We've got a new author interview this week for How to Publish a Book from our TV show "The Artist's Craft." Directed by Michael Graziano and Marnie Cooper-Priest this episode features authors Tim Dillinger, Christine Moughamian, and Christy Judah discussing the subject of "How to Write a Book: From Idea to Finished Manuscript."

Additionally, we're experimenting with a new hosting platform, Google video. The plus is that through Google video the whole 30-minute interview can be embedded in one TV screen; the minus is that not everybody has the plug-in to view Google video. Let us know if you can see the screen below and which one you prefer (Google or YouTube). 

We have a new interview for How to Publish a Book from this week's episode of "The Artist's Craft." Directed by Michael Graziano and Marnie Cooper-Priest, this interview with newspaper columnist Barry Saunders will air on Raleigh Television Network and Time/Warner cable later this fall.

Its online version for How to Publish a Book is available through YouTube in three high-resolution parts. Enjoy... 

I've had a breakthrough in terms of thinking about how to market my books (and DVDs) using the internet.

The "How to Publish a Book" DVD at Amazon.com is currently on page 2 (19th position overall) of Google. That means that anyone searching Google for the phrase "How to Publish a Book" will see my DVD inside the top 20 internet sites out of 20,100,000 sites with the phrase. It's pretty amazing.

There's also a link to the DVD at createspace in 39th position on Google, a link to my Lulu storefront in 44th position, and the www.howtopublishabook.org website is currently in 54th position.

And that's just Google.

Last week, the site showed up in the #1 position overall on MSN.com (although, strangely, it has completely fallen out of the rankings this week).

I guess all of this is to say that there's definitely something to search engine optimization. But more specifically, "product name optimization" might be a better way to characterize what has happened. By naming the DVD after a popularly searched phrase "How to Publish a Book," once it was dispersed over the internet, it started popping up in various places.

I'm already thinking about how I could design a website around my next novel in such a way that the content of the novel (mountain lions, real estate, and wildlife management) could be integrated into the website design so that it shows up for several popular search phrases.

For example, 43,384 people search the phrase "Mountain Lion" per month according to http://www.iwebtool.com/keyword_lookup/

If I could get my suspense novel about mountain lions (or more specifically its website) to show up high in search engines for this phrase (and others like it) then the people searching the phrase(s) would be finding the website and book totally on their own.

We've got a very interesting interview this week for The Artist's Craft and How to Publish a Book. This is the cast of "Redrum: A Murder Mystery," a local theater troupe. They discuss writing, acting, and marketing and promoting their production.

This weekend I participated as a writer in my first street fair, and I sold about 20 DVDs and books. The Cape Fear Authors Guild invited me to come down to Wilmington, North Carolina for Riverfest. The Guild set up a tent on Water Street... 

Guild members include Christy Judah, Richard Triebe, Edith Edwards, and Ken Campbell. I met all of the authors through the Wilmington Write to Publish Group, which meets the last Sunday of every month at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington. Here's a photo of me talking with a customer [photo by Richard Triebe]...

Here is Guild member Edith Edwards, author of The Ghosts of Turtle Nest....

Here are Guild members Richard Triebe and Ken Campbell. Rich's book is titled On a Rising Tide and Ken's novel is The Fifth Category...

Here is a photo with Edith in the foreground signing a copy of her book. In the background, I'm speaking with a customer who has a copy of The Colorado Sequence... [photo by Richard Triebe]