As any author discovers, there's plenty of free advice out there for what they should - and shouldn't-- do when publishing a book. If I had to create a Top 10 list of mistakes authors should avoid at all costs, I'd focus on the following topics, because these omissions can really set you and your book back:
1. Not Understanding the Publishing Industry: Writing a book does not guarantee you readers. Before you publish, do some research - who are your competitors? What do they publish? How is your genre faring in the industry right now? Knowing your market is vital to finding and connecting with readers, receiving book reviews, and getting book sales.
2. Not Realizing Book Covers are Key: Readers and book buyers spend only seconds looking at book covers, and many of them now view thumbnail-size images online. Investing in a professionally designed cover by someone who understands book design and the publishing industry is a smart move. If you can't capture people’s attention with a strong cover, you've likely lost a prospective reader and buyer. You've put a lot of work into writing your book; apply the same philosophy to your book cover.
3. Not Knowing That Editing is Your Best Marketing Tool: There are at least 300,000 books published each year, according to Bowker. With all that competition, you want your book to be the best you can make it. A poorly edited book will not gain you readers, reviewers, or fans. If your book is your resume, what kind of message are you sending if your book is full of errors? This is the most common complaint about self-published books: lack of quality control, aka, editing.
4. Not Getting Good Advice: Sure, your mom and your friends support what you do wholeheartedly - but what do they know about publishing and promoting a book? There are so many reputable, free resources available to authors for every phase of their publishing journey - from blogs to social media groups to online forums and more. Take advantage of these resources, ask questions, learn from others, and share your insights.
5. Not Working Your Market: One great thing about social media is it really does let you find people who read books in your genre. And you can cultivate these readers in a number of ways beyond buying, reading, and reviewing your book. Why not seek beta readers from your market before you publish? Many authors have successfully built a stable of pre-publication beta readers who offer their insights. Beta readers are not editors - while they may find a grammatical error or typo, what they really do is help an author understand if the story works, if it's authentic.
6. Forgetting That It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint: If you're going to publish a book, you have to be in it for the long haul. Those "overnight" success stories are never true. By the time you've heard of the author they've already put in years working on their writing, getting published, and building a following. Approach your marketing with the long-term in mind.
7. Not Knowing That Timing Matters: This is where a writing, publishing, and marketing plan comes in handy. If you want reviews, you need to build that into your publication schedule because if you seek major review sites or publications, they'll want a copy of your book at least two to three months before it's published. If you want a distributor for your book, it's going to take some time for them to get your book placed. Work out these dates in a flexible plan (to cover for anything that will go awry, this does happen) for publishing your book.
8. Overlooking the Importance of Your Website: Your website is your 24/7 sales hub, and unless you know how to convert web visitors into buyers, you should find a professional to design your site. DIY websites rarely sell books, nor do they help an author’s ranking in Google search. These things matter, and that’s why having your friend’s teenage son design your site is probably not a good idea – unless he knows all about web conversion and SEO.
9. Not Building Relationships: Are you getting book reviews, interviews, or other coverage? If so, be sure to thank them for taking the time to review your book or interview you. These not-so-little things do matter in the long haul. These are people you can approach for your second, third, and subsequent books - and your requests will be successful if you've taken the time to build relationships. I can't believe how rarely authors take the time to say thank you, when that little step can go a long way toward developing a following.
10. Not Trusting Your Team: If you're hiring people to help you publish and/or market your book, trust their advice. You chose them for a reason (I hope), so take advantage of their expertise. Look for someone with a good track record in the industry who understands the market. Then let them do what you've hired them to do - otherwise, what's the point?
Publishing and promoting a book is a huge challenge, and authors often feel overwhelmed by a myriad of choices. But focusing on a few key areas can be the difference between a book that finds traction versus one that gets lost in the crowd. In the end, it’s worth the time to invest in your book, your team, and your promotion.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Showing posts with label article. Show all posts
Showing posts with label article. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
How Authors Can Profit From Teleseminars and Webinars
by Dana Lynn Smith
Teleseminars and webinars are a terrific way for authors to share the message of their book, do educational presentations, conduct virtual conferences, interview other authors and experts, hold group coaching sessions, and more.
Using a teleseminar service, the host sets up a "bridge line" for participants to dial into at the appointed time, and then does a presentation. Programs can be presented by single speaker, done in an interview format with two or more people, or conducted as Q&A or coaching sessions.
A webinar or webcast is similar to a teleseminar, but participants are able to view visuals, such as a slideshow, during the presentation.
Here are just a few of the benefits of hosting your own teleseminars or webinars:
• The events are free or very low cost to produce.
• There's no travel expense and you can conduct the event from the comfort of your home or office.
• It's a great way to build your reputation as an expert in your field and to build your mailing list with the names of attendees, which can lead to sales in the future.
• You can make money by charging for the event or by conducting a free teleseminar and then offering attendees a paid product or service at the end of the presentation.
• Another way to profit is to repurpose your teleseminar content into other products such as audio programs, ebooks and home study courses.
There are also many benefits to attendees:
• It's easy for participants to attend via their phone or computer, with no travel required.
• Usually a recording of the session is available for those who are not available at the time of the call.
• Most teleseminars have a question and answer session, allowing audience members to participate and get input from the speaker.
• Participants can learn a lot in a short period of time.
As a teleseminar or webinar host, you’ll need to organize details such as these:
• Choose a teleseminar service provider and decide whether to offer recordings afterward.
• Determine the format, length, date and time for your event.
• Decide whether to require advance registration and how to handle registration.
• Decide how much to charge and how to collect money from attendees.
• Prepare an outline and/or script, and produce PowerPoint slides if necessary.
• Promote the event and send reminders and follow-ups to registrants.
• Coordinate with any other speakers.
Put the power of teleseminars and webinars to work for you and you'll be on your way to profiting from virtual events.
About the Author
Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer, teaches authors how to sell more books through her blog, newsletter, guidebooks, and training programs. Her How to Make Money with Teleseminars and Webinars program will teach you everything you need to know to ensure a smooth running and profitable event. Get more book marketing tips at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.
Teleseminars and webinars are a terrific way for authors to share the message of their book, do educational presentations, conduct virtual conferences, interview other authors and experts, hold group coaching sessions, and more.
Using a teleseminar service, the host sets up a "bridge line" for participants to dial into at the appointed time, and then does a presentation. Programs can be presented by single speaker, done in an interview format with two or more people, or conducted as Q&A or coaching sessions.
A webinar or webcast is similar to a teleseminar, but participants are able to view visuals, such as a slideshow, during the presentation.
Here are just a few of the benefits of hosting your own teleseminars or webinars:
• The events are free or very low cost to produce.
• There's no travel expense and you can conduct the event from the comfort of your home or office.
• It's a great way to build your reputation as an expert in your field and to build your mailing list with the names of attendees, which can lead to sales in the future.
• You can make money by charging for the event or by conducting a free teleseminar and then offering attendees a paid product or service at the end of the presentation.
• Another way to profit is to repurpose your teleseminar content into other products such as audio programs, ebooks and home study courses.
There are also many benefits to attendees:
• It's easy for participants to attend via their phone or computer, with no travel required.
• Usually a recording of the session is available for those who are not available at the time of the call.
• Most teleseminars have a question and answer session, allowing audience members to participate and get input from the speaker.
• Participants can learn a lot in a short period of time.
As a teleseminar or webinar host, you’ll need to organize details such as these:
• Choose a teleseminar service provider and decide whether to offer recordings afterward.
• Determine the format, length, date and time for your event.
• Decide whether to require advance registration and how to handle registration.
• Decide how much to charge and how to collect money from attendees.
• Prepare an outline and/or script, and produce PowerPoint slides if necessary.
• Promote the event and send reminders and follow-ups to registrants.
• Coordinate with any other speakers.
Put the power of teleseminars and webinars to work for you and you'll be on your way to profiting from virtual events.
About the Author
Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer, teaches authors how to sell more books through her blog, newsletter, guidebooks, and training programs. Her How to Make Money with Teleseminars and Webinars program will teach you everything you need to know to ensure a smooth running and profitable event. Get more book marketing tips at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Content Fatigue: What You Must do to Stay in Front of Your Customer in a Cluttered Market
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of data that’s already online via blogs and social media, consider this: by 2020 that information will increase by 600%. Overwhelming, no? I was just at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego and a lot of talk was around the noise, as well as a term you’ll be hearing a lot in the future: Content Shock. What’s Content Shock specifically? Well, it’s too much of just about everything. Out of Content Shock comes what I call Content Fatigue.
The problem is that people are exhausted from all the content and all the work it takes to keep up with social dialog and news. Yes, there are shortcuts and some handy tools for automation, but at the end of the day, it still comes down to our time and our attention. Both of which are in short supply.
Your consumer faces this, too. This never-ending barrage of information that finds its way to their doorstep. They then find themselves sifting through seemingly endless streams of information trying to find the kernel they were looking for. Let’s face it, it’s not easy.
As time propels us into this age of overwhelming news feeds and information, it will be important to figure out ways to stand out and gain attention without overwhelming your market. I attended a session by Mark Schaffer where he talked about this trend of endless data and what we can do about it (See here: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2014/03/17/content-shock-strategies/,) and while I loved his insight and input, I wanted to break this down even further and make it a bit more palatable for those of us who don’t have teams at the ready to create some new game to enchant our buyer or who can develop videos that can go viral.
Most of us don’t have that kind of access, but we still want to rise above the noise. Though Mark’s tips are tremendous, I think that even before we dig in there, we must first look here:
Be an Expert: First and foremost you need to be an expert. If you’re not comfortable with that you need to get over that and realize that people love experts – even if you are a fiction author, be the best, be the most knowledgeable, and be the kind of expert that you’d want to follow. Why does this matter? Because in the years to come (and even now) consumers would rather gravitate to one voice they can trust, than 20 voices they aren’t so sure about. It’s a way to help them cut through the noise and a great way for you to stand out.
Know the Experts: Beyond your own expertise, you’re going to find you need to align yourself with experts in your market. People with a significantly bigger platform you can get to know. Why? Because you’ll want to engage with them, and build a relationship with them so they trust you and your product enough to share it with their people. We’re finding that people don’t trust messages, people trust people. As we build even more “noise” around ourselves we’ll find this statement becomes even more pronounced.
Be Excruciatingly on Point: When people like Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan or even Gary Vaynerchuk meander off of their core message, I really don’t give it a second thought. Why? Because they’ve spent years honing their original message so we’re willing to give them a bit of leeway or creative license to “meander” as they see fit. Most of us don’t have that luxury. Once you zero in on your message (benefit statement) you’ll want to own it and stay true to it. Don’t one day talk about the fabulous new workout routine your team developed and the next day talk about Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s divorce. It doesn’t make sense and the more you meander, the more you will lose people, and your message will vanish in the ether.
Email Lists: Email is pretty un-sexy these days, isn’t it? I mean let’s face it, when you have sites like G+, Instagram, and Pinterest, can create Infographics, and post short videos onto Vine, it makes email marketing seem like the distant cousin of something very 1976, doesn’t it? The truth is that despite its lack of sexy, email marketing still works, and as social media becomes more cluttered it’s getting harder and harder to get your posts seen. But an email opt-in list is one way to get onto the radar screen of your reader (with their permission) and share helpful information with them which a) helps to establish your expertise and b) keeps them in your funnel, something social media does too, but only to a point.
Know Your (Readers') Limits: I have a friend who has great content and sends it in daily email posts and therein lies the problem: daily emails. I don’t know about you but unless you’re giving away a free Starbucks gift card in every email, there is very little that I need to see on a daily basis. If you’re in this situation (i.e. sending daily emails) I would recommend instead that you consider changing this to weekly or even better, biweekly. Or, what if you created a G+ Opt-in circle group which encourages daily emails? Even better. I can now check in when I want and don’t have to be overwhelmed with a new email to open, file, or delete. As information from a variety of sources continues to clutter our inbox and radar, you don’t want to contribute to that clutter.
Mind Your Tone: Would you watch a TV show that was all bitching all the time, with no reprieve? Likely not. Still it amazes me how many people use a social setting to promote their own negative agenda. The thing is, the more cluttered things get, the less tolerant your reader or consumer becomes. Be positive and be consistent. If there is a challenge your industry is facing, share that challenge and solution with your end-user. They will appreciate that much more than an endless rant about all that’s wrong with the world. Consider the folks who love to rant about Amazon. This negative banter accomplishes nothing and does not contribute to the overall conversation in a constructive way. Be good or be gone.
Dominate a Narrow Market: Yes, we’d all like to be kings and queens of our market, but the truth is it’s harder and harder to get to the top of anything. I get that you want to “own” the business market but, frankly, consumers are seeking much more finite information these days. Case in point, when it comes to books: short is the new long. Content that is hyper-focused on one, singular area can draw in a readership or consumer following faster than content that is too general. Own your niche, and while “niche” seems to imply small, the effects can be anything but. For example, the Amazon classes I teach: How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon, I can’t keep these books on the shelf and the class is the most popular session I’ve ever taught. This niche is anything but small, in fact it’s among the biggest things I’ve ever done.
