Savvy Book Marketing Secrets 52 Experts Share Insider Tips for Selling More Books Published in 2011 by The Savvy Book Marketer, an imprint of Texana Publishing Consultants, LLC Smashwords Edition www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com Copyright Notice Each article in this ebook is copyrighted by the author of the article. You may not reproduce any article without the prior written consent of the author of the article. You are welcome to share this free ebook with others, but you may not sell it.
Disclaimer This is an informational guide and is not intended as a substitute for legal or other professional services. Readers are urged to consult a variety of sources and educate themselves about the business of publishing and marketing. While every effort has been made to make this guide accurate, it may contain typographical and content errors. The information expressed herein is the opinion of the author, and is not intended to reflect upon any particular person or company. The author and publisher shall have no responsibility or liability with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, by the information or application of the information contained in this guide. Some links in this book are affiliate links, meaning that Texana Publishing Consultants, LLC, receives a commission on sales of other companies’ products and services sold as a result of clicking on the link.
Table of Contents About this Book Book Marketing Strategy Getting Endorsements for your Book Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To? Book Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail – Finding Niche Markets for Your Books Confessions of a Reluctant Marketer The Self-Confidence to Sell More Books Building Relationships Increases Readership Habits of Action: How Authors Can Get Things Done Resources Online Book Promotion Recipe for a Book-Focused Home Page Jazz Up Your Web Site or Blog with Simple HTML The Right (and Wrong) Way to Comment on Blogs Evaluating Your Current Online Visibility Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own 5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign Top 10 Ways to Maximize Book Sales on Amazon.com Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea Resources Social Media Marketing Why Social Networking is a Must for Authors Turn Your Facebook Profile into a Friend Magnet in 7 Easy Steps Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Do's and Don'ts Book Marketing with LinkedIn – Top Mistakes and Solutions Promote a Book with Twitter: Top 10 Strategies for Authors Promote Your Book with a Twitter World Tour Resources Fiction Marketing What Do You Talk About On Your Blog If You Write Fiction? Blog Ideas for Fiction Authors What Novelists Can Learn About Marketing from Nonfiction Authors
Publicity for Books and Authors Five Tips to Create Publicity for Your Book Anatomy of a Successful Press Release for Book Promotion Five Tips for Writing a Strong Press Release Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy Author Branding: The You That Is Everywhere How to Build Your Author Platform Perk Up Your Bio How To Develop Key Messages and Get Them Across Quickly Building Author Platform by Pitching Yourself to the Media Use the Calendar to Promote Yourself and Your Book Nine Tips for Helping Your Publicist Do a Great Job Blog Talk Radio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows Best Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows Do Book Reviews Matter? Resources Speaking and Events 12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events How to Exhibit at Book Industry Tradeshows Promote Your Book by Becoming a Keynote Speaker Resources Virtual Book Tours Promote Your Book with a Virtual Book Tour How to Plan Your Virtual Book Tour Blog Tours for Authors – Do They Work? Library, Educational and Corporate Sales How to Sell to Libraries – Top Ten Strategies for Independent Authors and Publishers How to Market Children's Books in Schools How to Sell More Books to Corporations Resources Publishing and Distribution How to Get Started Writing Your Book Why Authors Need an Editor Mistakes of First-Time Authors Drafting Your Back Cover Sales Copy How to Craft Back Cover Copy that Sells Books by the Boatload Judging a Book by Its Cover How To Find A Literary Agent (When You’ve Self-Published) The Role of Retailers, Distributors and Wholesalers in the Book Trade
How Do Books Get Stocked in Bookstores? Ebooks and Information Products How to Publish an Ebook Publishing Content for Amazon's Kindle How to Make Your Books Available in Multiple Ebook Formats Selling Information: Competing In A World Where Information Is Free From Book to Multiple Streams of Income About The Savvy Book Marketer The Savvy Book Marketer Guides
About this Book Over the past couple of years, dozens of book marketing and publishing experts have enriched my Savvy Book Marketer blog at http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com with their guest posts. I have learned much from these experts and I’m pleased to share a selection of their articles with you in this free ebook. I’ve added a few of my own articles and also included a list of resources in each chapter. You are welcome to share this free ebook with others, but you may not sell it. If you’d like to let other authors know where to download a free copy of this ebook, here are some posts to use on social networks: Authors, get book marketing tips from 52 top experts – free Savvy Book Marketing Secrets ebook at http://bit.ly/SavvySecrets #pubtip Free ebook for authors - Savvy Book Marketing Secrets: 52 Experts Share Insider Tips for Selling More Books http://bit.ly/SavvySecrets Please remember that each article in this ebook is copyrighted by its author and may not be reproduced without the author’s prior written consent. I hope you find this ebook helpful in promoting your books. Get more book marketing tips and two more free ebooks when you sign up for my newsletter at http://www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. To your success! Dana Lynn Smith The Savvy Book Marketer
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Book Marketing Strategy Getting Endorsements for your Book by Sarah Bolme Have you ever seen a book cover where the name of the celebrity providing an endorsement for the book was larger than the author’s name? This little trick is used to catch a book buyer’s eye because publishers know that celebrity names sell books. As an author, make pursuing endorsements for your book a priority. Why is seeking endorsements for a book so important? Endorsements lend credibility to a book and state a book has quality. A good endorsement can make the difference between a few sales and a multitude of sales. 1. Endorsements lend credibility to a book. With so many books to choose from, most book buyers depend on name recognition when making purchase decisions. A new or unknown author has no reputation and thus little credibility with consumers. The best way to gain credibility in the consumer’s eye is to have your book endorsed by someone who already has credibility. When consumers trust the person endorsing your book, they trust that you are a credible author. 2. Endorsements state a book has quality. Booksellers have limited shelf space from which to sell books. Distributors can only market a finite number of books and generally choose to represent those books they think have the greatest possibility of selling. Consumers have limited spending dollars on which to spend their hard-earned money as well as limited time in which to read. Each of these book buyers needs to be assured that the book they are considering purchasing is a quality book worth their money and time. Endorsements send this message. It is best to secure endorsements for your book while it is still in manuscript form. That way, you can use the endorsers’ names on your book cover and in all your pre-release book review requests and marketing materials. When requesting an endorsement, send a complete copy of your manuscript for the endorser to review. It is acceptable to provide endorsers with a list of names of other
persons from whom you are requesting endorsements. Most celebrity endorsers will be pleased to be included in good company and those who are not celebrities will be excited to have their names printed with famous people. Endorsements are truly an essential ingredient in a good book marketing campaign. About the Author Sarah Bolme is an author, speaker, and Christian marketing coach. She is the author of the award-winning book Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace at http://www.marketingchristianbooks.com and director of the Christian Small Publishers Association at http://www.christianpublishers.net. For more information, read her Marketing Christian Books blog at http://marketingchristianbooks.wordpress.com. Back to top
Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To? by Dana Lynn Smith A written book marketing plan is an essential tool in effectively promoting your book. One of the first priorities in developing a book marketing plan is to define the target audiences for your book. Your audience may be wider than you think. A book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching several different target audiences, including: 1. Readers – These are people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience (the "ideal customer" that the book was specifically written for) as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre. 2. Purchasers – Many book buyers purchase books for other people. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, and women buy men's health books. Companies and organizations buy books to give away to their customers, members and prospects. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks? 3. Influencers – Don't overlook the importance of people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. This includes bloggers, other writers in your genre, journalists, book reviewers, and other experts in your field. In online book marketing, the influencers may be the most important category of all. Think about how much you can multiply your book promotion efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers and customers.
Other people who cater to your target customers can promote you and your book in several ways, including blog posts, links to your website or blog, Twittering, newsletter articles, and media sharing tools like Digg and StumbleUpon. It's important to develop relationships with these influencers, as part of your book marketing plan. Traditional and online media are also important influencers. You can reach them through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution. Be sure your book marketing plan includes strategies for promoting your book to all of these important target audiences. About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Book Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail – Finding Niche Markets for Your Books by Tracy Higley While writing fiction is my passion, I also have another side of life – an online retail business selling craft and hobby supplies. There are a number of lessons I’ve learned in my non-writing marketing efforts that can translate to marketing fiction, and I’ll share one with you in this post. If you’d like to read more, you can find a series of posts on the topic at http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/tracy-higley/. One of the best things you can do to spread the word about your novel is to find a tightly focused group of people who would love it. In other words, a niche. Entrepreneur magazine defines a niche as “A portion of a market that you've identified as having some special characteristic and that's worth marketing to.” Quite frankly, I have built my entire retail business on this principle. In this article, I’ll give examples from both my writing and my retail business, with links provided to give you a better feel for what I’m explaining. Here’s how niche marketing works, and how it can work for your books: 1. Identify a specific segment of people whom you think would be especially interested in your books. Be very specific. Don’t worry about “leaving out” a large portion of your
readers from this niche. That’s the point. You’re going to market to this niche in special ways that don’t apply to all of your target readers. Example: I started an online retail business several years ago by identifying niches in the craft supply business that weren’t being adequately supplied online. Our first two products, Perler Beads at http://www.koolstuff4kids.com/ and Quilling Supplies (not quilting, quilling is a paper craft) at http://www.quillingsuperstore.com/, are given a very small amount of shelf space in local craft stores. People who are interested in these products find the selection disappointing. They turn to the Internet, and they find us. I’ve built a successful business by identifying this very small niche in American crafters and offering them hundreds of products for their craft. You can do this with your books. Brainstorm for niches. It’s a bit easier with non-fiction, but work to think of people in your novel who could relate to its theme, premise, setting, etc. Can you identify a very specific group who would be interested? For example, if your book’s theme were about juggling a career and a family, a niche might be “professional women having their first child after at least ten years in the corporate world.” Do you see how this small niche fits into your larger target market? I write historical fiction. So do many other authors! How are my books unique, and what is a niche that I can identify? My Seven Wonders Novels at http://bit.ly/hzfBTL are historical suspense, fairly fast-paced, and set in ancient time periods like Egypt, Greece, and Rome. There are several niches I can identify, but the first one I am focusing on is this: homeschooling high school students and their mothers. Do you see how this fits? Homeschoolers are always looking for creative ways to approach history and literature in a combined way. They are likely to enjoy my fast-paced suspense that gives a glimpse into these ancient cultures. And they are likely to appreciate the faith element woven into my books. 2. I’ve already touched on the second step a little bit in the paragraph above. Once you’ve identified your niche, identify their needs. How can your books benefit this group of people? In my retail business, the unique benefits I offer to my customers are wide selection and easy navigation. By creating entire websites at http://bit.ly/h6YutB for a single niche such as Quilling, Polymer Clay, or Origami, I am able to carry many products for that niche without bogging down the site navigation, and customers feel as though they’ve stumbled upon a specialized store that focuses only on them and their craft. A welcome discovery for most of them, after feeling that the local stores have largely ignored their needs! Find the benefit you can offer your niche. It may require some extra work on your part. I am in the process of developing “bonus content” materials for homeschoolers that will complement my fiction. (As an aside, if you are a homeschooling family and this interests you, I would love for you to contact me at http://www.tlhigley.com/pages/Contact.php and give your input!) 3. Take the benefits you can offer your niche, and go forth and find those people! The
Internet has greatly expanded our ability to connect with niches. There are places (online and offline) where you are likely to find my example of “professional women having their first child after at least ten years in the corporate world” or whatever your niche might be. Figure out where they are, who the influencers are, and how you can connect with them – either online or in person. If you’re able to identify more than one niche for your books, or perhaps different niches for each book, all the better. Go after them systematically. Don’t be lured into the trap of saying, “but everyone should buy my books.” This mentality often leads to no one buying your books! Niche marketing is really an extension of the concept of branding. Once you’ve figured out your brand, identify the groups of people most likely to be interested and benefited, and then find ways to meet their needs. Niche marketing works. I’ve watched it result in loyal customers over my years in retail, and it will work for your books if implemented well. As a post-script, niche marketing also gets you noticed. I was recently contacted by the Martha Stewart Show to provide the audience giveaway for her segment on Polymer Clay. As a result, Martha mentioned our store on her show, and her website now links to my Polymer Clay Superstore at http://www.polymerclaysuperstore.com/. This free publicity would not have occurred without niche marketing! About the Author Tracy Higley is the author of a number of historical suspense novels, including the Seven Wonders Novels at http://www.tlhigley.com/pages/Readers.php. To check out her website and the way she incorporates marketing strategies there, visit www.TLHigley.com. Back to top
Confessions of a Reluctant Marketer by Beth Barany You may think that marketing your books is a scary prospect, but actually marketing is essential to your career as an author. And if you uncover your style of marketing, then ultimately you will sell more books. When my first book came out in Spring 2008, Overcome Writer’s Block at http://www.overcomewritersblock.com/. I barely marketed it. When my second book came out July 2009, Writer’s Adventure Guide at http://www.writersadventureguide.com/, I did the minimum and quickly focused on other things, like earning a living. I was overwhelmed by all my book marketing options, and chose actions at random. Probably not the most effective.
Then, I attended a lecture by Patrick Swertdfeger, the author of Webify Your Business 2.0 at http://www.webifybook.com/, and learned about social networking. He made the tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.com seem like so much fun. I realized something. That marketing my books could be fun, if I did the things I liked. And what I liked was using social networking. These tools capitalized on my strengths: writing, connecting with others, and chatting. So, I have a question for you. You know you need to get the word out about your books. So, what is fun for you about marketing? Pick one tool of technique you’re passionate about and take one action on it right now. Today. And everyday. If it’s fun, you’ll stick with it. In addition to sticking with it, you’ll want to track your results. You know the mantra: “What we pay attention to grows”? Today you may have 50 Twitter followers. Next week you may have 60. Yippee! But you won’t be able to see your progress unless you track. Find what is fun for you, persist at it, track your results, and you will become a super marketer. About the Author Copyright 2010 Beth Barany. Beth works with authors, speakers, coaches and consultants across US, Canada, and Europe, and helps them get their books completed and out into the world. Beth Barany is the author of The Writer's Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book. More at: http://www.bethbarany.com, and her blog, http:// www.writersfunzone.com/blog. Back to top
The Self-Confidence to Sell More Books by Rob Eagar What if a book’s success depends more on the author’s self-confidence, rather than what’s written on the page? After training over 200 authors, from beginners to bestsellers, an interesting pattern has caught my attention. For example, I’ve noticed that my author clients with a high self-esteem tended to be more creative with their marketing plans and actually sold more books. In contrast, those with low self-esteems struggled to implement new marketing activities. Predictably, their book sales languished. I’m not saying there is a direct correlation, but there is definitely a pattern that bears attention. The problem is that there are real consequences when an author allows low selfconfidence to affect their book marketing efforts. For instance, he or she will tend to:
- Avoid building an online or offline community of readers around them. - Balk at developing peer-to-peer relationships with influential leaders. - Avoid finding and contacting large reader groups who could buy books in quantity. - Ignore spur of the moment media opportunities, such as tying into national headlines. - Shun speaking engagements or promoting their book to the audience. - Lack consistency with key marketing tactics, such as blogging or sending newsletters. Global management consultant Alan Weiss says, "There is no music if you don’t blow your own horn." This statement is profoundly true for book marketing, at both the author and publisher levels. Writers, editors, and marketing staff must believe strongly enough in a message to promote that book above the noise of all the competition. Yet, this can only happen when there’s an ardent belief in a manuscript accompanied by the enthusiasm to tell people about it. Oddly, self-confidence issues seem to especially plague the fiction and religious publishing communities. For example, I know novelists who are scared to appear in public. Likewise, I’ve met Christian authors who avoid marketing their books, because of the misguided notion to appear humble. They make pious statements, such as “It’s not godly to draw attention to myself.” But, these attitudes are usually a disguise for a low self-esteem. The reality is that they don’t want to draw attention to themselves, because they’re struggling to feel worthy – ironically before a God who loves them and fans who like their books. Please don’t think that I’m advocating for writers to shamelessly plug their books. Some people go overboard and develop a negative reputation for being pushy. You probably know some of these individuals, and they’re a turn-off. On the contrary, my point is that readers appreciate authors who believe in their ability to provide answers, inspiration, or entertainment. So, how can an author improve their confidence along with their book sales? Some selfesteem situations may truly require counseling. However, in most cases, one can be enlightened by dealing with the following questions: 1. Do you truly believe in your book’s own value? Has your message actually worked in your own life? If so, recite clear examples of results. 2. What makes you comfortable recommending a favorite restaurant or product to a friend? Can you mimic that same feeling to mention your book to someone else? 3. What’s the worst that could happen if you tell more people about your book? If you’re a good writer, don’t let self-confidence issues prevent your message from helping the people who need it. Just because someone might say “no” doesn’t mean you’re worthless or a bad person. Be proud of the way you’re trying to help society. Toot your horn a little. What’s the worst that could happen? You just might sell a lot more books. About the Author
Rob Eagar is the founder of WildFire Marketing who helps authors and publishers sell more books through innovative marketing strategies. He has trained over 200 authors, from beginners to bestsellers. For more information, call 1-800-267-2045 or visit www.StartaWildFire.com. Back to top
Building Relationships Increases Readership by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen *The Key to Successful Marketing in 2010 is to Expand Your Network* For an author, building an author platform that stands out from the rest worked in 2009 . . . but now an author will have to be MORE THAN GREAT. Don’t let this scare you away. Much of what you’re doing right now is good and is very close to being more than great. As authors, we have a built in, natural ability, to converse . . . and this is the major building block to forming relationships. Marketing in the New Decade – What can we expect now? A successful blogger will have to be CONNECTED. Having friends and building relationships has never been so important. Now is the time to chain to your follows and build a trusting bond. How do we make friends and build relationships? 1. ACCEPT INVITATIONS a. Post memorable comments b. Guest post c. Participate in interviews d. Conduct interviews by asking intelligent questions and responding graciously. 2. ATTEND CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS a. Contribute to chat discussions b. Whisper answers to individual participants c. Give positive encouragement. *Sizzle with energy and play the part of being the ‘life of the party—your enthusiasm will be felt through the net-waves* 3. SPARK INTERACTIONS BY NETWORKING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES a. Ask an irresistible question. b. Generate a discussion that others will view with interest. c. Keep the discussion active by Inviting the lurkers to contribute, and d. Show that ALL folks are important regardless of who they are by—accept others by finding something in their answer worth praise.
*Staying positive is the key* 4. JOIN PRIVATE GROUPS BASED AROUND YOUR NICHE a. Supply clear and concise answers to the questions b. Back your answers with credentials with prior written posts or quotes c. If you don’t have the answer, steer them in the right direction. d. Discover a balance between conversational writing style and formality. *Coming across as being approachable with knowledge is very attractive* 5. RECIPROCITY a. Supply others with what they want b. Search for relevant content and give valuable content to create awesome posts. c. If you don’t have the answer, make a genuine effort to steer them in the right direction. With time and constant persistence, lurkers will become followers. Followers become fans. Yet…don’t forget to make the time and effort to create the relationships. *The best gift you can give is your time* Appreciation goes a long way. Friends bring along more readers. They will take you under their wing and introduce you to other popular bloggers. These other popular bloggers have their own following. Accept connection by linking their blog to yours and vice versa. Continue doing favours, expanding your network, and producing great content in your blog and very soon—very, very soon, you’ll discover that YOU CAN CONQUER ALL OBSTACLES. About the Author Jo-Anne Vandermeulen is the author of Premium Promotional Tips for Writers, featuring simple yet very effective techniques writers can implement into their marketing plans. Visit http://vandermeulen.laurusbooks.com/ to get more information about her book and get a FREE sneak-a-peek. Back to top
Habits of Action: How Authors Can Get Things Done by Karen Leland You know what you need to do. You know why you need to do it. You even know what steps you must take to get it done. But there’s one small problem: you can’t seem to get moving. It’s a common problem. Maybe it’s chronic procrastination or maybe you’re just so overwhelmed that you feel paralyzed. Either way, the task you must complete is just sitting there, gathering metaphorical (or perhaps literal) dust, and growing more
ominous by the day. A recent study by the Families and Work Institute found that a full third of Americans are overworked; more than 50 percent of those surveyed said they are either handling too many tasks at the same time or are frequently interrupted during the workday – or both. In short, we are overloaded. Is it any wonder, then, that we have trouble getting jobs started, keeping them going, or finishing them up? As a consultant and coach over the past twenty five years I’ve observed that smart and savvy business women use three habits to get themselves to take action, even in tough times. These habits act as an inoculation against procrastination and feeling overwhelmed so that these busy women are ultimately able to press through and get things done. Habit #1: Chunking Down: Focus on the Trees Not the Forest In the computer world, chunking means to break things into bits. To chunk down is to move from a whole to its parts; to chunk up is to move from parts to a whole, or from the specific to the general. Chunking your projects and goals down into smaller pieces will help you take action more quickly and easily, while at the same time helping to combat the feeling of too much to do. Habit #2: Take Energetic Credit for Completion When we have a big goal or task to work on, many of us wait – unnecessarily and sometimes to our detriment – until the entire project is finished before we experience any sense of completion, satisfaction, or accomplishment. Often, even though we’re achieving pieces of our projects and goals all the time, we don’t fully acknowledge them. The most productive people we know are in the habit of enthusiastically taking energetic credit for any action they complete, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant. These people know not to wait until the big item is 100 percent done before experiencing closure. Rather, they generate energy all along the way by recognizing each item they complete. Habit #3: Time-Planning: Put a Stop to Putting It Off Smart people are in the habit of using a time-plan to get beyond procrastination. A timeplan is a method of assigning blocks of time to those items you want to get done (but not a minute-by-minute description of your day!) To harvest the power of planning and create your own time-plan, follow these two easy steps: Step #1: Identify your power times for different types of activities. Everyone has high and low periods of energy, attention, and focus. By knowing and understanding your own energy patterns you can create a time-plan that takes advantage of your personal rhythms. Reflect on your own energy patterns. When are your power times? Use your power times to take on your most difficult items. Use your down time for more routine items and errands.
Step #2: Set aside blocks of time for getting certain things done. Keeping in mind your power times, go through your calendar and schedule a specific day and period of time when you will work on an item. Time periods ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours are most effective. Every hour or so, schedule a ten minute break from your task; this will both keep your brain from getting tired and give it a chance to process any information, so that you can return to your project refreshed. Lastly, don’t just plan your time in your head – write it down! Whether you use a PDA, a calendar contact program, or a plain old date book, keeping a written record of your time-plan is key. This article is excerpted from the book Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day and is copyrighted by Karen Leland and Keith Bailey. If you would like to reprint it on your blog or website you are welcome to do so, provided you give credit and a live link back to www.scgtraining.com. About the Author Karen Leland is the bestselling author of six books including Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day. She is the co-founder of Sterling Consulting Group at http://www.sterlingmarketinggroup.com/, which helps organizations and individuals learn how to fight distraction and find their focus in a wired world. For more information please contact:
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Resources The first step in marketing a book should be to develop a solid book marketing plan. For an outline of what to include in your marketing plan, go to www.CreateYourBookMarketingPlan.com. Back to top
Online Book Promotion Recipe for a Book-Focused Home Page by Carma Spence-Pothitt
Ingredients - Clear purpose for the landing page - Image of the book - Image of the author - Call to action Directions Clear purpose for the landing page There are two goals that a good book-focused home page can have: 1. Sell copies of the book 2. Start a relationship between reader and author Before you design your book-focused home page, you need to be clear on which one of these goals you want to achieve. Having too many goals for a home or landing page can dilute its effectiveness, so clarity is key. If your goal is to sell books, then the focal point of your landing page will be a sales letter, audio or video . . . something that emphasizes the benefits of purchasing a copy of the book. You’ll want a good strong headline supported by sub-heads and benefits focused sales copy. If your goal is to start a relationship between the reader and the author, the focal point of the page will be the opt-in box. Selling the book will take second place to acquiring the name and email address of visitors to the page. This means you'll need to have a compelling offer . . . an opt-in incentive that is related to the book and is something the ideal reader of your book would want to have and therefore be willing to pay for it with their name and email address. It is important that the opt-in incentive is related to the book, because it will now act as your first attempt to sell your book. After consuming your opt-in incentive, the visitor to your website should feel compelled to buy your book. Image of the book Since this is a book-focused landing page, it might seem obvious that there should be an image of the book on the page. But how you display that image is not necessarily so obvious. If the goal of your page is to sell the book, the image should be up top, large and dominate the eye when first landing on the page. It should be obvious to the visitor of the page that it is all about the book. Everything else . . . from the author bio to related articles should be placed on other pages, not here. However, if the goal of the landing page is to start a relationship with the visitor, the image should be much smaller or it will clash with the opt-in box graphics. Remember, a relationship-building home page is focused on getting that name and email address, so
your compelling free offer is front and center . . . not your book. Image of the author An image of the author is optional . . . it all depends on the type of book and whether what the author looks like is integral to the goal of the page. If a secondary goal of the home page is to help establish the author as part of a brand, then an author image is important. However, you should be strategic about this decision. It might serve your needs better to save the author image for another page, perhaps the bio page or media room. For example, let’s say you are creating a landing page for a James Bond book. Would you want to include an image of Ian Fleming? Or of James Bond? That all depends on if the goal is to get readers hooked on a series of books about the character . . . or all books by the author. For another example, let's say you are creating a landing page for a weight loss book. Do you include an image of the author or of a woman on a scale looking happy because she's lost weight? Again, it depends on the goal of the landing page. If the goal were to sell one of a series of books by a well-known fitness expert (say Kathy Smith), then an image of the author would help sell the book. However, if the author is less known or writes about more than just this subject, the woman on the scale might be a better option. Call to action Every landing page needs a call to action. For a book-focused landing page your call to action should be one of these: - Buy the book now - Subscribe to my list now Make sure your call to action is clear and mentioned "above the fold" – before the visitor has to scroll down. Also, notice that "now" is a key part of this call to action. If you encourage your visitor to think about it and come back later. . . chances are you’ll never see them again. Your home page needs to convince the visitor to make a positive decision now, before they leave. Memories are short and even if the visitor has every intention of returning, he or she may not remember where it was they wanted to return. For a list of standard pages for an author’s website, visit http://www.wordpressforauthors.com/standard-pages/. About the Author Carma Spence-Pothitt helps creative professionals develop and nurture a thriving web presence, helping them create an online footprint that supports their career and business goals. Through April 1, Carma is throwing a virtual book launch party for her
new book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How to Fix Them! at http://www.homesweethomepagebook.com/. Be sure to visit this creative website to check out all the goodies she has to offer and get inspiration for your own book promotions. Back to top
Jazz Up Your Web Site or Blog with Simple HTML by MaAnna Stephenson Most blogs and a few of the article directories allow you to jazz up your posts using special code known as HTML, which is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It’s the type of code used to make Web site pages appear as you see them in your browser. Even if you won’t be programming your own site, knowing just a little bit about a few simple code tags can make your posts pop off the page. The great news is that HTML is a very intuitive code language. It uses simple tags to tell text content how to appear on the page. For instance, the tag is used to make text bold. Below we’ll cover the most common tags, what they do, and how to properly use them. All HTML tags must be enclosed within these two symbols: < >. This alerts the browser that the characters inside the symbols are code tags and not content. To end the effect of the tag, a slash mark is used inside the symbols, like this: Bold Fonts There are two tags that make font characters bold. They are and . Here’s an example of the content: This word is bold. Here’s an example of the code: This word is bold. Any content between the and tags would appear in bold face. Or you can use this code: This word is bold. Italics There are two tags to make fonts appear in italics. They are and . You’ll want to use this tag for the title of your book. Example of content: All Just the FAQs books help you create an online presence. Example of code: All Just the FAQS books help you create an online presence.
