Book Publishing Experts at SPOC 2009

On May 13, 14, and 15, we hosted a total of 15 speakers on a wide range of book publishing and promotion topics. Check out this amazing line-up of speakers!

Sandra Beckwith

Sandra Beckwith is a former publicist who shares her award-winning expertise with others as the author of three publicity how-to books and as a publicity workshop presenter and e-course instructor. She is the author of Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates; Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions; and Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans: How to Create Publicity That Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement. Her popular book publicity e-course for self-published authors and free book publicity e-zine, Build Book Buzz, help authors learn how to generate media exposure for their books. Sandra has been a speaker at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference several times, presented workshops at the University of Wisconsin Writer's Institute, and led workshops or been a keynote speaker at a wide range of nonprofit and small business conferences nationwide. She is leading two workshops at the Florida Writers Association annual conference in October. Sandra is also a freelance writer; her work has appeared in Woman's Day, Relish, American Profile, Black Enterprise, GRIT, e-Pregnancy, VFW Magazine, Old House Journal, MyBusiness, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and many other consumer, custom and trade publications. She has a journalism and public relations degree from Utica College of Syracuse University. For more information, please visit www.buildbookbuzz.com.

Matthew Bennett

Matthew Bennett has developed and sold over five million books, coached thousands of authors and is extremely active in philanthropic ventures having raised millions of dollars for a wide variety of charities.  Matthew is a prolific writer (a few of his titles include, The Maternal Journal, Lifestyles of the Trim & Healthy, The Puppy & Kitten Journals and Fat Matt) who places a strong emphasis on the importance of innovative marketing and personal work habits.   His latest dynamic venture, Write It, Print It, Sell It!  How To Get The Book Inside You Out, takes authors and potential authors through all of the steps of completing a successful book project in a highly-informative and truly entertaining style. You can learn more about Matthew and his work at www.WritePrintSell.com

Peter Bowerman

Peter Bowerman, a veteran commercial freelancer and business coach, is the author of the award-winning Book-of-the-Month Club selection, The Well-Fed Writer, and its companion, TWFW: Back For Seconds — both self-published. (Look for the updated edition of The Well-Fed Writer coming in late summer, 2009.) His Well-Fed Writer titles have become how-to "standards" on starting a lucrative commercial freelancing business — writing for businesses and for rates of $50-125+ an hour. His commercial client list has included The Coca-Cola Company, BellSouth, IBM, UPS, American Express, Mercedes-Benz, The Discovery Channel, Junior Achievement and many others. He chronicled his self-publishing success (52,000 copies of his first two books in print and a full-time living for seven-plus years) in his third book, the award-winning 2007 release, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living. www.wellfedsp.com.

Susan Daffron & James Byrd

Susan Daffron and James Byrd own Logical Expressions, Inc which is a book and software publishing company based in Sandpoint, Idaho. They have self-published 9 books in the last 3 years, including Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book that Promotes Your Expertise. Their other books include, Vegan Success: Scrumptious, Healthy Vegan Recipes for Busy People, Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites That Work, Happy Hound: Develop a Great Relationship with Your Adopted Dog or Puppy, and Happy Tabby: Develop a Great Relationship with Your Adopted Cat or Kitten and 5 other books on computing topics. Thanks to the Internet, Susan and James have been able to operate their business from a remote location in Idaho since 1996. The company's Web sites have received kudos from USA Today, Tribune Media Services, and the BBC. Susan was recently featured in Redbook Magazine in an article called "Trust Your Gut, Change Your Life" which detailed how she and James started Logical Expressions as a means to escape the big city rat-race and lead a simpler more satisfying lifestyle. From a log home deep in a forest, Susan and James offer book production and consulting services to clients throughout the United States. Logical Expressions is also one of the sponsors of the Self-Publishers Online Conference. For more information, please visit: www.LogicalExpressions.com.

Shel Horowitz

The award-winning author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and five other books, Shel Horowitz is currently writing his eighth book, to be co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson (of Guerrilla Marketing fame). As a copywriter and marketing/publishing consultant, Shel helps authors and publishers with marketing plans, book jackets, website copy, press releases, etc. He also walks unpublished writers through the process of becoming published authors, step by step. Shel has been featured in many major media, including repeat appearances in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and many others. An expert on affordable, ethical, and effective marketing, he's been using social media marketing all the way back to 1995, and since 1996, it has brought in the majority of his income. Shel speaks frequently on social media, book publishing, frugal and ethical marketing, and business success through ethics and Green principles. For more information, please visit: www.grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com

Debi Flora

Debi Flora is the President of About Books, Inc., a Colorado-based book packager.  She and her team edit, design, print and offer marketing services for over 25 titles each year. About Books has helped hundreds of authors start their own publishing company and produce their books.  These publishing companies have won awards and garnered outstanding reviews from Foreword Magazine, US Book News Awards, the Colorado Independent Publishers Association and more. Debi is active in publishing circles including SPAN, CIPA, IBPA and PubWest. She and Tully, her labradoodle, participate regularly in the PAWS to Read program for children in the Pikes Peak Library District. Read more at: www.about-books.com 