Be. Human. In a world full of automation, a human element is not just helpful, it’s mandatory. Recently, after presenting at a large event I was speaking to a few attendees who commented that they were surprised that I responded to my own emails. Wait. Really? They said they loved the human touch of my firm, more people, less automation. While automation isn’t a bad thing, and every company needs to automate some aspects of their work, going 100% automation is never a good idea. I find that consumers really appreciate the human connection and, as things become more cluttered in terms of online noise and social media activity, the human element will become even more crucial to connecting with your reader or consumer in an authentic and memorable way.
Unself the Selfie: Maybe it’s just me, but I think we need less “me” in social media. Also, I think that selfies, or the unselfie, could be used in ways that will help promote reader or customer engagement. Instead of creating selfies, which really just push you, why not encourage customer participation and give them a reason to share your content with others? Encourage readers to share a selfie with a copy of your book (and give them a prize to share this picture). Consumers do things for their reasons, not yours, and as more and more content gets filtered through the system, we’re too disengaged to share and yet, consumers have the power and voice you need. Consumers/readers are the key to the success or failure of your marketing. Finding creative ways to engage them will become even more paramount as new products, services, and books continue to flood the market.
Thinking about these things early on will help you avoid getting lost in the consistent onslaught of messages and products. As we continue to add more noise to our lives, it will be the consistent, helpful messengers who remain steadfast on their message that will get our attention. But, you might argue, doesn’t flash capture us, too? It does, but typically only for a little while. You have a choice between a long-term audience, or a quick, fleeting romance. Which will you choose?
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
The problem is that people are exhausted from all the content and all the work it takes to keep up with social dialog and news. Yes, there are shortcuts and some handy tools for automation, but at the end of the day, it still comes down to our time and our attention. Both of which are in short supply.
Your consumer faces this, too. This never-ending barrage of information that finds its way to their doorstep. They then find themselves sifting through seemingly endless streams of information trying to find the kernel they were looking for. Let’s face it, it’s not easy.
As time propels us into this age of overwhelming news feeds and information, it will be important to figure out ways to stand out and gain attention without overwhelming your market. I attended a session by Mark Schaffer where he talked about this trend of endless data and what we can do about it (See here: http://www.businessesgrow.com/2014/03/17/content-shock-strategies/,) and while I loved his insight and input, I wanted to break this down even further and make it a bit more palatable for those of us who don’t have teams at the ready to create some new game to enchant our buyer or who can develop videos that can go viral.
Most of us don’t have that kind of access, but we still want to rise above the noise. Though Mark’s tips are tremendous, I think that even before we dig in there, we must first look here:
Be an Expert: First and foremost you need to be an expert. If you’re not comfortable with that you need to get over that and realize that people love experts – even if you are a fiction author, be the best, be the most knowledgeable, and be the kind of expert that you’d want to follow. Why does this matter? Because in the years to come (and even now) consumers would rather gravitate to one voice they can trust, than 20 voices they aren’t so sure about. It’s a way to help them cut through the noise and a great way for you to stand out.
Know the Experts: Beyond your own expertise, you’re going to find you need to align yourself with experts in your market. People with a significantly bigger platform you can get to know. Why? Because you’ll want to engage with them, and build a relationship with them so they trust you and your product enough to share it with their people. We’re finding that people don’t trust messages, people trust people. As we build even more “noise” around ourselves we’ll find this statement becomes even more pronounced.
Be Excruciatingly on Point: When people like Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan or even Gary Vaynerchuk meander off of their core message, I really don’t give it a second thought. Why? Because they’ve spent years honing their original message so we’re willing to give them a bit of leeway or creative license to “meander” as they see fit. Most of us don’t have that luxury. Once you zero in on your message (benefit statement) you’ll want to own it and stay true to it. Don’t one day talk about the fabulous new workout routine your team developed and the next day talk about Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s divorce. It doesn’t make sense and the more you meander, the more you will lose people, and your message will vanish in the ether.
Email Lists: Email is pretty un-sexy these days, isn’t it? I mean let’s face it, when you have sites like G+, Instagram, and Pinterest, can create Infographics, and post short videos onto Vine, it makes email marketing seem like the distant cousin of something very 1976, doesn’t it? The truth is that despite its lack of sexy, email marketing still works, and as social media becomes more cluttered it’s getting harder and harder to get your posts seen. But an email opt-in list is one way to get onto the radar screen of your reader (with their permission) and share helpful information with them which a) helps to establish your expertise and b) keeps them in your funnel, something social media does too, but only to a point.
Know Your (Readers') Limits: I have a friend who has great content and sends it in daily email posts and therein lies the problem: daily emails. I don’t know about you but unless you’re giving away a free Starbucks gift card in every email, there is very little that I need to see on a daily basis. If you’re in this situation (i.e. sending daily emails) I would recommend instead that you consider changing this to weekly or even better, biweekly. Or, what if you created a G+ Opt-in circle group which encourages daily emails? Even better. I can now check in when I want and don’t have to be overwhelmed with a new email to open, file, or delete. As information from a variety of sources continues to clutter our inbox and radar, you don’t want to contribute to that clutter.
Mind Your Tone: Would you watch a TV show that was all bitching all the time, with no reprieve? Likely not. Still it amazes me how many people use a social setting to promote their own negative agenda. The thing is, the more cluttered things get, the less tolerant your reader or consumer becomes. Be positive and be consistent. If there is a challenge your industry is facing, share that challenge and solution with your end-user. They will appreciate that much more than an endless rant about all that’s wrong with the world. Consider the folks who love to rant about Amazon. This negative banter accomplishes nothing and does not contribute to the overall conversation in a constructive way. Be good or be gone.
Dominate a Narrow Market: Yes, we’d all like to be kings and queens of our market, but the truth is it’s harder and harder to get to the top of anything. I get that you want to “own” the business market but, frankly, consumers are seeking much more finite information these days. Case in point, when it comes to books: short is the new long. Content that is hyper-focused on one, singular area can draw in a readership or consumer following faster than content that is too general. Own your niche, and while “niche” seems to imply small, the effects can be anything but. For example, the Amazon classes I teach: How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon, I can’t keep these books on the shelf and the class is the most popular session I’ve ever taught. This niche is anything but small, in fact it’s among the biggest things I’ve ever done.
Be. Human. In a world full of automation, a human element is not just helpful, it’s mandatory. Recently, after presenting at a large event I was speaking to a few attendees who commented that they were surprised that I responded to my own emails. Wait. Really? They said they loved the human touch of my firm, more people, less automation. While automation isn’t a bad thing, and every company needs to automate some aspects of their work, going 100% automation is never a good idea. I find that consumers really appreciate the human connection and, as things become more cluttered in terms of online noise and social media activity, the human element will become even more crucial to connecting with your reader or consumer in an authentic and memorable way.
Unself the Selfie: Maybe it’s just me, but I think we need less “me” in social media. Also, I think that selfies, or the unselfie, could be used in ways that will help promote reader or customer engagement. Instead of creating selfies, which really just push you, why not encourage customer participation and give them a reason to share your content with others? Encourage readers to share a selfie with a copy of your book (and give them a prize to share this picture). Consumers do things for their reasons, not yours, and as more and more content gets filtered through the system, we’re too disengaged to share and yet, consumers have the power and voice you need. Consumers/readers are the key to the success or failure of your marketing. Finding creative ways to engage them will become even more paramount as new products, services, and books continue to flood the market.
Thinking about these things early on will help you avoid getting lost in the consistent onslaught of messages and products. As we continue to add more noise to our lives, it will be the consistent, helpful messengers who remain steadfast on their message that will get our attention. But, you might argue, doesn’t flash capture us, too? It does, but typically only for a little while. You have a choice between a long-term audience, or a quick, fleeting romance. Which will you choose?
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, July 18, 2014
Embracing Change
In 2008 I was having apocalyptic visions of floods resulting from global warming. I have since realized that along with preventive action, I have to accept and embrace the change. Essence of Wife is a song about evolution, love, and hope in the time of climate change. I’ve always wanted to be a mermaid! Contact me for the chords - deb@perfectmemoirs.com
Essence of Wife c.2010 Deborah Wilbrink BMI
The world spins in your hazel eyes
Polar twilight, tropic sunrise
Seven known seas rearrange, part
Albatross leaves, hurricanes start
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Souls new, and souls old return
Watch together wells of black gold burn
Earth’s fever rises, oxygen falls,
With the fury of a full moon tide, your heart calls,
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Glaciers calf into our warming sea
Mermaids rise, to ancient melody
Sirens unchain the sailors
Winged victory flies in the face of failure
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Essence of Wife c.2010 Deborah Wilbrink BMI
The world spins in your hazel eyes
Polar twilight, tropic sunrise
Seven known seas rearrange, part
Albatross leaves, hurricanes start
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Souls new, and souls old return
Watch together wells of black gold burn
Earth’s fever rises, oxygen falls,
With the fury of a full moon tide, your heart calls,
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Glaciers calf into our warming sea
Mermaids rise, to ancient melody
Sirens unchain the sailors
Winged victory flies in the face of failure
And I . . . Must swim into your arms
And I . . . Must rest upon your chest’s reef
Inhaling the scent of your life
Unveiling: Essence of Wife
Friday, July 11, 2014
Creating Bestselling Book Ideas That Amazon Will Love
It’s one thing to write a book; it’s quite another to write a book that will sell. We all want to follow our passion, write our dream and dance creatively with our muse, but wouldn't it be fantastic if, amidst all of this creation, we also managed to produce a bestselling book? That is, after all, the dream.
Specifically we’d all like a high ranking on Amazon and though I've addressed that and reviews in other pieces, I thought it might be a good idea to take a step back to the beginning.
Finding Bestselling Book Ideas
I know this gal who fraternizes with a lot of SEO people; for those of you not familiar with the term, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. These are the folks who spend their life trying to get on the first page of Google. One day several years back, she and I were talking about how to create ideas that sell. She told me that many of her SEO buddies would write books literally just based on keywords. It had nothing to do with their passion or what they really wanted to write about; instead, they focused on saleable terms, meaning phrases that were getting a huge bounce in Google. Now this may not be how you would ever consider writing a book, but there are merits to this methodology:
• Book focus: Where will you focus your book? Don’t get too caught up in a set plan. Leave some room for flexibility and consider what’s “hot” to write about right now. What is an immediate need? You may still stick with your original plan, but slant it a bit more towards seeing what’s hot in search or in the media. Keep in mind that the speed of book production often allows us to jump on a trend or hot topic so take advantage of that when you can.
• Book title: If you have identified your best keywords for this market, then you can and should use them here. Keywords in a title can really help to boost your exposure, not just on Amazon but on Google as well.
• Book subtitle: If you already have your title set in stone, consider using keywords in your subtitle to help boost your exposure in search.
• Book topic: Let’s say you know your market, but you aren't sure what to write about. Sure, you could align this with “book focus", but consider that you’re an expert in consumer finance and want to write a book on this topic. Knowing what consumers are searching on (as it relates to finance) could be a great way to address the immediate needs of your reader. This is where keywords come into play but the research I share further in this article will help with this, too.
The other element here is to create a topic that’s narrower. Instead of focusing on one broad area, focus in more granularly. For example, I recently taught a class about this very topic and we brainstormed ideas on creating segmented topics within one broader umbrella. Consider the real estate gal who has a book on buying or selling your first home. I suggested that instead of trying to reach a big, broad and cluttered market, that she instead focus on isolated industries.
The ideas we brainstormed were: Buying Your First Home for Singles, Buying Your First Home for Seniors, Buying Your First Home for Domestic Partners. You get the idea, right? Create a series of books that sits under a broader market. This will net you better sales. Consumers like specialized topics that help solve a specific problem. And the books don’t have to be long, but we’ll cover that in more depth later. Once you find this market or niche, you’ll want to publish regularly to it. Amazon and the associated algorithms tend to trigger quicker when an author has multiple titles so consider that as well.
So, let’s assume that you've done some keyword research or are at least familiar with the keywords in your market. Let’s see how these searches relate to popular topics on Amazon.
Step-by-step, here is what you’ll need to do:
• On the Amazon page, search in the Kindle store tab. I want you to isolate your searches there for now.
• Plug in your search term and see what comes up. You’ll generally get 5-10 suggestions. Click on one of them.
• Look at the books that come up in search and click on the “customers also bought” section.
• Your focus should be on books that have a low sales rank. Depending on the category, it could be as low as 20,000 or as high as 50,000.
• You want to make sure there’s a variety of books in this segment, preferably more than five and they should all have this range of sales volume. If it’s lower than 20,000 that’s great, but when you get into the super saturated or unpopular categories, neither of those will help you.
• Some Amazon experts say that a 20,000 rank indicates that the book is selling five copies a day, but I find this hard to prove either way. Just know that given Amazon’s volume, it’s definitely not languishing. Regardless, this research will really help to expose hot topics and market segments within your area of expertise that are selling well.
Staying on the Short and Narrow
While full-length books will never go away, there’s a surge towards shorter, niche books—books that “own” a narrow market segment. When I first published How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon, I was surprised at how the sales out-paced my other books. While I know the title had a lot to do with this, it was also the fact that the book was shorter and focused on one particular area.
If you decide to do this (write shorter books), I wouldn't suggest just keeping the book short. While short is the new long, there’s still plenty of room for full-length books, too. So, in other words, if you can mix it up, that’s the best track for success. How short can short be? Ten thousand to seventeen thousand words is generally acceptable. Keep in mind that if you do short, you don’t have room for fluff. You’ll want to be as crystal clear as you can be on specific instructions, maybe even include step-by-step instructions or checklists, which readers love.