Or you can use this code: All Just the FAQS books help you create an online presence. Using Multiple Tags You can make the title of your book appear in both bold and italics by using nested tags. They are called nested due to the order of their placement. An easy way to remember this order is FILO, which stands for First In, Last Out. Example of content: My book, Blogging for Riches, will be in print next year. Example of code: My book, Blogging for Riches, will be in print next year. Notice that the tags were closed in reverse order. The tags are nested within the tags. Most browsers will accept tags that are not closed in the proper order. But, to ensure that your content appears correctly in all browser types, it’s a good idea to cultivate the habit of using nested tags properly. You can nest any number of tags together, not just bold and italic. Line Breaks There are two tags that cause a line break in HTML. They are for break, and for new paragraph. To simply add one line space, use the br tag. Example of content: This is line one. This is line two. Example of code: This is line one. This is line two. Using the tag is a great way to control layout, especially if you are formatting poetry. It guarantees that the lines will break where you intend. To add two line breaks and begin a new paragraph, use the tag. Example of content: This is line one. This is line two and a new paragraph. Example of code: This is line one. This is line two and a new paragraph.
Notice that there is no extra line space between the lines of code. You can put one in if you like, for clarity, but the browser will do it for you when the content appears online. Color and HEX Numbers While creating your blog or Web site, you will likely be faced with choosing colors for different elements. While many blogs offer a simple color chart from which to choose, you may want to match a specific color of something, like your logo. To get exact colors, you’ll want to know the HEX code of the colors in your logo. HEX is simply a format used to count in binary (1s and 0s) in computer language. A HEX color code looks like this: #FFFFFF, which is the code for white. The HEX number #000000 is the color black. Notice that the # symbol always precedes the actual HEX code. There are hundreds of sites on the Web that display full HEX color charts to help you choose the right colors for your site. Simply search the terms “hex color” or “hex code”. Using Widgets At some point you may want to incorporate a third party widget into your blog. Widgets are special features, like the book carousels offered by Shelfari and Amazon. These contain special code known as “scripts.” Sites that offer widgets often let you customize them and then auto-produce the special script code, sometimes called a “snippet”, for you to copy and paste into your site or blog. This code will have the tags and around it Here’s a little keyboard shortcut for copying and pasting. Once you highlight the script code, hit the keys Cntl + C. That will copy the code to your clipboard. After you select the place you want to place the code, hit the keys Cntl + V to paste it. Good to Go With just a few simple tags of HTML, you can jazz up your posts and make your text outstanding. If you want to learn more about HTML tags, there are wonderful free tutorials all over the Internet. About the Author MaAnna Stephenson’s BlogAid site at http://www.blogaid.net/ features a wealth of tips and resources for blog and website owners, along with books, classes, and site consulting that are specifically for non-geeks who are on a budget. Her experience as a web developer, professional engineer, nonfiction author and artist allow her to draw together the right mix of teaching skills, technical expertise, and online promotion techniques that are best suited to each site owner and their target audience. She specializes in working with creative folks like authors, artists and musicians. Back to top
The Right (and Wrong) Way to Comment on Blogs by Dana Lynn Smith Commenting on other people's blogs is a great way to get visibility, build relationships with bloggers, subtly promote your book, and get links back to your site (if the blog gives "do-follow" links). But you will only hurt your credibility if you go about it the wrong way. Here are some tips for successful blog commenting: Actively look for relevant blogs to comment on. Subscribe to the feed of the most important blogs in your area of interest, and use tools like Google Alerts to keep an eye out for relevant posts on other blogs. You can also use Google Blog Search or blog directories like My Blog Log to find blogs that are a good fit. Contribute to the conversation. Don't just drop by and say "great post." Instead, make a thoughtful comment that contributes something. You might offer an additional tip or real-life example, or expand on a point the blogger made. If you're commenting on a book review, explain why you enjoyed reading the book. Your comment doesn't have to be long, but you do need to say something useful and relevant. Do not give the impression that you are just there to promote your book or leave a link to your site. Don't make inappropriate comments. There's nothing wrong with disagreeing with a point that someone has made (and many bloggers encourage disparate views), but do so in a polite, respectful way. I'm amazed at some of the rude and tacky things people say on blogs and in online forums. Don't be overtly promotional. Commenting on someone else's blog is not the place to blatantly promote your book or services. However, there are subtle ways to convey that you are an expert on the topic being discussed and encourage people to click on your name to visit your website. You might work in a reference to your book related to the comment you are making. Here are some examples: "Twitter is such an important tool for authors that I devoted an entire chapter in my book to promoting through Twitter." "In researching my book, Selling Your Book to Libraries, I discovered that . . ." "Because I write mystery novels myself, I really appreciated the way that the author . . ." Depending on the topic under discussion, I sometimes sign my name with a tag line such as "Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer" or "Dana Lynn Smith, author of Facebook Guide for Authors." Some people include their website address in their signature, but many bloggers frown on this. Creating a signature that's several lines long and blatantly promotional is not appropriate. Some people think that including any type of signature or reference to your book is too promotional. You will have to use your judgment to determine what is appropriate, but you might look
at what other commenters on the blog are doing as a guideline. Just remember that you are a guest on someone else's site and mind your manners. About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Evaluating Your Current Online Visibility by Roger C. Parker The first step in marketing and promoting your book is to evaluate your current online visibility. Your ability to market and promote your book is based on your ability to promote yourself and your book online. Online visibility brings up the topic of your author platform. What’s your platform like? Your author platform refers to your ability to promote yourself and your book online -where books are sold and product and service decisions are made. Your platform is a measure of the quality and quantity of your website presence plus your ability to keep in touch with clients, prospects, peers, and opinion-makers. - Start by asking, What shows up when you enter your name, or your firm’s name, into a search engine like Google.com or Yahoo.com? - Then, enter the keywords, or terms clients, prospects, or the media use when asking questions or searching for information about issues and topics in your field. Does your blog or website show up on the first page, or two, of results? Are there a lot of results, or just a few? The stronger your platform, i.e., the more visibility you already have, the easier it will be to get your book published and into the hands of readers who you hope will turn into prospects and customers. Questions to ask when evaluating your online platform The best way to evaluate your online platform is to evaluate your current web presence by asking questions like the following:
1. When did you last update your website? Visitors and search engines like frequently updated websites, beginning with the home page. Just as you wouldn’t buy your daily newspaper if the front page always looked the same, your website needs to be constantly freshened with new content. 2. Can you update your website by yourself? Your ability to promote your book and your career is based on your ability to easily update your website yourself, without needing to contact and pay money to a webmaster or web designer. 3. Do you have a blog? Blogs are no longer fashionable options for sharing the details of your daily existence. Today, blogs are fundamental marketing tools that permit you to develop and share your expertise by easily and efficiently adding text and graphics by yourself, without incurring the costs and delays of paying someone else. In an age of WordPress blogs, there’s simply no excuse for a website you cannot edit and update yourself. 4. Does your site offer a sign-up incentive? It is essential that your website contains an incentive for visitors to sign-up for your email newsletter or tips. Unless you have a way of capturing your visitor’s e-mail address and permission to contact them via email, you’ll only get one chance to sell the visitor before they go elsewhere and forget about you and your site. Capture their e-mail address and permission, however, and you can convert that one-time visit into a long and profitable relationship. 5. How often do you send e-mail updates? Do you remember E.R. on television, the drama that took place in a hospital emergency room? Remember the oscilloscope displays tracking the heartbeats of the patients? Each time their heart beat, the trace rose to the top of the screen. But, it never stayed there. The rise to the top was quickly followed by a drop to the bottom of the screen. The same effect happens with your marketing. Each time you send out a tip or a newsletter, your visibility rises to the top of your prospect’s attention. But, the more time that goes by between your e-mail contacts, the more likely you won’t be visible when your prospect is ready to buy. Short, weekly email updates are far more effective than monthly or quarterly contacts. 6. How often do web visits turn into sales? Are you able to track the conversions, or sales, that originate on your website? If you’re not able to track your website’s performance, how do you know what it’s contributing to your firm’s profitability? If you can’t track your website’s performance, you can’t test your offers, your prices, and your headlines? You’ll never know which keywords to include in your headlines and body copy. Websites and testing go hand in hand; making it easy to test each variable until it delivers maximum sales for each of your product and service offerings. 7. How helpful and relevant is your site’s content? If your website consists primarily of empty claims about how great you are, it’s probably not contributing much to your bottom line. Success today is based on sharing genuinely helpful information with clients and prospects. Givers get. The more information you share, the more you will be viewed as an expert in your field, paving the way to book sales and back-end product and service profits.
8. Is your site’s image unique and accurate? Content is king, but content, by itself, isn’t enough. The design of your website says a lot about you, pre-selling the importance of your words, projecting a distinct and appropriate look that differentiates your site from the competition and resonates with prospects, inviting repeat visits. If your website looks old and tired, however, your message will look old and tired. 9. How well are you using web audio and video? Are you taking appropriate advantage of streaming audio and video? It’s a mistake to think that everyone wants to read as much as you do; today’s world is dominated by iPods, podcasts, and online videos. If you’re not taking advantage of them, your profits will suffer. It’s imperative that you offer prospects their choice of message formats. 10. How regularly do you submit articles online? Your website is just one of your online marketing tools. Articles that you write and submit to article distribution sites like www.ezinearticles.com permit you to expand your search engine visibility and drive addition traffic to your website. 11. Are you taking advantage of social marketing? How effectively are you using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other specialized sites to cultivate relationships and referrals from clients, co-workers, friends, prospects, and subject area experts? It’s never been easier to create quality connections with others who share your interests or challenges and drive traffic to your blog or website. Conclusion Once you have realistically evaluated the effectiveness of your online presence and author platform, you’ll have a baseline, or starting point, for moving forward. You’ll be able to plan a realistic enhancement of your author platform and search engine visibility. This will pave the way to building your brand and selling more books by taking advantage of the historically unique combination of amazing technology and low cost online marketing opportunities currently available. This article was originally published on ActiveGarage.com and is reprinted with permission. About the Author Roger C. Parker helps others write books that build brands. He’s written over 30 books, offers do-it-yourself resources at Published & Profitable (http://www.publishedandprofitable.com/) and shares writing tips each weekday at http:// blog.publishedandprofitable.com. His latest book, Title Tweet! 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Article, Book, and Event Titles, is available at http://bit.ly/f5wKYU. Back to top
Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own
by Joanna Penn Book video trailers are videos posted online and distributed via video networking sites like YouTube. These can be big budget blockbuster movie clips, or budget MovieMaker slides to music. You can make it an advert or a social media fun clip that people want to watch. It can be a human interest story made more like a documentary. It can be a cartoon. Essentially, it is anything you want it to be. Anything that catches people’s attention. You can get a professional to make you one or you can make your own for little or no money. I made this book video trailer at http://bit.ly/f5wKYU with Windows Movie Maker (which is on most PCs). It took me several hours but was essentially free, and you don’t have to be too techy to make one too. Instructions after the movie! (comments and feedback welcome!) 1. Research other book video trailers that are similar to what you would like to do. Just search for book trailers on YouTube. Decide what you like and don’t like (and what is within your capacity and budget). 2. Write a brief script for the trailer so you can get it straight in your head and understand what images and text you will need (I just did this on Microsoft Word). 3. Find and download images to match your words. You can use your own or get free ones online by googling “royalty free photo”. I use iStockPhoto which I find easy to use with a variety of pictures and I did pay a small amount for some photos. You can also use movie clips (which I am still learning about!) 4. Import the pictures into Windows MovieMaker. (File -> Import Media) 5. Order the pictures. Drag them into the movie bar at the bottom of the screen in the order you want. Right click and Cut to remove again. Basic drag and drop functionality. Remember to save regularly! 6. Add script by clicking on the picture in the movie bar and then clicking Edit -> Titles and Credits. You can add text in various styles, colours and transition effects here. You can add text before, on top of or after your pictures. 7. Edit. Once you have got the basic pictures and text setup, see how long your movie is. Most book trailers are no longer than 1 minute 30 seconds. Edit as necessary by clicking and dragging the size of the boxes to shorten the time frame they show on the screen. 8. Find music to match the length of your movie (or cut to fit). I used SoundSnap.com but you can google “royalty free music” to find other sites. I searched on audio length within classical music and listened to a few before choosing. 9. Check you are happy with everything and then Publish your movie to your computer.
10. Find tags. Now you have a file you can publish it to the internet movie sites to get some viewers. You need to know what tags you want to add to your video when you upload it, so I suggest you also research what people are searching on in your genre. I use Google Keyword Search which has a number of tools and recommended related words. 11. Upload your video to appropriate sites. I have loaded mine to YouTube and Google Video so far. It takes some time per site, unless you use a video submission site like TubeMogul.com or TrafficGeyser, which is expensive and really only for companies with lots of video. You can submit manually to sites like Revver, MySpaceTV, Metacafe, Yahoo Video, Book Trailers, AuthorsDen. No doubt there are many more! Remember to also use the embed links to post to your own website, blog and social networking sites. Have you had any promotional success with book video trailers? Where do you post them online? About the Author Joanna Penn is an author and blogger at The Creative Penn: Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion . . .for your book at http://www.thecreativepenn.com/. For more information on how to use Web 2.0 to write, publish, sell and promote your books, get your FREE Author 2.0 Blueprint at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1011191. Back to top
5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign by Lynn Serafinn Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to support them as a book promotion coach/consultant. In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together. For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients. The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch. The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank. The reason why people
will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book) is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts. Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have brought together. Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of Module 4 at Spirit Authors. For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going. Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur. Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign: - Bonus gift offers from JVPs - Email/ezine blasts - Twitter campaign - A Contest - Virtual Blog Tour There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here. For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way. Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift. A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what is an appropriate bonus gift. A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift. A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location. The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all. You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift. As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info. I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking. Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this
page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings. Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar. Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch. This sign up form should be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book. I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about. Be sure to mark your diary.” Step 4: Create Promo Copy The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs to use for your campaign. There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs: - Newsletter/ezine articles - “Tweets” (for Twitter) - “Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour) I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month). I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less. It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign vibrant, fun and very effective. A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour. I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors. In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy. Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs. I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a breakdown of how everything will run. I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document. I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus. Follow a Real Live Launch As I am the project leader for the Amazon campaign Check Mates, edited and coauthored by Vrinda Pendred, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch at http://conditionalpublications.com/pages/check-mates-launch.html. Of course, I also hope you’ll check out the book.
And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book. Hopefully they will give you ideas of how to make your own. Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!). This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign. If you’d like to know more about creating, running and benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my 8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing and Delivering at http://spiritauthors.com/category/module-4/mod-4-overview/. For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out. About the Author Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and author of the mind-body-spirit bestseller, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self at http://amzn.to/eHewei. She is the founder of Spirit Authors Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience at http://spiritauthors.com/, which offers training, community and support for aspiring and established mind-body-spirit authors. She also works as a campaign manager for book launches, and has produced two number-1 selling authors in 2010 so far. Coaching, training and campaign enquiries may be submitted at http://spiritauthors.com/contact. Back to top
Top 10 Ways to Maximize Book Sales on Amazon.com by Dana Lynn Smith Amazon.com is by far the largest online seller of books and it's a vital market for authors and publishers. Below are ten ways to maximize your exposure and boost sales through this important outlet. Although these tips focus on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com offers some similar features. 1. Enhance your book description. On the Amazon website, the book description appears under a heading titled Editorial Reviews. I recommend posting marketing copy (perhaps from your back cover), your most important testimonial/review quotes, and a one-paragraph author bio. To upload text to appear in this Editorial Reviews section, use this form: http://www.amazon.com/gp/content-form/?ie=UTF8&product=books. The text that you enter on this form is supposed to replace existing text. The staff at
Amazon reviews the information before posting it, so it may take a while. If you need to make other changes to your book information on Amazon, go to http://amzn.to/bMvu9E. 2. Increase your book's visibility in Amazon's search results. Amazon customers search for books by author, title, or keyword. Like search engines, Amazon uses several criteria in deciding which products to display on the search results page and in what order to display them. Popularity (the number of books already sold on Amazon) and how well the book matches the keywords are major factors in keyword search results. 3. Attract five-star reviews. When consumers shop for books online, many of them read the reviews before making a purchase. Even if they came to the site looking for a particular book, they may read the reviews to verify that they are making a good selection. Positive reviews are especially important for nonfiction books, where consumers often compare several books on the same topic. The best way to attract reviews is to ask people to review your book and to make it easy for them by providing a link to your book's sales page on Amazon. 4. Participate in the Search Inside program. In retail bookstores, customers tend to read the back cover, then flip through the book scanning the contents before making a purchase decision. The best way to replicate that experience online is to use Amazon's Search Inside program, which allows customers to view the book's table of contents and selected pages from the book. 5. Update your personal profile on Amazon. To update your personal profile, click on "YOURNAME's Amazon.com" near the upper left corner of the screen, click "your profile" near the upper right, then click the yellow "edit your profile" button near the upper right. You can add a photo and website address, enter a bio in the "in my own words" section, and enter a "signature" or tagline. When you review books or participate in discussions on Amazon, your name and signature will be visible to others, so it's important to create a descriptive signature such as "author of romantic suspense" or "author of Selling for Dummies." 6. Post reviews of other books. When you post reviews of related books and products on Amazon.com, you gain visibility with consumers and with the authors of the books you review. Be subtle about mentioning your own book when writing reviews. You don't want it to sound like a sales pitch or detract from the product that you are reviewing. For example, you can say "As a romance author myself, I really enjoyed the way that this author…"
You can sign your name at the bottom of your review as "Jane Doe, author of . . ." but it's bad form to include a Web link. Amazon has been known to delete overly promotional reviews, especially those with links. 7. Enhance your author page. Authors who have books for sale on Amazon can set up an author page through Author Central (formerly Amazon Connect) at https://authorcentral.amazon.com/. There's a link from your book sales page to your author page where readers can learn more about you. In addition to adding a bio and photo, you can import posts from your blog and make updates to your book description or reviews. 8. Conduct an Amazon bestseller campaign. An Amazon bestseller campaign is a joint venture promotion designed to drive customers to a special sales page on a specific day, with the goal of selling as many books as possible on that day. Your joint venture partners agree to send a message about the campaign to their mailing lists and also provide a bonus item that will be given to everyone who buys the book that day. 9. Release a Kindle edition. One way to increase your revenue from Amazon is to publish Kindle ebooks. Shorter, low-priced books tend to sell well in the Kindle format. If your nonfiction book is fairly long, you might break it down into several sections and publish each one separately. See this page to sign up for a Kindle publishing account: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin. 10. Boost your profits with Amazon Associates. As an Amazon Associate, you create affiliate links to place on your website for your own books and any other Amazon products you’d like to promote. You will earn a commission each time someone clicks on one of your affiliate links and purchases the product. This is extra revenue, above and beyond whatever you normally make when you sell your book on Amazon. You can sign up for the Associates program here, https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ but residents of some states may not be eligible due to sales tax issues in their state. About the Author Learn more about profiting from Amazon.com in Dana Lynn Smith's ebook, How to Sell More Books on Amazon, available in both PDF and Kindle format at http://bit.ly/AmazonEbook. For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bookmarketer and get Dana's free Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you visit The Savvy Book Marketer blog at http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com. Back to top
Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea by Kathleen Gage One of the most pressing questions from authors, speakers, coaches and consultants using the Internet to market their products and services is, “How do I build a responsive opt-in subscriber list?” A very simple way is with a Sig File (signature file). A Sig File is a tagline or short block of text at the end of an e-mail message, article or blog posting. The Sig File can identify the sender and/or provide additional information such as the company name, list of services, and contact information. However, the most effective use of a Sig File is to have a call to action for an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe is exactly what it sounds like. You are offering visitors to your website, blog or landing page something FREE in exchange for them giving you their name and email address. Effectively using a Sig File is one of the most important things you can do to begin building a solid opt-in subscriber list. Lists filled with people who have expressed an interest in something you are offering at no cost are warm leads for those who may want to purchase your paid products. Avoid falling into the trap of thinking you don’t have time to offer something free. Ethical bribes that are FREE are the cornerstone of building your online business. I have dozens of “giveaways” that I have developed over the years. Everything from eReports, eBooks, teleseminars, ezines, a 4-day email course and more. This has allowed me to build a list from the ground up (this means I started with nothing and built a highly profitable list of subscribers). The most successful among us started with nothing and built from there. And so can you! Your giveaways should not require a lot of time on your part to fulfill the request from your visitor. Other than a teleseminar where you have dozens, hundreds and even thousands of people on the call at one time, avoid things like free coaching time. Otherwise you could cripple your business by having to be on the phone 24/7 fulfilling “free consulting”. You have to start somewhere and a high value giveaway can be just the ticket. One idea is to an over the phone interview with an expert, record it and give the recording away. (Be sure to get the expert’s permission before giving away their information). From there, you develop a simple landing page with an opt-in box that immediately puts the subscriber into your database. About the Author
For more ideas on building your list, increasing your visibility, using sig files, developing money making information products and more, see what Kathleen Gage is up to at Street Smarts Marketing at http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?Clk=3413741. Back to top
Resources Learn how to make your books stand out from the huge number of competing books on Amazon and turn shoppers into buyers, with How to Sell More Books on Amazon, available in PDF and Kindle format at http://bit.ly/AmazonEbook. BlogAid at www.BlogAid.net offers a wealth of free information about blogs and websites, along with WordPress training. 31 Days to a Better Blog, an ebook by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, is designed to help you take your blog to the next level. http://j.mp/49ABHh GoDaddy is my favorite source for buying website domain names, but their purchase process is somewhat confusing. See this free tutorial to learn the easy way to purchase a domain name and learn how to forward domain names to any URL. http://bit.ly/DomainTutorial Get blog and website resources at http://bit.ly/BloggingResources. Find the best keywords to use in your book titles, Web pages and articles using the free Google Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Posting articles online is a great way for nonfiction authors to showcase their expertise and drive website traffic. Start with the largest article site, Ezine Articles at http://www.ezinearticles.com. Learn everything you need know to run a successful online business in Kathleen Gage’s Street Smarts Marketing™ program at http://bit.ly/5pWKvD. Find low-cost royalty-free images for your book covers, website, blog posts and more at www.istockphoto.com. Learn how to create your own book video trailer with The Book Trailer Manual by Darcy Pattison, http://booktrailermanual.com. Upload your videos to multiple websites using the free service from Tube Mogul at http://www.tubemogul.com/about/oneload. Learn how to create a podcast in this series of articles from Lynn Terry at http://bit.ly/dmIbKW and this free technical tutorial from Carsten Cumbrowski at http://www.cumbrowski.com/podcastingguide.asp#itfeed. Back to top
Social Media Marketing Why Social Networking is a Must for Authors by Dana Lynn Smith Over the past couple of years, social networking has become an increasingly essential online book marketing strategy—one that you can't afford to overlook. Reaching potential book buyers is the most obvious benefit of social networking, but not necessarily the most important one. For many nonfiction authors, developing relationships with peers and influencers is equally important. These contacts may review your book, recommend you to others, participate in your book launch, and publish your articles in their blog or ezine. Social networking is ideal for generating word-of-mouth online book marketing, where your message gets passed along by others. For example, when people enjoy a book, article, blog, or video, they often recommend it to others online. This type of user endorsement is more effective than traditional marketing. Here are some other benefits of social networking in your online book marketing plan: - Building author platforms, expert status, and brand recognition - Getting endorsements and recommendations for your books - Driving traffic to websites and blogs - Subtly promoting books, products, and services - Learning from other authors in your genre or other experts in your field - Increasing your opt-in subscriber list - Getting speaking engagements or consulting customers - Improving search engine optimization and search results ranking through back links from social sites. Which social networks are most important for authors? For nonfiction authors, my top choices are Twitter, Facebook, and professional network LinkedIn. For fiction authors, my top picks are Facebook and virtual reader communities such as GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/author/program. Other sites may also be useful, depending on your target audience. For example, if you're writing for young adults, MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/ would be a good choice. Children’s book authors can network on JacketFlap at http://www.jacketflap.com/. If your target audience is boomers, check out Eons at http://www.eons.com/. Also search Ning.com and Google for networks that serve specific niche audiences.
Here are a few tips for getting the most from social networking: - Be selective about which networks you join and who you invite as a friend. Only invite people who appear to share common interests with you. - Send personalized friend requests, introducing yourself and stating why you want to befriend the other person. - Get involved in the community. Add value by helping others, answering questions, and sharing resources and knowledge. Don't forget to share a bit of personal information about yourself. - Be careful not to appear too promotional. It's okay to promote your products and services on occasion, but don't make that your main focus. Sending out an announcement of your book launch is fine; sending frequent promotional messages about your book is not. While social networking is a terrific online book marketing tool, it's also great fun to meet people all over the world who share your interests. If you haven't already jumped onboard, get started today! About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and the author of several book marketing guides, including The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing, available at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Turn Your Facebook Profile into a Friend Magnet in 7 Easy Steps by Janice Curran More and more writers—both the pros and the aspiring—are turning to social networking services such as Facebook to promote their brands. But if "everybody’s doing it," how do you stand out? One way is to utilize the service in a manner that’s different from the norm. The manner I use is "Featured Friends." When you look at your Facebook friend list, what do you see? A collection of names? Or do you see, as I do, a wide range of people with a wide range of expertise—people from whom others can learn?
