BrokeBook Fever -- Spreading the word on our book: news, brainstorming, etc.

[Dave Cullen]

WingSpan Press, the publisher of our book Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film just began taking pre-orders this week, and the early indications are very exciting.

I'm going to update this first post with major news as we go. The first:

We just got the news from WingSpan Press a little while ago that we have already topped $5,000 in book sales!    
I figure those orders are just from our immediate Forum family. When we start seeing the ripple effect from your placement of blurbs about the book on Yahoo and Livejournal and all the other boards where our members hang out, I expect that number to go up, up, up!

I got a message a little earlier from David Collins, our publisher at WingSpan Press. Here's a direct quote:

"We have never had a new book sell like this... This is the best marketing I've ever seen for a self-published book."

This book is already a hit, and fast becoming a phenom.

What we really need to do is harness the talent and energy of all our wonderful members to spread the word far and wide on this exciting project. It's taken us a year of massive effort to create the book. Now let's make sure people hear about it. And let's let the public know that a year and a half after the film hit theaters, Brokeback Fever is alive and well in the land.

This book is going to illustrate just how much impact the film had. And the success of the book is going to turn a lot of heads around the web and in the media to realize the enduring power of the film and take notice.

We wanted to start this thread to serve as a central place for everyone to come to share information, ideas and suggestions, and to report successes and failures . . . just generally work together to get the word out on this exciting Brokeback project.

We'll have some early news to report soon.

Meanwhile, jump right in about any ideas on how we can get word out to other websites or media. I also want to use this space to track what we've done. (For example, if you want to commit to writing a post about the book on two other discussion sites where you're a member, you might want to post here that you're going to, and then come back in a day or two and let us know what kind of response you got.)

Everyone should know that the website for the book is up and running here--with lots of extra features only available on the site:

Our Brokeback Mountain book -- Beyond Brokeback

Special features at the website include:

• bios of our writers/members/volunteers
• discussion guides
• sample stories
• bonus artwork not in the book -- a sample of three rotated weekly
• "The rest of the story . . ." -- an evolving area for fresh chapters and updates on some of the most moving episodes in the book

Of course you can order the book at our site above. And Wingspan Press has already moved our book up to the top of their site, here:

http://www.overlookedbooks.com/index.php?cmd=cat&id=18

FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO:

1. Add a link to our book's website to your profile on myspace or networking site, dating site, blog, livejournal or anything else you have access to.

That helps two ways:

• It gets the info directly to people who see your profile or livejournal or blog or whatever
• it increases our google rank for the book website, so many more people will find it through google and yahoo searches, etc.

some sample text you might want to use, with codes (change all the [] to <> on most sites) (see code snippet below):

In March 2007, the members of [A HREF="http://www.davecullen.com/forum/"]The Ultimate Brokeback Forum [/A] have just released a hardcover/paperback book titled [A HREF="http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/"]Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film.[/A]

Members of our forum were affected so deeply by the film, that a team of volunteers labored for more than a year to create a book documenting the impact. Editors selected the most compelling, amusing and emotionally-devastating stories of transformation from The Ultimate Brokeback Forum. They came from straight and gay people, old and young, male and female, on six continents. The book is available now from WingSpan Press in both hardcover and trade paperback.

HTML:

Code:

In March 2007, the members of
<a href="http://www.davecullen.com/forum/"]<i>The Ultimate Brokeback Forum </i></a>
have just released a hardcover/paperback book titled
<a href="http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/"><i>Beyond Brokeback:  The Impact of a Film</i></a>

there is a large image of the beautiful book cover here:
http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/img/BeyondBrokebackCover.png

2. Post about it on all discussion boards you are a member of.

Talk it up and get a conversation going, if possible. If you think there is enough interest, start a thread.

3. Create a signature in your email program that includes information about the book on every email you send.

This may be less obtrusive than sending our a personal email blast, and yet will get through to the people you correspond with most often.  Include the link to the book site, and possibly incorporate a picture of the cover.  Outlook and most other email programs support signatures.  Some support having multiple signatures that you can choose between on an email by email basis.

4-5. We don't have five yet, but we wanted to set this up with space for new ideas to emerge as we go. We'll move the best ideas up here. Help us brainstorm!