Other Ways to Develop Book Ideas
There’s an element of research that goes into every book you create, and I’m not just talking about the topic research, but content, too. When you’re developing your book idea and trying to decide what to include and exclude from the book, consider spending a bit of time doing a comparison with other, similar books in your market. Take a look at their book pages on Amazon, read through their reviews. In particular, the negative reviews that give constructive feedback about what the reader thought was missing, or things they wished had been expanded upon, will be particularly helpful. Readers will tell you what they want, and they’ll often do it in a review.
One Final Note on Shorter Books
On Amazon there is the “look inside the book” feature. This covers just a short section of your book, so be cautious when you’re preparing your final content. If your book is too short, the “look inside” feature will reveal most of the book, or enough of it that readers may glean what they want and not buy it. You want to fill the book with sufficient content so that you don’t end up with this problem. If you've finished the book and it seems a bit too short, consider adding things like checklists, free resources or bonus chapters from other books you've written that relate to this topic.
Keep in mind that this isn't meant to pump up your book page count just for the sake of doing that, but if the book looks too much like a white paper or report instead of a book, you may end up with a lot of window-shoppers who don’t end up buying. How short is too short? Anything under 50 pages is too short. Generally I’d recommend that you sit somewhere over 55 pages, ideally 65 pages to be safe. And again, don’t stuff your book with useless content. Make sure that if you need to add pages, you are adding helpful, useful information.
Doing some book research is not just a great idea to help develop some high-selling product, but a great idea overall. We invest so much of our time and effort into our books that the more we can make sure we’re on target, the less time we’ll spend languishing in obscurity. Given that there are 3,500 books published every day in the US, whatever you can do to stand out above the crowd can make all the difference.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Specifically we’d all like a high ranking on Amazon and though I've addressed that and reviews in other pieces, I thought it might be a good idea to take a step back to the beginning.
Finding Bestselling Book Ideas
I know this gal who fraternizes with a lot of SEO people; for those of you not familiar with the term, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. These are the folks who spend their life trying to get on the first page of Google. One day several years back, she and I were talking about how to create ideas that sell. She told me that many of her SEO buddies would write books literally just based on keywords. It had nothing to do with their passion or what they really wanted to write about; instead, they focused on saleable terms, meaning phrases that were getting a huge bounce in Google. Now this may not be how you would ever consider writing a book, but there are merits to this methodology:
• Book focus: Where will you focus your book? Don’t get too caught up in a set plan. Leave some room for flexibility and consider what’s “hot” to write about right now. What is an immediate need? You may still stick with your original plan, but slant it a bit more towards seeing what’s hot in search or in the media. Keep in mind that the speed of book production often allows us to jump on a trend or hot topic so take advantage of that when you can.
• Book title: If you have identified your best keywords for this market, then you can and should use them here. Keywords in a title can really help to boost your exposure, not just on Amazon but on Google as well.
• Book subtitle: If you already have your title set in stone, consider using keywords in your subtitle to help boost your exposure in search.
• Book topic: Let’s say you know your market, but you aren't sure what to write about. Sure, you could align this with “book focus", but consider that you’re an expert in consumer finance and want to write a book on this topic. Knowing what consumers are searching on (as it relates to finance) could be a great way to address the immediate needs of your reader. This is where keywords come into play but the research I share further in this article will help with this, too.
The other element here is to create a topic that’s narrower. Instead of focusing on one broad area, focus in more granularly. For example, I recently taught a class about this very topic and we brainstormed ideas on creating segmented topics within one broader umbrella. Consider the real estate gal who has a book on buying or selling your first home. I suggested that instead of trying to reach a big, broad and cluttered market, that she instead focus on isolated industries.
The ideas we brainstormed were: Buying Your First Home for Singles, Buying Your First Home for Seniors, Buying Your First Home for Domestic Partners. You get the idea, right? Create a series of books that sits under a broader market. This will net you better sales. Consumers like specialized topics that help solve a specific problem. And the books don’t have to be long, but we’ll cover that in more depth later. Once you find this market or niche, you’ll want to publish regularly to it. Amazon and the associated algorithms tend to trigger quicker when an author has multiple titles so consider that as well.
So, let’s assume that you've done some keyword research or are at least familiar with the keywords in your market. Let’s see how these searches relate to popular topics on Amazon.
Step-by-step, here is what you’ll need to do:
• On the Amazon page, search in the Kindle store tab. I want you to isolate your searches there for now.
• Plug in your search term and see what comes up. You’ll generally get 5-10 suggestions. Click on one of them.
• Look at the books that come up in search and click on the “customers also bought” section.
• Your focus should be on books that have a low sales rank. Depending on the category, it could be as low as 20,000 or as high as 50,000.
• You want to make sure there’s a variety of books in this segment, preferably more than five and they should all have this range of sales volume. If it’s lower than 20,000 that’s great, but when you get into the super saturated or unpopular categories, neither of those will help you.
• Some Amazon experts say that a 20,000 rank indicates that the book is selling five copies a day, but I find this hard to prove either way. Just know that given Amazon’s volume, it’s definitely not languishing. Regardless, this research will really help to expose hot topics and market segments within your area of expertise that are selling well.
Staying on the Short and Narrow
While full-length books will never go away, there’s a surge towards shorter, niche books—books that “own” a narrow market segment. When I first published How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon, I was surprised at how the sales out-paced my other books. While I know the title had a lot to do with this, it was also the fact that the book was shorter and focused on one particular area.
If you decide to do this (write shorter books), I wouldn't suggest just keeping the book short. While short is the new long, there’s still plenty of room for full-length books, too. So, in other words, if you can mix it up, that’s the best track for success. How short can short be? Ten thousand to seventeen thousand words is generally acceptable. Keep in mind that if you do short, you don’t have room for fluff. You’ll want to be as crystal clear as you can be on specific instructions, maybe even include step-by-step instructions or checklists, which readers love.
Other Ways to Develop Book Ideas
There’s an element of research that goes into every book you create, and I’m not just talking about the topic research, but content, too. When you’re developing your book idea and trying to decide what to include and exclude from the book, consider spending a bit of time doing a comparison with other, similar books in your market. Take a look at their book pages on Amazon, read through their reviews. In particular, the negative reviews that give constructive feedback about what the reader thought was missing, or things they wished had been expanded upon, will be particularly helpful. Readers will tell you what they want, and they’ll often do it in a review.
One Final Note on Shorter Books
On Amazon there is the “look inside the book” feature. This covers just a short section of your book, so be cautious when you’re preparing your final content. If your book is too short, the “look inside” feature will reveal most of the book, or enough of it that readers may glean what they want and not buy it. You want to fill the book with sufficient content so that you don’t end up with this problem. If you've finished the book and it seems a bit too short, consider adding things like checklists, free resources or bonus chapters from other books you've written that relate to this topic.
Keep in mind that this isn't meant to pump up your book page count just for the sake of doing that, but if the book looks too much like a white paper or report instead of a book, you may end up with a lot of window-shoppers who don’t end up buying. How short is too short? Anything under 50 pages is too short. Generally I’d recommend that you sit somewhere over 55 pages, ideally 65 pages to be safe. And again, don’t stuff your book with useless content. Make sure that if you need to add pages, you are adding helpful, useful information.
Doing some book research is not just a great idea to help develop some high-selling product, but a great idea overall. We invest so much of our time and effort into our books that the more we can make sure we’re on target, the less time we’ll spend languishing in obscurity. Given that there are 3,500 books published every day in the US, whatever you can do to stand out above the crowd can make all the difference.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, May 16, 2014
Show and Tells Celebrate Personal History Awareness Month in May
“I made this T-shirt,” begins Beverly, “after the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. I had an arm in a cast but was pulling others out of the debris. It says, “California: Fire, Flood, Shake and Bake!”
“Here’s the footstool I made for my mother at Central High School in Murfreesboro. This is the medal I won for Best Student in the manual program there. I still have the dresser that I made, shown in this picture,” beams 98-year-old Thomas.
And so the stories start. To increase awareness of the importance of preserving and sharing personal history, the Association of Personal Historians (APH) members are hosting “Show & Tell” events. A grown-up version of grade school’s Show & Tell, people bring an old photo, letter, memento, a treasured personal item or even an ancient artifact to “show and tell” the stories behind the items.
Show and Tells in the Nashville, Tennessee area can be found on the Events page at PerfectMemoirs.com. For other locations use the national website personalhistorians.org, event page, and check Show & Tells.
APHers aim to spread the conviction that every person, family, community, and organization has a story worthy of being recorded and preserved. The APH’s motto is
“Yes, it’s time – Time to tell the story of your life.”
Submitted by Deborah Wilbrink, a personal historian and a Writer In the Sky. Contact Deborah: deb@perfectmemoirs.com
“Here’s the footstool I made for my mother at Central High School in Murfreesboro. This is the medal I won for Best Student in the manual program there. I still have the dresser that I made, shown in this picture,” beams 98-year-old Thomas.
And so the stories start. To increase awareness of the importance of preserving and sharing personal history, the Association of Personal Historians (APH) members are hosting “Show & Tell” events. A grown-up version of grade school’s Show & Tell, people bring an old photo, letter, memento, a treasured personal item or even an ancient artifact to “show and tell” the stories behind the items.
Show and Tells in the Nashville, Tennessee area can be found on the Events page at PerfectMemoirs.com. For other locations use the national website personalhistorians.org, event page, and check Show & Tells.
APHers aim to spread the conviction that every person, family, community, and organization has a story worthy of being recorded and preserved. The APH’s motto is
“Yes, it’s time – Time to tell the story of your life.”
Submitted by Deborah Wilbrink, a personal historian and a Writer In the Sky. Contact Deborah: deb@perfectmemoirs.com
Friday, May 9, 2014
How to Research Keywords to Help You Create the Perfect Book
Last month we talked about how to create bestselling book ideas (http://thefutureofink.com/create-bestselling-book-ideas/) and use keywords to help identify the right market, focus, and direction for your book. Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into the topic of keywords and focus on the strategy for identifying the exact right words for your market.
These days, just about everything we talk about in regards to social media comes down to using the right keywords. But the topic of keywords actually goes deeper than that. Keywords affect all areas of promotion: from creating the right copy on your website, to placing ads on Facebook that get attention, to developing an irresistible book idea. But more than that, you want to create a book idea that Amazon will love. The keyword strategies I discuss here can be used for anything: blog post topics, verbiage on your website, and book topics. Once you learn the how-tos of this, you’ll find yourself digging through keywords, not only because they are good strategy, but because without them your message may get lost in the ether.
Getting Started:
The first step to generating good keywords is to use sites that offer keyword data. Though a lot of folks default to Google’s AdWords tool, you do need to have a Google AdWords or Gmail account to use it. If the AdWords tool will work for you, you can reach it here: https://adwords.google.com. If you haven’t used this tool in a while, be warned that some of the functionality has been stripped away. I typically don’t just stick with one tool; I’ll use several, then compare results.
If using Google is not your preference, consider these alternative keyword solutions:
Free keyword tools
• Wordtracker – https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
• Ubersuggest – http://ubersuggest.org/
• SEO Book – http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
• WordPot – http://www.wordpot.com
My personal favorite is Ubersuggest, and I’ll explain in a minute why.
Cast the Net Wide
The idea of this keyword exercise is to guide you and help you focus on specific keywords and current trending topics. We’ll talk about the latter in a minute. For now, let’s say you searched on AdWords for the term “book sales”.
Plugging in that keyword will show you suggestions, as well as the keyword’s average monthly searches. The “Competition” column is related to the AdWords rate, as you’ll see off to the right. The suggested bids will often reflect this. Typically, I’ll look for keywords that are getting 500 monthly searches or above. Unless your topic is super niche, anything less than that may not get you the kind of results you want.
As you review the wide range of related phrases, you’re looking for two things: phrases that more specifically relate to your topic and completely new phrases that have a similar meaning, especially those with high search volume. Add these phrases to your list.
Other Ways to Find Keywords
If you’re reading through this article thinking, “Well, this is fine, but I’m not even sure what my keywords are,” then let’s look at some ways to help define these for you.
Google Analytics: This is a great tool to help you find phrases and topics that are already driving traffic. If you have Google Analytics installed on your website you can farm all sorts of data. If you don’t have it, it’s easy to do. Ask your web person to install it asap. It’s a free system from Google and a fantastic source for anything you need to know about how your website is doing (traffic), how people are accessing your site (site data) and what’s bringing them there (keywords). So, let’s assume you have Google Analytics, from the backend of the site click: Acquisition, then click Keywords, and then click Organic.
This will show you how folks are finding your site, which is really handy. I often find some great keywords there that I use in blog posts, social media updates, or any ads that we run.
• Google Suggest: Just begin entering relevant keywords into Google and see what phrases Google suggests. You may also want to use a question, so, type “how to” or “what” and add in your topic. The top searches that come up typically have high volume and this should give you a good sense of what consumers are looking for.
Now for one of the best kept secrets in keywords: Ubersuggest. I love Ubersuggest because every day it scrapes all the searches on Google and when you pop in keywords it’ll show you a treasure trove of recent searches, word combos, keyword suggestions, everything. I adore this site. It’s the best keyword search tool I’ve seen in a while, and it does the same thing as the Google search bar but on a larger scale.