I built my Facebook Featured Friends program around that concept. Once a month, I host what, in essence, is a live mini blog right on my Facebook wall. The Facebook friend featured posts a quick tip on a topic relevant to writing. Then, for a time-limited period following, my guest replies to comments posted by my Facebook friends. The shared benefits make for an even exchange. The Featured Friend gets to promote a specific product and/or brand. The host gets to network, make new friends and learn along with the visitors. With a little imagination, anyone from any industry can host a Featured Friends–type program on Facebook. If you can count to seven, you can, too … 1. “Friend” with a purpose. If your mission is to get your name in front of as many people as possible, friend away! If, like me, you prefer to limit your Facebook community of friends to writers, editors and other industry pros so you can network and offer targeted lessons, friend with that goal in mind. 2. Develop a plan. Do you wish to host a mini blog daily, weekly, monthly? Figure out the time you’d like to invest, then decide. Monthly works best for me. Between guests, I post links on topics of interest to writers. By doing so, I foster the impression that my wall is a writer-friendly place and a unique learning environment. 3. Invite friends to present. Everyone in your friend base is a potential presenter. Identify whom you’d like to feature, then e-mail the friend privately or use the SEND A MESSAGE option on the friend’s profile page to extend your request. Suggest a topic, or invite the presenter to choose. Schedule a date as well as the time the presenter will be available to post his or her lesson and respond to visitor questions. I ask my Featured Friends to post a 150-word tip and set aside two hours for interacting with visitors. 4. Invite other friends to attend. To send an invitation to all or some of your Facebook friends, add an EVENTS tab to your profile page. Click on the tab, then the CREATE EVENT button that appears at the top of the page. Facebook will guide you through the process of creating an event page and issuing invitations. You’ll need to know the basics before you begin: the presenter’s name, the title of the lesson, a description of the event, the date, the time and the location (your Facebook wall). You can send a photo of your presenter or your presenter’s book with your invitation. You can upload photos, video and Web links to the event page you create. 5. Promote your event. Leading up to the big day, I post COMING SOON notices on my wall daily. On the day of, I also post invitations on the message boards of my online writing groups and my Featured Friend’s wall. 6. Get the ball rolling. It’s showtime. Your work is done—right? Not totally. Visitors are sometimes shy about being the first to participate. Introduce your guest with a brief bio. After the guest posts his or her tip, break the ice with questions that encourage visitors to ask questions of their own.
7. Keep the momentum going. A Featured Friend presentation is the start of a professional relationship that can lead to genuine friendship. I’ve had Featured Friends offer to make return engagements, recommend other friends to feature, suggest their friends become my friends, too. Keep alert for opportunities to help promote your Featured Friends’ endeavors in return. At the heart of the program are real people, working hard to succeed in a challenging industry. Everyone wins when everyone helps pave the way. About the Author Janice Curran is a freelance writer, short story author and aspiring novelist. Her stories have appeared in New Love Stories, True Romance and True Love magazines. Writers and other industry pros are invited to friend her at www.facebook.com/janice.curran. Back to top
Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Do's and Don'ts by Patrice-Anne Rutledge LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/ is one of the world's most popular professional networking sites, with more than 90 million members around the world. It's also a great place to promote books. Here are six ways to promote your book on LinkedIn, plus two ideas to avoid. 1. Feature your book prominently on your LinkedIn profile. One of the best ways to do this is to add a publication section to your profile with a link to your book (either on your website or on a site such as Amazon).You can also draw attention to your book on your profile headline and summary. Another idea is to create a separate position as an author, which gives more emphasis to your book. Be careful not to overdo this promotion, however. You don't want your profile to read like an advertisement for your book. 2. Update your status regularly. Your LinkedIn status is one of the best ways to communicate news about your book to your LinkedIn connections. You can start when you first land your book deal (or begin the writing process on a self-published book). Then update your status as your book progresses. Don't stop when your book is released, however. You can also update your status when you receive any media mentions or post something interesting on your blog that relates to your book. 3. Install the Reading List by Amazon application and add your book. This generates exposure on your profile and across your network. 4. Review LinkedIn Answers for questions that relate to the topic of your book. Provide genuine, helpful information to demonstrate your expertise and then identify
yourself as the author of a related book at the end of your answer. 5. Participate in LinkedIn groups where your target readers congregate. Add value by contributing to discussions and sharing relevant links. If the group has a Promotion tab, post information about your book release, book tour, and any speaking engagements. 6. Display book excerpts on your LinkedIn profile. Upload your PDF excerpt to SlideShare and install the LinkedIn SlideShare application to share these on your profile. Doing this also gets you added exposure on SlideShare itself. Here are two things, you don't want to do: 1. Don't spam your LinkedIn connections with sales pitches for your book. One fellow author actually sent me three "buy it now!" messages on LinkedIn in just a few weeks. This isn't a good way to endear yourself to your LinkedIn network, nor it is a good way to sell books. At most, consider sending one (just one!) message to "share the good news" about your book with selected LinkedIn connections. In this way, you're just letting your network know about a big event in your life. Hand-picking the people in your network who are a good match for your message is an even better idea. 2. Don't spam LinkedIn groups with sales pitches either. Group owners can remove you from their group if you violate the rules of good group behavior by posting frequent sales pitches disguised as discussion items. Instead, focus on participating in group discussions in a genuine way, using your book only to identify your area of expertise. In general, a low-key approach to book promotion generates the best results on LinkedIn. Let people know about your book, but let your knowledge and expertise do the selling for you. About the Author Patrice-Anne Rutledge is the bestselling author of more than 30 books on business and technology. Her latest book, Using LinkedIn at http://amzn.to/hoxALt (Que/Pearson, 2010), is available at online booksellers and bookstores worldwide. She is also the founder and principal of Pacific Ridge Media, which offers consulting and training on small business marketing, branding, and social media. You can reach Patrice on her author website at www.patricerutledge.com, business website at www.pacificridgemedia.com or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/patriceannerutledge. Back to top
Book Marketing with LinkedIn – Top Mistakes and Solutions by Judy Cullins
Are your book sales slow? For social media marketing, you may have tried Twitter and Facebook. Maybe, you’ve even put up a book blog to stimulate and engage your book’s audience. I too used Twitter and Facebook and dropped my first blog over 2 years ago thinking not enough results. That is, until I got some coaching on social media marketing. I discover that LinkedIn markets my new blog beautifully. LinkedIn works so well for consultants, coaches, authors and other small businesses. Maybe you made these two big mistakes on social media. Mistake 1. You collected followers, friends, and contacts, but most of them weren’t your book’s best audience. Until I got my 1,000 friends and book group members to join my fan pages, I got low results at Facebook. So, for all three of my social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) I shifted my marketing strategy from collecting numbers to concentrating my social media marketing only on my book’s best audiences. This may shock you, but this change makes all the difference in my results of getting my specific audience to my site. Results, Results, Results! You need to also check what social media marketing is working and what not each month is. Check Google Analytics Monthly. For LinkedIn, my Web site got 25% more targeted visitors each month for the months of February, March, April and May, 2010. And more are coming from LinkedIn each month. Check your Alexa Score Monthly. I check my Alexa score monthly. It seems that my social media book group at Linkedin is partially the reason for so much new targeted traffic–only people who want to establish a relationship with me as a book coach and the 1,075 other members who are so moved my how to messages, my positive personality, that they will visit and comment on my blog and eventually open up their wallets to buy my books and my short term coaching offers at my site. My Alexa score has gone from 600,000 a few months ago to 280,000 in February, 2011. (That’s a good score) and my goal is 100,000. That score and lower mean very successful small businesses. My Results Can be Your Results. Some specific visitors just read my blog articles. Some come for my free reports. Many in my target audience take my hands-on teleseminars. The committed ones either read some of my books or contact me for my famous half hour coaching sessions to get specific solutions for their specific needs.
Less is More. I still tweet, but only 2 times a day. I interact a few times a week at my Facebook (FB) fan page and Twitter with people who want book writing, self-publishing and social media marketing. Mistake 2. You haven’t’ become active enough on LinkedIn. You may have joined and put up a short profile, but this is not enough. You may complain it takes too much time. Yes, you don’t want to waste time on just any social media–that’s why I suggest you give LinkedIn a better chance. From my newest book, “LinkedIn Marketing-8 Best Tactics to Build Book and Business Sales,” I’ll recommend a few of the 8 Best Tactics now. (Tactics that are working well today) LinkedIn 3 Best Tactics that Bring Top Results 1. Do the most important thing first. Edit your Profile. Your first profile probably needs freshening up. Make sure it engages your profile visitor. Show them the benefits of working with you, or buying your book. Don’t start so many sentences with “I”. In all content marketing as LinkedIn and blogging, start from the YOU point of view. What can you do for your audience? Include testimonials near the top because they sell books. 2. Join 5-10 groups that relate to your book or skills you need. Keep researching and adding groups weekly that fit your book or business. Find these through search words for help like “book writing” and “LinkedIn strategies.” or search words of your audience who will want your book. Hint: My best audience is business people. Do you know your book’s top 5 benefits? Put them in your profile and mention them in the groups. Do you know your book’s target audience? You need to know this for any book promotion to work. This is the pre-marketing know how that brings an author real success. Remember, benefits sell; features explain. 3. Get active on ten or more groups you that fit you. Once you join, request weekly emails on what new discussions are going on. Then, when they show up in your email (how convenient) you can decide which ones to chime in with your useful comments. Each time you contribute, the whole group sees your face and who you are. That’s great exposure to brand you or your book. You can contact individuals privately by email too, which can eventually lead to a sale. Develop Patience and Start Relating to Others in your Audience
Know that getting to the sale takes at least 3-7 steps, so don’t make the big mistake and shout out your Web site or link to buy your book. You don’t need to. Readers in groups will see your picture and what you do and contact you if they are interested. Get people curious about your book. They will respond. Offer one comment at a time. Or offer a blog link to a piece that relates to the discussion. This is the one link that is not considered promotion. Remember these groups are for education and help–not to sell directly to. LinkedIn offers many more ways to interact than other social media. That’s why I love it so much and have enjoyed its results. A book coach 25 years, I’m glad social media marketing is a great piece of the book marketing puzzle. My mission is to assist you in getting more eyes on your book–the ones who really want or need it. About the Author Book Coach Judy Cullins helps you not only write an engaging short book, but helps you market it with great ROI using her 13th book, "Linkedin Marketing: 8 Best Tactics to Build your Book and Business Sales" at http://bit.ly/fo4fuo. You can also get her free weekly writing and marketing how to's at http://bit.ly/ffOGmB. Back to top
Promote a Book with Twitter: Top 10 Strategies for Authors by Dana Lynn Smith Twitter is a great way to promote a book while you build your networks and reputation. Here are ten ways authors can harness the power of Twitter to promote a book: 1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. You can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, offer tips and discuss other books that you enjoy. 2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you're listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre. 3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field or genre, and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow. 4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signs, podcasts, virtual book tours, teleseminars, and book launches.
5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner. See this article at http://bit.ly/o3CrL for tips on creating a Twitter contest. 6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it's amazing how helpful folks are. You can also ask for feedback on your book title, cover design or website. 7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products. Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow. 8. Promote a book or other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches. Keep promotional and self-serving tweets to 10 to 20 percent of your total posts. 9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it's a great place to learn more about the publishing industry and meet partners who can help you promote a book. 10. Keep in touch when you're on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices. Have fun! It's fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship while you promote a book. About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and the author of several book marketing guides, including Twitter Guide for Authors at http://bit.ly/2XHSHQ. For more tips, visit her book marketing blog at http://www.thesavvybookmarketer.com/ and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter at http://www.bookmarketingnewsletter.com/. Back to top
Promote Your Book with a Twitter World Tour by Graham Storrs Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. your time, on February 15, 2010, I visited your time zone and tweeted. I did it as part of the TimeSplash Non-Stop 24-hour Round-the-World Twitter Tour, which I did to help launch my début novel, TimeSplash at http://bit.ly/cuXqO1. It went like this:
I began in New York at 7 p.m. on the 15th. That time zone includes much of the Eastern Seaboard, eastern Canada, and a chunk of South America. I tweeted a hello to everybody in the whole time zone, told them about my book, chatted to anybody who was around, and, at 8 p.m. exactly, moved west by one time zone. That meant it was 7 p.m. again, but now I was in the central U.S. states, central Canada, and Mexico. I did it all again, said hello, mentioned my book, and chatted to anyone who replied. Every hour, I moved west again by one time zone, jumping back each time to 7 p.m. Appropriate for a book about time traveling. In just a few hours, I had crossed the Americas. Leaving Alaska behind, I crossed the dateline, and entered Russia. Tweeting for 24 hours solid was pretty tiring, but it didn't kill me (and, considering how I felt when I reached Europe and still had nine hours to go, surviving felt like a small miracle at the time.) In fact, I had a lot of fun. Most places I went, there were people to talk to and, to my surprise, there was a crowd of people who (while they were awake!) were following me and cheering me on. I had feared that my regular followers would get bored with my constant tweeting but people seemed to enjoy it. I picked up dozens of followers during the tour and several people tweeted to say they'd bought the book and were enjoying it. One guy bought it, read the whole thing, and blogged a very nice review before the tour was even over! This is how I prepared myself: - I found a big atlas of the world and kept it by my side. - I opened Wikipedia and, as I passed each country, read a little about it. - I found a good online translator and kept it open on my desktop. - I made a point of checking what countries my Twitter followers lived in – it turned out they were spread all over North America, Europe, and Australasia, so I had someone I knew in most time zones. - I arranged with my wife to bring me meals and drinks throughout the 24 hours. A lot of the time I was extremely busy and engaged, and I was very glad of her support so I could stay at the keyboard. These are some of the things I did that helped make it interesting: - I used the hashtag #timesplash so that people could follow the tour. - I gave greetings to all the countries in each time zone as I arrived, in each country's own language if possible, and used country and city-name hashtags to alert the locals. - Whenever I knew a country, I wrote little anecdotes about my time there – about places I'd visited, or lived, or things I'd done there. - Even if I didn't know a country at all, I found interesting facts about it in Wikipedia and tweeted about them.
- I tried to keep actual plugs for my book down to about one per time zone – however, several of my followers were re-tweeting my plugs throughout the tour (bless 'em.) - Whenever anybody said 'Hi' from a time zone, I engaged them and chatted. Sometimes I was having several conversations at once. This was one of the best parts, especially if it was a stranger. I made a few tweet buddies that day! It was quite an experience. Some things were very striking. North America, Australasia, and Europe were very lively. Russia is immense and, for me, was mostly silent. China, of course, was silent too, because of their Internet filtering. The Atlantic was the only really dull bit – three time zones with no inhabitants! I was very happy to make landfall in New York at 7 p.m. on the 16th and very pleased with the positive response I'd had throughout the tour. It was a great alternative to sitting in bookstores, and I think I sold just as many books. About the Author Graham Storrs, the author of TimeSplash at http://bit.ly/cuXqO1, is a writer who lives in quiet seclusion on a bush property in Australia. He trained as a psychologist and, after a career in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction research and software design, now shares his time between his family, writing, and the beautiful forested mountains of his adopted home. Back to top
Resources Learn more about social marketing with these detailed how-to guides: - Facebook Guide for Authors: http://bit.ly/19klwq - Twitter Guide for Authors: http://bit.ly/2XHSHQ - The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing: http://bit.ly/AuthorSocialMarketing Save time by using www.HootSuite.com to manage your social networking posts from a single location and schedule posts in advance. Get your free report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success at http://bit.ly/10StepReport. Top Social Networking Sites: - www.Facebook.com - for all authors - http://twitter.com – for all authors - www.LinkedIn.com – for nonfiction authors - www.GoodReads.com – for fiction authors
See a list of other networking sites for fiction and children’s book authors at http://bit.ly/ ReaderCommunities. Learn more about book publishing and marketing by following these groups of experts on Twitter: - http://twitter.com/bookmarketer/book-publishing-experts - http://twitter.com/bookmarketer/book-promotion-experts - http://twitter.com/bookmarketer/online-marketing-experts Get more social marketing resources at http://bit.ly/SocialResources. Back to top
Fiction Marketing While the basic marketing principals are the same, there are distinct differences between promoting fiction and nonfiction books. This section offers specific advice for novelists. Authors of children’s and young adult books can find additional publishing and marketing resources at http://bit.ly/ChildrenYA.
What Do You Talk About On Your Blog If You Write Fiction? by Carolyn Howard-Johnson It's harder to promote fiction on a blog (or about anything else) than nonfiction, but it's not impossible. Here are some ideas. Note that sometimes you have to make your own news. 1. Review others' books and post the review. Choose ones in the same genre as yours or related to your book in other ways, like setting. Ask the author to promote your review post. If you need more information on this process, read the section on how to promote with your writing in my book, The Frugal Book Promoter at http://amzn.to/eflqqw, and for everything you need to know on the subject read Mayra Calvani's The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing at http://amzn.to/hUPTWZ. 2. Tell stories related to your book. Use the voice of your protagonist (or villain) in your post and let him or her tell some new stories, stories not found in your book. Be sure she or he mentions your book during the little story-telling spree.
3. Let your readers endorse your book. In fact, ask them to. Post pictures of them and your book cover. Make the post more about them than about your book. Your post could resemble a feature story like the ones you see in magazines. Focus on some interesting aspect of their lives. I’m thinking maybe about their taste in reading. You could do a whole series of articles on different readers using this theme. You might also use an interview format, but interview are common and many of your readers may not understand how to make the answers interesting using anecdote or snappy comebacks. Besides, if you wrote a feature story, you might end up selling the article to a print periodical or some other media. 4. Talk about trends in your genre. How does your book fit into them? 5. Answer reader's questions. Sometimes readers think of characters as real. Offer to expound or flesh out characters, including minor ones. You may end up using what you write as part of a sequel. 6. It seems obvious from the above but you could explore your next novel and let people weigh in with ideas. 7. Feature or link to the blogs of other authors or other review sites. Ask for reviews of your book on those same review sites. 8. Start an award. Contests are old news and often don't work well. But if you give an award once a year for a book in your genre? Well, I'm just starting to think of the possible benefits inherent with this including an opportunity to send out a media release with some real news in it, You could cross promote with the winning author or authors. Oh! A resource for you. Go to Phyllis Zimbler Miller's and my Fiction Marketing page to read the chapter on blogs. There are even more ideas there. It is at www.fictionmarketing.com. And if you know an agent who might be interested in the concept, will you let them know about the site? About the Author Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of several books including This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't at http://amzn.to/g1y1wF and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success at http://amzn.to/gxC5B1. She is also the author of booklets, The Great First Impression Book Proposal at www.budurl.com/BookProposals and Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Booklet for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy at www.budurl.com/WordtrippersPB. Her blogs include Sharing With Writers and Readers at http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com; The New Book Review at http://www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews; and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog at http:// www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com/.
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Blog Ideas for Fiction Authors by Cathy Stucker You have heard that you should have a blog, but you may have no idea what you should blog about. Do your readers want to know what you had for lunch (probably not) or your opinions on some political issue (even less likely)? Although your blog does not always have to be about you and your books, here are some ideas that can keep you writing great blog posts and selling more books. Your Events Let your friends and fans know what you are doing and where they can meet you in person. Do posts about: Upcoming Events - When and where will you be reading from your latest book? How can they attend your book launch party or order autographed copies of the book? What Happened at Your Last Event - After the event, tell what happened. Was there a big crowd? Include pictures of you reading from your book, autographing books for fans, and everyone having a great time. The Process of Writing Most people will never write a book, and that makes them very curious about how someone actually writes an entire book. Write posts describing: How You Decide What to Write About - Where did you get the idea to make your heroine a truck driver? Why did you set your latest novel in Miami? How You Write - Do you write in longhand or at a computer? Do you create a detailed outline, or just start writing? How do you know when a book is finished? Do you imagine movie stars in the film version of your books while you write? Where You Write - Do you write in a home office? At the library? In a corner at your local Starbucks? Your Research Even though the stories are made up, most novelists do at least some research to create credible characters and locations. Let your fans and aspiring writers know: How You Research - Most people haven’t a clue how to do research. You might be surprised by how many people can not even do an effective Google search. Where do you start with your research? Do you travel to locations in your books? Have you ever worked at the jobs any of your characters have, or have you shadowed people in those
jobs? What are the fun parts of research vs. the tedious parts? Facts and Juicy Tidbits - Chances are your research turned up some very interesting information. It is also likely that lots of your research didn’t make it in to your book. Share some surprising and little-known historical facts or how-to with your blog’s readers. What You Are Reading Writers read, and your fans want to know what you read. Tell them! The Novels on Your Nightstand - What books have you recently read? What books are on your nightstand, waiting to be read? What are your favorite books? Books About Writing - Remember that many of your readers are also interested in writing, so let them know the books you find most useful. These might include grammar reference books, how-to books on writing, or books about the process of writing by your favorite authors. Your Characters It is your blog, but there is no rule that you can’t turn it over to your characters now and then to let them have their say. Lead Characters - Let the lead characters in your upcoming book introduce themselves in a blog post. If you write a series, they might blog about what is happening in their lives between books. Quirky Secondary Characters - Sometimes the minor characters are, in some ways, more interesting that the leads. The quirky characteristics that make them fun and interesting would drive everyone crazy if you read about them on every page of the book, but when they pop in for a few scenes, they grab interest and move the story along. Why not let one of them do a blog post? Readers will love it, and you will have fun, too. Ask for Reader Feedback Give readers a sense of ownership in your next book by asking for their advice. Ask them anything from whether your heroine should be blond to what her name should be or where the book should be set. Let them vote from a list of choices or make freeform suggestions. Run a Contest Everyone loves to win stuff, so hold a contest and give away a few copies of your book. Structure the contest to get readers involved, such as asking them to write a short poem about something in the book, or telling what their favorite one of your books is and why, or anything that gets them involved. (Note: Laws generally prohibit requiring that entrants make a purchase, so be careful about that.)
Blog often to keep readers engaged. These ideas should get you started. About the Author As the IdeaLady (http://idealady.com/), Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. For more tips on writing, publishing and marketing books, see Cathy’s book publishing site at http://SellingBooks.com/. Back to top
What Novelists Can Learn About Marketing from Nonfiction Authors by Angela Wilson It's easier for nonfiction authors to establish a successful marketing campaign than their fiction counterparts. Fiction authors drown in over-saturated genres, while nonfiction authors have very targeted niches they serve. Speaking engagements are easier to come by for nonfiction authors, who are established "experts" because of publication. If you want to stand out from others competing for attention in your genre, then consider borrowing a few tricks from your counterparts: Create a definitive niche for yourself by targeting a smaller market share. Here is an example: Instead of targeting every reader in the paranormal romance genre, search for those who enjoy the types of paranormal you write (vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.). Build on this smaller audience until it is solid, then branch out to other readers in the genre. Use your books to propel you to "expert" status. Every time you write, you learn something. Take those lessons and compile them into easy-to-read PDFs or blog posts. This builds your credibility over time. When you pitch yourself as a guest speaker for writing conferences, focus on what you’ve learned from your writing and publishing experiences. Know your brand, and use it. When you Google "branding expert," you will find Rob Frankel, author of The Revenge of Brand X. He knows that finding readers and clients is about more than just his name—it is about his brand. He has successfully made his name synonymous with his career as a branding expert, so people can find him, not the competition. Fiction authors should create a brand that is not only their name, but their genre, book titles or characters, or a combination of all four. Don't limit yourself to book sales. Nonfiction authors usually have backgrounds that support their subject and books. They are consultants, business owners, mothers of disabled children, ex-military and more. Their books are just part of their revenue
stream. For example, you could bill yourself as a time management expert if you write several books each year. The more you add to your credentials, the more venues will open to you, and the more revenue you will generate. About the Author Former journalist Angela Wilson blogs about book marketing at Market My Novel (http:// www.marketmynovel.com/) and shares author recipes at Authors & Appetizers (http://authorsandappetizers.com/). She loves to write paranormal fiction, drink tea and walk at park trails. Back to top
Publicity for Books and Authors Five Tips to Create Publicity for Your Book by Barbara Techel In 2007 I embarked upon writing my first children’s book to educate others about animals with disabilities, as well as help children see their challenges in a positive way. My dachshund, Frankie was diagnosed with Intervertebral Disc Disease (http://www.dodgerslist.com/) in 2006 which caused paralysis. She is now mobile and living a quality life thanks to a dog wheelchair. Watching Frankie persevere after surgery to repair the ruptured disc, months of physical therapy and ultimately fitted for her dog wheelchair (http://www.eddieswheels.com/), I realized I was being given an opportunity to share a story of hope. Having virtually no experience in the book industry, I set out with the will to learn and the passion to share my message. Here are some ideas that have worked for me: 1. Watch what other authors do, especially in your genre or area of expertise. Follow them via Facebook or Twitter, study their websites, and build a relationship with them. I’ve learned many valuable lessons from other authors that have helped me spread my message. One way in particular, is watching what radio shows they are doing and then pitching to that particular radio show. 2. Subscribe to HARO - Help a Reporter Out at http://www.helpareporter.com/. This has been a wonderful free tool for publicity! When a journalist is looking for a story that pertains to your subject, pitch them. One pitch I made was to a woman looking for stories about therapy dogs. The writer contacted me, wrote my story and it made it into a book. This book got into the hands of Bauer Publishing who publishes Woman’s World magazine. Out of 21 stories in the book, they chose my story to feature in their
magazine. 3. Pay attention to writing contests (search Google). Enter those that speak to your heart. One such contest I placed second and made it into the book, Dogs and the Women Who Love Them at http://www.dogsandthewomenwholovethem.com/, which was just recommended by Oprah’s O Magazine at http://bit.ly/huKbhJ. 4. Enter book award contests. If you place as a winner, or even a finalist, this is a great opportunity to write a press release for your local paper, as well as online directories. This keeps your name and message out there for others to find you and remember you. 5. Do charitable work. I volunteer with Frankie, who is a registered therapy dog, and because of our work, Frankie was inducted into the Wisconsin Pet Hall of Fame. Even if you don’t receive this type of recognition, charitable organizations work on publicity often, and if you can tie into that this can bring free publicity to you. Another example of this is that Frankie and I volunteer at a local community hospice with a monthly newsletter. We were featured in the newsletter, which brought notice to me as an author and my books. Thinking outside of the box and watching for opportunities that look like a good fit are some avenues that have helped me generate publicity. Even if it seems like a small opportunity, you never do know where it will lead. If you are passionate about your message, are consistent, as well as open to new opportunities, you never know where it will take you! About the Author Barbara Techel is the award-winning author of Frankie, the Walk ‘N Roll Dog book series. Along with sharing Frankie’s story with children, Barbara and Frankie routinely volunteer as a therapy dog team at local hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice centers, spreading joy wherever they go. Learn more at www.joyfulpaws.com. Back to top
Anatomy of a Successful Press Release for Book Promotion by Carol White One of the most basic parts of your marketing plan is your media plan. How are you going to let people know about your book so that they can find it and buy it? By notifying the media, right? Of course, before you get to this point, your product has to be ready to market. There is no point in embarking on a publicity campaign unless you are ready to go to market: - Is your product well-targeted for its genre/market? You do know who will buy your
book, right? And the answer isn’t “everybody.” - Has it been professionally produced – either by you or with help from a team of professionals as needed? Designers, editors, layout, and marketing professionals can all help improve the end result. - It has to be priced right for the market - you did do a competitive analysis also? - There have to be places for people to buy it where they are used to shopping for information on your subject - your really well-thought-out website is only the beginning and Amazon is only the next step; from there, think about pet stores for pet books, florists for books about orchids, home improvement stores for plumbing books, online sites and so on. Once you are ready to launch your media campaign, you’ll need the tools to do that – one or more press releases, an author bio, some sample interview questions for broadcast media or online virtual interviews, a “sell” sheet and more. The item that seems to give authors the most trouble is writing a good press release. A press release for book promotion doesn’t tell about your book – it tells a story that people care about. Nobody cares that you have written a new book unless you are John Grisham or Tom Clancy, so you need a hook. I’ve taken two press releases of my own that have had thousands of views and hundreds of “pickups” as examples of what makes a release work year after year. The first example ties to a topic of continuing interest to most Americans – the price of gasoline – especially during the summer vacation time, which is when it gets picked up and used. In fact, I usually update the pricing information and re-release it year after year, holiday after holiday. Click on the link below to see this press release, along with my comments about each element of the release. Sample book press release #1 at http://bit.ly/ikxbnm The second example is one that was tied to a not very successful movie, but it must have “cult” status because this little piece gets viewed on my website and on PRWeb every single month – truly amazing to me, but that just shows the power of having the right hook. The beauty of tying your press information to a cultural topic (movies, plays, musical groups, etc.) is that they are perennially viewed, thereby giving longevity to your efforts. Click on the link below to see this release, along with my comments. Sample book press release #2 at http://bit.ly/ihawhi A press release for book promotion has some very specific parts to be effective: - Clearly stated contact information - An action-oriented headline that grabs attention - An opening paragraph that pulls people into your story - Quotes from people or organizations to back up your information and add interest - Problem-solving information related to your story – how will your story (book) make their lives better or easier or how will it entertain them? What is the value to them?
