks to Mr. Weber’s editor who emailed me to let me know this was post was selected after the book was published. It’s an honor to be listed along with Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn. I’ve read the book and if you’d like to, too, you can click on this [affiliate] link to order directly from this post.
When I wrote this post, I had no idea it would be published and linked to so much. Here’s why I think that happened . . .
Blog to Book – 12 Keys to Posting for Publishing
1. List: Top 10 anything gets noticed
2. Topic: LinkedIn is a popular social media platform
3. Keywords: Become a Subject Matter Expert is a desirable goal for many entrepreneurs
4. Search: Good search ranking; easy to find
5. Links: Referenced elsewhere with lots of inbound links
6. Author: Credibility with a deep body of work
7. Blog: Established and listed on Alltop and AdAge Power 150
8. Coverage: Referenced within the post about the amount of coverage
9. Winning: Contest winner
10. Content: Well-written
11. Book-friendly: Fits style and format
12. YOUR IDEA HERE
Book Deals, Digital Assets, Corporate Sponsorships for Bloggers | BlogWorld08
Interested in what happened at BlogWorld? During the sessions, I sent out enough twitter updates to fill a 15 page Word document, which added up to over 300 updates. This post covers Book Deals, Digital Assets And Corporate Sponsorships with Prince Campbell, Jonathan Fields and Geoff Nelson.
You’ll find all of my BlogWorld08 twoverage [tweet +coverage] here.
Thanks to those of you who asked me to share these updates.
Reader’s Guide: Each line represents a live update made on @wiredprworks on twitter.com. Reporting is in reverse order; so start at the end and read your way up. Note that this is exactly what I typed during the session, misspellings and all. When you see @name, this means that the person who was talking may be found on twitter.com/name. Apologies in advance for any inaccuracies.
Did you go to BlogWorld? Please share your takeaways and resources in the comments section.
I walked in late to this session – too many people to talk to in the hallways. Other places to find more detail
Ducksnorts, a sports blogger, summed up blog and book marketability highlights: “The panelists focused on the importance of marketability, with the two big lessons here being that price is all about perceived value and that you always want to keep your end game in mind, ensuring that everything you’re doing is pulling you in that direction.”
Book Deals, Digital Assets and Corporate Sponsorships for Bloggers Session Transcription by Barbara Rozgonyi @wiredprworks on twitter.com
retheauditors: Will work on that. RT @wiredprworks @lizstrauss to get published need a marketable manuscript and be someone who’s easy to work with #bwe08
@lizstrauss to get published need a marketable manuscript and have to be someone who’s easy to work with #deals, #bwe08
how big of a platform do you need? depends, smaller pubs, smaller platform #deals, #bwe08
you need to know what your endgame is, make sure everything you are doing is headed in that direction #deals #bwe08
RT thanks DaveTaylor @wiredprworks psssst Peter Shankman’s Twitter Id is @skydiver #bwe08
RETWEET @suziecheel 2pm Launch of my book “emergings- a meditation on the emotions of change” by @lizstrauss @photrade booth 510 at #BWE08
ShannonRenee: Retweeting @wiredprworks: follow session updates http://tinyurl.com/3emc8m (expand) #bwe08
if you want to speak at a conference, propose the whole package, not just a session @lizstrauss #deals, #bwe08
might take 6-7 tries to get past gatekeeper to get corporate sponsorships #deals #bwe08
people talk about corporate stuff, but it’s really all about relationships #deals, #bwe08
follow session updates http://tinyurl.com/3emc8m (expand) #bwe08
couple of ways to approach radio, radio and tv internet report rtir.com?, HARO @petershankman, set up sattelite radio tour #deals #bwe08
ShannonRenee: Retweeting @wiredprworks: we leave a footprint that lasts forever online – get it out there and comment on company blogs #bwe08
we leave a footprint that lasts forever online – get it out there and comment on company blogs #bwe08
@jetblue has a dedicate community manager, his job is to check out twitter, use the places that you use to reach out #bwe08
if you have an audience and what you’re saying is what people are interested in, they/companies will come to you #bwe08
call companies and say I blog alot about this – how can we work together? #bwe08
in digital assets sessions, this is where real $ is, facebook session too full to get into s/b in here #bwe08
Book Deals Panelists
Prince Campbell
Jonathon Fields, @jonathonfields
Geoff Nelson
Get Top-Ranked on Amazon – in Reviews | Guest Podcast | Brad Shorr, WordSell, Inc.
Writing an Amazon.com best-seller is one way to be perceived as a subject matter expert. People visit your page, they buy your book – and they read the reviews.
When I met Brad Shorr, blogger at WordSell, Inc. his Amazon review success intrigued me. Listed as the first reviewer for at least one best-selling Amazon.com business book, Brad says writing book reviews is worth the time it takes to collect your thoughts and submit a review to run on the same page as a best-seller.
We chatted for about 25 minutes and recorded an MP3 for you. Next time I’ll test my headset first.
Listen to Barbara Rozgonyi interview Brad Shorr about how to be a top Amazon reviewer.
Don’t have that much time? Glance over these notes . . . and study Brad Shorr’s Amazon Profile. Ranked in the top 1000 Amazon.com reviewers, Brad’s 232 reviews garnered 3,036 helpful votes.
Before you start, you have to have a reason to write reviews.
Here’s what Brad has to say about that on his Amazon review profile:
Hi there!
I’m a sales coach, copywriter, and blog/marketing consultant. Not not surprisingly, I love to READ! Several years ago I started writing reviews on Amazon to help me remember what I just read, and because, more that anything, other reviewers helped me figure out what to read next.
What books would you like to review?
In our interview, Brad explains his process for writing reviews, including
- take notes as you read so you’ll remember later
- be honest and say what you think, keeping in mind that you’ll want to back up strong opinions
- reference passages you like in your review
- think about what the reader would want to know and answer their questions
- focus on one or two subjects that relate to your area of expertise or diversify if you like, a niche approach works better for business
Benefits to You as an Amazon Reviewer
1. Enhanced Google results – I found 6890 results for “Brad Shorr” + Amazon
2. Qualified referral traffic – people who come to your site after reading your review already know something about you
3. Offers from authors to review books before publication – while this might not happen right away, Brad’s been contacted to preview final editions
What other benefits would you realize?
About Brad Shorr
Brad Shorr is a marketing consultant and writer who lives near Chicago, Illinois. His company, Word Sell, Inc., specializes in business blog development, Web content strategy, and Web copywriting services. He has an extensive background in B2B sales, marketing, and executive management.
Technorati Tags: Amazon Book Reviews,Podcast,Brad Shorr,Subject Matter Expert,Barbara Rozgonyi,Wired PR Works