Now What?
So now that you’ve done this work and become a keyword pro, build a list of ten to fifteen keywords or keyword strings. This is now the data that you can use to sift through Amazon and see what other competing titles there are on the site. Check out the other article I wrote on this (in the link mentioned above) and get some tips for incorporating keywords into your book creation process. Ideally, you want whole strings of words, like what Ubersuggest offered when I plugged in the term “book marketing”. Keep this list; you’ll use it over and over again during this process.
Good keywords will benefit you in dozens of ways. We use them in blog post titles, social media updates, copy on our website. Absolutely everything. Knowing how your consumer searches and what verbiage they plug into the search bar is crucial to getting found and getting your book noticed. Some years ago, a friend who is knee-deep in SEO told me that many of her friends were doing books based solely on keyword searches or what was hot in searches. While I don’t recommend this practice, it goes to my point that if your book isn’t somehow aligned with your consumer’s mindset, it could languish in obscurity. But what happens if your book is already out there? Well, then consider pulling these keywords into your book description on Amazon and when adding keywords to your book (which you do when you upload it to the Amazon site). You can also use these on the copy on your book webpage.
Keywords, in a sense, are like a GPS, taking you and your book on the right path. Finding the right ones, and using them, can really help expedite your journey and book success.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
These days, just about everything we talk about in regards to social media comes down to using the right keywords. But the topic of keywords actually goes deeper than that. Keywords affect all areas of promotion: from creating the right copy on your website, to placing ads on Facebook that get attention, to developing an irresistible book idea. But more than that, you want to create a book idea that Amazon will love. The keyword strategies I discuss here can be used for anything: blog post topics, verbiage on your website, and book topics. Once you learn the how-tos of this, you’ll find yourself digging through keywords, not only because they are good strategy, but because without them your message may get lost in the ether.
Getting Started:
The first step to generating good keywords is to use sites that offer keyword data. Though a lot of folks default to Google’s AdWords tool, you do need to have a Google AdWords or Gmail account to use it. If the AdWords tool will work for you, you can reach it here: https://adwords.google.com. If you haven’t used this tool in a while, be warned that some of the functionality has been stripped away. I typically don’t just stick with one tool; I’ll use several, then compare results.
If using Google is not your preference, consider these alternative keyword solutions:
Free keyword tools
• Wordtracker – https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
• Ubersuggest – http://ubersuggest.org/
• SEO Book – http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
• WordPot – http://www.wordpot.com
My personal favorite is Ubersuggest, and I’ll explain in a minute why.
Cast the Net Wide
The idea of this keyword exercise is to guide you and help you focus on specific keywords and current trending topics. We’ll talk about the latter in a minute. For now, let’s say you searched on AdWords for the term “book sales”.
Plugging in that keyword will show you suggestions, as well as the keyword’s average monthly searches. The “Competition” column is related to the AdWords rate, as you’ll see off to the right. The suggested bids will often reflect this. Typically, I’ll look for keywords that are getting 500 monthly searches or above. Unless your topic is super niche, anything less than that may not get you the kind of results you want.
As you review the wide range of related phrases, you’re looking for two things: phrases that more specifically relate to your topic and completely new phrases that have a similar meaning, especially those with high search volume. Add these phrases to your list.
Other Ways to Find Keywords
If you’re reading through this article thinking, “Well, this is fine, but I’m not even sure what my keywords are,” then let’s look at some ways to help define these for you.
Google Analytics: This is a great tool to help you find phrases and topics that are already driving traffic. If you have Google Analytics installed on your website you can farm all sorts of data. If you don’t have it, it’s easy to do. Ask your web person to install it asap. It’s a free system from Google and a fantastic source for anything you need to know about how your website is doing (traffic), how people are accessing your site (site data) and what’s bringing them there (keywords). So, let’s assume you have Google Analytics, from the backend of the site click: Acquisition, then click Keywords, and then click Organic.
This will show you how folks are finding your site, which is really handy. I often find some great keywords there that I use in blog posts, social media updates, or any ads that we run.
• Google Suggest: Just begin entering relevant keywords into Google and see what phrases Google suggests. You may also want to use a question, so, type “how to” or “what” and add in your topic. The top searches that come up typically have high volume and this should give you a good sense of what consumers are looking for.
Now for one of the best kept secrets in keywords: Ubersuggest. I love Ubersuggest because every day it scrapes all the searches on Google and when you pop in keywords it’ll show you a treasure trove of recent searches, word combos, keyword suggestions, everything. I adore this site. It’s the best keyword search tool I’ve seen in a while, and it does the same thing as the Google search bar but on a larger scale.
Now What?
So now that you’ve done this work and become a keyword pro, build a list of ten to fifteen keywords or keyword strings. This is now the data that you can use to sift through Amazon and see what other competing titles there are on the site. Check out the other article I wrote on this (in the link mentioned above) and get some tips for incorporating keywords into your book creation process. Ideally, you want whole strings of words, like what Ubersuggest offered when I plugged in the term “book marketing”. Keep this list; you’ll use it over and over again during this process.
Good keywords will benefit you in dozens of ways. We use them in blog post titles, social media updates, copy on our website. Absolutely everything. Knowing how your consumer searches and what verbiage they plug into the search bar is crucial to getting found and getting your book noticed. Some years ago, a friend who is knee-deep in SEO told me that many of her friends were doing books based solely on keyword searches or what was hot in searches. While I don’t recommend this practice, it goes to my point that if your book isn’t somehow aligned with your consumer’s mindset, it could languish in obscurity. But what happens if your book is already out there? Well, then consider pulling these keywords into your book description on Amazon and when adding keywords to your book (which you do when you upload it to the Amazon site). You can also use these on the copy on your book webpage.
Keywords, in a sense, are like a GPS, taking you and your book on the right path. Finding the right ones, and using them, can really help expedite your journey and book success.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, April 25, 2014
Does Your Website Suck?
Is your website ready for business? When I ask this question at speaking events, there are usually only a few hands that go up. Most people aren’t really sure whether their website is working or not. The main goal of your site is to sell your book or product, and no matter what you're selling, there are some key elements every website must have. This checklist will help you determine if your website is working as well as it should:
1. Proofread your copy: Every single page must be carefully edited. There's no quicker way to lose a sale than to present readers with typos and other needless gaffes. Your website is your 24/7 sales and marketing tool and you want to create a stellar first impression.
2. Check your traffic: You can see who visits your site, where they come from, and much more. Google Analytics is free and easy to use. You want to review the reports regularly so you understand who visits your site, how they find you, and what they do once they're on your site. Then you'll learn what works (and what doesn't).
3. Be media ready: Every website should have a media room with downloadable materials ready to go. This includes a photo, bio, book synopsis and book cover. Offer the downloads in small files, people will appreciate that. In addition, your media room can have a Q&A, book reviews, book group questions, events calendar, and more. Make your media room the one stop source for easy to obtain information.
4. Keep the copy simple: People don't sit down to read web pages. They scan, so a home page of 200 to 250 words is ideal. Your site needs to be easy to scan and it has to have a call to action - what is it you want readers to do? Buy your book? Download a report? Whatever it is, you want your site to direct visitors to a specific action.
5. Have a web store: While it's a good idea to have your products available at a number of e-tailers, you should have a spot on your site dedicated to sales - even if you direct people to Amazon.com or another site for the actual purchase. Make it easy for visitors to your site to buy from you, otherwise, you'll lose the sale.
6. Invest in professional design: You don't have to break the bank, but definitely consider hiring a professional to design your website. Designers understand layout, color, calls to action, and web surfing habits better than anyone. A good designer will not only produce a nice-looking site, but one that's focused, with a clear call to action that will turn your site's surfers into buyers.
7. Blog and other contact points: Having a blog ensures you have regularly updated content on your site, as well as a page on your blog where visitors can participate. If you're using social media, make it easy for visitors to your site to click through and follow you wherever you are: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
8. Freshen up your content: This works well if you have a blog. Try to update it once or twice a week. The updates are a big plus for Google, which will reward your site with a higher search ranking if it has fresh content. That ranking will help with search because you’ll be listed before your competition. And that’s what you want – for people to be able to find you (instead of someone else) when they’re searching books in your genre or for authorities in your area of expertise.
9. Add social widgets: All of the major social media sites have widgets you can add to your site. This makes it easy for others to share content, whether it's your latest blog post, book synopsis, or events calendar. When you make it easy to share content you’ll get results.
10. Build a mailing list: Email marketing is a valuable tool, and you can use your website to build that list. Offer something your readers want, such as a free download of a report, or a sample chapter of your book. Those email addresses will come in handy when your next book or new product comes out!
11. Contact information: Make sure your site offers a way for people to get in touch with you. Don't make visitors hunt for that phone number, email, or contact form - they won't. They'll just leave your site and they won't come back.
12. Go Mobile: With Mobile such a huge part of our world, your site should be mobile-ready. Many sites like WordPress have simple plug-ins, also check out Dudamobile, which has a free platform to help you turn your desktop site into something that’s mobile friendly.
Your website is critical to the success of your business, book, or product. Invest the time and money to get the best, most professional site possible. When you take the time to do it right, you’ll have a website that’s a valuable marketing and sales machine.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
1. Proofread your copy: Every single page must be carefully edited. There's no quicker way to lose a sale than to present readers with typos and other needless gaffes. Your website is your 24/7 sales and marketing tool and you want to create a stellar first impression.
2. Check your traffic: You can see who visits your site, where they come from, and much more. Google Analytics is free and easy to use. You want to review the reports regularly so you understand who visits your site, how they find you, and what they do once they're on your site. Then you'll learn what works (and what doesn't).
3. Be media ready: Every website should have a media room with downloadable materials ready to go. This includes a photo, bio, book synopsis and book cover. Offer the downloads in small files, people will appreciate that. In addition, your media room can have a Q&A, book reviews, book group questions, events calendar, and more. Make your media room the one stop source for easy to obtain information.
4. Keep the copy simple: People don't sit down to read web pages. They scan, so a home page of 200 to 250 words is ideal. Your site needs to be easy to scan and it has to have a call to action - what is it you want readers to do? Buy your book? Download a report? Whatever it is, you want your site to direct visitors to a specific action.
5. Have a web store: While it's a good idea to have your products available at a number of e-tailers, you should have a spot on your site dedicated to sales - even if you direct people to Amazon.com or another site for the actual purchase. Make it easy for visitors to your site to buy from you, otherwise, you'll lose the sale.
6. Invest in professional design: You don't have to break the bank, but definitely consider hiring a professional to design your website. Designers understand layout, color, calls to action, and web surfing habits better than anyone. A good designer will not only produce a nice-looking site, but one that's focused, with a clear call to action that will turn your site's surfers into buyers.
7. Blog and other contact points: Having a blog ensures you have regularly updated content on your site, as well as a page on your blog where visitors can participate. If you're using social media, make it easy for visitors to your site to click through and follow you wherever you are: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
8. Freshen up your content: This works well if you have a blog. Try to update it once or twice a week. The updates are a big plus for Google, which will reward your site with a higher search ranking if it has fresh content. That ranking will help with search because you’ll be listed before your competition. And that’s what you want – for people to be able to find you (instead of someone else) when they’re searching books in your genre or for authorities in your area of expertise.
9. Add social widgets: All of the major social media sites have widgets you can add to your site. This makes it easy for others to share content, whether it's your latest blog post, book synopsis, or events calendar. When you make it easy to share content you’ll get results.
10. Build a mailing list: Email marketing is a valuable tool, and you can use your website to build that list. Offer something your readers want, such as a free download of a report, or a sample chapter of your book. Those email addresses will come in handy when your next book or new product comes out!
11. Contact information: Make sure your site offers a way for people to get in touch with you. Don't make visitors hunt for that phone number, email, or contact form - they won't. They'll just leave your site and they won't come back.
12. Go Mobile: With Mobile such a huge part of our world, your site should be mobile-ready. Many sites like WordPress have simple plug-ins, also check out Dudamobile, which has a free platform to help you turn your desktop site into something that’s mobile friendly.
Your website is critical to the success of your business, book, or product. Invest the time and money to get the best, most professional site possible. When you take the time to do it right, you’ll have a website that’s a valuable marketing and sales machine.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, April 11, 2014
8-Step Plan for Landing Endorsements to Promote Your Books
by Dana Lynn Smith
Endorsements are recommendations from authors, experts or celebrities—people whose opinion can influence sales of your book. These are the quotes (or “blurbs”) you typically see printed on the covers and inside of books.
Having a well-known person endorse your book lends credibility and can really impact sales, so it's worth the time and effort required to land important endorsements.
But why would a high-profile individual do you the favor of giving you an endorsement? In a word: publicity. The person giving the endorsement gains exposure from endorsing quality products. And, of course, many people (especially other authors) are happy to help out an author who has written a good book.
Here are some steps for landing powerful endorsements:
1. Schedule well in advance.
If you want to print your most important endorsements on your book cover or inside the book, you'll need to build time into your production schedule. It can be time-consuming to track down well-known people and get their endorsement, so start at least 60 to 90 days before you need the text.
2. Go for the gold!
The next step is to make a list of potential endorsers who are a good fit for the topic or genre of your book. Do not be afraid to aim high! You have nothing to lose but a little time and perhaps the cost of mailing a book. And the rewards of scoring an endorsement from a highly influential person can be great.
