FNN Report: Clintons form exploratory committee for Chelsea’s daughter Charlotte

Charlotte Clinton Mszvinsky, born in September 2014 to her mother Chelsea Clinton, now has her own political action committee to analyze and prepare for a run for the Presidency in thirty-five years or so.

FNN’s political reporter Stacy Conundrum broke this story.

One of the committee’s initial tasks is to organize a Senate campaign for the tyke so she can gain legislative experience. The committee will also evaluate which state will offer the best chances for success and that will be the state she will move to with her parents as soon as the data becomes clear.

The committee is anxiously awaiting her to grow old enough to attend pre-school. Then she can express her views on education with position papers and explain how she plans to change education once she is elected to public office.

Her parents have announced plans to take Charlotte to a different country at least once a year so she can gain foreign affairs experience by playing with privileged children there who may someday become powerful leaders in those countries.

Charlotte’s press agent told us, “Charlotte’s parents insist the child be raise as a ‘ordinary child’ not as a family member of the American elite.”

The press agent also added, “Remember this, anything the Bush family can do, the Clinton family can do better.”

Do you have a topic you’d like FNN to investigate? Send us a message and we’ll investigate it.

Hank Quense is the author of 50 published short stories along with four novels and three collections of stories. All of these are humorous and/or satiric scifi and fantasy. In the non-fiction area, he has over a dozen articles published on fiction writing and he's the author of the Fiction Writing Guides series and the Self-publishing Guides series. Both series consist of a number of ebooks. The Fiction Writing Guides and the Self-Publishing Guides are an outgrowth of his lectures on both subjects.

Strange Worlds OnlineHank's Amazon PageHank's Blog PageSelf-publishing Guides

Strange Worlds Online

Amazon page

Self-publishing Guides

Hank's fiction works 

IWSG: Ask PZM, December 2014

It's that the first Wednesday in the month again, which means Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thanks to our noble Ninja Captain Alex J Cavanaugh, it's time to share our fears and insecurities, or support and assistance. Doesn't matter which. 

If you'd like to join, click here.

Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Our hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG are Heather Gardner, T. Drecker from Kidbits, Eva E. Solar at Lilicasplace, and Patsy Collins!

Before we get to Ask PZM, just a reminder that The Insecure Writer's Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond is now available for downloading. You can check out the sites here.

Ask PZM, December 2014

Q. Do you have any suggestions for bulk or sponsored book sales?

This book marketing area is a wonderful opportunity for authors although I can only share my own experiences and thoughts on this topic.

In May, 330 copies of my paperback HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE were ordered from CreateSpace.  I suspect that an elementary school ordered these books for its graduating 8^th grade class as this is the ideal target audience for the book.

Then more recently 40 paperbacks copies of my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT were ordered from CreateSpace.  In this case I suspect a book club or high school class because I have book discussion questions and a high school lesson plan on www.MrsLieutenant.com

Now I have been pondering how to get more of these sales.

First question for all of us is: What are the likely groups that might be interested in buying our books in large quantities?

Here we need to think outside the box, as the saying goes.  And we need to think for both fiction and nonfiction after considering that there are two different target markets.

One potential market is the direct readers, such as book groups and schools.  The second potential market is sponsored books.

Direct readers

With the direct readers you could, for example, offer an author visit or skype call in connection to a group reading of your book.  Or if you have a children’s picture book, you might offer to do a classroom art activity around some aspect connected to the picture book. 

You can start locally by contacting high schools or community colleges in your area.  For many readers meeting an author is very exciting, so an author visit can definitely encourage group purchases.

Note that the purchases can be the ebooks instead of the physical books.  And in either case, the book discussion questions and high school lesson plan, for example, can be included in the books themselves.   (I have this material in the ebook of MRS. LIEUTENANT but not the paperback.  It would be relatively easy for me to add this same material to my paperback on CreateSpace.)