- Humor and fun when appropriate - Bullet points or short sectional headlines for easy skimming of key information - Closing paragraph that wraps up the key point and “sells” the value of your book (and story). Includes a strong closing sentence. - A short bio and information about the book and a link to your website and additional media information All of this needs to be done in clear, concise sentences and written to generally not exceed 500-750 words. If appropriate, make sure you include additional media information like availability for interviews, local appearances in conjunction with the story, contests being conducted around the story, and so on. Finally, there are few things to avoid in your press releases: - It can’t be an advertisement for you or your book - It can’t be overly biased or present clearly objectionable copy - It can’t be difficult to read - difficult language, too text dense, too rambling, too long, etc. What I always tell my clients is to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes – what would you want to hear about this story/book and does this press release deliver that information? It will often take several tries to get the story right, but with a good eye towards your customer (and not yourself) and you will be well on your way to writing a press release for your book that you will be proud of and one that will get excellent media coverage both now and for some time in the future. About the Author Carol White is an author, speaker, writer, and book marketing coach. Co-author of the award-winning Live Your Road Trip Dream at http://www.roadtripdream.com/, she is a frequent guest speaker at conventions such as the national AARP Life @ 50+ and The Great North American RV Rally, and she has spoken about publishing to groups including IBPA’s Publishing University, the Northwest Association of Book Publishers and the Bay Area Independent Publishers’ Association. She serves clients in the U.S. and abroad through her book marketing consulting practice. To learn more, visit www.carolwhitemarketing.com. For more information about the Independent Book Publishers Association, visit the IBPA website at http://www.ibpa-online.com/. Back to top
Five Tips for Writing a Strong Press Release by Marsha Friedman
1. Headline! Headline? HEADLINE!!! Arguably the most important aspect of your press release, headlines are so vital that there are entire books written and seminars taught on how to construct the most effective ones. Now, don’t let this scare you. Writing a killer headline is definitely a skill that can be developed; all you need is a clear and concise overview of your topic. Write down your show idea and look it over. Now look it over again. What is your key message? Is your show idea newsworthy? Are there any well-known people that you can tie into your topic? Do you have any impressive statistics that are relevant? Is there anything controversial that ties directly into your subject? The answers to these questions will help you develop a headline which is ready for increased attention by producers and hosts. Your headline must communicate the topic of the show instantly in an eye-catching way. It should not be longer than 1 sentence and will act as THE sound bite on your topic. Now that’s a lot of weight to put on a single sentence! Sometimes to alleviate the weight of the headline, you may need a sub-head to support it. If your headline gives just a taste of your show topic, then a sub-head is useful to explain it further. When someone reads the headline and sub-head together it should immediately click what the concept of the show is. Do this correctly and you will definitely grab some attention! 2. Discussion Topic This is your chance to present a concise summary of your show topic. It should continue naturally from the headline to further expand the topic. The headline gets the attention and the discussion topic gives the reader more. The length should be two or three sentences, tops. This forces you to present (and think about) your topic in a concise manner. Again try to tie your topic to current events, big name, big money, or controversy! Don’t be worried about repeating yourself in the different sections of the press release. After all, you want to get a cohesive point across! (A great tip: try writing the Topic Summary and Headline together. It is a great way to save time!) 3. Talking Points/Questions These are an absolute must for radio and TV as they are the shaping tools that guide the host through your topic. Often times the host will read directly off of the press release during the interview. This not only makes them look knowledgeable, but it saves them heaps of time! So why not have them read YOUR questions so you can give very specific answers which will not only make you look knowledgeable but also make for a great interview. Yet again you will need to tie in current events and any controversy that will stir interest (are you tired of hearing this yet?). Generally it is good to give no more than 10 of these conversation shapers. If you do get invited as a guest, your interviews will generally last
anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes…so concise is a word that you should familiarize yourself with right now! Remember: the more interesting the questions – the more interesting your interview! 4. Topic Overview Once you have gained their attention with your eye-catching headline, topic summary and talking points it is time to present the full show idea. This is your opportunity to fully flesh out your topic to position you as an expert on the topic you are discussing. Do not write a sales piece here – write your show! Work your name, personal quotes and product name into the summary. Liberally use the following to build your topic and profile: statistics, testimonials, current news facts, professional title (which is real and honest). Use anything that will interest the producer, host and in effect THEIR AUDIENCE! Try to limit this to a page maximum, with an ideal range to be 4-6 paragraphs with around 4 sentences max in each one. 5. Biography Now this is the one element that people tend to forget, underplay or overplay. THIS IS ABOUT YOU! This is your chance to position yourself as the expert you are in order for you to be invited as a guest. Use your qualifications, education, career, relationships, memberships, travel history, how many dogs you have….etc. Basically use anything that can help qualify you as an expert on the topic. If you are writing about religion, for example, anything that you do in your life that pertains to religion is applicable and increases your plausibility as an expert on that topic. A word of warning though: don’t sensationalize yourself. By doing this you will immediately turn-off producers and hosts. Instead, effectively communicate your achievements and expertise on the topic that you are presenting. Simply rehashing your resume with bullet-points is an absolute “no-no”. The press release is your marketing tool to get invited as a guest on radio and television shows. If you take your time developing exactly what your interview segment will be about and put lots of thought into developing your press release to clearly reflect that you will be more successful in getting the media attention you desire. So get writing! About the Author For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a Public Relations expert as CEO of EMSI. Signup at www.emsincorporated.com for her free PR Insider Newsletter today! Or call 727-443-7115, ext. 202, or email
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Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy
by Shel Horowitz If you've studied some of the big-name direct marketers, you may have heard of a "customer funnel" or "product funnel." That's *not* what this column is about, so don't skip it because you think you already know. (If you don't know, I explain in the last paragraph.) The benefit funnel is different, and as far as I know, I'm the only one using that term (though I didn't invent the concept, which has been around for at least 100 years). It's the idea that that you put yourself in your prospect's mind, and keep asking the things your prospect would ask, until you have an answer so compelling that you just have to make the sale. What would they ask? * "So what?" * "Why should I care?" * "What's in it for me?" Let's take a real-life example: my very favorite press release I wrote for a client (which is featured in my book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers at http://grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com/, incidentally). The assignment: write a book publicity press release promoting a book on electronic privacy. Not a very compelling topic, at first glance. Most PR books will tell you to write a headline like "Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book"--and reporters will hit the mental snooze button, and the physical delete key/recycle bin. There's no news in this headline! No reason for anyone to care, except perhaps the author's mother. In the US alone, several hundred thousand books are published each year. Big yawn. But let's go back to our reader's concerns and see where they bring us: A book was published--so what? It's about electronic privacy. Why should I care--what does electronic privacy mean to me? It tells you how to protect yourself from electronic snoopers. I don't know what you mean. What's in it for me? Your personal records are floating around, where big corporate marketers can lay traps for you or unscrupulous people can grab them and use them to steal your identity or learn information you'd rather keep to yourself. Ooh, that sounds scary--now I get it! Except that back then, I didn't know about identity theft. But by asking those kinds of questions, I arrived at this headline and lead: It's 10 O'Clock-Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is? How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information? How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is "vacationing" in computer databanks around the world--accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection. According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant (name), this scenario is all-too-common. In a groundbreaking but highly readable new book... Do you think a press release like that will get noticed by reporters? It's "grabber"
copywriting--and you can use this technique to liven up any marketing piece. If it works in press releases, think about the impact in ad or direct mail copy. PS: Those other funnels in the first paragraph have to do with the idea that you bring a lot of customers in with an inexpensive product, deliver more than you promised, and then sell progressively more expensive items to those who want them . . . until you've gone from, say, a $15 e-book all the way up to a $15,000 weekend bootcamp. You sell fewer of each item as you go down the funnel, but you make more on each one. Consider that a bonus tip--it's the method that a lot of well-known Internet marketers (not me) have used to create seven-figure incomes. About the Author Book marketing and publishing consultant/internationally syndicated columnist Shel Horowitz's two most recent books are Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers and Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson). To find out more about his services for authors and publishers, please visit http://www.frugalmarketing.com/services.shtml. Back to top
Author Branding: The You That Is Everywhere by Joel Friedlander We’ve been told over and over again that to market effectively as self-publishers, we have to start building our author platform as early as possible. But even before you start hammering together that platform that’s going to support you and your book and your marketing efforts, you need to decide how you will brand yourself. “Creating an author platform is vital for a new author’s success, and creating a brand is the basis for the platform. You need to know what you are creating before you start!” — Joanna Penn What’s that? You don’t think of yourself as a box of Kleenex, a bar of soap, a transatlantic airline? That doesn’t mean you don’t need your own branding. It doesn’t even mean you don’t already have a brand of some kind if you’re active in social media now. Here’s an example of a failure of corporate branding. When Fedex bought a ground delivery service, they only had to expand their brand a little to accommodate the idea of "secure trackable package delivery, express or ground."
But when Fedex bought Kinko’s copy shops, they were reaching into unknown waters. Fedex is probably driven by the reality that many document transfers are now happening electronically, and Kinko’s looked like a good diversification. But they didn’t keep Kinko’s as Kinko’s. They renamed it Fedex Kinko’s which really makes no sense from a branding point of view. Then they dropped the Kinko’s altogether. Kinko’s is a terrific and idiosyncratic brand of copy shops. “Kinko’s means one thing: copies and computer services 24 hours a day. What’s Fedex doing in there? Now, they are stuck with a real branding problem. But as authors and self-publishers, what lessons can we learn to help with our own branding? “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” —Tom Peters Personal Branding: The You that is You The idea of personal branding has been around for a while. Some people trace the idea back to an article in Fast Company magazine by legendary author and business writer Tom Peters. Now, in the age of full-bore social media engagement, when it seems that every author has a Facebook page, a blog, a persona that represents them, the move to personal branding is stronger than ever. “The Web makes the case for branding more directly than any packaged good or consumer product ever could. Here’s what the Web says: Anyone can have a Web site. And today, because anyone can … anyone does! So how do you know which sites are worth visiting, which sites to bookmark, which sites are worth going to more than once? The answer: branding.” —Tom Peters The first thing you’ll have to do is decide what your brand will be about. Some Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Brand What will be your brand? - You as an author? - Your book, as a solution to a problem? - Your publishing company, as a provider of education or entertainment? What Exactly Makes Up Your Brand? You are branding yourself all the time—whether you know it or not. When you design your website or blog, when you pick out business cards, when you establish a persona through which you communicate with readers, other authors, book reviewers, you are branding yourself.
“I’m a writer, a marketing consultant, a wife and mother, a business woman, a coach, a loyal friend, a passionate seeker of new challenges and also someone who loves the quiet solitude of reading on a beach. That abundance of choices and gifts can sometimes muddy the waters when I’m trying to define my 'brand' to myself and to potential clients.” —Cindy Ratzlaff How intentionally you do these activities can have a major effect on your own brand. The most effective personal brands for authors are: - Tightly focused - Consistent - In line with your subject matter When I see the name John Grisham, immediately a brand leaps to mind—legal thrillers. Stephen King—horror stories. Robert Ludlum—action thrillers. Agatha Christie—genteel mysteries. Deepak Chopra—transcendental self-help. Are you thinking of your own examples? These are outstanding, consistent, tightly focused and congruent brands. “Your external brand is how you project yourself to the world. There is an element of choice here. You can decide what to say or write in order to convey a certain image. Your projected image will influence what others think of you and how they might choose to interact with you. You may stumble upon this image accidentally, or you can deliberately target a specific type of image.” —Steve Pavlina When book buyers walk into a store—online or off—often they are looking for a brand rather than a book. “The new John Grisham” book. Booksellers (and Amazon’s algorithms) offer possible books based on branding. “If you liked Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, you might like Dan Ariely’s Predicatably Irrational.” This is true of many successful authors. When they want to write outside their usual style, they often do so under another name. "Here are two main reasons why personal branding is becoming a core part of our culture . . . First, we are all being judged all the time, even when we’re sleeping (our online profiles are still up!). Second, we have to constantly sell our ideas to teachers, managers, venture capitalists, our friends and family, to make things happen in our lives. We have to convince them to take action." —Dan Schwabel How do authors brand themselves? There are many ways. Your brand can be an expression of any part of your author presentation that ties people to your work. For instance, you could brand yourself by: Region — “Author of Western Adventure Stories” Genre — “Erotic Metaphysical Romances” Recurring Character — “The Inspector Brown Mysteries” Style — “Easy to Read Books on Woodworking” Format — “1001 Ways to Manage your Career” Persona — “The Gen-Y Novelist With Attitude” Emotion — “The Feel-Good Books About Life’s Little Problems”
Notoriety — “The Trump Family of Casinos” Really, any distinguishing characteristic can be the basis of a brand, if it’s emphasized consistently as part of your presentation. Branding in the World of Web 2.0 We have accounts everywhere online. Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Twitter, on and on. But do you segregate your personal correspondence and postings from your author brand? “I’m not proposing that you let the crowd dictate, or that you work hard to fit in. Far from it. I’m proposing that you know the impact your choices are having and act accordingly.” —Seth Godin Brands establish trust. I grew up in a family that used Colgate toothpaste, that was our brand. Why buy a new or different toothpaste, one we didn’t know as well? We trusted our brand, and rewarded Colgate with our loyalty. You want that trust from your readers and your community. If your brand is a sober, responsible and experienced tax advisor who writes books counseling people on the best way to save on taxes, how will your readers respond to those photos you posted of a wild weekend in Miami? This is the world we live in, it’s just a reality. “Personal branding is leverage: once you know me, you start to build a relationship with me. Once we have a relationship, I can share even more with you. The more we share, the more likely we’ll have other common interests down the road.” —Chris Brogan Branding matters if you rely on establishing trust and inspiring loyalty. From the way you dress to the way you leave comments on other people’s blogs, you are constantly adding to your brand, and that’s why consistency is so important. So when it comes to platform building, first sit down and think about the brand you want to establish. How will you present yourself and your book to the world? How will you keep it consistent, tightly focused, and in line with your subject? “Figuring out your branding doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be focused. I’m not talking about the kind of branding that requires hours of logo development. I’m not even talking about a brand that’s necessarily original. Yes, you want to be unique, but the key isn’t doing something no one else is doing, the key is doing it better.” —Penny Sansevieri After you’ve answered these questions you’ll be more prepared for your platform building. And to really find out how others see you, ask them. You’re likely to receive some really eye-opening feedback and advice. But if you care about the impression you’re making and how it reflects on your work, this is some of the most important listening you will ever do. Resources
Here’s some great reading on personal branding that will help you get started. - Dana Lynn Smith: Your Author Platform: Branding at http://bit.ly/8ltbIe - Joanna Penn: How to Discover and Build Your Author Brand at http://bit.ly/n0nL6 - Dan Schwabel: An Introduction to the World of Personal Branding at http://bit.ly/dRemd - Chris Brogan: My Best Advice About Personal Branding at http://bit.ly/dK1zC2 - Cindy Ratzlaff: Five Secrets to Creating Brand: You at http://bit.ly/f0Pf7N - Steve Pavlina: Personal Branding at http://bit.ly/aovRdi - Tom Peters: The Brand Called You at http://bit.ly/Yvl8 - Seth Godin: Personal Branding in the Age of Google at http://bit.ly/SYG5B - Penny Sansevieri: Don’t Be An Expert, Be A Filter (Secrets To Selling More Books) at http://bit.ly/ef2jrc About the Author Joel Friedlander is the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, a publishing services company in San Rafael, California, that has launched many self-publishers. Joel is a book designer, a self-published author, and a blogger. To learn more about designing and publishing a book and navigating the publishing process, please visit Joel's blog at http://www.thebookdesigner.com/. Back to top
How to Build Your Author Platform by Dana Lynn Smith As a book author, you've probably seen the term author platform used a lot, but you may be wondering: what is a platform, how do I get one, and when should I begin? Your author platform determines your reach in the marketplace and it's important to your book promotion success. There are lots of definitions for author platform, but it basically boils down to three things: - Brand - Reputation - Connections If you're hoping to land a book deal with a traditional commercial publisher, a strong author platform is critical. When publishers evaluate book proposals, they want an idea of how well known you are and how successful you will be at promoting your book once it's published. A platform is just as important for authors who publish independently. The best time to start building your author platform is before you write your book or book proposal, because it takes time to build your platform. But regardless of where you
are in your publishing journey, you can continue to strengthen your author platform. Let's take a look at the elements of a platform. Branding Branding helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace and makes you memorable. One of the most important parts of your brand is your author tagline – a concise and catchy description of what you do. Here are some examples of author taglines: - The Publicity Hound - The Love Doctor - The Productivity Pro - The Risque Romance Writer - Author of thrilling mysteries - Author of the Detective McGee series - Writer of educational children's books Use your tagline after your name in your promotional materials and signature, like a title. For example, I refer to myself as Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer. Your author photo is another important branding tool. Be sure to get a professional looking photo at http://bit.ly/aAY2Cs and use it everywhere, to build recognition of you. Professional doesn't necessarily mean a studio portrait – think about how the background, pose and clothing in your author photo can be a reflection of your brand and the type of books you write. Author branding can also include your logo, book covers, the color scheme you use, your distinctive style of writing or speaking, and your academic qualifications. All of these elements together constitute a recognizable brand that makes you makes you memorable and builds credibility as part of your author platform. Take a look at your own branding and think about what you can do to strengthen it. Reputation Your author reputation is a factor of how well known you are, what you are known for, and how credible you are. Consider these questions: - Do you have a degree, special training or extensive experience in the topic that you're writing about and/or in the craft of writing? - Do you have (or can you obtain) a professional certification in your area of expertise? - What awards or other recognition have you received? - What kind of media experience do you have? - How many people do you reach each month through speaking or interviews? - How many people read your blog? - How many articles have you written and posted or published in the past month? - How well known are you and how much name recognition do you have? - What leadership positions do you hold? - Why should people listen to you or read your books?
Nonfiction authors can gain a reputation as an expert in their topic through such activities as writing books and articles, speaking and teaching, appearing on talk shows, being quoted in other people's articles, and writing the foreword for other books. Fiction authors may become known for their writing style and their expertise in writing in a specific genre (such as children's, sci-fi, romance, or mystery) or for their niche within a particular genre (vampire stories, romantic adventure). Your reputation and author platform can be enhanced by winning awards, receiving excellent book reviews, and getting testimonials and endorsements from celebrities and experts in your field. What can you do to boost your author reputation and expert status and increase the number of people you reach? How can you highlight your credentials in your marketing materials? Connections When selling your book, it's not just what you know, it's who you know! To sell books in today's marketplace, you need to be connected. Here are some examples of the type of connections that are valuable to authors in promoting their books and themselves: Contact Database – Clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, and family. Opt-in Mailing List – People who have given you permission to contact them. Influencers – Celebrities, well-known people in your field, book reviewers, media, and bloggers. These folks can help spread the word about your book. Online Networks – Connections on Facebook, Twitter and other online networks, groups and forums. Blog Readers – People who read your blog or subscribe to the blog's feed. Professional Associations – Fellow association members and leaders. Serving in a leadership position enhances your visibility within the organization. Other Groups – Alumni associations, civic and service organizations, hobby clubs, etc. What can you do to increase your connections and leverage the connections that you have? How can you partner with others to extend your reach? Platform building is an ongoing process. Think about ways you can strengthen your own author platform and map out an action plan. About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer
Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Perk Up Your Bio by Marcia Yudkin On your "About" page, in conference materials, in media kits or elsewhere, a business bio should not be a cold, dry list of qualifications, with every fact in its appropriate slot. Nor should it be a chronology of your career. Instead, in your bio, provide an overview of your achievements and distinctive work approach. Through what you say or how you say it, also impart a sense of you as a person. To warm up your bio with sparks of life, include one or more of these: - A quote from you or your personal motto - A phrase clients or an authority figure use about you (clients call him "the uncoach" because his advice is so laid back and subtle) - Fanciful or unexpected language (paints the scenes that beckon to her) - Concrete details (trained his first dog, a Schnauzer, at age 10) - Vivid extremes or contrasts (has taught everyone from CEOs to imprisoned drug dealers) - Tantalizing numbers (the third most quoted Canadian chartered accountant) - A fact that humbles you (Alan Weiss once appeared on Jeopardy, where he lost to a dancing waiter) About the Author Reprinted with permission from Marcia Yudkin's free weekly Marketing Minute newsletter, published every Wednesday since 1997. Subscribe at http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm. Back to top
How To Develop Key Messages and Get Them Across Quickly by Jackie O'Neal One of the most effective ways for authors to promote their books is to do broadcast interviews. The reason is related to the large audiences that can be reached quickly. Radio interviews tend to run from 10- 20 minutes, whereas TV interviews are shorter, and often run less than five minutes. So to deliver the points you are eager to make, preparation is needed. Many authors work with media trainers to learn how to tighten their messages, and break their books down to easy to digest points. However, not everyone has the resources to hire a media trainer, or even the time to work with one, although it is a smart investment for any author. I'd like to share what I've learned along the way, as a book publicist, and how I've trained my authors before they do an interview. It may be somewhat challenging to apply these tips to fiction, and yet it can be done, if you take the time to figure out the expertise you can share with an audience. Author Jill Lubin once said the media is obsessed with several things: love, health, and money. As simplistic as that sounds, it is nevertheless, true and can be verified by simply reading news headlines. When pulling together key messages, think in terms of problems your book solves for readers. Use the ideas the media is always keen on covering: love, health, and money. Ask yourself, is there any theme in my book that can help the reader become sexier, richer, or healthier? If so, you may be on to a relevant key message. What can your book teach your audience? What will they learn that will make a positive difference in their lives? Or their communities at large? Spending time answering these questions will help you jump-start your key messages. Here is an example from my own files: I had a science-fiction writer as a client whose area of expertise was discussing benefits of using renewable energy in preventing future environmental dilemmas like the Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling explosion, and breaking down the science of ocean energy thermal technology. I was able to get her featured on NBC on Telemundo, teaching viewers how to do a home energy audit. She talked about how the audience can save money by using CFL light bulbs, the benefits of solar panels, and other ways to live green. This was a topic she was impassioned about, and she explained in a concise way. The interview was challenging because the host was bi-lingual, but the results were super. You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj6Soy3K94g. Try to identify topics you can speak to, and see how your messages can tie in to how audiences can save money, live better, or be healthier. Practice. and practice some more. Before long, you'll be prepared for your next broadcast interview.