3. Locate prospects.
It can be a challenge to track down an email or mailing address for top experts and celebrities. The first place to look is on the person's website. You might also try searching for their profile on Facebook or LinkedIn. For authors, check their personal or author profile on Amazon.com and the publisher's website. You might also find contact information printed in the front or back of their books. Also considering using your personal connections, if you know someone who knows someone.
4. Prepare your materials.
If your book is not yet finished, prepare a synopsis, outline and a couple of sample chapters, along with a killer cover letter. If the manuscript is complete, you may still want to send a specific chapter that's relevant to the person you're asking for an endorsement, and offer to send the entire manuscript upon request.
It's a good idea to include some sample endorsements in the material you send. This is not as presumptuous as it might sound. Keep in mind that the people you are contacting are very busy and you are asking them for a favor. It takes some thought to write a good quotable endorsement and you can save the endorser's time by making a few suggestions. Spend time drafting two or three endorsements that fit each individual, and of course make it clear that these are only suggestions and they are welcome to modify or write something original.
5. Consider Peer Reviews.
Peer reviews can be useful for getting feedback on your book and also generating endorsements. Nonfiction authors can send portions of their book to other experts in their field asking for professional feedback, and then send the completed manuscript later requesting an endorsement. Novelists can request peer reviews from authors in their genre.
6. Make contact.
The next step is to prioritize your list of potential endorsers and start making contact. You may have to go through assistants or agents, so be prepared to explain what you need. It is easiest to email a PDF document containing your manuscript or sample materials, but it’s a good idea to include a note offering to send hard copies if they prefer.
7. Follow up and confirm.
If someone has not responded to your query or has promised an endorsement but hasn't delivered, you may need to follow up with a gentle reminder. If the prospect asks for a full manuscript or more information, send it immediately. Once someone has given you an endorsement, be sure to get their written permission to use it.
8. Show your appreciation.
Follow up promptly with a handwritten thank you note, and be sure to send the endorser an autographed copy of the book upon publication.
Excerpted from Chapter 5 of How to Get Your Book Reviewed.
Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer, teaches authors how to sell more books through her blog, newsletters, guidebooks, and author training programs. Get book marketing tips at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com and download her free report, Create a Book Marketing Plan That Sells Books, at www.CreateYourBookMarketingPlan.com.
Endorsements are recommendations from authors, experts or celebrities—people whose opinion can influence sales of your book. These are the quotes (or “blurbs”) you typically see printed on the covers and inside of books.
Having a well-known person endorse your book lends credibility and can really impact sales, so it's worth the time and effort required to land important endorsements.
But why would a high-profile individual do you the favor of giving you an endorsement? In a word: publicity. The person giving the endorsement gains exposure from endorsing quality products. And, of course, many people (especially other authors) are happy to help out an author who has written a good book.
Here are some steps for landing powerful endorsements:
1. Schedule well in advance.
If you want to print your most important endorsements on your book cover or inside the book, you'll need to build time into your production schedule. It can be time-consuming to track down well-known people and get their endorsement, so start at least 60 to 90 days before you need the text.
2. Go for the gold!
The next step is to make a list of potential endorsers who are a good fit for the topic or genre of your book. Do not be afraid to aim high! You have nothing to lose but a little time and perhaps the cost of mailing a book. And the rewards of scoring an endorsement from a highly influential person can be great.
3. Locate prospects.
It can be a challenge to track down an email or mailing address for top experts and celebrities. The first place to look is on the person's website. You might also try searching for their profile on Facebook or LinkedIn. For authors, check their personal or author profile on Amazon.com and the publisher's website. You might also find contact information printed in the front or back of their books. Also considering using your personal connections, if you know someone who knows someone.
4. Prepare your materials.
If your book is not yet finished, prepare a synopsis, outline and a couple of sample chapters, along with a killer cover letter. If the manuscript is complete, you may still want to send a specific chapter that's relevant to the person you're asking for an endorsement, and offer to send the entire manuscript upon request.
It's a good idea to include some sample endorsements in the material you send. This is not as presumptuous as it might sound. Keep in mind that the people you are contacting are very busy and you are asking them for a favor. It takes some thought to write a good quotable endorsement and you can save the endorser's time by making a few suggestions. Spend time drafting two or three endorsements that fit each individual, and of course make it clear that these are only suggestions and they are welcome to modify or write something original.
5. Consider Peer Reviews.
Peer reviews can be useful for getting feedback on your book and also generating endorsements. Nonfiction authors can send portions of their book to other experts in their field asking for professional feedback, and then send the completed manuscript later requesting an endorsement. Novelists can request peer reviews from authors in their genre.
6. Make contact.
The next step is to prioritize your list of potential endorsers and start making contact. You may have to go through assistants or agents, so be prepared to explain what you need. It is easiest to email a PDF document containing your manuscript or sample materials, but it’s a good idea to include a note offering to send hard copies if they prefer.
7. Follow up and confirm.
If someone has not responded to your query or has promised an endorsement but hasn't delivered, you may need to follow up with a gentle reminder. If the prospect asks for a full manuscript or more information, send it immediately. Once someone has given you an endorsement, be sure to get their written permission to use it.
8. Show your appreciation.
Follow up promptly with a handwritten thank you note, and be sure to send the endorser an autographed copy of the book upon publication.
Excerpted from Chapter 5 of How to Get Your Book Reviewed.
Dana Lynn Smith, the Savvy Book Marketer, teaches authors how to sell more books through her blog, newsletters, guidebooks, and author training programs. Get book marketing tips at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com and download her free report, Create a Book Marketing Plan That Sells Books, at www.CreateYourBookMarketingPlan.com.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Making the Sale: How to Sell More on Your Website
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years of marketing, it’s that no matter how much authors love what Amazon can do for them, they’d rather sell books on their own site than share a cut with the giant online e-tailer. Doing this, however, can be tricky.
It seems that every time we turn around, some big chain is admitting that they were hacked. If you were one of the millions who shopped there, your information could be in the hands of God-knows-who. With so much attention on shopper security, it’s leaving a lot of shoppers even more hesitant to shop online.
Last year, Baymard Institute released a staggering statistic: 67.89% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing the purchase. That translates to around $1.79 trillion dollars in product or services purchased online. Why does this happen? Well, there are a lot of theories on this. According to Shopify, this is a list of some of the top reasons that people abandon their purchase with you:
Presented with unexpected costs
Just browsing
Found a better price elsewhere
Overall price too expensive
Decided against buying
Website navigation too complicated
Website crashed
Though I don’t disagree with this per se, I would take this a step further, because not only are security concerns at an all-time high, there are a variety of additional reasons you may be losing people. Also, how to get shoppers and keep them varies by industry so let’s look at the ones that will matter to authors and publishers:
1) Overall Look of Site: There’s a high trust factor with a site that looks professional. I don’t want to buy from a site that looks sketchy. Would you? If you want to sell from your site, you’ll need to have one that’s professionally designed. I would say that this goes even before we start the shopping cart discussion because you won’t get anyone to even entertain buying off of your site if it doesn’t look like a place they’d want to shop.
2) Checkout Process: I see a lot of authors (and even business owners) who make the shopping process difficult. I’m not sure why they do this or why their web designers recommend this. Every click you make someone do can cost you 5% of your traffic, meaning that if you require customers to make several clicks just to get an item into their shopping cart, you’ve now lost 20% of your traffic. Make the buying process easy. Put “Shop” or “Store” or (if you have one product) “Buy Now” on the home page so folks immediately know where to click. Visitors won’t take the time to figure it out. If they can’t find it on your site, they’ll go elsewhere and in the age of Amazon they’re likely to just default back there.
3) Site security: Show shoppers that their purchase is secure - this is also very important. Buyers want to know you’re taking care of their personal details so showing security messages – even things like “Secure checkout” make all the difference. In fact, according to a recent Entrepreneur Magazine article, adding security messages can increase a buy by 16%.
4) Sign in/Sign up: I don’t know about you, but the minute someone wants me to create an account before buying an item, I’m usually gone. If you want folks to sign up on your site, have them do it after they’ve made a purchase. Studies show that conversion rates can increase by 45% if you allow buyers to shop as “guests” throughout their visit.
5) Unexpected Costs: We all know that Amazon has pretty much ruined us for shipping costs. Thanks to things like Amazon Prime, and other free shipping opportunities, most of us abhor these added costs. If you feel charging for shipping is something you have to do, consider offering free shipping as an incentive instead of a guarantee. Staples, for instance, offers free shipping when you buy a certain dollar amount. Other e-tailers have free shipping days, or, if you want to further incentivize site sign-up, you could offer free shipping to members only which would encourage them to join your site so you could remarket to them later.
6) Cart abandonment: Window shopping happens, even online. SeeWhy did a study last year and found that 99% of people won’t buy on their first visit to your website. This is why having an email newsletter, or some other benefit-driven giveaway, is not only important, but mandatory if you want to make the sale. Email newsletters allow you to remarket to your visitor. No, they may not buy on the first try, but a helpful, content-rich newsletter will remind them who you are and encourage a buy for later. It is a lot of work, yes, but so is building a store on your site that no one buys from. Alternatively, you could also consider pop-ups or sidebar messages that show up during the purchase process, offering customers 5% off.
7) eCommerce options: I know many folks who have extensive eCommerce options which are great but also costly. Being able to take credit cards, especially if you are small, is an added cost you may want to incur but, you may not need to. When we switched from our extensive pay system to just offering PayPal, we found that our shopper conversion almost doubled. Also, PayPal no longer requires users to register with their system so you can give your shoppers the peace of mind of using a secure system, without having to register.
8) Love the Love: People like what other people like, which is why for most (if not all) retailers, you’ll see reviews and customer feedback right on the page. Most authors don’t have the bandwidth, time, or money to create a sales system that’s quite that elaborate, so adding reviews to the sales pages is very helpful. Adding reviews with a picture adds even more credibility to the page. Remember that your customer can, with one click, meander over to Amazon and buy the book there so give them a reason to stay.
9) Pricing: If you’re going to keep shoppers on your site, you’d better up the ante on your pricing. We already know you need to ship for free (at least on certain days or with minimum orders) now let’s consider your “offer.” Maybe you just wanted to offer the book. Sure, that’s fine, albeit a tad boring. Sorry, but they can get the book on Amazon, too. If you really want to lure folks to your site and make the sale, you’ll need to give them a slam-dunk deal they can’t resist. As an example, when we changed the offer on our store page from 3 books for $20 to four, sales doubled.
Keep in mind that there is only one print book that’s mailed, the rest are digital and delivered as soon as payment is taken so there’s nothing else for me to do. Digital product is easy to add on because there are no hard costs with it, beyond the initial creation of the product. So what else can you add on to your book to help entice shoppers? What about offering the eBook with the print book so they can have one for their Kindle and a print book in hand (something a lot of readers still enjoy)? Maybe you could pair your book with someone else’s e-product. When you take some time to brainstorm, the possibilities are endless.
In the end, what you really need to do is think of your website as a brick and mortar store. If you created any of these roadblocks at Macy’s, or a Barnes & Noble, you’d really hurt your sales process. Authors often assume that a website store is different. It’s not. We want easy, we want fast, and we want the best price. If you can bring all of these elements into your website store, you’ll increase sales considerably.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
It seems that every time we turn around, some big chain is admitting that they were hacked. If you were one of the millions who shopped there, your information could be in the hands of God-knows-who. With so much attention on shopper security, it’s leaving a lot of shoppers even more hesitant to shop online.
Last year, Baymard Institute released a staggering statistic: 67.89% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing the purchase. That translates to around $1.79 trillion dollars in product or services purchased online. Why does this happen? Well, there are a lot of theories on this. According to Shopify, this is a list of some of the top reasons that people abandon their purchase with you:
Presented with unexpected costs
Just browsing
Found a better price elsewhere
Overall price too expensive
Decided against buying
Website navigation too complicated
Website crashed
Though I don’t disagree with this per se, I would take this a step further, because not only are security concerns at an all-time high, there are a variety of additional reasons you may be losing people. Also, how to get shoppers and keep them varies by industry so let’s look at the ones that will matter to authors and publishers:
1) Overall Look of Site: There’s a high trust factor with a site that looks professional. I don’t want to buy from a site that looks sketchy. Would you? If you want to sell from your site, you’ll need to have one that’s professionally designed. I would say that this goes even before we start the shopping cart discussion because you won’t get anyone to even entertain buying off of your site if it doesn’t look like a place they’d want to shop.
2) Checkout Process: I see a lot of authors (and even business owners) who make the shopping process difficult. I’m not sure why they do this or why their web designers recommend this. Every click you make someone do can cost you 5% of your traffic, meaning that if you require customers to make several clicks just to get an item into their shopping cart, you’ve now lost 20% of your traffic. Make the buying process easy. Put “Shop” or “Store” or (if you have one product) “Buy Now” on the home page so folks immediately know where to click. Visitors won’t take the time to figure it out. If they can’t find it on your site, they’ll go elsewhere and in the age of Amazon they’re likely to just default back there.
3) Site security: Show shoppers that their purchase is secure - this is also very important. Buyers want to know you’re taking care of their personal details so showing security messages – even things like “Secure checkout” make all the difference. In fact, according to a recent Entrepreneur Magazine article, adding security messages can increase a buy by 16%.