Sponsored books

In this scenario you locate companies who could benefit from the marketing goodwill of giving away your books for free to their customers or clients.  Again, these could be the physical books or the ebooks.

For example, if you have written a book about estate planning and included information on life insurance, you might approach an insurance company and ask if the company would be interested in buying copies of your book to give to their customers.  You can offer a wholesale rate that provides revenue to you and costs the company less than buying the books retail.

You could even do this if you have written a novel whose storyline concerns a major plot about insurance.  Even a cautionary tale about insurance could be of interest to an insurance company.

Note that you can license your ebook so that a company may give away as many copies as agreed upon for a set licensing fee.  This financial arrangement can be very beneficial for both parties.

And if you have more than one book, of course those books are listed at the end of the sponsored book.  In this case you’re being paid to have free advertising for your other books.

Branding opportunities

If you are a self-published author, you can also offer branding opportunities for your sponsored books.  You can, for example, add content to your book about the company sponsoring the book.  You can even add the company’s name to the cover, such as “The Ideal Insurance Company presents” [your book title].

While there might be cases in which two companies sponsoring the same book would not be a good idea (such as the only two department stores in a small town), in most cases you can offer branding opportunities to numerous companies.

Prior commitments

If your ebook is on Amazon’s KDP Select with its ebook exclusive requirement, you will need to end the KDP Select commitment before your ebook can be given away.  And although I am not a lawyer, I would say that this would be true even if you were adding sponsorship branding material to the ebook.  It’s still the same ebook, and you don’t want to get in hot water with Amazon.

The good news is that KDP Select does not require exclusivity of the physical books, so even if your ebook is on KDP Select, you can look for bulk deals for the paperback.

Finding companies interested in sponsorship opportunities

Here I don’t have any specific advice.  I personally am interested in finding high school teacher associations who might be interested in either HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL or MRS. LIEUTENANT.

(If you have any suggestions for me, you can leave these in the comments below.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to respond in the comments.  As Joylene and I have known for some time, her blogging software doesn’t allow me to leave comments.  Yet I do read all the comments each month and am very grateful for the positive responses.)

Put on your thinking cap and brainstorm the different kinds of companies who could benefit from a branded sponsorship opportunity with your nonfiction or fiction book.  Hopefully this brainstorming will produce several opportunities for you to pursue.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a digital marketer as well as a fiction and nonfiction author.  She blogs on book-related topics at her author site at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com and she is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller

The Insecure Writer's Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond.

I'm very pleased to announce that The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Guide to Publishing and Beyond is available for downloading. As you may have heard, it's packed full of excellent information, supplied by some very talented writers. Please help us spread the word about this wonderful book.

Tapping into the expertise of over a hundred talented authors from around the globe, The IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond contains something for every writer. Whether you are starting out and need tips on the craft of writing, looking for encouragement as an already established author, taking the plunge into self-publishing, or seeking innovative ways to market and promote your work, this guide is a useful tool. Compiled into three key areas of writing, publishing, and marketing, this valuable resource offers inspirational articles, helpful anecdotes, and excellent advice on dos and don'ts that we all wish we knew when we first started out on this writing journey.

ISBN 9781939844088
235 pages, FREE
Find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, Goodreads.

This book came together through the creative brilliance of our trusted Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, IWSG creator. Helped by my other friends:

Susan Gourley

L. Diane Wolfe

J.L. Campbell

Michelle Wallace

Lynda R. Young

Now for some news just out from our Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh:

And this Wednesday it’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG are Heather Gardner, T. Drecker from Kidbits, Eva E. Solar at Lilicasplace, and Patsy Collins!

Don’t forget to check out the IWSG Facebook group and the IWSG Critique Circle.

Ask PZM, Phyllis Zimbler Miller will be guest hosting on my blog for IWSG Wednesday and will be answering this question:

Q. Do you have any suggestions for bulk or sponsored book sales?

See you then.

Meanwhile...