Guest blogger today: Tina Lo Sasso, President of Make It So Marketing Inc....

“Make It So, Number One!”

That familiar command from Captain Picard is why our company is called Make It So Marketing. 

When I started the company I remembered how my former boss would often end our meetings by saying, “Make it so, Number One!” in his best Picard imitation.  (One year we all chipped in and got him a Worf stand-up to guard the entrance to his office. Okay, it was a tech magazine – some of us were a little nerdy!)

Michael takes the dreams and desires of comic book fans and “makes it so” by giving them news, reviews, and interesting stories about comics creators through his popular blog and by helping people find that sought-after collectible comic through our eBay store.

Me? I take the dreams of publishers, authors and experts and “make it so” for them by marketing their books and products.  Today I’m helping an old friend of mine, New York Times bestselling author Harry Paul, launch his latest book – “Instant Turnaround!” which he co-wrote with my new friend Ross Reck.

The book is a business parable (like “The Go-Giver” and “Who Moved My Cheese?” – one of Michael’s favorite books). It explains how to get people excited about coming to work and working hard.  A great message for managers coping in today’s tough times!

I read the book in one night and loved it.  I was delighted when I later got the chance to help Harry and Ross with their online book launch which happens today. 

What’s an online book launch?

Well, here’s what we did. Harry and Ross told all their author friends (and I told a bunch of mine, like the people at Zig Ziglar’s company) about their new book. Then they asked them to give a cool free downloadable gift to people who buy the book today at Amazon.com and to tell all their readers about the book and the chance to get all the cool freebies.

Today all the friends are emailing their newsletter subscribers recommending the book and telling them to check out the gifts here:

http://www.rossreck.com/instantturnaround

The book buyers win – they get a great book and a bunch of other cool stuff that helps them do their jobs better. The friends win because more people hear about them through their free gift.  The authors win because they sell a ton of books.

I’m curious about what you think about this way of marketing.  I’ve seen it done, and done it myself, with several non-fiction books. But what do you think?  If you were a manager, would you be interested?

My bigger question is:

Do you think that an online launch could work for graphic novels or books on the comic book industry?