About the Author Jackie O'Neal is the founder of O'Neal Media Group, a public relations consultancy that helps entrepreneurs get noticed, and stay noticed. A talented public relations strategist, one of Jackie's specialties is writing a targeted communications plan so her clients can meet their most important objectives, and stay on track. Need help? Contact O'Neal Media Group at http://onealmediagroup.presskit247.com/. Learn more about working with the media in Jackie's previous guest post, Fool-proof Ways to Correspond With Journalists at http://bit.ly/cyup59. Back to top
Building Author Platform by Pitching Yourself to the Media by Nina Amir One of the ways to build author platform involves pitching yourself and your expertise to the media. This means offering them solid, interesting, pertinent, newsworthy, unique information they need or want. How do you know what type of stories journalists seek? Easy. Tap into the places they post their queries. In other words, discover what stories they are writing for which they need expert sources to interview. Then, offer to be that expert source. Here are three ways to tap into reporter’s needs and wants—along with millions of other people wanting the free publicity offered by being included in an article or invited onto a radio or television show. First, subscribe to Help A Reporter Out at http://www.helpareporter.com/. This free service sends you an email three times a day—yes, three times—filled with queries on a variety of topics from journalists. You can then answer those queries with a pitch. Help a Report Out, which is known as HARO, is provided by Peter Shankman. Second, subscribe to PitchRate.com at http://www.pitchrate.com/. This free service also offers you the chance to view a variety of queries from journalists. You also can customize it so you see those requests that pertain to your area of expertise. PitchRate.com is provided by Drew Gerber, one of the guest bloggers on my blog. Third, subscribe to Bill and Steve Harrison’s Reporter Connection at http://www.reporterconnection.com/, another free service providing you with journalists requests for experts on a variety of topics. If you subscribe to all three of these services, check the listings each day when they arrive in your email box, and then send pitches to the appropriate queries in a timely
manner (Immediately!). If you do so, you will be taking a daily step toward building your author’s platform. If your author’s media kit and pitch are both top notch, you should be getting a positive response–which means media coverage. And each print, radio or television spot you receive builds that platform. (If you need information on how to create a better media kit, visit http://bit.ly/aoC7s5, or a pitch, visit http://bit.ly/fylmiM.) About the Author Nina Amir, Your Inspiration-to-Creation Coach, inspires writers to create the results they desire—published products and careers as writers and authors. An author, journalist, freelance editor, and writing and author coach, she blogs at Write Nonfiction NOW and How to Blog a Book at http://www.writenonfictonnow.com/ and writes a national Jewish Issues at http://www.examiner.com/jewish-issues-in-national/nina-amir and SelfImprovement column at http://exm.nr/eWy0sZ. She is the founder of Write Nonfiction in November, an annual challenge to start and finish a work in 30 days, which has an accompanying blog at http://www.writenonfictioninnovember.com/. Find out how to Achieve More Inspired Results at CopyWright Communications, http://www.copywrightcommunications.com/. Back to top
Use the Calendar to Promote Yourself and Your Book by Robin Hoffman As Valentine’s Day approached, I encouraged my client, America’s love expert Debra Berndt (http://letloveinbook.com/) to send out a press release to the local TV news stations. That weekend, she appeared on two local news shows, and Denver’s ABC affiliate loved her so much, they had her on monthly as a regular expert guest. This breakthrough helped Debra send her platform into a hyper-growth pattern that later led her to get a book deal with Wiley. You might be thinking, “Well, that won’t apply to me, because my topic has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day or any other holiday!” Think again. In any given calendar month, literally dozens of notable, yet mostly littleknown, dates are lined up just waiting to lend a hook where you can hang your story. For example, did you know that May (http://bit.ly/em0tZ0) is, among other things, “date your mate” month, national bike month, and older American’s month? And aside from Cinco de Mayo, May 5th is also Oyster Day, and May 6th is my favorite, No Diet Day! As a former newspaper reporter, I can tell you for certain that there are plenty of slow news days when your press release may be the thing that saves a reporter’s behind . . .
as long as it arrives before deadline. So, do a little research and look up unusual holidays, take note of the ones that you can tie to your message, and brainstorm ideas. Plan the year in advance. You can even write the press releases months before–waiting and ready to send out as the date nears. A few tips: - Sunday is usually the slowest news day of the week and has the most room for feature stories and soft news. - Come up with a clever "hook" to tie your message to the holiday. - You can increase your odds of getting picked up if you offer to present a client they can interview or get footage of you doing your thing. - These are items you can see coming, so you may have better odds if you send the press release a few days beforehand, so they can set aside a slot for you, invite you in or come and see you for an interview. - Show up on time, be polite and professional. You want to be invited back. - Get your fax or emailed release out in the morning when possible, and always before 3 PM, unless it is tied to a major breaking news story and you have something compelling to add–in that case, send it ASAP. Have fun! About the Author Robin Hoffman has helped develop and promote several award-winning and bestselling books. She has worked as a newspaper reporter and was Acquisitions Editor for a mid-sized publishing house. She has a BA in Journalism from George Washington University and an MA in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Learn more at http://getpublishedcoach.com. Back to top
Nine Tips for Helping Your Publicist Do a Great Job by Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark Your book, Light Bulb: Twenty-Seven Steps to Business Brilliance, is about to be published by Cranky Pants Press, and you couldn’t be happier. You’ve been assigned a publicist who is bright and pleasant, even if she appears to be just out of junior high. Here’s what you can do to help her do a great job for you and your book:
1. Provide an author photo, one-page bio, and a Q&A (a list of the ten questions you’d most like to be asked, along with the answers). 2. Provide copies of any press you’ve received in advance of the book’s release. A profile in the local paper or online, video of a cable TV interview, that time you were on morning radio—this could all be useful in pitching bigger and better interviews. 3. Provide a list of your personal media and bookseller connections and any appropriate mailing lists. If the president of the NBC affiliate in your town happens to be your wife’s second cousin, now is the time to call in a favor. Friends will enjoy knowing where and when you’ll be appearing. 4. Provide a “big mouth” list of influential people in your field. Your editor may want to ask them for endorsements, and your publicist may use these endorsements in the press materials. Endorsements from others in your field help the publisher “position” the book in the marketplace. The idea is to find the appropriate audience, readers who are predisposed to like you. Endorsements carry a lot more weight with publishers and booksellers than you’d think—probably a lot more than they should. 5. Let your publicist know if you set up your own interviews. This is important for two reasons: you’ll avoid double-booking, and she will be able to add your appearances to her marketing notes—the bump in sales after your literary lunch appearance in Dallas will make sense. If the sales dip instead of bump, then you should stop doing literary lunches, right? 6. Communicate with your publicist, share ideas and contacts, but don’t drive her crazy. Give her time to get her work done. Call once in a while just to say hi and check in. 7. Don’t forget to say thank you. A little kindness and appreciation will go a long way. 8. Trust the process. Things won’t happen as quickly as you would like. But you know what? Your publicist probably didn’t forget to send your book to Oprah, Fresh Air, or the New York Times, if it was appropriate to do so. Really. 9. Understand that at some point, your publicist will have to move on to the next project. There are many ways you can keep momentum going on your own, and if you have a great relationship with the publicist, you can get lots of help during this transition. Finally, remember the Author Enablers’ top secret trick for getting the most out of your publicist: send an occasional box of chocolates. Remember, publicists are pros—some more experienced and dedicated than others— but it’s their job, and they’re doing their best. Let’s hope this is the first of many books you’ll be writing; if that plan works out (or even if it doesn’t) it makes sense to build good relationships with the publishing professionals you meet along the way. Not every book is a hit, but there is such a thing as a career built on modest successes. Hang in there. Bottom line: All of this marketing and publicity stuff may seem a far cry from the pure act of writing that led you to become an author in the first place. But you have to play
your part in the machinery of selling the books. So brush your teeth, smile, be a nice person, show up, and do the best job you can. This article excerpted from Write that Book Already!, Copyright C 2010 by Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark. Used by permission of Adams Media, an F+W Media, Inc. Co. All rights reserved. About the Authors Sam Barry is a marketing and promotions manager at HarperOne, author of How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons, and a musician. Barry offers advice to aspiring writers as one half of BookPage’s Author Enablers team and tours the country as a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders band. He lives in San Francisco. Visit Sam at www.redroom.com/author/sam-barry and the Author Enablers at http://www.bookpage.com/author-enablers/. Kathi Kamen Goldmark has worked on publicity campaigns for nearly every major publisher. She is the author of one novel, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You; has co-authored or contributed to numerous other books; and writes BookPage’s Author Enablers column with Sam. Kathi is the founder and a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders band, producer of the radio show West Coast Live, and winner of the 2008 Women’s National Book Association Award. She lives in San Francisco. Visit her at www.redroom.com/author/kathi-kamen-goldmark. Sam and Kathi can also be found at www.kathiandsam.net. Back to top
Blog Talk Radio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows by Phyllis Zimbler Miller BlogTalkRadio.com – an internet radio “station” that offers anyone the opportunity to host his or her own show for free – is an ideal opportunity for book authors to promote their books on a regular basis while providing valuable content to their target audiences. To begin with, no technical knowledge is needed. You simply sign up at BlogTalkRadio.com, follow the directions, and you can become the host of your own live show. You don’t even need a microphone. You call into a number at BlogTalkRadio to be the host, and your show guest – as well as show listeners who want to ask questions – call into the same number. Show listeners can also “chat” questions during the live show. Wait, you say! How do you think of topics to talk about? Let’s answer this by taking two imaginary book projects. We’ll start with a fiction project, then do a nonfiction book
project. We’ll imagine that Janice has a novel titled Sally Smith Confronts Her Ghosts – and the book centers on a protagonist who realizes she has undiagnosed PTSD (PostTraumatic Stress Disorder) and seeks help. When the help fails her, she goes on a quest to cure herself. Janice decides to have a half-hour show once a week with the title “Confronting Your Ghosts.” She invites psychologists and other mental health workers as guests on the show. Sometimes the topic is PTSD, sometimes eating disorders, sometimes any number of “ghosts” that people face. At the beginning and end of each segment, Janice announces that she is the author of Sally Smith Confronts Her Ghosts and gives a brief blurb about the novel. Then Janice uses her weekly show to get more exposure for herself on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other social media sites on which she is a member. She sends out tweets, updates, discussion questions about the guest topic for that week’s show. Now what about Paul, whose nonfiction book How to Speak to Your Plumber provides tips on how to speak the language of the various repair people you use in your home or office. Paul starts a BlogTalkRadio show with the same name as his book – “How to Speak to Your Plumber.” Each week Paul has a person from a different occupation as the show’s guest – an air conditioning repair person, an upholstery cleaner, a fence builder – talking about information for that specific specialty. And, yes, Paul also uses his social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about his show, which gets the word out about his book. One of the benefits of doing a BlogTalkRadio show is that, after doing the live show, the recording of the show is available on your show’s page for downloading. People can listen on the site – and guests can download the show onto their own website or blog. Build a fan base for your BlogTalkRadio show by offering quality content, and you’ll have a weekly platform for promoting your book. About the Author Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic, and blogs at http://www.MillerMosaicSocialMediaMarketing.com. You can download at http:// www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-social-media-consultant the company's free social media marketing report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets." For one year Phyllis was the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio Show "Your Military Life" and is the author of the novel "Mrs. Lieutenant" at http://www.mrslieutenant.com
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Best Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows by Karen Melamed I was a producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show. I took pitches, read press packets and got hounded by everyone and anyone who wanted to get on Oprah's couch. I had the power to decide who got booked and who got booted. Before Oprah, I was a producer for many local talk shows from Seattle to Boston. I read many e-mails, pre-interviewed countless authors and experts, and even grabbed guests off the streets. Literally. So for those of you who want to know the best ways to approach TV and radio shows, from someone who actually said “yes” or “no”, read on. First, before you approach any television or radio producer, you need a hook. A hook is that something special that makes a producer want to book you above all the others who call them. It's that special angle that separates you out from the rest. Sometimes it's your personal story. Sometimes it's a newsworthy event that puts you front and center because of your timely expertise. Sometimes it's a gimmick you can offer (a demonstration, free stuff, inside info that'll make you thinner, prettier, live longer.) A hook is essential to getting a producer's attention. Think like a producer. What would be of interest to their show's viewers? Do your homework. Watch or listen to their program and figure out what they like, and then give it to them. Second, figure out which show best fits your subject. If it's sports related, you have a slim to none chance of getting on The View. If it's a children's book, why are you going for The Rachel Ray Show? And if you're ONLY going for Oprah because she's the top of the heap, well, you're reducing your chances of getting on any show at all since Oprah is . . . the top of the heap. Try approaching local shows, cable shows, Internet shows. If you broaden your reach, you will increase your chances. The smaller the show, the bigger your chances are of getting booked. Third, do NOT send anything to the host or the Executive Producer. The host doesn't book a show, and the executive producer has way too much to worry about than to return your calls or emails. I know, I was an executive producer and I hired people to weed out the pitches and it was their job to pitch me. So, find out who books the shows. Often it's the associate producer whose job it is to hear your pitch and if they like what they hear, they pitch to their boss, the producer. If the producer likes it, they pitch to the executive producer and if SHE likes it, you're on. Sometimes, the host will have final say, but not always. Check out the show credits, write down the names of the associate producers or producers, and contact them directly. Send an e-mail with an attention grabbing slug in
the subject line, include your pitch information and attach video of yourself, then follow up with a phone call. Then repeat the process with other shows. And finally, treat every call you make to a producer as though it's an audition. Energy, energy, energy! Personality is vital. If you have the credentials and the hook, but you're boring, you're not getting on. Period. About the Author Karen Melamed’s company, MediaWise at http://www.mediawise-consulting.com/, offers personal on-camera coaching, media makeovers, full-featured websites, electronic press kits, podcasts, webcasts, talk radio blogs and other Internet services, along with booking basics. You can contact Karen at 310-745-0304 or email her at
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Do Book Reviews Matter? by Terry Whalin The Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic newspaper has a circulation of over 500,000 copies. Each week in the Arts and Entertainment section, they review four books. I normally read these reviews because I'm interested to see which four books are selected each week. Last week the Republic reviewed a new thriller from a first-time author, Steven Gore called Final Target. With the limited review space, all four of the books are always positive and the review for Final Target was no exception. I looked for a copy at my local library but they did not have it so when I was in a local bookstore last week, I picked up a copy of the book, which is an oversized paperback (tall for a mass marketsized book). I've not started to read it yet but I would not have known about this book or purchased it without reading the review in my local newspaper so it had significant influence for me. The newspaper's choice of a thriller from a first-time novelist struck me as unusual. Most of the reviews are from well-established writers who have released a new book but one which will likely become a bestseller. What drew the book review editor to pick that thriller out of the stack? Years ago I was the book review columnist for Christian Parenting Today (a magazine which no longer exists). I selected ten to fifteen books in a broad range of topics and genres for the audience, read the books and wrote my reviews. The magazine circulation was about 150,000 copies and I received stacks of "review copies" from various Christian and general market book publishers. In fact, it took my continued maintenance to open the packages and see the various book possibilities--much less to actually read and review the titles. My limited experience made me wonder how many
books each week the book editor at the Arizona Republic receives for review consideration. Last year, Janice Harayda wrote a Soapbox column for Publishers Weekly at http://bit.ly/fOSiVM called "Critics Don't Need Free Books." She worked for 11 years as the book review editor for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. Here's the sentence which stood out to me in her article: "At the Plain Dealer, I got more than 400 books a week from publishers, a landslide hard to handle even with another person helping me." The Sunday circulation of the Plain Dealer is similar to the Arizona Republic or 400,000. See the long odds to get your book reviewed in a major city newspaper? It's somewhere in the range of four books get reviewed out of over 400 books that are received. So do you give up and not try to get book reviews? No, you simply try more niche oriented markets where your probability is more likely of getting your book reviewed. Recently Publishers Weekly wrote about this topic of book reviews. Peter Hildick-Smith who works for Codex Group, a company which tracks the impact of reviews on sales said in the article at http://bit.ly/dW2lvg, "reviews help both to raise awareness of a book and to persuade people to buy it." Here are some websites with lists of places that review books: Karina Fabian has a lengthy list of review sites at http://snipurl.com/kreview. The Complete Review at http:// www.complete-review.com/links/links.html contains 240 book review sites. Midwest Book Review at http://www.midwestbookreview.com/links/othr_rev.htm has another great resource list of book review sites. As with any marketing effort for book reviews, there are several elements to keep in mind. First, select your targeted publications carefully. Do they review your type of book? If so, how frequently? Which editor handles the book reviews? Make sure you address the right person. Second, a key ingredient is follow-up. After a short period of time when you are certain the book has arrived, place a short phone call to simply see if the book has arrived and will be considered for review. Your conversation isn't chatty but short and professional. If the editor says they will be considering it, then call back in a few weeks and see if they had a chance to read the book. The follow-up shows you are professional and are expecting results from the review copy. Possibly your publisher is handling these book reviews. The time and number of books that they push for review are limited. In a proactive way which encourages your partnership, ask your publisher's publicist for a list of where they sent your book. You want this list not to criticize their efforts but to go to the places they did not promote your book. Book reviews matter and are another element to include in your arsenal for marketing and promoting your book. About the Author Terry Whalin has written more than 60 nonfiction books and been published in more
than 50 magazines. For five years, he was an acquisitions editor at a book publisher and he's a former literary agent. Now Terry is a publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group (http://www.intermediapub.com/). Terry encourages writers of any level (from beginners to professionals) at Right Writing.com (http://www.right-writing.com/). To help people pursue their own dreams of a published book, Terry has written Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, Insider Secrets to Skyrocket Your Success at http://www.jumpstartdreams.com/. Pick up Terry's free ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. Back to top
Resources To learn how to get your book reviewed, check out the new ebook, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, at http://bit.ly/SavvyBookReview. Find the best places to submit fiction, children’s and young adult books for review in the Book Review Directory at http://bit.ly/ SavvyBookBlogs. I highly recommend Build Book Buzz: Publicity Forms and Templates from awardwinning publicist Sandra Beckwith. This practical workbook is filled with book publicity forms and templates, along with detailed instructions on how to use them. You'll get both a fill-in-the-blank template and a finished sample for each of these vital publicity tools. http://bit.ly/hHwg55 Get Joan Stewart’s free tutorial featuring 89 lessons on how to write and distribute effective press releases at http://bit.ly/Vv76q. For more vital publicity resources, go to http://bit.ly/PublicityResources. Back to top
Speaking and Events 12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events by Penny Sansevieri So you got a book event, great! Now you want to maximize it, right? You've heard your writing buddies talk (or perhaps read online) about the lack of attendance at signings, so figuring out how to maximize the event, regardless of the numbers might be tricky. While I spend a lot of time addressing online marketing, the offline component is one
you shouldn't overlook. If book events are where you want to focus, then bringing in some ideas to help you sell more books is something you should consider. Some years back when I was promoting The Cliffhanger I ended up at a book signing in the driving rain, I mean it was pouring and the store was all but empty. It was amazing I sold even one book, let alone seven. While not a big number, the copies were all sold to people who were seeking refuge in the store from the rain and not there for my event. This signing taught me a lot about events and connecting with consumers in stores. If you have an event coming up, consider these ideas before you head out: 1. Marketing: First and foremost is the marketing of your event. But I'm not talking about the marketing you do in the media (though that is great too) I'm speaking of instore marketing; this is what most folks seem to overlook. This is where you supply things to the store to help them market your event. Because the first phase of a successful event is driving people to it. Here are a few thoughts. a. Do bag stuffers. You can easily do this in your favorite computer program, do two up on a page, meaning that you use one 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper to do two fliers. You'll want to ask the store first if they mind that you provide this, most stores or event venues don't. b. Bookmarks: While most in the industry see these as passé, people still love them. You can do bookmarks and bag stuffers (or staple them to the flier) or you can do custom bookmarks with the date and time of your event. Nowadays it's pretty easy to get these done cheaply. Keep in mind that if you are having the event in a mall or other type of shopping area, you might be able to drop the bookmarks (or bag stuffers) off at the nearby stores to see if they'll help promote the event. 2. Book signings are boring: Regardless of where you do the event, plan to do a talk instead of a signing. People are drawn into a discussion and are often turned off by an author just sitting at a table. Marketing is about message and movement so stand up and speak. If speaking in public is intimidating to you, go to Toastmasters or some other local networking/speaking group and see what you can learn. 3. Unique places: If you want to get more attention for your event, consider doing events in unique places. We've done them in video stores, electronics stores, gyms, even restaurants (on slow nights); doing outside-the-bookstore events is a great way to gain more interest for your talk. Why? Because you aren't competing with everyone else at the bookstore for your crowd. When you do an event at a locale that doesn't normally do events, you'll attract more people just because it's considered "unique." 4. Show up early and talk it up: OK, so let's say you're in the store and there are a ton of people in there shopping (a book event dream, yes?), I suggest that you take your extra bag stuffers or custom bookmarks and just hand them to the people in the store. Let them know you are doing an event at such and such time and you'd love it if they can sit in. You'll be surprised how many new people you might pull in this way. 5. Customize: Regardless of what your talk is about, poll the audience first to see a) what brought them there, or b) what they hope to learn if your talk is educational. I
suggest this because the more you can customize your discussion, the more likely you are to sell a book. If you can solve problems (and this is often done during the Q&A) all the better. You'll look like the answer machine you are and readers love that. If you have the answers, they'll want to buy from you. I promise. 6. Make friends: Get to know the bookstore people, but not just on the day of the event. Go in prior and make friends, tell them who you are and maybe even hand them your flier or bookmark (or a stack if you can). Often stores have Information Centers, see if you can leave some fliers there instead of just at the register. Getting to know the people who are selling the book is a great way to help gather more people into your event. If your event isn't in a bookstore but attached to a shopping area or mall, go around to the stores (and perhaps you did this when you passed out the fliers) and let them know you have an event and ask what you can do to help them promote it. If you can rally the troops to help you market your talk, you could triple the numbers of people at your event. No kidding. 7. Take names: I always, always recommend that you get names and (email) addresses from the folks who attended. Signing them up for your mailing list is a great way to keep in touch with them and stay on your reader's radar screen. If you have a giveaway or drawing, great! This will help you to collect names. If you don't, offer them a freebie or e-book after the event. Often if I'm doing a PowerPoint presentation I will put together a set of them (delivered in PDF) after the event. Attendees need to sign up to get them and then once they do, I include them in our newsletter list, which helps me to stay on their radar screen. 8. Pricing: Make sure your book is easy to buy. If you are doing this outside of a bookstore this is easy to do and will help your sales. I find that a rounded number like $10 or $20 makes for a quick and easy sale. If you can round up or down without adding or losing too much to the price, by all means do it. 9. Book pairing: One way you might be able to round up is by pairing your book with a freebie. When I paired Red Hot Internet Publicity with a second, but smaller, marketing book I took the awkward pricing of $18.95, bumped it up to $20 (so 2 books for $20) and quadrupled my sales after an event. Now the pairing doesn't have to be a book, it can be a special report or even an e-book that you send to them after the event. 10. Product and placement: As you're doing your talk (especially if it's in a nonbookstore venue) make sure that you have a copy of the book propped up in front of you so event visitors see it the entire time you are speaking. Hold up the book when appropriate and use it as an example when you can. This will help to direct the consumer's eye to the book - and making eye contact with the product is a good way to make sure it stays on their radar screen throughout your talk. When I do a speaking gig at an event that allows me to sell books in the room, I will sell four times more than I would if the attendees have to go somewhere else to buy it, so make the buy easy. If you can, make sure your books are for sale in the room. 11. Ease of purchase: Aside from pricing, if you're doing your own checkout make sure that you have many ways consumers can buy your book. I take credit cards at the
event, checks and cash. Don't limit yourself as to what you can take or you will limit your sales. 12. Post event wrap-up: So the event is over, what now? Well, if you got attendees to sign up for your newsletter (you did do that, right?) now it's time to send a thank you note for attending and remind them (if they missed the chance at the event) to buy a copy of your book at the "special event price." Speaking and book events are great ways to build your platform, but if you aren't selling books there's little point in doing them. For many of us, our book is our business card and thus, if we can sell our "business card" we can keep consumers in our funnel. If your book isn't your business card you still want readers, right? The marketing before, during and after an event is crucial to building your readership. While it's easy to say that events sell books, they often don't. I find that if you don't "work it" you often will find your time wasted. Seek the opportunities when they are made available to you - and then maximize them when they are, you'll be glad you did! About the Author Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the "road map to publishing success." AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book's topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 15 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 10 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. Back to top
How to Exhibit at Book Industry Tradeshows by Dana Lynn Smith One of the best ways to promote a book to bookstore buyers and librarians is for them to see the book in person at a major industry tradeshow. Read on for information about the most important shows and tips on how to participate on a budget. There are several large shows in the U.S. geared toward booksellers and librarians, including:
- Book Expo American (BEA – geared to booksellers): http://bit.ly/heeRFp - Christian Retail Show (CBA): http://www.christianretailshow.com/ - American Library Association Annual Conference (ALA): http://www.alaannual.org/ - American Library Association Midwinter Conference (ALA): http://bit.ly/bO7Q29 - Public Libraries Association (PLA – in even-numbered years): http://bit.ly/gFk593 - Association of College and Research Librarians (ACRL – in odd-numbered years): http://bit.ly/d3D2mI - American Association of School Librarians (AASL): http://bit.ly/bmmSZq - Texas Library Association (TLA - the largest of the state shows): http://bit.ly/fwWhZh - Other state and regional library shows: http://bit.ly/iosaD The major international book shows, such as the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair, focus largely on international book sales and the sale of foreign and translation rights to books. For the national and international shows, nonfiction books probably have a higher chance of success. How to Exhibit at Book Shows The expense of exhibiting in person at the major shows is usually prohibitive for independent publishers, however it may be beneficial to participate in your state library association show, especially if it’s held nearby and you are able to share a booth with one or two other publishers. Be sure to find out if show management permits booth sharing, and don’t be shy about asking if your book would be a good fit for their audience. For example, I have found that there are a lot of children’s and young adult librarians in attendance at the Texas Library Show. The most economical way to participate in the major shows is through a co-op booth, where books from a number of different small and independent publishers are displayed together. You pay a fee (typically around $50 to $100) and ship your book to the booth sponsor. They take care of shipping the books to the show, displaying them in the booth, staffing the booth, and providing literature to the visitors. These organizations provide co-op display services at a number of national, international and regional shows: - Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA): http://bit.ly/hdKaEA - Combined Book Exhibit: http://www.combinedbook.com/ - Jenkins – Global Book Show: http://www.globalbookshows.com/ - Association Book Exhibit http://www.bookexhibit.com/ In addition to library shows, Association Book Exhibit participates in some other professional association conferences. If you're a nonfiction publisher, check out their list of conferences to see if any match up to your book's topic. If a book industry tradeshow is being held near where you live, it’s a great learning experience to attend the show. Contact show management to find out if authors or publishers are allowed to attend. About the Author
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Promote Your Book by Becoming a Keynote Speaker by Ellen Brazer Congratulations! You’ve written a book. Take a moment to pat yourself on the back for your great accomplishment. As you probably have realized, finishing your book means you are only half way up Mt. Everest. To arrive at the summit you have to find a way to get people reading what you wrote. There are many ways to make this happen, as you know from following the invaluable advice on the Savvy Book Marketer blog. Here is another idea for you: become a keynote speaker at events where you can sign and sell books. I have done this with astounding success in Florida, where I live. In the past few months I have spoken to over 1,600 people. My book, Clouds Across the Sun, is a historical novel with a Jewish theme. I have been the keynote speaker at The Jewish Museum, Temple Sisterhoods, Brandeis Alumni, bookstores, libraries, women’s clubs, and author luncheons for Hadassah, National Council of Jewish Women, and several Jewish Heritage Clubs. I also spoke at the Jewish Book Council in New York and have been invited to Denver, Colorado and Westchester, New York. Twelve major events are already booked into 2011. Here is the formula that worked for me: 1. Identify your niche market - who will want to read your book. It’s not rocket science, I promise. But it can be daunting. My book has a Jewish theme and so I wrote to every Jewish club, organization, synagogue, woman’s group I could find. I focused on Florida, to minimize travel expenses. Whatever your book is about, fiction or non-fiction, it has a specific market and it is your job to identify that market. 2. Always address your letter to a specific person. The Internet will give you websites and most websites list names and email addresses. Don’t forget, you can always use the telephone to ask for an email address and a name if there is none listed. 3. Write a great letter. You are a writer – that’s what you do – and this letter needs to be fabulous. You only need one letter, although you may have to tweak it depending on the organization you have targeted. You may have a different tone with a men’s group than with a women’s group.