Melanie Jordan

Melanie heads up SunLover Publishing LLC, her publishing, media properties and coaching company.  She has 20+ years of experience in marketing from her work with some of the country's largest financial services companies, her own entrepreneurial pursuits and working with clients, plus a decade of information product experience. Melanie is a faculty member for Alex Mandossian's prestigious Optimization University for her marketing expertise in working with small businesses and professionals worldwide.  She also is a frequent speaker, trainer and guest for top online conferences, teleseminars and podcasts. Melanie's newest book is What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ - Achieving The Life You Were Meant To Have By Making Money From What YOU Know!  It's the first in a complete line of information products and services on all aspects of infopreneuring, marketing and social media.  Melanie is also the producer and host of What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™, The Podcast, which has been honored as a featured podcast on Microsoft's Office Podcasts Directory since its inception. Read more at: www.WhatYouKnowIsWorthMoreBook.com

Brian Jud

Brian Jud is an author, book-marketing consultant, seminar leader, television host and president of Book Marketing Works, LLC. Brian is active in special-sales marketing. He created The Promotional Bookstore, a catalog used by thousands of independent sales reps to sell books on a commission-only basis to non-bookstore buyers. He is the author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books, Beyond the Bookstore (a Publishers Weekly title) and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM. Brian is the editor of the Book Marketing Matters newsletter on special sales topics. And with Oracle Corporation he developed and introduced the Special-Sales Profit Center, the web-based, targeted-marketing system that helps deliver incremental sales and profits. Brian is the producer and host of the television series The Book Authority and has aired six hundred and fifty shows. In addition, he is the author, narrator and producer of the media-training video program You're On The Air. He also wrote and published its companion guides, It's Show Time and Perpetual Promotion. Brian wrote and self-published five books on career transition that are distributed internationally and translated into Spanish. He is the author, narrator and producer of the video program The Art of Interviewing, and the author of the eight e-booklets with Proven Tips for Publishing Success. For more information, please visit: www.BookMarketingWorks.com

Donna Kozik

Donna Kozik grew up on a 200-acre dairy farm in northwestern Pennsylvania and now lives near the freeways and beaches of San Diego, where she shows coaches, entrepreneurs and others how to become published authors the "fast and easy way." In fact, she has set a personal goal of turning 1000 people into published authors in the next 12 months. Her system for doing this is live and virtual "Write a Book in a Weekend" events, featuring Donna's "fill-in-the-blanks" book template plus a weekend of live audio and recorded video messages that motivate and inspire soon-to-authors to complete their books in 2 days. She is former newspaper editor and senior communications specialist, a two-time award winning book author who has been featured in Woman's Day and Women's World magazines, The LA Times and The Baltimore Sun newspapers, NPR's "Marketplace" news magazine and the NBC Nightly News. She's also been a paid national media spokesperson for Sprint PCS and has been featured in several other books including ones by Bob Bly and MarketingProfs, along with Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and It's All Small Stuff Stories and The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life published by Harper Collins. Donna's company My Big Business Card was one of the sponsors of SPOC 2009. For more information, please visit: www.WriteWithDonna.com

Jill Lublin

Praised as a modern-day Dale Carnegie for how to be influential, Jill Lublin authored the bestselling book Get Noticed...Get Referrals:  Build Your Client Base and Your Business by Making a Name for Yourself (McGraw-Hill, June 2008).  She is also the coauthor of two other national bestselling books, Networking Magic which rose to #1 on the Barnes and Noble charts for three weeks, and Guerrilla Publicity, the PR bible.  Jill is the founder of GoodNews Media, Inc. and hosts the TV program, Messages of Hope, and the nationally syndicated radio show, Do the Dream. In addition she has created two audio programs, three DVD training videos, and a workbook. Jill is a popular international speaker who teaches powerful publicity, networking, and how to be influential techniques. As the CEO of the strategic consulting firm, Promising Promotion, Jill has trained companies in innovative techniques to improve bottom line results. In the past twenty years, she has worked with ABC, NBC, CBS, and other national media, and knows what the media wants. Jill has been featured in The New York Times, Women's Day, Fortune Small Business, Inc,and Entrepreneur Magazine, and on ABC and NBC radio and TV national affiliates. You can read more at: www.JillLublin.com

