Arielle Ford’s Everything You Should Know

In a little more than four months, or 131 days to be precise, The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life With the Law of Attraction will go on sale. It’s now total crunch time.  Long-lead magazines are working on the February issues and if I want to be included now’s the time to be pitching. Harper One has assigned publicist extraordinaire, Suzanne Wickham, to work on my book. She now has galleys and will soon be pitching away.  As the author, it’s my job to make her job easier which means giving her feature story ideas and hooks for a wide variety of magazines. I just completed a 9 - question quiz and I plan to spend time this weekend coming up with story angles.  Earlier this week, while in New York, I videotaped my first two interviews on the book. The first was with the talented and beautiful Ariane of www.thefirst30days.com  She’ll post this interview in January. The second was with my publisher….the interview (thank you Lisa Sharkey) will be used to show TV producers as well as post on the Harper Collins website. I am still working on creating a list of 108 partners who will email blast for the book …so far I have figured out 95 of them. The plan is to have two blasts. The first in early December as a holiday/pre-order blast offering 3 or 4 great downloable bonuses so you can being the manifestation process NOW and then second will be the actual book launch the week of January 20th.  My goal is to reach at least 2 million (or more!) people with emails about the book.  One of the key ingredients of The Soulmate Secret is a tool I call “feelingizations.”  These are processes that allow you to feel in every cell in your body that which you wish to create.  Since we couldn’t include an audio CD with the book, these will be available, to download or listen to online, through a special URL for readers of the book.  They were recorded two weeks ago and are in final editing right now.  The website, www.soulmatesecret.com is also in development thanks to my partner Mike and his team.  One of the first sections of the site that needs to be completed is the “press room” which will have background information on the book, a jpg of the book cover (which turned out great), my bio, headshots (I sooooo need new headshots and I am promising myself right now to have them in hand before October 1st) and articles about the book as they appear.  Fortunately Awareness magazine did a cover story on me and Brian last May so we have one piece of positive publicity to begin with. One thing I always share with authors is: if one of your goals is to be on Oprah, figure out NOW what you are going to where….in fact, have two outfits hanging in your closet, ready to go when the call comes in.  This may sound like just a good exuse to go shopping but honestly it is something to prepare for.  With that in mind, I am constantly in search of the perfect pink or raspberry shirt or sweater. (I haven’t found it yet.)  Lastly, I’m still in search of a marketing intern with amazing computer and internet skills.

We all know how important endorsements or “blurbs” are. Below is the copy I am using in my cover letters as I begin asking for blurbs for The Soulmate Secret. As you will see, I’ve kept it relatively short but very personal and hopefully engaging. Big name authors get asked all the time for blurbs. Chances are there is an assistant who will see your letter first. If you can engage the assistant it will certainly help your chances for success. I sent the letter below with a copy of the galley. If you don’t have a galley then send a bound manuscript and a small gift that relates to your title. For instance, with my book I could have sent a pretty picture frame with a photo of a happy couple (that could clearly be used by the recipient for their own photo). If you can’t think of a gift that makes sense, I think a small box of Godiva chocolates is always appreciated. Why send a gift? You want your book to stand out in the pile of other books that are requesting the same thing. In the Everything You Should Know program we discuss lots of other ways to approach bestselling authors for blurbs. One more thing: do not ever ask for a blurb via email with your manuscript attached.

Dear Favorite Author, (use their formal name)

Do you remember August 9, 1998? That was the day my beautiful summer wedding came about because I had used everything I’d ever learned about manifestation and applied it to my love life. My intentions had became crystal clear while I simultaneously cleared out the clutter in my house AND in my heart. I used techniques, rituals, visualizations and prayers that helped me prepare my body, mind, spirit and home for an amazing relationship. It all worked.