Thanks.

[sfericsf]

I found out about the book being ready for pre-sale on another site.  A Yahoo group!  I'm a member of DC, but I didn't get any email announcement.  My email address is with Yahoo.  When I did look at the announcement that was sent, if I had received that I would have deleted it without reading it.  Too much text, etc.  With so much spam around these days, people on the internet tend to weed through text and such to get to what they're looking for.  An email with too much text will not be read.  Much like this post, which I'm writiing a lot in it to get this point across.  Let's see who skims this over and who actually reads this.  Although it could be bias since it's the 2nd post in the thread.

Also, I didn't even see it on the main page of the forums until 5 seconds ago.  It should be a giant attention grabbing banner across the top of the main forum page.

There needs to be pictures of the book and graphics to grab attention! 

There needs to be 'visible' links.
I.E.:  Check out the website for our book here:
http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/

This was done on the newsletter, which is good.  But definitely refrain from doing this!  With all the spam out there today, people will not click this.

Keep the annoucement simple.  People do not like to read a lot of text.  Show a big picture of the book, and provide a link to learn more.  See my signature below.  "It doesn't say much, but it get's it's point across."   

The website looks awesome.  It's simple, and to the point.  Keep announcements about the book the same way!

[Dave Cullen]

I found out about the book being ready for pre-sale on another site.  A Yahoo group!  I'm a member of DC, but I didn't get any email announcement. 

. . .

The website looks awesome.  It's simple, and to the point.  Keep announcements about the book the same way!

thanks sfericsf. lots of good suggestions. we'll work on making the announcement on our site bolder. and i'll make the announcement bigger in the newsbox once we get rolling.

your email newsletter is probably still on its way. our tech guy baycityjohn is sending them out and limited by an anti-spam feature from his isp in how many he can send out each hour/day. i believe we're only halfway down the list.

i was very excited to hear that it already made a yahoo list, though. do you have a link, or is it a closed email group?

thanks.

[sfericsf]

It's on their front page here:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brokeback-mountain/

And if you can view it without joining, here is the first post about it: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brokeback-mountain/message/44326

[Dave Cullen]

It's on their front page here:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brokeback-mountain/

And if you can view it without joining, here is the first post about it: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brokeback-mountain/message/44326

thanks. i was a member of that way back, but not sure through which yahoo account. i just re-joined and thanked them, and pointed them to this thread. (hello, if anyone followed the link here. hehehe.)

there's also a picture of the book posted--i guess in another thread--but without our web address. i couldn't figure out how to reply, though. do they have threads, or is it just one continuous stream? i was always a bit confused on how that group worked.

[planetgal471]

I advertized it on the Livejournal Brokeback Community wranglers here:

http://community.livejournal.com/wranglers/1411815.html

Plus on my own LJ. It's not much, but it's a couple thousand people all-told.

[Dave Cullen]

I advertized it on the Livejournal Brokeback Community wranglers here:

http://community.livejournal.com/wranglers/1411815.html

Plus on my own LJ. It's not much, but it's a couple thousand people all-told.

thanks, so much, planetgal. that's great.

we also want to raise the google rank of our web page devoted to the book as quickly as possible, so that people find it while searching the web on brokeback mountain, or whatever. (it's a brand new webpage, so we're starting from ground zero with links.)

i just added links from my myspace page and my profile on a gay networking site. anyone who can link on their pages like that--or whatever you have--would really help. (and let us know that you have, here.) that helps two ways:

• It gets the info directly to people who see your profile or livejournal or blog or whatever
• it increases our google rank for the book website, so many more people will find it through google and yahoo searches, etc.

we'll keep you posted on how the google rank rises. it may take a little time, but we'll get there. (FYI, ranking for yahoo msn and other engines vary but are typically fairly comparable to google. so the google rank will give us a pretty good gauge to all search engines.) 

if it helps, i'm going to post what i used as sample text and code below. you can use just the first line if you want something short, or the whole thing. or change it up a bit or write your own. this is just meant to help. (on most sites, you will may have to replace the [] characters below with <> -- i had to change them to something else here, or it just interpretted them as commands. on some sites they may have simplified html in place of the href stuff as well. ask here if you're having trouble):