Michael Port

The Boston Globe calls Michael Port, "an uncommonly honest author." The Wall Street Journal calls him a "marketing guru." Canada's leading business paper, The Financial Post declares the world needs more Michael Ports. But who cares about him? It's what he's doing for you that matters. Michael wrote the mega bestselling Book Yourself Solid so business owners can get all the clients their heart desires. He wrote Beyond Booked Solid so they can stop trading time for money. He wrote the award-winning Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (BIG) To Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite so salespeople respect their customers. But, Michael didn't start out as an author, speaker and entrepreneur. He began as an actor. You might even have been able to pick him out of a crowd from his starring and supporting roles in TV and film projects like Sex and the City, Third Watch, All My Children and more. And now, Michael is thinking even bigger about his own work and how it will touch you and ultimately change the world. To get started, check out The Think Big Manifesto, a free handbook for an online social network that will inspire people in the world to lead their own personal revolutions. Find out more at ThinkBigRevolution.com

Dan Poynter

In 1969 Dan Poynter fell into publishing. He spent eight years researching a labor of love. Realizing no publisher would be interested in a technical treatise on the parachute, he went directly to a printer and "self- published." The orders poured in and he suddenly found he was a publisher himself. For many years, Dan ran Para Publishing all by himself. In fact, he was often billed as the world's largest one-person publishing company. As a one-man show, an author/publisher who handled all the writing, publishing and promotion, office management and shipping himself, Dan is in the best position to advise a first time self-publishing author who is on a limited budget. Today, Dan has staff, a number of products and services (books, reports, tapes, disks, seminars, etc.) and a large suite of offices with a 360-degree view of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Dan's work for publishing was recognized by the Publishers Marketing Association when they gave him the Benjamin Franklin Award. He was given the Irwin Award for the best electronic promotion campaign by the Book Publicists of Southern California. He is a past vice-president of PMA. Dan Poynter's seminars have been featured on CNN, his books have been pictured in The Wall Street Journal, and his story has been told in U.S. News & World Report. The media comes to him because he is the leading authority on book marketing, promoting and distributing. Dan's credits include: Author of 120+ books, Certified Speaking Professional, Author of Information Products on Book Writing/Publishing/Promoting, Parachutes/Skydiving, Expert Witness & Aging Cats. For more information, visit: http://ParaPublishing.com

Penny C. Sansevieri

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the innovative Social Media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Red Hot Internet Publicity which has been called the "leading guide to everything Internet" AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, micro-blogs, blogs, book videos, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book's topic, positioning the author in his or her market. AME has had nine recent books top the bestseller lists including New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. To learn more about Penny's books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Jacqueline Church Simonds

Jacqueline Church Simonds is co-owner of Beagle Bay, Inc., which for ten years has published books that enlighten and inform, primarily for a female audience. Since 2003, nearly every title has won a national award. Beagle Bay also distributes other small press books to the book trade. Under its Creative Minds Press banner, the company offers publishing services—from editing to typesetting and cover design—to self-publishers. The Creative Minds website also has "The Self-Publisher's FAQ," one of the best on-line resources for those considering publishing. In May, the company is launching the "Small Press World" website, which will focus on resources and services for those who are opening and running a small press. Jacqueline also serves as a book shepherd/publishing consultant. She has helped dozens of clients produce critically praised, award winning, profitable books. You can read more at the Beagle Bay web site: www.beaglebay.com

Patrick Snow

Patrick Snow is a best-selling author, international keynote speaker, publishing coach, and Internet entrepreneur. For more than 20 years, he has studied the field of personal growth and development. Patrick's "DESTINY" message has been recognized in major newspapers such as The New York Times and his book and photo were also featured on the cover story in the December 5th, 2002, issue of USA TODAY. Patrick is author of Creating Your Own Destiny: How to Get Exactly What You Want Out of Life, which has sold more than 150,000 copies since its first printing in 2001. His book has been translated into numerous foreign languages and is a Success Road Map for High Achievers. He is also a contributing author to the new Chicken Soup for the Soul: Life Lessons for Mastering the Law of Attraction. Patrick has been in business-to-business and high-tech corporate sales for more than 15 years. Patrick's mission is to help others overcome their fears by turning their career distress into personal success. You can read more at: www.CreateYourOwnDestiny.com

Carol White

Carol White is an author, speaker, book marketing coach, and avid road tripper.  In addition to co-authoring the best selling, award-winning book, Live Your Road Trip Dream (RLI Press, 2004, Second Edition 2008, www.roadtripdream.com), Carol is a frequent guest speaker at conventions such as AARP's Life @ 50+ and The Great North American RV Rally.  She is a published writer for magazines, a regular professional contributor to several websites and has spoken to publishing groups including the Independent Book Publisher's Association's IBPA-U, PNBA's annual book show and the Northwest Association of Book Publishers.  She has been quoted as a travel expert in such publications as Publisher's Weekly, Women's Health, More and Entrepreneur. After winning the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Award for Marketing Innovation and Excellence from the Publisher's Marketing Association (now IBPA), Carol became widely acknowledged as a knowledgeable resource on book marketing and began building her consulting practice (www.carolwhitemarketing.com). She joined About Books in 2008 as their client-marketing consultant.