4) Sign in/Sign up: I don’t know about you, but the minute someone wants me to create an account before buying an item, I’m usually gone. If you want folks to sign up on your site, have them do it after they’ve made a purchase. Studies show that conversion rates can increase by 45% if you allow buyers to shop as “guests” throughout their visit.
5) Unexpected Costs: We all know that Amazon has pretty much ruined us for shipping costs. Thanks to things like Amazon Prime, and other free shipping opportunities, most of us abhor these added costs. If you feel charging for shipping is something you have to do, consider offering free shipping as an incentive instead of a guarantee. Staples, for instance, offers free shipping when you buy a certain dollar amount. Other e-tailers have free shipping days, or, if you want to further incentivize site sign-up, you could offer free shipping to members only which would encourage them to join your site so you could remarket to them later.
6) Cart abandonment: Window shopping happens, even online. SeeWhy did a study last year and found that 99% of people won’t buy on their first visit to your website. This is why having an email newsletter, or some other benefit-driven giveaway, is not only important, but mandatory if you want to make the sale. Email newsletters allow you to remarket to your visitor. No, they may not buy on the first try, but a helpful, content-rich newsletter will remind them who you are and encourage a buy for later. It is a lot of work, yes, but so is building a store on your site that no one buys from. Alternatively, you could also consider pop-ups or sidebar messages that show up during the purchase process, offering customers 5% off.
7) eCommerce options: I know many folks who have extensive eCommerce options which are great but also costly. Being able to take credit cards, especially if you are small, is an added cost you may want to incur but, you may not need to. When we switched from our extensive pay system to just offering PayPal, we found that our shopper conversion almost doubled. Also, PayPal no longer requires users to register with their system so you can give your shoppers the peace of mind of using a secure system, without having to register.
8) Love the Love: People like what other people like, which is why for most (if not all) retailers, you’ll see reviews and customer feedback right on the page. Most authors don’t have the bandwidth, time, or money to create a sales system that’s quite that elaborate, so adding reviews to the sales pages is very helpful. Adding reviews with a picture adds even more credibility to the page. Remember that your customer can, with one click, meander over to Amazon and buy the book there so give them a reason to stay.
9) Pricing: If you’re going to keep shoppers on your site, you’d better up the ante on your pricing. We already know you need to ship for free (at least on certain days or with minimum orders) now let’s consider your “offer.” Maybe you just wanted to offer the book. Sure, that’s fine, albeit a tad boring. Sorry, but they can get the book on Amazon, too. If you really want to lure folks to your site and make the sale, you’ll need to give them a slam-dunk deal they can’t resist. As an example, when we changed the offer on our store page from 3 books for $20 to four, sales doubled.
Keep in mind that there is only one print book that’s mailed, the rest are digital and delivered as soon as payment is taken so there’s nothing else for me to do. Digital product is easy to add on because there are no hard costs with it, beyond the initial creation of the product. So what else can you add on to your book to help entice shoppers? What about offering the eBook with the print book so they can have one for their Kindle and a print book in hand (something a lot of readers still enjoy)? Maybe you could pair your book with someone else’s e-product. When you take some time to brainstorm, the possibilities are endless.
In the end, what you really need to do is think of your website as a brick and mortar store. If you created any of these roadblocks at Macy’s, or a Barnes & Noble, you’d really hurt your sales process. Authors often assume that a website store is different. It’s not. We want easy, we want fast, and we want the best price. If you can bring all of these elements into your website store, you’ll increase sales considerably.
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, March 7, 2014
Photographic Illustration, Part 2: Inspiration!
by Deborah Wilbrink
Photos can inspire your writing. And then you have a bonus when it’s time to publish. Illustrate the writing with the photo that inspired it. It’s a win-win circle, especially if it’s an original photo like your original text.
We work on whimsical at Cloud 9, our home. So I cooked this happy face breakfast and enjoyed it enough to take a photo. It could easily generate a blog, poem, cookbook, or story. When in Rome . . . this ancient statuary gleamed in the dusk. Sobering thoughts of justice, war, and peace arise when I view it. It stands alone, or with photo-shop effects you can take it many directions.
For a fun Creative Writing exercise, spread out your photos, an art gallery view, or magazine clippings. Choose one. Use it to create a story as an imaginative exercise. Describe it using words that evoke the senses for another activity. Use an image with people to imagine back-story for characters: what happened before this shot? Add depth to your writing and predict with your photo, foreshadowing: what happens after this shot? Are there symbols in it that predict a future event or conflict?
How about this shot of a man biking past an alluring window dressing? It reminds me that taboos create reactions; while airing one’s lingerie just makes it normal. How does it speak to you?
Pay attention this week to the images that are normal – frame them in your mind, shoot them and be inspired. Your illustrations can be integral to your finished book, not just an enhancement. See last months’ issue for Part 1 on how to illustrate cheaply, easily and legally.
c. 2014 DW text and photos, all rights reserved
If you liked this, subscribe to the Point of View blog http://www.perfectmemoirs.com/point-of-view-blogpage/ for tips about writing. Deborah Wilbrink is an editor, ghostwriter and formatter for Writers in the Sky. Deborah specializes in personal history with her business Perfect Memoirs. Reach Deborah at 615-417-8424, mailto:deb@perfectmemoirs.com . Be sure to mention Writers in the Sky!
Photos can inspire your writing. And then you have a bonus when it’s time to publish. Illustrate the writing with the photo that inspired it. It’s a win-win circle, especially if it’s an original photo like your original text.
We work on whimsical at Cloud 9, our home. So I cooked this happy face breakfast and enjoyed it enough to take a photo. It could easily generate a blog, poem, cookbook, or story. When in Rome . . . this ancient statuary gleamed in the dusk. Sobering thoughts of justice, war, and peace arise when I view it. It stands alone, or with photo-shop effects you can take it many directions.
For a fun Creative Writing exercise, spread out your photos, an art gallery view, or magazine clippings. Choose one. Use it to create a story as an imaginative exercise. Describe it using words that evoke the senses for another activity. Use an image with people to imagine back-story for characters: what happened before this shot? Add depth to your writing and predict with your photo, foreshadowing: what happens after this shot? Are there symbols in it that predict a future event or conflict? How about this shot of a man biking past an alluring window dressing? It reminds me that taboos create reactions; while airing one’s lingerie just makes it normal. How does it speak to you?Pay attention this week to the images that are normal – frame them in your mind, shoot them and be inspired. Your illustrations can be integral to your finished book, not just an enhancement. See last months’ issue for Part 1 on how to illustrate cheaply, easily and legally.
c. 2014 DW text and photos, all rights reserved
If you liked this, subscribe to the Point of View blog http://www.perfectmemoirs.com/point-of-view-blogpage/ for tips about writing. Deborah Wilbrink is an editor, ghostwriter and formatter for Writers in the Sky. Deborah specializes in personal history with her business Perfect Memoirs. Reach Deborah at 615-417-8424, mailto:deb@perfectmemoirs.com . Be sure to mention Writers in the Sky!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Sell More Books with a Virtual Book Tour
by Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer
Virtual book tours (also called blog tours) typically involve making guest appearances on book review sites or on blogs, websites, and/or forums that are related to your topic or audience. You can even do teleseminars, podcasts, or live interviews on Blog Talk Radio as part of your tour.
Virtual tours have several advantages over the traditional in-person book tour:
• It's free (unless you hire someone to organize the tour) and there's no time or money spent on travel.
• You can generally reach far more people and reach a more targeted audience.
• A virtual tour provides quality, lasting links to your own author website.
Look for tour hosts that are a good fit for your book and provide unique content to each host. Here are some suggestions for content:
• virtual interviews, where your host asks questions and you respond
• how-to articles in your area of expertise
• excerpts from your book
• articles about how you developed the plot or characters for a novel
• book reviews written by the tour host
• podcasts or teleseminars
• video or blog radio interviews with you
• book promotion videos
• articles about how you published the book or what you're doing to market it
Make the tour more interactive by encouraging readers to make comments or ask questions. Sometimes the host will ask readers for questions in advance.
You can create buzz by giving away a free copy of your book or a related item at some of the tour stops. For example, invite people to make a comment on your guest blog post, then hold a drawing to give away a free copy of your book to someone randomly selected from those who left comments. But the downside of giving away your book during the tour is that some people might wait to see if they win, instead of ordering the book. Instead, you might give away a copy of one of your other books or offer a free e-book to everyone.
Virtual book tours are ideal for launching a new book, but even if your book has been out for a while, a virtual tour can book create buzz and bring in sales.
Tours typically last 5 to 20 consecutive days, with a different tour stop each day or every other day. If you want to do a long tour, you might schedule a 10-day tour and then do a second tour a month or two later. It's never too late to promote your book with a virtual book tour!
About Dana Lynn Smith
Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. Get her free Top Book Marketing Tips e-books at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com, visit her blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, and connect on Face-book at www.face-book.com/SavvyBookMarketer.
Virtual book tours (also called blog tours) typically involve making guest appearances on book review sites or on blogs, websites, and/or forums that are related to your topic or audience. You can even do teleseminars, podcasts, or live interviews on Blog Talk Radio as part of your tour.
Virtual tours have several advantages over the traditional in-person book tour:
• It's free (unless you hire someone to organize the tour) and there's no time or money spent on travel.
• You can generally reach far more people and reach a more targeted audience.
• A virtual tour provides quality, lasting links to your own author website.
Look for tour hosts that are a good fit for your book and provide unique content to each host. Here are some suggestions for content:
• virtual interviews, where your host asks questions and you respond
• how-to articles in your area of expertise
• excerpts from your book
• articles about how you developed the plot or characters for a novel
• book reviews written by the tour host
• podcasts or teleseminars
• video or blog radio interviews with you
• book promotion videos
• articles about how you published the book or what you're doing to market it
Make the tour more interactive by encouraging readers to make comments or ask questions. Sometimes the host will ask readers for questions in advance.
You can create buzz by giving away a free copy of your book or a related item at some of the tour stops. For example, invite people to make a comment on your guest blog post, then hold a drawing to give away a free copy of your book to someone randomly selected from those who left comments. But the downside of giving away your book during the tour is that some people might wait to see if they win, instead of ordering the book. Instead, you might give away a copy of one of your other books or offer a free e-book to everyone.
Virtual book tours are ideal for launching a new book, but even if your book has been out for a while, a virtual tour can book create buzz and bring in sales.
Tours typically last 5 to 20 consecutive days, with a different tour stop each day or every other day. If you want to do a long tour, you might schedule a 10-day tour and then do a second tour a month or two later. It's never too late to promote your book with a virtual book tour!
About Dana Lynn Smith
Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. Get her free Top Book Marketing Tips e-books at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com, visit her blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, and connect on Face-book at www.face-book.com/SavvyBookMarketer.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Photographic Illustration, Part 1
by Deborah Wilbrink
Stumped for illustrations and book covers? Take your own photographs and use them. You’ll have the copyright, so no problem there. And photographs are the first reality graphics! The impact of a sharp and creative photograph cannot be overestimated.
When I studied photography at the Polytechnic Institute of London in 1975, there were no digital cameras; no personal computers. We shot in joy and trepidation, developed our own prints, and used staging, composition, and pure light for special effects. Everything I know about digital photography I have taught myself, mostly in the past two years. My first color book interior is the result of comparing printed scans at different settings, in my home office, as well as reading feverishly online. I still have much to learn, but these tips will give you a HUGE head start on illustrating your published works.
Start with the best shot possible. Your text isn’t amateurish; your photos should also look
professional. That means framing or composing the best shot, and shooting in the best light. A shot of a tree can show the tree; or, it can be framed so that contrasting words will show against the dark background. That’s for posed or still subjects. If you are shooting action, you can still manipulate the environment for the best shot – try moving yourself and not the subject! Simple software can do wonders, and professional software like Adobe Photoshop can do even more. But starting with a great shot leaves more time for you to write and market.
Create and Inspire. Now your illustrations have a chance for complete originality. Shoot and shoot till you get something that will inspire your reader. It can be literal – a view from your childhood home; or it can be metaphorical – a cubby of ropes signifying neatening up your life! Your original shot can be a design element for your new book’s Face-book page or an illustration for your weekly blog. Lisa Ernst takes her own shots for the blog, http://thelotusbloomsinthemud.com/ and they illustrate her text. Do NOT take a shot of someone else’s artwork, even if you own it, and consider that yours. You will need to get the proper permissions and write the proper credits and copyrights or disclaimers into your publication.
Use higher resolution images. Resolution simply means that your shot resolves into a sharp image at the size you want to see it. That could be anything from a large book cover to a small illustration. How about using a half-inch square as a high contrast graphic design element for chapter headings? Most online publishing sites require at least a 300 dpi, or dots per inch, resolution.
Use the settings for resolution. Some cameras offer a high resolution setting for shooting. Use that. If you are scanning original drawings or hard copy photographs and documents, and you intend to use them in print media, set your resolution to at least 300 dpi. The larger the original image, the better it will reproduce when small. If you scan a 4x6 photo and then want it for an 8.5 x 11”cover, you may have problems, depending on the dpi of the scan. Another measurement you may see is pixels, which measure the size of the original image. There are formulas, sometimes built into software, which will tell you just how sharply your image will print at different sizes. Start with at least 300dpi and you won’t have to worry about this. Not just the camera, but the scanner has resolution settings. Be sure to set them at 300 dpi or higher when scanning personal photos.