Over the years many single women have asked me, “how do I get a Brian?” (he’s my amazing husband) I decided to share my techniques and 18 months ago launched www.soulmatekit.com. Earlier this year the editors at Harper One saw The Soulmate Kit and made me an offer. Thus, my forthcoming book will be, The Soulmate Secret: Manifest The Love of Your Life with The Law of Attraction (January 2009).

I have enclosed the galley in hopes that I can convince you to write an endorsement for this book. (or, to let us write it for you to edit)

I’m know you get dozens of these requests on a weekly basis so I won’t be upset, or surprised, if you are just too busy….but, I’ve got my fingers crossed!
And, please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Best wishes,

Arielle

For the past few nights I have found myself watching the game show Deal Or No Deal. Tonight I figured out which case had the $1,000,000 inside. Somehow I just KNEW it was case #11. How did I know? I don’t have a clue….but I knew. The contestant was down to her final 2 cases when they offered for $530,000 to quit the game. I was rooting for her to take the $530k and take the sure money, even though I KNEW it was case #11. She was certain it was case#18 and she passed on the half a million so she went with her gut feeling and ended up with $5,000 and a free trip to New York. Now, I wasn’t the one standing on the stage, under the glaring lights and cameras and screaming audience. I was sitting on my couch as a bystander and now I”m left wondering…if I were the contestant, would I have trusted by intuition and won a million dollars? Learning to “hear” and “trust” my intuitive voice is what I seek to do. Have any tips to share?

Now that I have sent the intention to have 108 email partners for the launch of The Soulmate Secret, I have been actively asking everyone I talk to if they have a list AND if they would like to participate. Luckily the responses have been very positive and I now have 77 people on this list. One of my BIG dreams for this book has been to create a little animated video (that will go out virally) that tells a story and incorporates the book title at the end. I have written a 90 second script and will now begin the process of creating the story board. Once that is done I will find help making it a reality in animation with music and everything!

My publisher has asked me to send out a bound copy of the manuscript to some “big name” authors for endorsements….those went out this week. I am so grateful to Marianne Williamson who has agreed already! She has been a loving and generous friend since 1985. As I mentioned in my last posting, a few weeks ago I set the intention to find a college intern to help me manage the many details related to marketing the book. Well, we went to dinner last week at our favorite sushi bar and discovered that our server is a marketing major at a local University.  She has been doing a marketing internship all summer long, that will soon end, so I told her to google me and if she was interested in interning for me to send an email, which she did. We are meeting for lunch in a few days to find out if she is “the one.”

Having  strong intentions and being willing to speak up and ask for what you need are things every good book marketer needs!

Welcome to my personal blog.

My intention is to share with you my step by step process for marketing my book, The Soulmate Secret: Manifest the Love of Your Life with The Law of Intention (Harper One) which comes out next January (it’s based on the work I did on The Soulmate Kit).

It’s been several years since the release of my last book and since then I have witnessed the amazing evolution of internet marketing as a way to sell books. I also plan to pursue traditional PR outlets but Like most of you, I have a full time job (doing PR & Marketing for Spiritual Cinema Circle and Earth Cinema Circle) so I will be working on this project at night and on weekends.

I began yesterday (Sunday afternoon). I spent about 3 hours thinking about what I need to make this all happen and ended up making four lists.

One of the main ways I plan to promote this book is through a series of email blasts and I want to find 108 partners to help me with this. So far I have 61 people on this list….mostly friends and business associates…I’m looking forward to connecting with each one of them and asking them to support my book launch.

The second list made up of old and new friends who work in PR that may be willing to help out in some way. The third list is names of well- known people I plan to ask to endorse the book and the fourth list consists of things I may (or may not) ask those contributed stories to my book to do in order to help sell books. For the next few days I will keep adding to these lists and I will be thinking about how to structure the email blast campaign.

I also really, really need to manifest the perfect intern to help me organize all the details. Someone smart, responsible, reliable, internet savvy, fun to work with and willing to stick around through next Spring. If you know who that person is, please let me know!