Begin the letter by mentioning something you admire about the organization or making a personal comment like: I hope you are having a great summer. Tell them your name, the name of the book and its genre. Be sure to list any speaking engagement that you have had. Here is a line I always use: I am contacting you in the hope that you will consider inviting me to speak. It's a good idea to add your most important review quote to the letter. Here is mine: "Clouds Across the Sun is a story that touched my soul, and reminded me how all humanity is connected. Filled with passion and hope, it is the kind of book you can’t put down." —Da Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Brothers and Wandering Warriors. Next add the summary and make it short and sweet. I close with: "I would be honored to come and speak to your group. I will be happy to send you a review copy of my book just let me know. You can see more reviews, learn about me, and read book excerpts at http://ellenbrazer.com." 4. If they request a book, send it. This is money well worth spending if it means a speaking opportunity. 5. Respond quickly when the invitation is offered. 6. Become a great speaker! We are all storytellers. Practice, practice, practice. If you are interesting, spontaneous, and even a little funny, people who hear you will invite you to speak to their organizations. If you are terrified at the thought of talking to a group, take heart. Most people are. Join a Toastmaster’s club. They will help you over this hurdle. 7. Have fun. This is the best part, fan appreciation! About the Author Ellen Brazer is the award-winning author of Hearts of Fire at http://amzn.to/f39BXt and Clouds Across the Sun at http://amzn.to/gRKP8R. You can visit her website, http://www.ellenbrazer.com/ or join Ellen on her blog, http://ellenb9815.wordpress.com/ to learn more about becoming a shameless self-promoter. Back to top
Resources Polish your speaking skills by getting involved with Toastmasters International. Find a local chapter at http://www.toastmasters.org. Free Conference Pro at www.freeconferencepro.com is a good free service for presenting and recording teleseminars.
Instant Teleseminar at http://bit.ly/e4n1Pu offers a reasonably-priced service for conducting webinars (teleseminars with slideshows). GoToWebinar at www.GoToWebinar.com costs more than Instant Teleseminars but offers some additional features. Back to top
Virtual Book Tours Virtual book tours (sometimes called virtual blog tours) can be a great way to gain visibility for both fiction and nonfiction books. In this section you’ll learn more about virtual tours and find advice for planning and executing your own virtual tour. Fiction authors can find blogs for their virtual book tours the Book Review Directory at http://bit.ly/SavvyBookBlogs.
Promote Your Book with a Virtual Book Tour by Carol Denbow Virtual book touring is fast becoming the best and most effective way to promote and market an authors' book. With gas prices and all travel expenses souring to an all-time high, authors can no longer afford to "hit the road" to sell their books. Therefore, new means are needed to compete in our quest for book sales. Virtual touring may just be the simplest answer. As long as there have been published authors, there have been book tours. Let‘s face it, books don‘t often sell themselves. Strong promotion and marketing is the key to most merchandise sales, and it‘s no different with books. When a customer looks at a product, most often, it‘s very clear what exactly the product is, or does. But with a book, the story is hidden inside. Even with an original and eye-catching outer design, i.e., the cover, rarely would a customer purchase such an item without knowing the contents and what they will get for their dollar. So how does an author present the contents to a potential buyer to garner buyable interest in their book?—they tour. Author book tours are the best way to sell books, but traditional touring is costly and time consuming. Simply filling the gas tank can use up a day’s wage for most of us. Then there’s the issue of endurance. Yes, you will sell books at your tour stop, but will those tour visitors who don‘t make the purchase remember you after the tour event is over—not likely. So how does an author make a lasting impression? The answer may be a virtual book tour.
Virtual book touring is all accomplished over the Internet—there’s no travel. Authors can tour numerous locations from the comfort of their own homes, even in their jammies if they choose! No gas, no hotels, and no uncomfortable face-to-face contact with potential customers (that‘s a biggie!). The other great advantage to virtual touring is that you are only attracting an audience that’s right for your book, in other words, hot sales leads. When you tour, you select genre specific Websites and Blogs which fall right into line with your topic. So your viewers already have an interest. The best thing about virtual touring is that it lasts forever. Every tour stop you make goes out into cyberspace for eternity. Search engine results will continue to show your tour stop post and you could potentially be selling books five years after the finish of your tour. Now that’s a book tour with results! Virtual book touring is hot, it’s new, and it’s here to stay. How it Works Authors make contact with topic related Website and Blog editors to schedule a one-day visit. An interview or article of book related subject matter is prepared in advance for posting on an agreed upon date. The tour stop is advertised well in advance of the posting date. The day of the post, the author will usually make themselves available for comment responses and answering viewers posted questions (within the comment link section). Often times, virtual book tours will include radio or video interviews as well. These tour stops require more precise timing, therefore are a little more difficult to schedule. Several of these stops are scheduled together over a 7, 10, or 14 day tour period. Massive promotion is done via the Internet prior to the first tour stop and for best results should continue throughout the tour. About the Author Carol Denbow is the author of 6 books including How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour (e-book). Visit her Website at http://www.AuthorsBox.com. Back to top
How to Plan Your Virtual Book Tour by Sandra Beckwith What is a virtual book tour, why do you want to do one, and how do you make it happen? A virtual book tour is a promotional tactic that lets you interact with bloggers and online media outlets in ways that help you get the word out about your book. Just like an inperson book tour, you select a timeframe for the tour and work to schedule specific
appearances. The possibilities include: - Live Webinar presentations - Blog Q&As - Guest columns on blogs - Reviews of your book written by key bloggers - Articles that you write and place in key locations - Podcasts - Video interviews hosted on the blogs or sites of others - Blogger hosted contests that offer your book as a prize alongside information about your book Virtual book tours are worthwhile for any author whose target audience is online. They allow you to connect with readers personally, share enough information about your book to help people decide if they want to buy it, and – this is my favorite part – include a link to a site where people can purchase it immediately. Who doesn’t like instant gratification? The process is pretty simple: 1. Identify the blogs and online media outlets that reach your target audience. 2. Start becoming “known” on the sites by offering helpful, informative comments on blog postings. In an ideal world, you’ve been doing this all along. 3. Compile a database or grid with each site’s contact name, e-mail address, site URL, notes about the site’s format, and specifics about what you like about the blog. These last two items will help you in the pitching process. 4. Select your tour dates. 5. Send your pitches. Authors seem to be especially intimidated by that last step – sending the “pitch.” “Pitch” is just another word for sales letter. It’s what you say via e-mail that convinces the blogger or online journalist that they should open the door to some book-related content from you. Because so many authors aren’t sure how to approach bloggers and others, I’ve included a virtual book tour e-mail pitch template in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates at http://bit.ly/exWYUM, my fill-in-the-blanks collection of media relations templates and forms (along with corresponding samples) that authors use when generating priceless publicity for their books. To help you see how easy this is to do, I’m giving you the virtual book tour e-mail pitch template at http://bit.ly/gwbhft, and providing you with an annotated sample at http://bit.ly/hok31l. (Note that while we are providing PDF files here as examples, the templates in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates at http://bit.ly/exWYUM are actually in Word format so that you can copy and paste them into new Word files and fill in the forms right on your screen. This also lets you re-use each template or form over and over again.)
You don’t use the template in a vacuum, though. That’s where the database or grid you’ve created comes in. What you pitch to one blog might not work for another, so you use your notes in the grid to help you decide what to offer each individual site. Sometimes it’s real obvious – you wouldn’t offer the host of an online radio program or podcast an article. You’d stress that you’re an interesting and animated guest – the kind of person that people will want to listen to. If you’ve noticed that the blogger or media site uses a lot of guest columns, that’s what you should pitch, and perhaps add a few suggested column topics to your pitch, too. It’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all process, which is why you don’t use a mass e-mail approach for this. Every site contact gets an individually crafted pitch. You’ll need to add a few more columns or fields to your database or grid for response tracking – both theirs and yours. Note what and when you hear from those you’ve contacted, how and when you responded, and due dates for content or next steps. Then keep your calendar handy so you can log all activity appropriately and deliver what you’ve promised when you’ve promised it. Virtual book tours truly are fun and easy! I hope you have fun with yours. And do let me know if you have questions – just send me a note at
[email protected]! About the Author Sandra Beckwith at http://www.buildbookbuzz.com/ is a former national award-winning publicist who now teaches authors how to be their own book publicists. Get her free special report, Beyond the Press Release: 10 Exciting Book Buzz Ideas That Will Take You to the Top, when you subscribe to her free Build Book Buzz newsletter at http://www.buildbookbuzz.com/. Sandra is also the author of three books, including one about publicity for small businesses and another on publicity for nonprofits. Back to top
Blog Tours for Authors – Do They Work? by Fiona Ingram Do blog tours work? In my experience the answer is a resounding yes. My tour literally propelled my author profile into the stratosphere and I still get Google Alerts from it. Here are some reasons why I think blog tours are effective: 1. Massive exposure to an audience you possibly would never have found on your own. Each blog stop has its own followers. There are also people who enjoy following the complete tour, so new blogs get new readers, and you, the guest, get a whole lot of attention. 2. You are invited to write posts about yourself, your work, your book, and your writing
techniques that give more interesting angles to you as an author. I felt challenged in a positive sense because many of my blog hosts asked me for posts relating to kids’ literacy, making reading more interesting for kids, how to get kids back into books, how to write for kids. It was great! 3. Within a short space of time those blog posts start appearing on other people’s blog pages, pop up in Google Alerts, and there is a general spread of awareness as more and more people either follow the blog tour post by post, or simply pass on the information they have found through their own feeds. This can also be through emails, Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. When people enjoy something, they comment on it. 4. Book giveaways are a wonderful way of getting people to comment and participate in the tour. Your blog tour hosts usually arrange this; you have to get the books to the hosts first. 5. If people enjoy reading about you they may ask the blog tour organizers to add you to their blog as a guest post. I gained a few more stops on my tour once people began reading my posts. What you can do to maximize your success: 1. Send a personal email to all your blog hosts in advance thanking them for the opportunity to appear on their blog, and confirming date, time, their blog address, topic of the post, and when they can expect the information. Make sure they receive your post well in advance. 2. Have a look at each blog on your tour and get a feel for the tone of it. Is it intellectual, chatty, quirky, fun, formal, etc.? Tailor your post to reflect the tone of the blog. 3. If you are sending giveaway or review copies of your book, make sure this is done well in advance and confirm with your blog tour organizers that the hosts have received their copies. 4. Make sure you visit each blog stop for a few days afterwards to reply to comments. Your blog tour organizers will usually get the ball rolling by commenting first. Make it easy for yourself by setting an email request for when comments are made on the various posts. This will help you stay in touch. 5. Blog tours are a great way to develop new readers, fans, and friends, and to meet people interested in your work. About the Author Fiona Ingram is the author of a children’s middle-grade adventure novel The Secret of the Sacred Scarab at http://www.secretofthesacredscarab.com/. To connect with Fiona visit her blog at http://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com/ or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FionaRobyn.
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Library, Educational and Corporate Sales How to Sell to Libraries – Top Ten Strategies for Independent Authors and Publishers by Dana Lynn Smith America's 123,000 libraries purchase nearly $2 billion worth of books annually, according to statistics from the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group. Nonfiction books are especially well suited to library sales. To sell fiction to libraries, it's helpful to have reviews in journals, book awards, or a strong local tie-in, such as a novel being set in the region. Here are ten tips on how to sell to libraries: 1. Publish a library-friendly book. Library books take a lot of abuse, so libraries prefer books that are sturdy. However, given the choice between a hardcover and paperback edition, they may choose the paperback because it's less expensive. Libraries generally will not purchase books with spiral or other nontraditional binding, and they don't like books with "fill-in-the-blank" pages. Nonfiction books should have a good index and preferably a bibliography. Librarians also prefer to purchase books that are cataloged using CIP (cataloging-in-publication) data. 2. Get your book reviewed in a library journal. Library purchasing decisions are based largely on reviews in the major journals. It's impossible for librarians to keep up with the huge volume of books being published, and they value the screening process that the journals provide. Eligibility and submission instructions vary by publication, so read the requirements carefully. Unfortunately, the journals can review only a small percentage of the books submitted to them. If you aren't able to get reviewed in major journals, play up your other reviews in your marketing materials. 3. Make sure your book is available through major library wholesalers such as Baker & Taylor and Ingram. The majority of library book purchases are made through wholesalers, and some libraries won't order directly from small publishers. 4. Apply to work with a library distributor such as Quality Books or Unique Books, if you have a nonfiction book. 5. Solicit testimonials from librarians to add to your marketing materials, and play up any awards the book has won.
6. Contact libraries in your area to inquire about programs for local authors, and contact libraries in towns you visit. Let the library know about your events or media coverage in the area, such as book signings, radio interviews, or newspaper feature stories. 7. Look into speaking opportunities at libraries, like lectures and readings. In some cases you can sell copies of your book at your event or even get paid a speaking fee. Sometimes these events are organized by the "friends of the library" or other similar volunteer groups. 8. Send direct mail to libraries, either on your own or through co-operative mailings at http://www.ibpa-online.org/programs/programs.aspx. Address mail to the Collection Development Librarian for your subject area, and include a flyer with book details and a list of wholesalers and distributors that carry your book. 9. Consider donating a sample copy of your book to a few top library systems, to encourage purchases for branch libraries. 10. Exhibit at library tradeshows through co-operative exhibit programs such as those offered through the Independent Book Publishers Association, Combined Book Exhibit, and other organizations. About the Author Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries at http://bit.ly/eo9tY by Dana Lynn Smith. For more book marketing tips, follow BookMarketer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bookmarketer and get Dana's free Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you visit her book marketing blog at http://www.thesavvybookmarketer.com/. Back to top
How to Market Children's Books in Schools by Melissa Williams Children’s authors are always looking for ways to get their books into the hands of their audience . . . the children! Advocates for literacy hold the key to every door in this business, so naturally school visits are the number one way to reach your young readers and sell children's books. When developing your marketing strategy, don’t forget the obvious, your “think outside the box” attitude and always plan ahead. When doing your research, librarians, teachers, and principals should become your best friends. You should be working and collaborating with them before your book even goes to print. Build Your Visibility
To establish your credibility and visibility to market children's books, start by joining organizations and attending literary conferences. Present yourself to teachers and librarians at local and national library conferences by becoming a speaker. While at these events, share a booth with other local authors and be available for networking, questions, and feedback. While starting to build your credibility as a public speaker, offer free author school visits as often as possible. You can even start with readings at your local library and bookstores for practice. How to Schedule School Visits Organize your visit to meet the needs of the school. Many teachers and librarians will not follow through with an author visit if it becomes more trouble than what it is worth. Have a plan. Remember their schedules are full, and they must allow time for you to come. Give them day and time options, clear and precise details, the grades you specialize in, equipment needs, and the number of groups you are willing to work with. Pre-Orders and Sales Pre-orders allow for your book sales to run smoothly. Provide a book pre-order form to the librarian or teacher that may be sent home with the students the week before your visit. Take time to personalize the form for the particular school. Don’t worry about technicalities with the form; a simple document with name, price, quantity, book image, and contact info will suffice . . . and don’t forget to ask for the name of the recipient for your autograph. Referrals and Callbacks If the school enjoyed your visit you will see the referrals come in. Consider these three benefits as the focus of your school visit: Promoting reading and writing, offering the students a fun and educational experience, and keeping the students attentive and involved. Yes, that means being entertaining. Be sure to show your personality and relate to the children while using “teacher techniques” to maintain control of your audience. Becoming a Productive Speaker The best way to master the necessary teaching techniques of being an author and speaker is rolling up your sleeves and spending some time practicing around large groups of children. Never underestimate the experience gained from being a youth leader, Sunday school or substitute teacher, or camp volunteer. Your market is children, so make necessary time to surround yourself with your audience. After Visit Sales and Follow Up After your school visit, give the students and teachers one more week to order your books. Sales usually double after the children have heard the author read their book. Make it easy for the school by offering free shipping and allow for additional orders to come in via email. Always ask for feedback to perfect your presentation. Authors are creative people, so the presentation should be just that . . . creative, fun, and
entertaining. School visits can be a great place to market children's books, if you plan ahead and follow these tips. About the Author Melissa Williams is a children’s author and public speaker. She is the author of the children’s chapter book series, Iggy the Iguana at http://www.iggytheiguana.com/, and the owner of LongTale Publishing. She is a children’s columnist at The Westside Story Newspaper, http://bit.ly/yTiV2. To connect with Melissa visit her blog at http://melissamariewilliams.blogspot.com/ or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Iggytheiguana. Back to top
How to Sell More Books to Corporations by Brian Jud Publishers seeking sales in non-bookstore markets often think only in terms of selling to retail outlets such as discount stores, warehouse clubs, airport stores or gift shops. However, there is an often-overlooked segment made up of buyers that frequently purchase books in large quantities, pays in 30 days and does not require a distributor. This niche is comprised of companies that buy books not necessarily for re-sale, but to motivate their sales forces, educate their employees, improve their images or use as sales incentives to sell more of their products. This market can be lucrative, if you know how to sell to the buyers. This begins with an understanding of why they might use your books to improve their circumstances, to make their companies more profitable. An appeal to traditional buying motives may not work under these conditions. The people with whom you will be negotiating are skilled professionals, used to dealing with knowledgeable, competent sales representatives. The buyer is probably not the Purchasing Agent for the companies, but perhaps the Human Resources Manager, Sales Manager or Brand Manager. The content of your book will determine the prospective decision maker. Many of these businesspeople have never thought about using books as promotional tools. So if you come across as a consultant with ideas to help them, you are more likely to make the sale. If you know how they could use your titles to sell more of their products or services you will find a willing ear. Below are suggestions to fuel your discussion. Use this list to help plan how they might best use your titles. 1) Human Resource planning. If you have a concept that would help employees plan
for their retirement, ask people in the Human Resources department if they could use your titles in their retirement-planning programs. They might also consider titles that would help them implement other parts of their benefit programs. 2) Training and motivation. According to Frank Fochetta (VP, Director of Special Sales and Custom Publishing at Simon & Schuster), "Companies such as Herbal Life and Amway buy motivational and business books to resell to their distributors." In many other businesses, managers regularly seek new ways to train and motivate their employees, too. Your titles on leadership, motivation, self-help, selling techniques or new business topics could be useful to these executives. 3) Gift to customers. Fiction and nonfiction titles may be the perfect gift for customers, employees or to recognize unusual events or special marketing periods. Mark Resnick (partner in FRW Company) tells us, "Some cruise ship lines, give passengers a thankyou gift upon departing the ship. Sometimes they use a book about one of the destination ports as the souvenir." 4) Sell through their stores. If companies have stores for employees, either on the premises or online, they may purchase your books for resale. Majors Internet Company provides a service called The Company Bookstore. This is a business-to-business solution for selling books to employees of corporations. In effect, Majors puts a bookstore inside the corporation. Purchasing managers, Corporate Library Professionals, and Information Service Managers can link to a customized version of the company bookstore to offer employees access to a comprehensive database of titles. Majors customizes The Company Bookstore for the corporate intranet, processes credit card transactions, picks, packs & ships, and provides management reports. Majors is a vendor for the corporate employee as well as for information centers, training and development, and research departments. J.A. Majors Company, 4004 Tradeport Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30354. Phone: 404-608-2660, 1-800-241-6551, fax: 404-6082656, http://www.majors.com/corporations/corporations.htm. Books Are Fun, Ltd. (A Reader's Digest Company) is a leading display marketer of books and gifts. They offer hardcover books, gifts, and educational products at savings of up to 80% off retail prices. Their book fairs and book displays supply innovative, premium quality products to corporations, schools, hospitals, and early learning centers throughout the United States and Canada. Books Are Fun serves over 60,000 schools, 12,000 corporations, 20,000 early learning centers, and many hospitals, universities, government offices and non-profit organizations in the United States and Canada through a variety of programs. The Books Are Fun formula is simple. They buy huge, non-returnable quantities of books and gifts directly from publishers and manufacturers, and sell those products at deep discounts directly to end users through display marketing events. They typically donate a percentage of the proceeds in books or cash to the sponsoring organization or to a designated charity. Send two copies of your book, along with your full information and telephone number to: Books Are Fun, 4601 Nautilus Court South, Boulder, CO
80301-3683. Books submitted to Books Are Fun will not be returned. 5) Public relations. Companies may use books to establish, repair or improve their reputations. This may be accomplished by providing books to volunteer groups or by donating them to a worthy cause. Companies celebrating an anniversary may also use related books to help promote and celebrate the event. Charlene Costanzo sold her title, The Twelve Gifts of Birth, to children’s shelters to use as a fundraiser. But the image it created in the public’s mind was upbeat, creating positive word-of-mouth advertising for the shelters. Companies may use books to maintain or create an image, too. Many hospitals do this when they give a package of products to the parents of babies delivered there. If your title has information that is important to the first years of a baby’s life, it might be included in this package. 6) An addition to the corporate library. Some businesses have an internal library. If so, show the company librarians how your title could be appropriate to their needs. If it is on an applicable topic -- such as selling, industry information, motivation, or marketing – you might convince them to add your title to their collections. 7) Enhance other marketing campaigns. Laws and do-not-call lists limiting the activities of telemarketers will increase the use of direct mail to accomplish the same result. Businesses conducting direct-mail campaigns want recipients to open the envelopes immediately upon receiving them, and one way to do this is to offer a teaser on the envelope announcing a "free gift inside" or an "offer for a free gift inside." Statistics have proven this to be an excellent way to increase response rates, and your book or booklet may perform that function. 8) Sales promotional tools. Brand managers have bottom-line responsibility for their product line and are interested in increasing their sales. Show them how they could use your titles to make this happen and you will find an interested prospect. Coupon. Manufacturers may offer a dollars-off, in-pack, on-pack, or near-pack coupon entitling the bearer to a discount on your product. For example, a pet food company might include a coupon in a bag of dog food (in-pack) for a discount on your video about dog care. The manufacturer may offer the same coupon on-pack, printed on the exterior of the package and visible to the consumer. Near-pack coupons are provided at the point of sale (perhaps as a peel-off coupon or in a "take-one" container) in close proximity to where the item is being sold. For example, a coupon for a book containing holiday recipes could be placed near a display of Pfaltzgraff plates with Christmas décor. Coupons serve another function whenever the customer is required to send any information to you. Your company garners information to build its database, which can offset costs of the free items. Premium. When used as a premium (an item given away to attract, retain or reward
customers or to motivate employees), a product may be offered at a relatively low cost (or free) as an incentive to purchase a particular product. If the dog-food manufacturer mentioned above included your dog-care video inside the package – instead of a coupon for it – your product would be considered a premium. Prize. A high-price or high-value book might be offered as a prize in a contest or sweepstakes. Samples. Businesses may use your items to give to customers or the general public at no charge in order to build goodwill, and traffic to their stores. They might place a sample chapter of your book on their website, offering the complete version as a selfliquidator. Hammermill Paper Company purchased over 5000 copies of Paulette Ensign’s booklet 110 Ideas for Organizing Your Business Life as a premium for their sales representatives to leave behind with prospects after a sales call. The only change to which Paulette had to accede was to allow Hammermill to print the booklets on their paper to serve as a sample. Self-liquidator. When a book is sold at a price low enough to entice buyers, but high enough to cover its cost, it is being used as a self-liquidator. Many supermarkets use this tactic to entice shoppers to buy more at their store. Here, buyers may purchase a book at a discounted price with a minimum purchase. Or shoppers may be offered a continuity series at a reduced price. Once you know how a prospective customer might use your titles, the next step is to contact and negotiate with them. About the Author Brian Jud is the author of How To Make Real Money Selling Books (Without Worrying About Returns): A Complete Guide to the Book Publishers' World of Special Sales at http://amzn.to/cR8shJ. He also offers commission-only sales of nonfiction, fiction, children’s titles and remainders to buyers in special markets. For more information contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001, phone 860-675-1344, fax 860-2700343. Email
[email protected] or go to www.premiumbookcompany.com. Back to top
Resources The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries at http://www.SellingToLibraries.com features to practical advice for selling to libraries, along with contact information for top libraries, re-sellers, book review journals, and library associations. To learn more about selling books to non-bookstore venues in How to Make Real
Money Selling Books: A Complete Guide to the Book Publishers' World of Special Sales at http://amzn.to/aUTOIS. This book was written by Brian Jud, a leading expert on corporate sales and non-bookstore markets for books. Brian Jud’s Premium Book Company helps publishers connect with bulk buyers. http://www.premiumbookcompany.com Another source for learning about bulk book sales is The Insider's Guide to Large Quantity Books Sales, published by Jenkins Group. http://www.specialmarketbooksales.com/mem1.php Find more resources at http://bit.ly/LibrariesSchools Back to top
Publishing and Distribution This section features advice on writing, editing, publishing and distributing books. Find more resources for aspiring authors at http://bit.ly/AspiringAuthors.