Check your image information. A right click on the digital photo will give you menus. [Yes, I’m a PC user! Apple products, specializing in intuitive graphics, may have different ways to do this.] Properties or general details will yield pixel and or dpi scan information. I can testify that getting some shots from church historian XX that proved to be 600 dpi delighted both of us! On the other hand, shots that were emailed at 60 dpi from another writer was the start of hours of backtracking and image manipulation for both of us in order to successfully use those illustrations. The common web image resolution, 60 dpi, may look sharp on your computer screen, but not when printed! Knowing about resolution before your shoot and scans will save you time.
Use all the other features of your scanner. Your scanner is your best friend for capturing existing photographs. Not only resolution, but scanning in batches, cropping while in the scanner, saving into files or by dates, are all possibilities. You can also set to scan documents, photos, black and white, or color; magazine and newspaper articles have settings for getting rid of text that may bleed through. Read your scanner manual and set aside time to experiment. I like to scan old black & white or sepia photographs in color, not black and white, for a warmer finish if the final product will be in color.
If possible remove the photos from under glass or plastic. If you have lots of these and they may get sticky, a Flip- Pal mobile scanner will allow you to leave them in place; a camera will give you fits with glare and reflection, but taking a shot can be done.
Use existing photographs at your own risk! Whenever possible, illustrate with original shots. There are times however, when an existing shot, a historic photo, a portrait, etc. – all be someone else or the terrible-to-track Anonymous seems to be the best and only choice. Be careful with this. You will need legal permission from the copyright holder; buy the rights from a stock image company, or use photographs that are legally in the public domain and note that they are so. I am always looking to learn more about this, and if you know all about it, please get in touch or submit a specific article. Otherwise, you may find these websites a place to start:
http://www.amdlawgroup.com/how-to-use-photos-without-violating-copyright-laws/
http://www.copyrightlaws.com/us/legally-using-images/
You’ll enjoy capturing your illustrations with a camera, a scanner, or working with a photographer whom you know and trust. Enjoy it even more now that you are confident you will get a legal, usable, and communicative photo to publish! Next month Part 2 will address how photos can be used to inspire your writing, and then be integrated for a stronger package.
c. 2014 DW text and photos, all rights reserved
If you liked this, subscribe to the Point of View blog http://www.perfectmemoirs.com/point-of-view-blogpage/ for tips about writing. Deborah Wilbrink is an editor, ghostwriter and formatter for Writers in the Sky. Deborah specializes in personal history with her business Perfect Memoirs. Reach Deborah at 615-417-8424, mailto:deb@perfectmemoirs.com. Be sure to mention Writers in the Sky!
Stumped for illustrations and book covers? Take your own photographs and use them. You’ll have the copyright, so no problem there. And photographs are the first reality graphics! The impact of a sharp and creative photograph cannot be overestimated.
When I studied photography at the Polytechnic Institute of London in 1975, there were no digital cameras; no personal computers. We shot in joy and trepidation, developed our own prints, and used staging, composition, and pure light for special effects. Everything I know about digital photography I have taught myself, mostly in the past two years. My first color book interior is the result of comparing printed scans at different settings, in my home office, as well as reading feverishly online. I still have much to learn, but these tips will give you a HUGE head start on illustrating your published works.
Start with the best shot possible. Your text isn’t amateurish; your photos should also look professional. That means framing or composing the best shot, and shooting in the best light. A shot of a tree can show the tree; or, it can be framed so that contrasting words will show against the dark background. That’s for posed or still subjects. If you are shooting action, you can still manipulate the environment for the best shot – try moving yourself and not the subject! Simple software can do wonders, and professional software like Adobe Photoshop can do even more. But starting with a great shot leaves more time for you to write and market.
Create and Inspire. Now your illustrations have a chance for complete originality. Shoot and shoot till you get something that will inspire your reader. It can be literal – a view from your childhood home; or it can be metaphorical – a cubby of ropes signifying neatening up your life! Your original shot can be a design element for your new book’s Face-book page or an illustration for your weekly blog. Lisa Ernst takes her own shots for the blog, http://thelotusbloomsinthemud.com/ and they illustrate her text. Do NOT take a shot of someone else’s artwork, even if you own it, and consider that yours. You will need to get the proper permissions and write the proper credits and copyrights or disclaimers into your publication.Use higher resolution images. Resolution simply means that your shot resolves into a sharp image at the size you want to see it. That could be anything from a large book cover to a small illustration. How about using a half-inch square as a high contrast graphic design element for chapter headings? Most online publishing sites require at least a 300 dpi, or dots per inch, resolution.
Use the settings for resolution. Some cameras offer a high resolution setting for shooting. Use that. If you are scanning original drawings or hard copy photographs and documents, and you intend to use them in print media, set your resolution to at least 300 dpi. The larger the original image, the better it will reproduce when small. If you scan a 4x6 photo and then want it for an 8.5 x 11”cover, you may have problems, depending on the dpi of the scan. Another measurement you may see is pixels, which measure the size of the original image. There are formulas, sometimes built into software, which will tell you just how sharply your image will print at different sizes. Start with at least 300dpi and you won’t have to worry about this. Not just the camera, but the scanner has resolution settings. Be sure to set them at 300 dpi or higher when scanning personal photos.
Check your image information. A right click on the digital photo will give you menus. [Yes, I’m a PC user! Apple products, specializing in intuitive graphics, may have different ways to do this.] Properties or general details will yield pixel and or dpi scan information. I can testify that getting some shots from church historian XX that proved to be 600 dpi delighted both of us! On the other hand, shots that were emailed at 60 dpi from another writer was the start of hours of backtracking and image manipulation for both of us in order to successfully use those illustrations. The common web image resolution, 60 dpi, may look sharp on your computer screen, but not when printed! Knowing about resolution before your shoot and scans will save you time.
Use all the other features of your scanner. Your scanner is your best friend for capturing existing photographs. Not only resolution, but scanning in batches, cropping while in the scanner, saving into files or by dates, are all possibilities. You can also set to scan documents, photos, black and white, or color; magazine and newspaper articles have settings for getting rid of text that may bleed through. Read your scanner manual and set aside time to experiment. I like to scan old black & white or sepia photographs in color, not black and white, for a warmer finish if the final product will be in color.
If possible remove the photos from under glass or plastic. If you have lots of these and they may get sticky, a Flip- Pal mobile scanner will allow you to leave them in place; a camera will give you fits with glare and reflection, but taking a shot can be done.
Use existing photographs at your own risk! Whenever possible, illustrate with original shots. There are times however, when an existing shot, a historic photo, a portrait, etc. – all be someone else or the terrible-to-track Anonymous seems to be the best and only choice. Be careful with this. You will need legal permission from the copyright holder; buy the rights from a stock image company, or use photographs that are legally in the public domain and note that they are so. I am always looking to learn more about this, and if you know all about it, please get in touch or submit a specific article. Otherwise, you may find these websites a place to start:
http://www.amdlawgroup.com/how-to-use-photos-without-violating-copyright-laws/
http://www.copyrightlaws.com/us/legally-using-images/
You’ll enjoy capturing your illustrations with a camera, a scanner, or working with a photographer whom you know and trust. Enjoy it even more now that you are confident you will get a legal, usable, and communicative photo to publish! Next month Part 2 will address how photos can be used to inspire your writing, and then be integrated for a stronger package.
c. 2014 DW text and photos, all rights reserved
If you liked this, subscribe to the Point of View blog http://www.perfectmemoirs.com/point-of-view-blogpage/ for tips about writing. Deborah Wilbrink is an editor, ghostwriter and formatter for Writers in the Sky. Deborah specializes in personal history with her business Perfect Memoirs. Reach Deborah at 615-417-8424, mailto:deb@perfectmemoirs.com. Be sure to mention Writers in the Sky!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Fifty Things Under $50 Bucks to Promote Your Book
These days it seems like everyone's book marketing budget is a little tighter. If you're feeling the pinch, or if you're just looking for some great free stuff to do on your own, here are some tips that can help keep you on track.
1) Buy your domain name as soon as you have a title for your book. You can get domain names for as little as $12.95. Tip: When buying a domain always try to get a .com and stay away from hyphens, i.e. penny-sansevieri.com - surfers rarely remember to insert hyphens. You should also consider using your keywords in your domain because it’ll help you rank better. Social media is great, but don’t use your Face-book or Twitter pages as your “website” – you should own your domain and have a site. Period. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-build-the-perfect-_b_1932184.html
2) Head on over to Wordpress.com and start your very own blog (you can add it to your website later): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/ten-reasons-why-you-shoul_b_839231.html
3) Set up an event at your neighborhood bookstore. Do an event and not a signing, book signings are boring!
4) It’s all about content these days so why not create a calendar for content? Often if you aren't sure what to write, or when, a content calendar will keep you on track. You can plan the calendar around your free time (though you should blog weekly) and around holidays or events that may tie into your book.
5) Then, while you’re at it: brainstorm content ideas and start a content folder you can always refer back to when you aren't feeling “inspired” to write anything.
6) Check out other, similar authors online and see if you can do some networking.
7) Do some radio research and pitch yourself to at least five new stations this week. Here’s a great place to find radio stations! http://www.radio-locator.com/
8) Ready to get some business cards? Head on over to Vistaprint.com. The cards are free if you let them put their logo on the back; if you don't they're still really inexpensive.
9) Put together your marketing plan. Seriously, do this. If you don't know where you're going, any destination will do. If you don’t feel like doing an entire “plan” then pick ten things you want to do this month to promote your book.
10) Plan a contest or giveaway. Contests are a great way to promote your book. Make sure to mention the contest on Face-book!
11) Time to get yourself onto Wattpad. Never heard of Wattpad? It’s a place where you can run your content, chapters, short stories, whatever you want, and it’s a fantastic way to build fans and get feedback on your work!
12) Send thank-you notes to people who have been helpful to you.
13) Send your book out to at least ten book reviewers this week.
14) Do a quick Internet search for local writers’ conferences or book festivals you can attend: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/eight-tips-to-make-your-n_b_850665.html
15) Create an email signature for every email you send; email signatures are a great way to promote your book and message.
16) Ready to pitch bloggers? Excellent, then start by doing a search for the right ones on Google. You can also head over here and plug in your search term to find the top blogs in your market: http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/
17) Enhance your Amazon Author Central Page by linking to your blog, Twitter feed or adding a video if you have one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/sell-more-on-amazoncom-un_b_3670424.html
18) Plan your free e-book promotion. If you’re on KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) drop your price to zero for one day or three days. You’ll want to schedule this a week or so out, then head on over to sites where you can list your freebie. There are tons of them but here are two to get you started: http://www.igniteyourbook.com and http://www.pixelofink.com/
19) Write your bio and have someone who can be objective critique it; you’ll need it when you start pitching yourself to the media.
20) Schedule your first book event!
21) Start your own email newsletter; it’s a great way to keep readers, friends and family updated and informed on your success.
22) Start a Twitter account and begin tweeting. If you don't think Twitter is significant, think again; it's been a major part of our marketing strategy for over 2 years now (before anyone even knew what Twitter was).
23) Develop a set of questions or discussion topics that book clubs or online book clubs can use for your book, and post them on your website for handy downloads.
24) Start a Face-book Fan page. Fan Pages are much better than a personal profile for marketing because they're searchable in Google.
25) See if you can get your friends to host a “book party” in their home. You come in and discuss your book and voila, a captive audience!
26) Find some catalogs you think your book would be perfect for and then submit your packet to them for consideration. If you're unsure of what catalogs might work for you, head on over to http://www.catalogs.com/ and peruse their list.
27) Go around to your local retailers and see if they’ll carry your book; even if it’s on consignment, it might be worth it! Don’t just offer this at bookstores either, see if your local dry cleaner, gift shops, and restaurants will take it. Often local establishments are very supportive of their local authors!
28) Visual is so important these days, how about getting an account on Vine or Instagram and doing short videos and pictures about your book or topic? Visuals are a great way to sell a book!
29) Write a review for someone else’s book that’s similar to yours. Not sure how this relates to your promotion? Well it’s called networking and it’s just a great idea to always do outreach.
30) Get yourself on Library Thing or Goodreads and start gathering friends and building your profile there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-become-a-goodreads_b_3719161.html
31) Make sure your blog is connected to Amazon via their Amazon connect program (yes, it's free). (You can do this through your Author Central Page)
32) Ask friends and family to email five people they know and tell them about your book.
33) Leave your business card, bookmark, or book flyer wherever you go.
34) Subscribe to Talkwalker.com or Mention.net and make sure that you are getting alerts under your name as well as your book title(s), brand, and keywords.
35) Pitch yourself to your local television stations.
36) Pitch yourself to your local print media.
37) Work on the Q&A for your press kit. You’ll need it when you start booking media interviews!
38) Schedule a book giveaway on Library Thing or Goodreads. It’s a fantastic way to drive new interest for your book! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/the-power-of-the-goodread_b_3736965.html
39) Is the topic of your book in the news? Check your local paper, and write a letter to the editor to share your expertise (and promote your book!).
40) Stop by your local library and see if you can set up an event. They love local authors.
41) Do you want to get your book into your local library system? Try dropping off a copy to your main library; if they stock it chances are the other branches will too.
