Calling All Bloggers

My publisher Perigee (Penguin Group) has agreed to send a review copy of my new book, POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd to the first 25 bloggers who are interested in reviewing it. To request a review copy, please send an email with the URL of your blog and your mailing address to:

Katherine.">Wasilewski@us.penguingroup.com

with the subject line "Review Copy of POP!"

You are also welcome to contact Cheri Grimm in my California office at 805 528-4351 to schedule an interview with me if you prefer to offer a Q & A format for your readers. We could focus on specific techniques, examples, and suggestions that are timely and relevant for your blog audience.

Some recent news about POP! is that it has been featured in Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe, on WGN, CBS NewsRadio, KTLA Morning News, and at the annual National Press Club Book Fair. The POP! presentation has also received rave reviews from American Society of Association Executives, Commonwealth Club, National Foundation of Women Legislators and will be showcased at Judy Carter's upcoming Comedy Workshop in Palm Springs.
I'm partial, however if you read the book, I think you'll agree with Wall St. Journal best-selling author Mark Sanborn (You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader) who said, "To break out you've got to stand out, and POP! shows you how. It is full of examples and useful exercises that take you beyond what you need to know to what you need to do. I recommend it."

Sam Horn
samhorn.com
samhornpop.com

The Joys of a Media Tour

There are many joys of being on a media tour -- one of which is the opportunity to meet fascinating people.

Such was the case last Wednesday at the annual National Press Club Book Fair.

I was there, along with 80 other invited authors, to sign copies of POP! It was a delightful enveing kibbitzing with familiar faces and fresh faces.

A familiar face was Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings and Sex with Queens, who I met a couple years ago while speaking at Bella Stander's Promotion 101 for Authors Workshop.

Eleanor definitely knows how to POP! She shows up for media interviews and book-signings wearing a lavish ballgown with an ermine cape and royal jewels. There is no way this woman is going to get lost in a crowd. She definitely stands out and her books' visibility and sales have benefitted as a result.

I confess, I played hookie from my table for a few minutes to meet female icon and national treasure - Helen Thomas.

In case you're not already familiar with this pioneering journalist, she became UPI's White House Correspondent in 1960 and was the "lady in red" who Presidents often called upon first when opening up press conferences for Q & A. Reviews on Amazon.com of her newest book Watchdogs of Democracy refer to her as the "venerable grand dame of the White House press corps" and an "uncorruptable member of the fourth estate." She is a walking-talking history book of the last five decades of our nation's major events because she had a front row seat at many of them.

I had an opportunity to ask Helen how she developed the courage to go where no woman had gone before. She said, "I always wanted to be in the forefront and my parents never told me it was impossible."

Are you at the forefront of your industry?

If you want to lead the pack instead of follow it (as Helen did), check out Chapter 9, Create the Next New Thing with the Half and Half Technique, in POP! It shares specific ways to forge a new path instead of following paths already taken by others.

Why Do Contra-Brand Titles, Ads, Products Build Buzz?

The headline of an article in the November 3 editor of USA Today proclaims, Seinfeld Stings Typical Movie Trailers.

Perhaps you’ve seen this clever ad campaign which features Jerry in an enormous honeybee costume promising Chris Rock (who’s outfitted as a mosquito) that he’ll show up at his wife’s book-signing as a payoff for appearing in his upcoming Bee Movie (another play on words.)

This spoof has been generating a lot of water-cooler conversation because of its innovative approach. Instead of featuring actual clips from the movie, it features the stars talking about the movie.

As Seinfeld said to the reporter interviewing him for the article, “Let’s face it, if this was just a regular trailer cut with footage of the film, you and I wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”

Exactly. If you want to get noticed, don’t do what’s obvious, do what’s opposite.

Look at your ad, web copy, newsletter. Is it same old, same old? What can you do with your next version to take people by surprise? Ask yourself, “What’s a norm in my industry? What's a belief everyone holds to be true? How can I challenge that? Could you be counter-intuitive and claim, “Customers are NOT Always Right.”

We’re coming into the holidays. Could you take a common tradition and turn it upside down? That’s what several enterprising companies did last year, literally. Picture a “normal” Christmas tree, with branches wide at the bottom, narrowing up to the star on top.

Now, turn that tree on its head and you get the INVERTED CHRISTMAS TREE that Hammacher Schlemmer couldn’t keep in stock . . . at $599.95 a POP. Target featured three upside-down trees on its website, pointing out one of the best attributes, “Leaves more room on the floor for gifts!”

What’s the point? To stop busy people in their tracks, we must say, do, or offer something out of the ordinary. How are you doing that with your business?

Want more ways to help your organization stand out from the crowd instead of get lost in the crowd? Visit www.SamHornPOP.com to order copies of POP! to jump-start the creativity of your sales/marketing team. Call Cheri Grimm at 805 528-4351 for volume discounts for orders of more than 10 books.