How to Get Started Writing Your Book by Melinda Copp Writing a book is such a big project that many aspiring authors have no idea where to start. If you’ve been thinking about writing a book, you can use the following three steps to turn your thoughts into action! Step One: Define Your Topic, Audience, and Competition When writing a book, it helps to have a clear idea of what you want to cover and who you want to reach. It also helps to know your competition—what books have already been written on the same topic and how yours will be different (and better). So first, consider your book’s topic. What is your book really about? How will your book benefit your readers? What problems will it solve? Really take the time to scrutinize your topic and the strategies you plan to outline. Next, ask yourself two questions: 1. Who needs and/or wants the information in this book? 2. Do these people buy books?
Think about your book like a business. In any business venture, you need to know who you’re serving and whether or not the market is big enough for your book to sell successfully. Finally, compare your book to what’s already been written and published on the topic. To find out what books yours will be competing with, go to Amazon.com and search your book topic. What titles come up? Have your read these books? What will make your book different? How is your book better? What gives your book an edge over the others? Step Two: Make a List Once you’ve narrowed down your topic, defined your audience and their needs, and considered your book’s competition you can start planning what you will include in your book and how it will be organized. Start by listing everything you want to include based on the information you gathered in step one. If you’re writing a how-to book, then make a list of topics, examples, anecdotes, and strategies you plan to include. And if you’re writing a memoir or other narrative work, list the scenes you want to use to tell your story. Let your mind go on this, and brainstorm as many ideas as you can. You may not keep them all, but for now you need to get the material out of your head. Keep in mind that, at this point, you aren’t making any final decisions. Remain flexible and open-minded; you will probably change things around once you actually start writing and researching. But making this list will help you get organized and give your writing some direction. Step Three: Start Writing You knew this step was coming! The only way to write a book is to sit down and start writing. Dedicate a specific, regular time to write every day. And if you can’t write every day, then make sure you write on most days. Having your list of topics you want to include will be handy on days when you don’t feel inspired. You can just look at it, pick a topic or scene that gets you going, and then stick with it until you’re done. Write as much as you can as often as you can, and work through your list until you’ve covered everything you want to write about in your book. Then before you know it, you’ll have a draft finished! Writing Your Book There’s no reason aspiring authors should stall writing their book before they even start. If you have a story inside you that you want to get out, use these three steps to get your writing started. You’ll be an author before you know it! About the Author Melinda Copp helps aspiring self-help, business, and nonfiction authors get their books
done, so they establish expertise, achieve their goals, and share their message in a powerful way. Get a free copy of her Write Your Book Quick-Start Mini E-course at http://www.writerssherpaprograms.com/writeabook.html when you sign up for her weekly e-zine. Back to top
Why Authors Need an Editor by Yvonne Perry Welcome Yvonne and thanks for sharing. Why is it so important for authors to hire an editor? An editor who knows the book industry is an asset to any author, but first, let’s talk about the different types of editing. A copy editor looks for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage errors, and will note awkward transitions, redundancies, and hyperbole. Think of a copy editor as the teacher with a red pen, who is ready to grade your paper. A manuscript that needs further development is not ready for a copy editor. It needs a developmental editor who can coach or guide an author's work to the next level by offering suggestions to strengthen the author’s writing and develop the story to its best potential. This “writing mentor” may work with an author on all elements of book development including front matter, back matter, and citing references. After a book goes through a development process with an editor, it may still need a copy edit. So, why should an author hire an editor? After several rewrites and re-reading, an author can easily get so close to his own writing that he is not be able to see his own errors. Some may not even be aware of the mistakes they are making because they are not familiar with style guides or grammar rules. For example, there are several different style guides and while most agree on the basics, there are acceptable word usages and punctuation that make writing a book different than writing for the Web. Additionally, we see so many typos and grammatical errors on the Web and in books that are self-published (or brought to market by publish-on-demand companies) that after a while, these mistakes become so commonplace, many people view them as acceptable. To an avid reader, these errors are sure signs that the book was either written by an amateur or by someone who did not care about preserving the foundation upon which good books have always been built. That is not the image an author wants to portray. Devoted readers are accustomed to a high standard of quality in the writing, layout, and physical properties of a book. They will not tolerate blatant errors in spelling,
punctuation, and grammar, nor will they be inclined to backtrack to locate what they missed when they are confused by what an author has written. Another reason authors should have their books edited is because an unedited or poorly written book is a legitimate reason for a publisher to reject it. It is difficult enough to get a book accepted by a conventional publisher without having to further reduce your chances with a book that an agent can’t “sell” to a publisher or acquisition editor. And, speaking of selling, from a marketing standpoint, good books are recommended by word of mouth to others who have read them. Poor books are not! In fact, an author may have a difficult time getting someone to write a review for a book that didn’t read well. Even if a book is self-published or published on demand, an author must have a great product to offer in order to sell books—especially in a declining economy. A developmental editor knows more about current word usage, punctuation, grammar, book layout (front and back matter), character development, writing dialog, creating good transitions, setting and plot, and overall flow than the average high school English teacher. What advice can you give to authors about hiring and working with an editor? - Pick the right kind of editor. Most of the manuscripts I see need a developmental editor to at least review the manuscript before moving on to a copy editor. - Check to see what types of work the editor does most often. An editor who edits mostly fiction may not know how to format a bibliography or cite reference sources; an editor who works mostly with non-fiction may have less ability to develop characters, plot, and scenes. - Ask to see a list of clients the editor has worked with. Don’t be afraid to ask how many books the editor has edited, particularly in your genre - Ask what style guide the editor uses. Books published in America are typically edited using The Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, or the MLA Handbook for Writers. APA Style is preferred for behavioral sciences and research books. - Ask to see samples of the editor’s work. While I work under a non-disclosure agreement which prevents me from sharing a client’s before and after manuscript, I offer (at no cost) to edit two pages of the prospective author’s work to demonstrate my skills. - Check the editor’s references. If an editor cannot or will not provide references, run the other way and don’t look back while you find someone else to help you. Tell us a little about you. As the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services, http://writersinthesky.com/, I am both a writer and editor. I have authored twelve titles of my own, and I have written or edited more than thirty (some bestselling) books for my clients. That's in addition to
hundreds of articles, marketing text, biographical sketches, résumés, media releases, Web text, and newsletters I have written. Writers in the Sky provides developmental and copy editing, as well as a book evaluation service to help an author determine the condition of the manuscript and what it would take to make the work marketable. We also publish a monthly e-zine at http://writersinthesky.com/writing-newsletter.html that provides a rich resource of articles and information about the craft and business of writing, publishing, and book marketing. About the Author I am a graduate of American Institute of Holistic Theology where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Metaphysics. I completed the requirements for Distinguished Toastmaster certification from Toastmasters International, and I put this training to good use on my weekly podcast when I interview authors, publishers, and book publicists. The podcast is accessed on our blog at http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com/. Back to top
Mistakes of First-Time Authors by Stephanie Barko Prior to being published, new authors frequently make mistakes that damage or even preclude their book’s marketability. Commonly, these errors include: - Poorly designed or stock cover art - Unedited, under edited or unprofessionally edited text - Under funding of or lack of a book marketing budget - Invisible or inadequately visible online presence for author and title - Absence of platform and clear audience for the material Book Covers make or break your ability to obtain reviews and readers. You can judge a book by its cover. As James Cox, Editor of Midwest Book Review puts it, “In Stack #3 are those titles that are immediately rejected -- not for their subject matter; not for being written by a first time author; and not for their self-published, PODpublished, or small press published status, but because they are poorly designed or defectively produced in terms of presenting substandard, inadequate, or otherwise unattractive covers.” Appealing covers summon buyers. Whether these buyers actually read your book is another matter, but the most important element for purchasing a publication is its wrapper. It has been proven that people choose a book by what they see and read on
the cover, especially if they don’t know the author or the title. Make sure your cover is designed by an award-winning book designer, not a general graphic designer. For different angles and musings on book covers, visit book design web sites and blogs. Editing is also critical to your book’s success. You want to interview several editors and hold their completed books in your hand. Choose a set of editors who are experienced with your genre. Among equally qualified candidates, hire those with whom you have some professional chemistry. For an explanation of the types of editing your work might benefit from, read “Types of Editing” at http://bit.ly/hSstET. What is a reasonable Marketing Budget for a book launch? Plan to spend $2.5 to $12K before and during the first three months of your book’s life. If you get an advance on your manuscript, I recommend spending the whole amount on marketing your book. Line item expenses in a prep & launch budget might include research & fact checking, editing, indexing, illustrating, cover & interior design, web design, optimization, & maintenance, distribution, shipping, travel, publicity, and advertising. If you need media training or a public speaking coach, include that. If you are independently published, add in book fair and industry conference fees, book award submission fees, exhibitor costs, and presentation equipment. An author’s Online Presence is absolutely crucial in today’s book market. Internet book sales have risen 18% year on year since 2002. For this reason, each author needs a web site that pulls incoming traffic from people who are searching on the book’s issues, title, and author name. The internet is so dynamic that each year the way to attract customers on the superhighway seems to morph. Right now it’s social networking and backlinking. Perhaps 12 million Americans now keep a blog because they’ve learned that updating it every couple of weeks will maintain or lift their page rank. If you are facile with a computer, use search engine optimization (SEO) tools to discover high ranking keywords, and then repeat those throughout your web site, blog and press releases. Seek a web designer who is both imaginative and good at taking direction, while exhibiting a proficiency in English, design, programming, SEO, and business. Finally, if you cannot define your book’s Audience and Platform, your book will never get off the ground. To market your book, you must be able to distill its issues and know who and where your readers are and how they search for information. Create your log line to attract them and prioritize your first year plan so that you fully fund and lead with the strongest device in your platform. Don’t end up in the slush pile! Spend time and money with your editing team, a book designer, an SEO guru, and a publicist, so your book is more likely to remain competitive among the 200,000 titles released in America each year. About the Author
Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist was named 2011 Best Book Promotional Resource by Preditors & Editors Readers Poll. Her clients include award-winning nonfiction and historical fiction authors and publishers. For more book marketing & publicity tips visit www.stephaniebarko.com. Back to top
Drafting Your Back Cover Sales Copy by Dan Poynter The Outside of Your Book Should Sell the Inside. Everyone Judges a Book by its Cover—And What You Can Do About It. People do not read the book before making a buying decision. Consumers do not read it in the store. Sales reps only carry book covers and jackets to show store buyers while wholesalers and distributors say “just send us the cover copy.” All buying decisions are made on the illustration/design and the sales copy on the outside of the book. Yes, packaging is everything. Each year, U.S. industry spends more than $50 billion on package design. Now, that is not $50 billion for the packages, not for the contents. That money is for the design of the packages. Packages prompt buyers to reach for the product whether it is pantyhose, corn flakes or hair spray. Stores have tens of thousands of books being displayed spine-out. With all this congestion, it is hard to get attention. Initially, all a potential buyer sees is the book’s spine. If the browser takes it down, he or she will gaze at the cover about four seconds and the flip it over to read the back cover. On average, he or she will spend just seven seconds here, so the trick is to keep them reading longer. Your copy has to be punchy and benefit-laden; it has to speak to the potential buyer. For free instructions on how to write the sales copy and lay out your covers, download my Book Cover Worksheet at http://bit.ly/hNlDPS and fill in the blanks. Your book cover designer will lay out the package and incorporate the illustration, put it all on disk and send it to your printer, but you must draft the sales copy. This book cover worksheet will take you step-by-step through the sales copy draft process. Use your computer so you will be able to move the copy around once entered. Drafting ad copy is hard work. Ad copy writers, people who write ads for a living, need to stimulate their imagination. Most of them study the field constantly. When they see an element of an ad they like in a magazine or on line, they will pull it out, circle the good part and put it in a “swipe file.” When they are commissioned to write an ad, they will go through the swipe file looking for ideas. You can use the same stimulating procedure but there is an easier, more direct way to do it.
Look for four or five other books at Amazon that are very close to your book. Think to yourself, if someone were to buy that book, would they be a good candidate to buy your book? Print out the multiple pages. Highlight the buzz words and good book descriptions. Now, spread out the page and draft your sales copy. All the good, descriptive sales copy is in front of you. The highlighting will stimulate your copywriting imagination and make the drafting easy. A. Front cover Select a working title and subtitle. Keep the title short and make the subtitle descriptive. List the most important person in your field (association or industry) for the foreword (and please note the spelling of Foreword). You will try to get them to pen the foreword later. B. Spine Stack the title on the spine so it will read more easily on the shelf. Use a bold, san-serif, vertically-legged typeface such as Arial Black, bolded. C. Back cover 1. Category. Visit a bookstore and check the shelf where your book will be displayed. Note the categories on the books and the shelves. Listing the category on the back cover of your book will insure your book will be easy to find — because the bookshop personnel will place it on the right shelf. 2. Now you need an arresting headline addressed to potential buyers. You want them to relate to the book and find themselves in it. Do not repeat the title here; do not bore the potential buyer. You have already “said it” on the front. Use an alternate approach. For example, The Self-Publishing Manual’s back-cover headline is Why Not Publish Yourself? 3. Description. Concisely (two to four sentences) state what the book is about. What will the reader gain by reading this book? 4. Bulleted promises or benefits. Promise to make readers better at what they do. Be specific. Focus on who your audience is and what they want. Think: about who are you talking to and what are they going to get from the book. You will discover: - (benefit) - (benefit) - (benefit) - (benefit) 5. Testimonials and endorsements. Dream up three different endorsements from people you would like to quote. If "This book changed my diplomatic strategy. —Colin Powell," would look good, try it. Use names or titles recognizable in your field — sources that
might impress potential buyers. This is just a draft; dress it up. You will secure some of these quotations later. 6. Show the author is the ultimate authority on the subject. Just two or three sentences will do. 7. End with a sales closer in bold type. Ask the book browser to buy the book. Use something like "This book has enabled thousands to . . . and it will show you the way too." 8. Price. The book industry likes a price on the book. The price is a turn-off to potential buyers so place it at the end of the sales copy. Never locate the price at the top of the back cover. If this is a hardcover book, place the price at the top of the front flap. 9. Bar code with International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The bar code on a book identifies the ISBN, which in turn identifies the publisher, title, author and edition (hardcover, etc.). Make room for, but do not worry about, the bar code and ISBN just now. For more details on the ISBN and bar code, see Document 112 at http://bit.ly/gwvElO (free). Your title, subtitle, back-cover headline and benefits may be swapped. Once you have them written down, you may wish to move some of them around. Perhaps one of your benefits would be a better subtitle. Most back cover copy is weak and uninspiring. The title is repeated and then is followed by several quotations and a bar code and that’s it! Haphazard copy is the sign of lazy (and maybe inexperienced) copywriter. This lack of effective competition on the shelf gives us the upper hand. Book cover illustrations and design have improved tremendously over the past 30 years. Author/publishers used to spend all their efforts on the text and the cover became an after-thought. Some publishers remember it was Robert Howard who brought bright, insightful, relevant, remarkable covers to the industry. There are many great cover designers today and it was Robert Howard who started it all. A good cover artist will read through your book and create a cover that will reflect the message of the text. The cover and text should match. Years ago, we said" "Write your ad before you write your book." This was to help you focus on who you were writing to and what you were going to give them. Then we realized the most important ad you will ever write is your back cover copy. Now we say: "Write your cover copy before you write your book." Packages sell products and covers sell books. Give your books the opportunity in the marketplace they deserve. Package your text to quickly tell the idle browser what is inside.
About the Author Dan Poynter is the author of 126 books, including Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book at http://amzn.to/ccpI0G. He's been a publisher since 1969. For more publishing and book marketing tips, follow @DanPoynter on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/DanPoynter, and visit his website at http://parapublishing.com/, blog at http://blog.parapublishing.com/, and YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWl0fnBu7bs. Back to top
How to Craft Back Cover Copy that Sells Books by the Boatload by Eric Gelb On a scale of 1 to 10, does your book's back cover copy drive readers to buy your book? Back cover copy is like the packaging on a box of food or the cover of a magazine at the supermarket checkout counter. The vendor has only a few seconds to stop you in your tracks, attract your attention and compel you to make a purchase. You can also consider back cover copy to be similar to a movie trailer or preview: just two minutes that give you the plot line. Based on the trailer, you will decide whether to see the movie, or not. The same holds with your book. Your design/layout, graphics AND verbiage must entice readers and make them hungry for more. Your front cover artwork and design draw target readers in. But your back cover copy closes the sale! Since you or the author won't be present when a reader pulls your book off the shelf, your back cover copy must do the heavy lifting to sell your book. Follow these steps to create sizzling back cover copy and sell more books: 1. List ALL the Benefits Your Book Delivers on a Blank Sheet of Paper or a Fresh Word® Document. For fiction, reveal your story's highlights. Demonstrate why and how your story will entertain your reader. Draw them into your story; introduce your characters or at least the main one. Summarize your plot in a sentence or two. For how-to, explain the solutions you will provide, the problems your book will solve, the questions you will answer. Highlight the charts, checklists, illustrations, etc. your book features. Arrange your benefits in a punchy, concise way with action language. Right to the point. There's no time or room for fluff. 2. Study the Back Cover Copy of Your Favorite Books and Today's Bestsellers.
For your favorites, what made you interested in the book? What about the message on the back cover attracted you? Which features can you adapt and apply to your back cover copy? Study today's bestsellers. Pull the best ingredients and design components for your book. 3. Craft an Arresting Headline or Tagline or Consider Your Subtitle. The top of the back cover copy should be a headline or tagline, just like a direct mail sales letter (aka junk mail). Don't use your book's title since potential buyers have already seen your title on the front cover or spine. Give them more information. The headline should summarize your book's theme or plot in just a few words - no more than five to eight words. Show readers what they will receive when they purchase your book. Consider my book, 52 Book Marketing Stealth Secrets. The subtitle is "The Inside Track to Become a Famous Celebrity and Sell Books by the Boatload." If you are interested in this topic, would you want to learn more? While we offer this publication as an eBook and for licensing only, on the back cover we would feature the subtitle at the top. 4. Write a Brief Paragraph. Craft Two or Three Sentences that Explain What Your Book is All About. Elaborate on your tagline. Draw your target readers further into your book . . . make them want to read more and make a purchase. Write tight. Use your writing style - your book's style. 5. Feature Two or Three Testimonials. Testimonials should be one to two sentences only. Perhaps a clip from a book review. Or a snippet from a fan's letter. Praise from a peer or colleague. People feel more comfortable making a purchase when someone else endorses a product - already kicked the tires. 6. Feature Your Bio. But only two or perhaps three sentences about your background and credentials. Why are you qualified to write this book? What makes your book a winner? Think twice before you add your picture. I believe that back cover copy is very valuable "real estate." In other words, you don't have space to waste on non-essentials: items that don't help you close the sale. If your photo encourages the reader to make a purchase, then consider using it. For lesser known authors [myself included], the back cover is better used to promote your book and provide the "evidence" your reader needs to definitively decide to buy your book. Put your photo inside. 7. Close with a Brief Zinger [Push] that Compels the Reader to Click "Add to Cart" or Carry Your Book to the Cash Register. Oh, and if you're selling in retail, be sure to leave room for your bar code with your
book's ISBN and price. When you craft your back cover copy, conduct an informal test. Invite several discerning readers, book club members, English teachers and perhaps some bookstore employees to review your back cover copy. Ask them, on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely they are to buy your book. Your friends may be objective but maybe not. You need objective, unbiased feedback . . . to truly sell your book. I hope you crush the bestseller lists! About the Author Eric Gelb is an internationally recognized author, book marketing expert and copywriter. His seven books include Book Promotion Made Easy and 52 Book Marketing Stealth Secrets. Eric specializes in crafting back cover copy, author websites, press releases, and collateral material and devising innovative marketing programs. To receive Eric's latest book marketing techniques for FREE, visit www.PublishingGold.com. Back to top
Judging a Book by Its Cover by Gail Kearns A majority of booksellers agree that the cover design is the single most important element of a book. The truth is, a book is judged first and foremost by its cover. If you want your book to have a fighting chance among the more than 400,000 new books published each year, your cover must trigger an instant response. And it's not just customers who are influenced by your book cover.A well-designed book can help you secure positive reviews, establish your credibility as an expert in your field, win awards and hopefully generate many book sales. That means your cover must be designed compellingly. How is that accomplished? - Target your audience. Who is your ideal buyer? Who is your competition and what sets you apart? Relate answers to these questions to your book cover designer. - Create a compelling, unique title and subtitle, which relate to your defined market. - Use an experienced professional designer. A veteran cover designer will ensure quality results and a cost-effective process through their design experience. "Eight seconds … this is the time a normal person spends on a book cover before either looking further or going on," says Peri-Poloni-Gabriel of Knockout Books. "That is the time you have to typographically and visually communicate your book. This is even more critical in the online marketplace where the covers are just thumbnails to begin
with. The key factors in a cover are readability, concept, genre appropriateness, overall impact and wow factor. Why hire a professional book cover designer rather than your graphic designer friend, you ask? Professional cover designers speak the same language as prepress, printers, and manufacturers and will take care of all the worrisome details. They know how to use color functionally and integrate the front cover, spine and back cover. In short, a cover designer who designs book covers day in and day out will save you from many pitfalls unbeknownst to most graphic designers. An additional word of caution: Be careful not to be persuaded by your own personal taste. Keep in mind who your target audience is. This may not be your mother, spouse or best friend. A well-designed cover that speaks to the buyer is vital when it comes to the success of your book. Here’s to your making your book a hit! About the Author Gail Kearns and her team at To Press & Beyond are experts in book publishing consulting and support services who will take your book project and shepherd it through writing, editing, design & layout, printing, distribution, sales and promotion, both in trade and niche markets and on the Internet. They have worked with over 300 authors and independent publishers as far away as London, Switzerland, Egypt and Thailand. Learn more at www.ToPressandBeyond.com. Back to top
How To Find A Literary Agent (When You’ve Self-Published) by Laura Cross Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Mark Victor Hanson, and Jack Canfield are successful authors who self-published their first books before acquiring literary agents and traditional publishing deals. When your self-published book sells in excess of 10,000 or 20,000 copies, literary agents may be calling you with offers for representation. If you’ve reached that sales mark and haven’t received a call yet and your goal is to transition into a traditional publishing deal, then it’s time to take action, find a literary agent that’s the right fit for you and your book, and start pitching. Your key selling point: Your sales figures, which indicate there is a strong market for your book. (If you’ve sold less than 10,000 copies of your self-published book and are pitching an agent, industry insiders advise against revealing that you’ve already self-published because low sales figures imply the book has low sales potential.)
So how do you go about finding agents to pitch? Here are five ways to get started: How to Find Agents There are many avenues available to find a literary agent. Most authors utilize several resources to locate potential agents. 1. Referrals Referrals are the best avenue for finding and contacting an agent. Agents respect and value referrals from an editor, author-client, bookseller, writing expert, or another agent. Ask your associates, friends and network if they can refer you to an agent. 2. Conferences and literary events Conferences, seminars, retreats, book festivals, and workshops provide an opportunity to meet an agent in person. Agents expect writers to approach them at these events. Some conferences even schedule sessions for authors to pitch to agents. The goal is to connect with agents and leave them with a positive impression of you and your work for when you submit your pitch package in the future. Some agents may even ask you to send them your book proposal or manuscript. 3. Directories Each year, several literary agent directories are published. Each guide provides detailed information on individual agents, which include the literary agency where the agent works, his contact information, the types of writing he represents, and his submission guidelines. Additional information may also be included such as recent sales, number of annual sales, professional memberships, and total years in business. Three popular directories are: - Guide to Literary Agents: http://amzn.to/fvvTWa - Literary Market Place: http://amzn.to/h9BOPe - Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents: http://amzn.to/ik8hos 4. The Internet The array and magnitude of information available via the Internet makes it easier than ever to find literary agents for your book. Forums, blogs, online magazines and directories, and search engines offer an abundance of resources. - Publisher’s Lunch: http://www.publisherslunch.com/ - Publisher’s Marketplace: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/ - Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/ - Writer’s Market: http://www.writersmarket.com/ - Guide to Literary Agents Blog: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog - Agent Query: http://www.agentquery.com/ - QueryTracker: http://www.querytracker.net/ - Agent Research: http://www.agentresearch.com/
5. Agent’s Blogs Agents have their own blogs where they write posts about the publishing industry, their expectations, what they are looking for, their clients’ book releases, recent sales, and how to submit a pitch. You can use the Google Blog Search function at http://blogsearch.google.com/ to find a listing of literary agent blogs: Popular agent blogs include: - Nathan Bransford at http://blog.nathanbransford.com/ - Rachelle Gardner at http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/ - Kristin Nelson at http://pubrants.blogspot.com/ - Janet Reid at http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/ - Jessica Faust at http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/ About the Author Laura Cross is a business strategist, published author, and professional ghostwriter. She works with entrepreneurs who want to go from best-kept secret to rock-star expert status and become high-paid experts - positioning, packaging, and profiting from their expertise. Grab a copy of the Free Audio CD “How to Establish Your Expertise, Become a Published Author, and Leverage Your Knowledge for More Profits, More Prospects, and Major Media” at www.RockYourExpertise.com. Back to top
The Role of Retailers, Distributors and Wholesalers in the Book Trade by Dana Lynn Smith Authors and publishers can sell books directly to consumers or they can reach consumers through a series of middlemen known as resellers. There are three basic types of resellers in the book trade: 1. Retailers sell books to consumers. Typical book retailers include online bookstores like Amazon.com, retail (physical) bookstores, chain stores, and specialty stores. Some retailers do advertising (usually for bestsellers and books from big-name authors), but the author and publisher bear most of the responsibility for generating demand from consumers. 2. Distributors market books on behalf of the publishers they represent. They typically have sales reps, or at least a catalog, and actively solicit orders from libraries, bookstores and other retailers. Some distributors specialize in a particular market (like libraries) or a particular type of book. Distributors may warehouse and ship books on behalf of the publisher.