In March 2007, the members of [A HREF="http://www.davecullen.com/forum/"]The Ultimate Brokeback Forum [/A] have just released a hardcover/paperback book titled [A HREF="http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/"]Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a Film.[/A]

Members of our forum were affected so deeply by the film, that a team of volunteers labored for more than a year to create a book documenting the impact. Editors selected the most compelling, amusing and emotionally-devastating stories of transformation from The Ultimate Brokeback Forum. They came from straight and gay people, old and young, male and female, on six continents. The book is available now from WingSpan Press in both hardcover and trade paperback.

there is a large image of the beautiful book cover here:
http://www.davecullen.com/brokeback/book/img/BeyondBrokebackCover.png

---

FYI: Lydia is going to have some news for you soon. She had to go out.

[LoveEmBoys]

Posted link on my blog:

http://sunponyranch.blogspot.com/2007/03/beyond-brokeback.html

[planetgal471]

Good idea! I just dropped links on userinfos and layouts of a few LJ accounts and communities I own. Maybe we could advertize this idea more prominently? If everyone posted a link or a blog entry, etc...

[Dave Cullen]

Good idea! I just dropped links on userinfos and layouts of a few LJ accounts and communities I own. Maybe we could advertize this idea more prominently? If everyone posted a link or a blog entry, etc...

good idea.

maybe i should add a place to the first post where we make a bullet list of Five Things You Can Do or something. (i'm not sure we have five yet, but i bet it will be ten in no time.)

does that sound worth doing?

[LoveEmBoys]

Maybe i should add a place to the first post where we make a bullet list of Five Things You Can Do or something. (i'm not sure we have five yet, but i bet it will be ten in no time.)

does that sound worth doing?

Yes!   I think so.

I have a couple other websites that I can throw links onto -- even though no one who cares will actually see them.  But will help with the google ranking, won't it?

[Dave Cullen]

I have a couple other websites that I can throw links onto -- even though no one who cares will actually see them.  But will help with the google ranking, won't it?

yes, definitely. thanks for the links.

and i added the FIVE THINGS . . . to the first post, and also a link to the picture of the book for people to use.

ANOTHER THING YOU CAN DO FOR GOOGLE:

Vote for us on google.

here's how:

if you already have a google toolbar on your browser screen, and if you have the "voting" option on, go to our web pages (especially the one for the book), and click on the smiley face to vote that you like it.

if you don't have the button on your googletoolbar (it's kinda new), go to Settings (on the googletoolar), then go to the More tab, and under "Even more buttons," check the box next to the big yellow smiley with the word Voting, next to it.

if you don't have a google toolbar, it's pretty handy to have. go to google, click on the More button to the left, and it will take you to the page with all the google features. they're alphabetical, so it's under T. if i remember right, it downloads in about 30 seconds.

[goaboydc]

thanks. i was a member of that way back, but not sure through which yahoo account. i just re-joined and thanked them, and pointed them to this thread.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for taking the time to post a reply to the Yahoo Group. (brokeback-mountain). We have a sister site over at LJ

http://community.livejournal.com/bbm_phoenix/

and a similar announcement has been posted there as well.

Slightly off-topic, but I would like to thank you for allowing me to be a part of this project, and especially to Lydia who made the task incredibly easy, enjoyable, and fulfilling.

FWIW

goaboydc (aka JE on the Yahoo Group)

[KittyHawk]

I'm glad to see that marketing ideas are beginning to hum through here!

Livejournal and Yahoo groups are super places to put our news. Anybody added a link to their MySpace yet?

And goaboydc, thanks for the compliment. You know the feelings are mutual!

- KittyHawk

[KittyHawk]

We just got the news from WingSpan Press a little while ago that we have already topped $5,000 in book sales!    
I figure those orders are just from our immediate Forum family. When we start seeing the ripple effect from your placement of blurbs about the book on Yahoo and Livejournal and all the other boards where our members hang out, I expect that number to go up, up, up!

If we can get those other folks to order in the next week or 10 days, they can be in our first printing and receive their orders more quickly.

- Lydia