Could it have been more a mis-match in style or expectations? Maybe typical clients of the 'expert' wanted 'how to' info, while you wanted 'big picture' guidance. Some 'experts' are good at one, not at the other. For instance, some specialists/technical experts lag behind in thought-leadership - but can implement and execute sensationally well. Horses for courses, y'know :-) Nice post. All success Dr.Mani

Don't forget a phone call, a coffee-room chat or dinner table conversation! Just as effective - or devastating. And that's where I (mildly) disagree with your mention of "especially those with a powerful platform". Today, EVERYONE has a "powerful platform". You may only realize HOW powerful after it's too late! All success Dr.Mani

Last December, I blogged about how I planned to integrate Twitter into everything else I was doing online in the social networking space. http://MoneyPowerWisdom.com/integrating-twitter-into-everything-else/ The synergy of combining Twitter with blogging, Squidoo, Facebook and others is explosive. All success Dr.Mani

Hey Jon, nice post. Found it through Seth's blog too. And am interested because I'm right at the start of building my tribe as an author - see this: http://thinkwriteandretire.ning.com I see how a publisher-author synergy would exist in this process, especially as very few authors know (or care to know) about the marketing and tribe-building elements (the exceptions are the super-stars, though!) But like Brandon, I too don't see how publishers would be able to hold authors 'captive' just by virtue of helping them build a tribe. Tribes generally evolve around issues and leaders, no? Or are you saying the publisher would build 'genre specific' tribes - ones to which they could introduce the authors they represent... where 'ownership' of the tribe would be primarily the publisher's - and authors will be their 'guests', for as long as they stick with the publisher? The 'toll gate owner' analogy often used in marketing applies just as well to the author-publisher relationship too. Him that owns access to the crowd is the boss! (Or her!) I too was intrigued by what Seth mentioned about you as "building a practice of helping authors and book publishers use private social networks to build tribes online" - and look forward to more details about this, when you have time :) All success Dr.Mani Author: Think, Write & Retire http://ThinkWriteRetire.com/blog.htm

Graphic violence and horror are two things that will almost always make me drop a book - and never pick it up again. But that's more my taste than any sense of censoring out 'objectionable' content, just that I don't like or enjoy reading that kind of stuff! All success Dr.Mani Think, Write & Retire www.ThinkWriteRetire.com

Fantastic idea! Interviews with characters in one's fiction novel... cool. You presented this interview in a VERY captivating style, too. Well done, Beth :-) All success Dr.Mani http://ThinkWriteRetire.com/blog.htm

Nice tips, Beth. Thanks for sharing those. I found your post here through the 'Blog Tour' program - which is probably the ULTIMATE tip to 'cheap tours'... do it from home via the Web :) Looking forward to more useful tips along the course of your blog tour. All success Dr.Mani