Date: June 19th 2008

If you have a free minute or two, I would love your assistance. But before I get to that, let me say some thank yous and give you the quick update:

UPDATE

First, I want to thank everyone who came out to see me on my recent east coast tour. The turnout was wonderful in every venue, and I can�t tell you how much your support meant to me. Second, thanks to all of you who have been buying my book. I've been getting so much wonderful feedback from so many people that my heart is warmed and my head swelled.

Third, for all those who have asked, no, I can�t tell you how sales are doing. I�m not sure. I know we are not selling as well as Barbara Walters or Scott McClellan, but I also know that we are indeed selling books�and not just to people I know. It seems (as many of you have notified me) that there was a screw-up with our alleged placement on the Father�s Day table at Barnes & Noble. But the good news is that they are supposed to have the book on their Summer Reading table as of Tuesday, and I have heard initial reports that they are following through on this (please let me know what you observe).

As for marketing, this is not a big budget book, so you are not (at least for the moment) going to see advertisements on the sides of buses for THE SCANDAL PLAN. Which means our strategy has been primarily to try to get the book into the hands of as many pundits, politicians, bloggers, and influential folks as we can, and hope for the best. That�s right: it all comes back to word of mouth.

Which brings me to how you can help, with just a few clicks of your mouse. Here are a few things you can do. Each one takes only a minute or three.

HOW TO HELP BY GIVING SOME ONLINE LOVE

#1 � Write a review on Amazon.com. By now, many of you have already read the book. If you liked it, then please take a moment and share your thoughts online. Anyone can write a review so long as they are an Amazon customer in good standing. No need to over-think this one. Just be honest about what you liked, and try not to make it obvious if you know me. Needless to say, five star ratings are greatly appreciated. Click here.

#2 � Tag the product on Amazon.com. You can do this when you review the book or separately from the product�s main page, as long as you are logged in to Amazon. Tags are keywords that make it easier for people to find the book. Right now, if you do a search for political satire, my book will not be anywhere near the first to come up. But if 500 people tag the product as a political satire, then guess what? It sure helps. I�ve included a list of 53 tags at the bottom of this e-mail that I think work well for this book. Please copy and paste the entire list (or only those you feel are relevant) into the box for your tags. This is a quick task that may really help if everyone does it.

#3 � Post a review on the Barnes & Noble and Borders websites. Remember that review you wrote for Amazon? You can copy and paste it and use it on the Barnes & Noble and Borders websites. Unlike Amazon, you don�t even need to be a customer to post a review. So go for it!
Here�s the product page for Barnes & Noble:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Scandal-Plan/Bill-Folman/e/9780061447655
And for Borders:
http://www.borders.com/online/store/SearchResults?keyword=the+scandal+plan&type=0&simple=1

#4 � Other Internet mischief � This last one is only for the truly ambitious, those who are really bored at work and looking for any form of procrastination. There are many other sites where you can rate books, recommend books, and write reviews. You can start with a few of these that I googled, and take it from there, plugging the book however you see fit.
http://books.2donext.com/default.aspx
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/mylibrary/
http://www.revish.com/
http://www.allreaders.com

Thanks to those who have already posted reviews, and thanks in advance to all of you who may take a few moments today to help me with any of the above strategies. If you haven�t read the book yet and want to follow these links in the future, I�ve just posted a complete list of these and other ways you can help on my website at: www.billfolman.com/CampaignForMyBook.html

Many thanks and a happy weekend to all!

Until soon,
Bill

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TAGS FOR AMAZON.COM
(Please Note: Amazon requires multiple tags to be separated by commas as below, but may not let you paste all of these at once. When I tried, it only let me do 10 at a time)

political satire, politics, fiction, fast paced, summer read, beach read, funny book, novel, humor, satire, political fiction, political humor, gift idea, fun, action, adventure, comedy, reporter, republican, democrat, comeback, candidate, washington, farce, mistress, scandal, infidelity, cheating, wife, sex, president, presidential election, election, washington dc, fathers day gift, fathers day, gifts for men, progressive, book, great book, good read, gift for him, gift for her, gift for dad, politics and religion, worst president ever, dark comedy, great gift book, funny as hell, funny, debut novel, first novel, comic novel

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