Distributors are often used by small to mid-sized publishers who do not want to maintain an in-house sales staff. Some of the larger book distributors include Independent Publishers Group, Midpoint Trade Books, and National Book Network. See this page for a list of book distributors at http://www.bookmarket.com/distributors.htm compiled by John Kremer. 3. Wholesalers (also called jobbers) usually do no marketing—they simply receive and process orders from libraries and retailers. The publisher or distributor is responsible for generating demand. However, some wholesalers offer collection development services to libraries, and some offer advertising opportunities to publishers. Most wholesalers don’t stock a book unless it is in high demand; for lower volume titles they order from the publisher or distributor as necessary to fulfill orders. Library wholesalers often offer discounts to libraries and some provide other library services such as cataloging. Baker & Taylor (B&T) at http://www.btol.com/supplier.cfm is by far the largest library wholesaler, probably accounting for close to half of all book sales to libraries. They also fulfill orders for the Borders.com bookstore and supply retail bookstores. Ingram Book Company at http://www.ingrambook.com/publishers/new.aspx dominates the wholesale business to bookstores (including Amazon.com), but is also a major supplier to libraries. Ingram does not work directly with publishers that have fewer than 10 titles in print, but books are automatically listed in their database if they are available through Ingram's book printing division, Lightning Source. Ingram also has a distributor division called Ingram Publisher Services at http://www.ingrampublisherservices.com/. If you want to sell to retail bookstores or libraries, it's best to have your book available through Ingram or Baker & Taylor. Many bookstores and libraries will not order directly from small and independent publishers. If you are publishing through a print-on-demand publishing company, read your contract to make sure you have distribution through a major wholesaler at standard discounts. Bookstores will also require that the books be returnable. A trade discount is the discount from list price at which resellers purchase books from publishers. Books are typically sold directly to bookstores at 40% to 50% discount, to wholesalers at 55% discount and to distributors at 65% to 70% discount, but the discounts can vary. For example, if a book is represented by a distributor who is getting a 65% discount, the distributor keeps 10% for their sales efforts, the wholesaler gets 15% for order fulfillment, and the retailer gets 40% for selling to the consumer, leaving 35% for the publisher. Out of the publisher's share comes editorial and design costs, author royalties, printing and shipping fees, promotion, overhead and profit. It is possible to sell to wholesalers at lower discounts under certain conditions. For more details on selling through wholesalers, including contact information for the 17 largest U.S. wholesalers, see The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries at http://bit.ly/eo9tY.
About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
How Do Books Get Stocked in Bookstores? by Terry Cordingley Recently an author asked me how bookstores decide which books to buy and whether it's common for authors to contact bookstores. This is actually one of the most-asked questions we receive in the marketing department at Tate Publishing. To understand the answer to this question, you must first understand how certain titles come to be stocked in bookstores in the first place. I explained in a recent post at http://bit.ly/8SJXAo how competitive and difficult it is to get a book stocked in a bookstore. With more than 560,000 titles released in the U.S. this year, there is no way all of those titles, or even a majority of those titles, are going to get stocked on a bookstore shelf. Let's take a look at the two kinds of bookstores and explore how the decision is made to stock the titles they do have on the shelf. Corporate chain stores: These are the major chain bookstores like Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. The decision to stock books in these stores is not made at the store level. It is made by a buyer who works in the corporate offices of these bookstore chains (they only deal with the publisher. Authors should not contact them directly). Each company may have several buyers, and each buyer may have a particular genre of book they buy (such as Children's books, Christian books, etc.). Buyers take several things into consideration when deciding whether to add a title to their stores' stock: Has the author published before? What kind of sales did their previous titles have? How have similar books sold at their stores? Are they already overstocked on books with a similar theme? Books by previous bestselling authors and celebrity authors go to the front of the line. Does the store already have 49 different titles about gardening? They probably don't need a 50th. Also, some publishers pay for product placement in certain stores. This real estate, usually somewhere in the front of the store, is usually reserved for bestselling authors and is very expensive. Store managers have very little say about the books stocked in their store. They can order books for book signing events and they may even stock a few select titles for their
"local interest" section, but that's about it. So in this case, the answer is "no", it probably won't do an author any good to call their local corporate chain store to ask them to stock their title. Authors can call and ask to participate in a book signing event at the store, and if the event goes very well and customers continue to request the title, the store manager may locally stock the book in their "local interest" section. If the buyer at the corporate level notices growing customer demand for a particular title, they may eventually pull the trigger and decide to stock the book in their stores. Books handled by a distributor have the edge over books which are only available directly from the publisher. Buyers want books at a discount, and they want books that are returnable. This usually disqualifies self-published titles. A word of warning: in the past, some authors have asked 300 of their closest friends to call their local Barnes & Noble or Borders stores and order a copy of their book. The problem with this is the friends don't go to the store to purchase the book when it arrives. Many authors mistakenly think the stores will then stock the book on their shelves. They won't. The books will be sent back to the distributor as returns. Now, not only has the author cost themselves money, but the corporate offices of these bookstore consider these to be "fraudulent" orders. What are the chances that this title will ever be stocked at these stores in the future (or that the author will get another book signing event)? Probably never. Local, independent stores: I call these stores the "mom and pop" bookstores. They are locally owned and locally operated. The people who make the decision to stock a title work right there in the store. The decision might be made by the store's owner or manager (often this is the same person) or with feedback from all of the store's employees. These stores also stock the "hot" bestselling titles, but they also often stock titles by local authors. Authors can often get in touch with the managers of these stores, show them their books, and if the manager thinks the book will sell, they'll stock it. They may order the book from a distributor, or they may have the author leave a few copies and sell them on a consignment basis. If the book sells well, the store may reorder copies of the book. No, this won't get a book stocked in a major bookstore chain nationally, but it does make the book available in a retail outlet. In this case, it may very well pay off for an author to contact the store and ask them to stock their book (a step you may want to approach in person or via email, along with a photo of the book cover and a good description of the book). Look at it this way: when any other product first comes out, no matter what kind of product it is, it isn't automatically stocked in every store across the country. There has to be demand for the product. If the Shamwow didn't have a stellar track record of sales, you would not see it in Walmart or Walgreens or any other retail outlet. The buyers for those stores stocked it because they had a reasonable expectation that it would sell. Bookstores operate the same way. Getting published is the first step. Building demand for a title is a job that is never done.
About the Author Terry Cordingley is the Associate Director of Marketing at Tate Publishing & Enterprises. For more information about book marketing and promotion, read Terry's self-titled blog at http://terrycordingley.blogspot.com. Back to top
Ebooks and Information Products How to Publish an Ebook by Dana Lynn Smith As digital ebooks and ebook readers gain rapidly in popularity, you’ll be missing out on sales opportunities if your books are not available as ebooks. I highly recommend that authors publish their books for the Amazon Kindle. Once you have your file prepared, it’s easy to upload it to Amazon using the Kindle Direct Publishing platform at https://kdp.amazon.com. Publishing through Smashwords is a great way to get your ebook listed in the other major ebook stores, including those for Barnes & Noble, Apple and Sony. There’s no upfront cost and you pay a small royalty for each book sold. Learn more about Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq. If you prefer to publish your book directly to the Barnes & Noble Nook store, go to http:// pubit.barnesandnoble.com. The process of making your books available through these online bookstores is simple, but preparing the file to upload can be daunting to indie authors. Formatting an ebook is largely a process of un-formatting your manuscript to get rid of all the extraneous formatting and features that don’t translate well to ebook readers. This cleaned-up document is then converted to a format, such as ePub, that ebook readers can use. If you are working from a word processing document and your book is simple (fiction or nonfiction with some basic subheads) you can format a Microsoft Word file and upload it directly to Amazon Kindle or Smashwords.
One approach is to download the Smashwords Style Guide at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 and follow the step-by-step instructions to format your file. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps involved – most of them are just basic clean-up of the Word file. Once your file is prepared, you should be able to use that same file (perhaps with minor tweaks) to upload to both Smashwords and Amazon Kindle. Your Word document will then be automatically converted into a file format that can be read by the various ebook readers. For a real-world look at one indie publisher's experience in publishing through Smashwords, see this series of articles by James Byrd of Logical Expressions: - Adventures with Smashwords - Signing Up as a Small Publisher at http://bit.ly/evW1vz - Adventures with Smashwords - Publishing an E-Book at http://bit.ly/9dOTxM - Adventures in Smashwords - Getting Premium Distribution at http://bit.ly/h7aaBJ For a more detailed step-by-step guide to converting your book for uploading to Kindle, download April Hamilton’s free guide. Go to http://indieauthorguide.com/?page_id=24 and click on “Indie Author Guide To Kindle Publishing.” April’s guide goes beyond basic Word formatting to include features like a hyperlinked table of contents. It also has a good discussion of how to decide which royalty option to choose on Amazon. If you need to convert your book from an InDesign file to ebook format, here are some resources: http://kindleformatting.com/indesign.php. If your book has more complicated features like tables, illustrations, special formatting, or layers of subheads, you may need to turn to a professional to handle the formatting for you. Here are several conversion services to consider: - April Hamilton http://www.aprillhamilton.com/services.html - 52 Novels http://www.52novels.com/kindle_services/ - eBook Architect http://ebookarchitects.com/conversions/services.php - 360 Digital Books http://www.ebookconversionservice.net/is-this-you/ If you don’t already have a cover for your ebook, you can get reasonably-priced covers at Killer Covers, http://bit.ly/hsFWHa. I have used them for several of my ebooks covers, as well as my website header. And if you still haven’t finished writing your nonfiction ebook, check out Write Your eBook or Other Short Book - Fast!, a helpful how-to guide from Judy Cullins at http://bit.ly/fZAlW1. About the Author Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and
get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. Back to top
Publishing Content for Amazon's Kindle by April Hamilton Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing™, or KDP, is a conversion tool used to create content for the Kindle™ ebook reader device, and put that content up for sale in the Amazon Kindle™ Store. You cannot use the KDP to create Kindle™ editions of your work for your own personal use, the content creation process automatically generates an accompanying Amazon product page. Assuming you've already made the decision to self-publish, there are three very good reasons to go with Amazon KDP: it's easy, it's free, and it gets your work onto the virtual shelves at Amazon in a matter of days. Kindle™ owners are a relatively small group as compared to the book-buying general public, these are the very circumstances that offer some distinct advantages over other forms of self-publishing. And people who don’t own a Kindle™ can download a free app at http://amzn.to/9CfhDH and read Kindle™ books on their computer, iPad or phone. First, because Kindle™ owners are a specific population, it's easy to target your promotional efforts by seeking out their blogs and discussion groups. Second, because the Kindle™ book store has a much more limited inventory than the 'regular' Amazon book store, you don't have to sell many copies of your KDP book to quickly rise into the Kindle™ store bestseller ranks. Finally, because Amazon book listings combine reviews and sales figures from all available editions of a given book, you can use your KDP edition to accumulate sales and reviews to support a POD release in the 'regular' book store: the day your POD book goes on sale, it can already have sales and positive reviews associated with it from the Kindle™ bookstore. For a free step-by-step guide to converting your book to Kindle format, go to http://indieauthorguide.com/?page_id=24 and click on the link Indie Author Guide To Kindle Publishing. About the Author April L. Hamilton (http://www.aprillhamilton.com/) is an author at http://www.aprillhamilton.com/books.html, author services provider at http://www.aprillhamilton.com/services.html, blogger at http://aprillhamilton.blogspot.com/, Technorati BlogCritic, leading advocate and speaker
for the indie author movement, and founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat at http://www.publetariat.com/, the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints. April is also on the Board of Directors for the Association of Independent Authors at http://www.independent-authors.org/?Directors. Her most recent book is The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use at http://amzn.to/gQwq3T. Back to top
How to Make Your Books Available in Multiple Ebook Formats by Mark Coker An Interview with Mark Coker of Smashwords Welcome Mark. These are exciting times for independent authors, with so many ways to publish and distribute their work. Smashwords makes books available in a variety of ebook formats, including those compatible with popular ebook readers like the Apple iPad, Nook, and Sony eReader. Can you tell us briefly how Smashwords works and what the fees are? Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform. Authors simply upload their finished manuscript as a Microsoft Word document, formatted to the requirements described in our Smashwords Style Guide at http://bit.ly/dJf8sO, and then we convert it into multiple ebook formats and make it available for immediate online sale at a price set by the author. Since we publish multi-format, our books are readable on any ereading device. All of our services are free. We earn our income by taking a 15% commission on the net. 85% of the net goes to the author. I was excited to learn that some ebooks published through Smashwords are eligible for listing on BarnesandNoble.com and Apple's iBookstore, giving authors tremendous exposure. What does it take to get onto that distribution list? Once a book is published at Smashwords, we evaluate it for inclusion in our Premium Catalog at http://www.smashwords.com/distribution. The requirements are strictly mechanical to match what our retailers want, so we’re looking for a good book cover image, good formatting, a clear copyright statement, and complete metadata. Once the book is accepted into the Premium Catalog, we distribute it to Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and soon, Amazon. Our books sit on the same virtual shelves as those by the major publishers. What are some other reasons for authors to publish in ebook format? Ebooks are fastest growing segment of the book publishing industry. Based on sales data published by the IDPF, for the months of January and February of 2010, ebooks account for just over 7% of wholesale book sales in the U.S., up from about one half of
one percent just a couple years ago. Within three to five years, it’s likely this number will approach or surpass 50%. Ebooks are a powerful force for democratization in publishing. Publishing platforms such as Smashwords make it possible for any author, anywhere in the world, to instantly publish their book and reach a vast worldwide market. Authors can bypass traditional publishing industry gatekeepers and sell direct to consumers via the largest online book retailers. In the old print world, you needed to publish with a big traditional publisher if you wanted distribution to major brick and mortar book stores. With book buying shifting to the Web, access to physical distribution matters less, both for ebooks and print on demand books. This shift levels the playing field for indie authors. What are some of the most common mistakes that you see authors make in publishing and marketing? Most common ebook publishing mistakes: - Sloppy editing. - Sloppy book covers. - Failure to understand that ebooks are formatted differently from print books. Most common marketing mistakes: - Beginning the marketing process too late. - Failure to make marketing a daily priority. - Spamming social network followers. Can you tell us what motivated you to found Smashwords? And I just have to ask where the catchy name came from. My wife and I wrote a novel a few years ago, and despite representation from one of the top literary agencies in New York, we were unable to sell it. The experience helped me realize there were potentially millions of authors, just like my wife and me, who were being denied the opportunity to reach readers simply because some ivory tower publisher didn’t see a large enough commercial market for the book. What about works of brilliance with a target market of only 500 readers? Is that book any less valuable? I decided the commercial filter is fundamentally flawed, so I decided to create an online platform that would give authors to the freedom to publish what they want and then we’d let the readers judge what’s worth reading. I chose “Smashwords” because the word “smash” has multiple, almost diametrically opposed meanings. The word, “smash” connotes both destruction and success. Writing, to me, is a process of creative destruction. You write, rewrite, revise, edit, cut and paste, cut, and generally wrangle with your words until you get them to behave properly. Editing and revision can be an extremely destructive, painful process. It’s tough to give up that which you hold dear (your words!), but in the end the work gets better with every revision. I see this same creative destruction happening in publishing. A massive forest fire is about to sweep through publishing, and out of the ashes of destruction will come the nutrients for publishing’s renewal.
I love how the word “smash” connotes success or a job well done, such as “smash hit,” or “absolutely smashing!” I’d like to think Smashwords gives great authors the chance they deserve to get their work out to readers. Thanks for sharing, Mark. I'm looking forward to your upcoming guest post on The Savvy Book Marketer where you elaborate on the common book publishing and marketing mistakes cited above at http://bit.ly/bFHAtn. About the Author I encourage all authors to download Mark's free Smashwords Book Marketing Guide at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305 for some great book promotion tips. For information about publishing ebooks through Smashwords, see How to Publish at Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords. You can follow @MarkCoker on Twitter. Back to top
Selling Information: Competing In A World Where Information Is Free by Tony Eldridge If you are like millions of other people, you have dreams of selling your knowledge by wrapping it in an e-book or other consumable format. You read about people making tens of thousands of dollars doing this, and some even making more. But for many, the stark reality is a lot different from the dreams they had. I had the privileged of speaking with the owner of a ten year old company that had sales into the seven figures per year by selling information like this. She has amassed a huge library of products that are just as applicable and helpful today as they were when they were raking in millions. But today, she is contemplating releasing the information for free to newsletter subscribers. Why? All the information contained in her products is now available for free on the Internet by many people who teach the same lessons. It's true that we live in an age where instant information is available at the fingertips of a seeker. It used to be that free information was of a lesser quality than paid information, but that is generally no longer the case. You can find good, quality free answers to most of your questions just by spending a little time on the search engines. So, what does this mean for the people who create information for public consumption? Are the days of selling information long gone? How do you compete in a world where the person next to you gives the same answers for free? Sure enough, good, quality free information has cut into the old business model of selling information for profit, but it doesn't mean that you can not still be successful at it. Consider these points:
Marketing Can Help - If you adopt a good, robust marketing plan (including social media and non-social media activities) then you will most definitely reach people looking for the information you offer. Of course, this should be no surprise. This is the whole purpose of traditional marketing. The difference to remember is that today's consumer is becoming more savvy when it comes to finding useful information and may be less susceptible to traditional marketing messages. Some People Want It Now - You may find success selling your information when you find the people who want answers now. They may have the ability to search on their own, but would rather pay to get it now if they think you can offer it now. Also, some people may be getting frustrated because they have been looking for answers and haven't found what they are looking for. These people will be more likely to buy when they finally find a resource promising the answers they are looking for. The problem here is that your message needs to strike them while they are in this buying mode. They can be exposed to the same message at any other time and not be ready to buy. Unique Knowledge Can Carry A Premium - Are you providing knowledge that can be found nowhere else? If so, then you may be able to charge a premium for it. Just remember that unique knowledge that is good knowledge will not be unique long. A soon as people learn it, you will soon see it enter the net as free information. And with the net being global, free information is distributed instantly around the world. Unique today can become yesterday's news overnight - literally. Trust Is Worth Something - If you constantly give the best information to people who are following you, you build up trust. That can translate into the ability to sell information that is readily available for free. Most people do not mind paying a fair price for good, trusted and valuable information. Once they find a guru who consistently gives them this information, it is easier for them to pay a premium to get it from the guru. But even a great amount of trust will not guarantee that people will always buy from you what they can find for free. In fact, good, free information is often what makes an expert a guru. Delivery Can Make A Difference - There are many ways to package good information. You can create an e-book or a video. You can disseminate information on a telecast or via live presentation. Generally, the more interactive the delivery, the more of a premium you can place on the information. Then, it's not just the information people are paying for, but access to you. And the more personal the delivery, they higher the premium. You should be able to charge more for a one-on-one consultation than you would for a webinar. Clarity Of Presentation - Let's face it, some people have the skills to present information in a way that makes it easy for people to learn while others do not. All you have to do is pick up a cumbersome technical manual written by an engineer to see that. If you have the gift to make things easy to understand then you may find more people migrating to you when they need answers. There are other considerations of how to compete in a world where so much is offered for free, but here is what I take away: information is just that. It's a commodity that is just as valuable if it comes from your lips or from a website created by a high school
student. Sorry if that bruises anyone's ego, but it's the truth. Information is just information. Period. Where we have the ability to stand apart from the crowd is not in the information being delivered, but in the deliverer themselves. People will often pay because someone is good at packaging, they are trusted, they make the information easy to understand and they make themselves available. Even with all this, however, we still need to be aware that we truly live in a different world than we lived in just five and ten years ago. For good or bad, information, good quality information, is available for free at the click of a mouse. The lightning has been let out of the bottle and will never be contained again. As soon as we understand this paradigm, we can start to adapt our offerings in light of this reality. And the most creative and innovative of us will find out how to profit in this paradigm. We always have. About the Author Book marketing expert Tony Eldridge is author of Conducting Effective Twitter Contests and the action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect. For more book marketing tips, follow @TonyEldridge on Twitter and visit his excellent book marketing blog at http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/. Back to top
From Book to Multiple Streams of Income by Liz Alexander Welcome Liz. I know that you have written ten books. Which one has resulted in the best income opportunities for you? Without a doubt it's Working from the Heart: A Practical Guide to Loving What You Do For a Living, which was published by Random House in 1999. At that time I was a freelance contributor to British Airways' Business Life magazine. After I gave the editor a copy of my book she invited me to write a 1,000 word article because she liked the idea of finding work that you could connect with emotionally—work you could love. Business Life was available to passengers on every pan-European British Airways flight for a month and when that particular issue came out, my article just happened to be read by an executive from Cathay Pacific Airways. He'd been charged with finding a speaker for the company’s upcoming re-launch of the airline’s first class seats and invited me to give a 45-minute pre-dinner presentation talking about passion for work— an aspect of company culture of which Cathay was extremely proud. The talk went well, I walked away with my check, airline tickets for two to Hong Kong and a glowing testimonial. More importantly, on the back of that experience, I bought
the domain "Heartwork.com" put up a website, offered myself as a consultant and speaker on the importance of recruiting, motivating and retaining passionate employees, and began marketing my services. I started to get a lot of corporate clients, including a British government agency (I lived in England at the time), KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and others. Although Working from the Heart never sold as well as several of my other books, it's probably been the one title most responsible for attracting what many agree is the best way of accumulating wealth—multiple streams of income. I wrote paid magazine articles on the topic, became a motivational speaker, corporate consultant, and career coach, all as a result of that one book. Liz, how might other authors achieve something similar to your success? Three things: 1. Don't be shy about the expertise you have demonstrated by writing your book. Conceiving, researching, crafting and writing a book is no mean feat. Once you show confidence as a subject-matter expert, others will show confidence in you—including wanting to hire you for freelance assignments and consulting work. 2. Say "yes" to whatever comes along and let the "how" unfold organically. For example, I had done very little professional speaking when that executive from Cathay Pacific approached me. I could have turned down their offer and joined Toastmasters or some other speaking group to gain experience. But I believe the best training comes from taking risks and placing yourself in real-life situations that matter. You’ll never know what you are capable of until you try. 3. Think of all the different ways in which the knowledge offered in your book might lend itself to new career directions. Not only did I target businesses which, at that time, were having recruitment and retention issues, but I also offered career coaching to individuals. Some were women going back into the workplace after raising a family, others were suffering from the classic mid-life crisis—having climbed the ladder of success, they realized it had been up against the wrong wall! Regardless of their age, background or gender, all of my clients wanted to find work that was personally meaningful and I coached them towards that outcome. Anyone who has demonstrated their expertise by having a book published should be sure not to miss out on attracting other career opportunities and income streams. About the Author Dr. Liz Alexander a.k.a. The Book Doula at http://www.bookdoula.biz/ is the author of ten nonfiction books that have sold close to half a million copies worldwide. She assists subject-matter experts in creatively conceiving, growing, birthing and marketing "brilliant" books. Back to top
About The Savvy Book Marketer Drawing on her 16 years of publishing experience and degree in marketing, Dana Lynn Smith helps authors learn how to promote their books through her how-to guides, oneon-one coaching, blog, newsletter, and podcast. Learn more about Dana on her media page at http://bit.ly/DanaLynn and see her book marketing guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com.
Networking Connections - Twitter: http://twitter.com/BookMarketer - Facebook Book Marketing Group: http://bit.ly/SavvyMkt - Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/SavvyBookMarketer - Facebook Profile: www.facebook.com/DanaLynnSmith - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/DanaLynnSmith
Free Book Marketing Resources - Blog: www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com - Newsletter: Get a copy of Dana’s ebook, Top Book Marketing Tips, when you sign up for her free ezine at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com. - Podcast: http://bit.ly/SavvyPodcast
The Savvy Book Marketer Guides The Savvy Book Marketer Guides are designed to help authors and publishers master key book marketing techniques. Visit www.SavvyBookMarketer.com to see a current list of titles, including these: How to Sell More Books on Amazon How can you make your books stand out from the huge number of competing books on Amazon and turn shoppers into buyers? This information-packed ebook outlines top strategies for maximizing your book's exposure and boosting sales and profits through
Amazon. How to Get Your Book Reviewed As you get an in-depth understanding of the review process, you’ll learn about venues where you can get your book reviewed, how to get endorsements and testimonials, how to avoid common mistakes, how capitalize on Amazon reviews, how to use book reviews for promotional purposes, and more. Book Review Directory: Your Guide to the Top Book Blogs and Review Sites Looking for places to get your novel, children’s, young adult book reviewed? This comprehensive database of book review websites and book blogs has been carefully researched and includes each site’s Alexa rank and Google PageRank (to estimate traffic), a list of genres accepted, a link to the site’s book submission instructions, and other valuable details. Save hours of time by starting here. Twitter Guide for Authors Learn how to choose the right user name, attract followers, write effective tweets, avoid common mistakes, and promote yourself and your books through Twitter. Detailed instructions and screen shots make it easy for you to quickly master this powerful networking tool. Facebook Guide for Authors Learn how to create an effective Facebook profile, avoid common mistakes, and promote yourself and your books through profiles, pages, groups and events. Detailed instructions and screen shots make it easy for you to quickly master this powerful networking tool. The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing This comprehensive reference contains the entire contents of both the Twitter Guide for Authors and Facebook Guide to Authors, plus chapters on promoting through interactive blogging, forums, reader communities, media sharing, expert sites, and social news and bookmarking. The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries A valuable resource is packed with practical advice plus contact information for the top public and academic library systems in the U.S. and major wholesalers, book review journals, and library associations. Back to top