42) Go to Chase’s Calendar of Events (www.Chases.com) and find out how to create your own holiday!
43) Going on vacation? Use your away-from-home time to schedule a book event or two.
44) If your book is appropriate, go to local schools to see if you can do a reading.
45) Got a book that could be sold in bulk? Start with your local companies first and see if they’re interested in buying some promotional copies to give away at company events.
46) Don’t forget to add reviews to your website. Remember that what someone else has to say is one thousand times more effective than anything you could say!
47) Trying to meet the press? Search for Press Clubs in your area, they meet once a month and are a great place to meet the media.
48) Want a celebrity endorsement? Find celebs in your market with an interest in your topic and then go for it. Remember all they can say is no. Check out the Actors Guild for a list of celeb representatives.
49) Ready to get some magazine exposure? Why not pitch some regional and national magazines with your topic or submit a freelance article for reprint consideration?
50) Work on your next book or work on writing mini-books. Sometimes the best way to sell your first book is by promoting your second, but also many authors are writing and promoting mini-books to keep readers engaged while they wait for their next book to come out. How long do mini-books need to be? 50-75 pages. That’s it!
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
1) Buy your domain name as soon as you have a title for your book. You can get domain names for as little as $12.95. Tip: When buying a domain always try to get a .com and stay away from hyphens, i.e. penny-sansevieri.com - surfers rarely remember to insert hyphens. You should also consider using your keywords in your domain because it’ll help you rank better. Social media is great, but don’t use your Face-book or Twitter pages as your “website” – you should own your domain and have a site. Period. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-build-the-perfect-_b_1932184.html
2) Head on over to Wordpress.com and start your very own blog (you can add it to your website later): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/ten-reasons-why-you-shoul_b_839231.html
3) Set up an event at your neighborhood bookstore. Do an event and not a signing, book signings are boring!
4) It’s all about content these days so why not create a calendar for content? Often if you aren't sure what to write, or when, a content calendar will keep you on track. You can plan the calendar around your free time (though you should blog weekly) and around holidays or events that may tie into your book.
5) Then, while you’re at it: brainstorm content ideas and start a content folder you can always refer back to when you aren't feeling “inspired” to write anything.
6) Check out other, similar authors online and see if you can do some networking.
7) Do some radio research and pitch yourself to at least five new stations this week. Here’s a great place to find radio stations! http://www.radio-locator.com/
8) Ready to get some business cards? Head on over to Vistaprint.com. The cards are free if you let them put their logo on the back; if you don't they're still really inexpensive.
9) Put together your marketing plan. Seriously, do this. If you don't know where you're going, any destination will do. If you don’t feel like doing an entire “plan” then pick ten things you want to do this month to promote your book.
10) Plan a contest or giveaway. Contests are a great way to promote your book. Make sure to mention the contest on Face-book!
11) Time to get yourself onto Wattpad. Never heard of Wattpad? It’s a place where you can run your content, chapters, short stories, whatever you want, and it’s a fantastic way to build fans and get feedback on your work!
12) Send thank-you notes to people who have been helpful to you.
13) Send your book out to at least ten book reviewers this week.
14) Do a quick Internet search for local writers’ conferences or book festivals you can attend: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/eight-tips-to-make-your-n_b_850665.html
15) Create an email signature for every email you send; email signatures are a great way to promote your book and message.
16) Ready to pitch bloggers? Excellent, then start by doing a search for the right ones on Google. You can also head over here and plug in your search term to find the top blogs in your market: http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/
17) Enhance your Amazon Author Central Page by linking to your blog, Twitter feed or adding a video if you have one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/sell-more-on-amazoncom-un_b_3670424.html
18) Plan your free e-book promotion. If you’re on KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) drop your price to zero for one day or three days. You’ll want to schedule this a week or so out, then head on over to sites where you can list your freebie. There are tons of them but here are two to get you started: http://www.igniteyourbook.com and http://www.pixelofink.com/
19) Write your bio and have someone who can be objective critique it; you’ll need it when you start pitching yourself to the media.
20) Schedule your first book event!
21) Start your own email newsletter; it’s a great way to keep readers, friends and family updated and informed on your success.
22) Start a Twitter account and begin tweeting. If you don't think Twitter is significant, think again; it's been a major part of our marketing strategy for over 2 years now (before anyone even knew what Twitter was).
23) Develop a set of questions or discussion topics that book clubs or online book clubs can use for your book, and post them on your website for handy downloads.
24) Start a Face-book Fan page. Fan Pages are much better than a personal profile for marketing because they're searchable in Google.
25) See if you can get your friends to host a “book party” in their home. You come in and discuss your book and voila, a captive audience!
26) Find some catalogs you think your book would be perfect for and then submit your packet to them for consideration. If you're unsure of what catalogs might work for you, head on over to http://www.catalogs.com/ and peruse their list.
27) Go around to your local retailers and see if they’ll carry your book; even if it’s on consignment, it might be worth it! Don’t just offer this at bookstores either, see if your local dry cleaner, gift shops, and restaurants will take it. Often local establishments are very supportive of their local authors!
28) Visual is so important these days, how about getting an account on Vine or Instagram and doing short videos and pictures about your book or topic? Visuals are a great way to sell a book!
29) Write a review for someone else’s book that’s similar to yours. Not sure how this relates to your promotion? Well it’s called networking and it’s just a great idea to always do outreach.
30) Get yourself on Library Thing or Goodreads and start gathering friends and building your profile there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-become-a-goodreads_b_3719161.html
31) Make sure your blog is connected to Amazon via their Amazon connect program (yes, it's free). (You can do this through your Author Central Page)
32) Ask friends and family to email five people they know and tell them about your book.
33) Leave your business card, bookmark, or book flyer wherever you go.
34) Subscribe to Talkwalker.com or Mention.net and make sure that you are getting alerts under your name as well as your book title(s), brand, and keywords.
35) Pitch yourself to your local television stations.
36) Pitch yourself to your local print media.
37) Work on the Q&A for your press kit. You’ll need it when you start booking media interviews!
38) Schedule a book giveaway on Library Thing or Goodreads. It’s a fantastic way to drive new interest for your book! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/the-power-of-the-goodread_b_3736965.html
39) Is the topic of your book in the news? Check your local paper, and write a letter to the editor to share your expertise (and promote your book!).
40) Stop by your local library and see if you can set up an event. They love local authors.
41) Do you want to get your book into your local library system? Try dropping off a copy to your main library; if they stock it chances are the other branches will too.
42) Go to Chase’s Calendar of Events (www.Chases.com) and find out how to create your own holiday!
43) Going on vacation? Use your away-from-home time to schedule a book event or two.
44) If your book is appropriate, go to local schools to see if you can do a reading.
45) Got a book that could be sold in bulk? Start with your local companies first and see if they’re interested in buying some promotional copies to give away at company events.
46) Don’t forget to add reviews to your website. Remember that what someone else has to say is one thousand times more effective than anything you could say!
47) Trying to meet the press? Search for Press Clubs in your area, they meet once a month and are a great place to meet the media.
48) Want a celebrity endorsement? Find celebs in your market with an interest in your topic and then go for it. Remember all they can say is no. Check out the Actors Guild for a list of celeb representatives.
49) Ready to get some magazine exposure? Why not pitch some regional and national magazines with your topic or submit a freelance article for reprint consideration?
50) Work on your next book or work on writing mini-books. Sometimes the best way to sell your first book is by promoting your second, but also many authors are writing and promoting mini-books to keep readers engaged while they wait for their next book to come out. How long do mini-books need to be? 50-75 pages. That’s it!
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Friday, January 31, 2014
What Authors Can Learn from the Promotion of Anchorman II, Starring Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy
By Scott Lorenz
Westwind Communications
Anchorman II: The Legend Continues is the highly anticipated, long overdue sequel to 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The first film quickly became a cult classic with its quippy one-liners and hilarious cast. The sequel premiered December 18. Leading up to the movie's release, the Anchorman team took promoting the film to another level.
Ron Burgundy was EVERYWHERE. In the year and a half following the announcement of the sequel, there was a museum exhibit, a book, a Ben and Jerry's ice cream, a new brand of Scotch, TV commercials for the Dodge Durango, an iPhone app, TV cameos, viral videos, a website chock-full of GIFs, and a college was even renamed after Mr. Burgundy.
So, in the marketing and promotional spirit of Ron Burgundy, here are some tips authors can use in the promotion of their own books.
1. Don't hesitate to do a small town, small market local news show as it might have national implications. Ron Burgundy made a guest appearance on a local news program in Bismark, North Dakota. The clip was so funny it was shown on news casts on every network all over the USA. How does this work for authors? I’ve seen my author interviews on local news picked up on by the national affiliates of FOX, CBS, NBC, and ABC-TV, shown across their syndicated network. In fact, many stories are put up ‘on the satellite’ so other affiliates can grab them and run the story. Sometimes those stories are localized by adding a local twist. Furthermore, the national news desks have people in the newsroom whose job it is to push and promote those stories to their affiliates. Contact your local news outlet for an interview, and don’t hesitate to travel to a small market for an interview. Here’s the infamous North Dakota TV clip in its entirety. http://youtu.be/2b5IhzGuMPg
2. Write your own testimonial. In his book Let Me Off at the Top, Ron Burgundy put his own blurb right on the cover: “I Wrote a Hell of a Book!” Most authors agree their book is “One Hell of a Book” but it’s rather self-serving and you won’t be able to get away with it. But who can say that for you? Find that person and get that testimonial. I’ll often ask an author if you could get anybody to blurb your book who would it be? Make a list of the top ten. Then if it’s in the realm of possibilities go out and get it. Check out the Let Me Off at the Top book trailer here: http://youtu.be/to2UYdirkpg
3. Be willing to travel all over the country. Ron Burgundy went from North Dakota to Connecticut to Los Angeles to New York. Obviously travel costs money, but so does obscurity. If nobody knows about your book what was the point in writing it? Your book is a ‘start-up’; spend time and money to promote it. Get your name and your work out there and as far out there as possible. Don't settle for “hometown press” with the headline “local man/woman publishes book” story. Take your work and promote yourself across the country. Look to special events like book festivals across the nation that you can tie to your book. Check out my list of book festivals and plan to attend a few.
4. Target internationally. “Comedy is very subject to local and cultural sensibilities,” Andrew Runyon, Paramount’s vice president of interactive marketing points out. “It requires a little bit more customization.” In order to be equally relevant and funny in America, as well as abroad, Will Ferrell created some videos for markets in the U.K., Ireland, and Australia. How can an author do this? Delve deep into the messages, themes, and characters of your book. Think about different cultures and how they might perceive your work. Make your book appeal to different nationalities. Show them why your book is as relevant in America as it is in Italy or England. YouTube goes worldwide, so does your Pinterest page and so do most press releases. I get phone calls and inquiries from all over the world requesting my authors conduct interviews. If you are not trying to get attention worldwide, it won’t happen by itself. Check out this clip from Australian TV. http://youtu.be/K0olH1FmP1Q
5. Ron Burgundy clips are shown on local newscasts. Context is key. "Part of the reason these clips work so well is that it's placing Ron Burgundy in a modern context, something that adds a fish-out-of-water element to his already goofy charm," says Drew Taylor of indiewire.com. Ron Burgundy found his niche in broadcast journalism. Think about where your book fits in best. A restaurant chef protagonist might sell well in Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma. A murder mystery book might gain press at a murder mystery themed weekend getaway. A lifestyle book may be picked up in a hotel bookstore that's renowned for team-building activities or company retreats.
6. Stir up a little competition with your readers. AdWeek.com's Christopher Heine explains, "Working with Zemoga, Paramount is employing a social media-styled casting call. The talent show-like initiative, 'Join Ron’s News Crew,' asks people from around the world to audition for the positions of anchor (#TeamRon), meteorologist (#TeamBrick), sportscaster (#TeamChamp), and live reporter (#TeamBrian)." The people auditioning will post their videos online and hashtag which team they're on. Start your own social media competition. Encourage fans to submit videos, GIFs, artwork, or stories to win a competition of your choosing. Your fans could create the cover art or choose an alternate ending. They could win a day in the life of your lead character or be chosen to have a private lunch with you, the author.
7. Think big, but also think small. The Anchorman II promotional team was especially proud of their collaboration with Tumblr. Nine animated GIFs were pieced together in order to create a socially embeddable poster for the film. Cliff Marks, president of National CineMedia, feels it is possible for GIF mashups to be the future of movie posters in this digital age. “These small, chewable formats are a cool way to present your content,” he says. “And the studios are starting to make that content a focus.”
The Bottom Line: Think like Ron Burgundy and consider some non-traditional marketing methods to get your book on the radar. If you ever want to become a top-selling author, get some swagger, step over the line, and steal a line from Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this, but I am kind of a big deal.”
About Book Publicist Scott Lorenz
Book publicist Scott Lorenz is president of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their fifteenth. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA officers, Navy SEALs, homemakers, fitness gurus, doctors, lawyers, and adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, and Howard Stern to name a few. Learn more about Westwind Communications’s book marketing approach at http://www.book-marketing-expert.com, or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist
Westwind Communications
Anchorman II: The Legend Continues is the highly anticipated, long overdue sequel to 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The first film quickly became a cult classic with its quippy one-liners and hilarious cast. The sequel premiered December 18. Leading up to the movie's release, the Anchorman team took promoting the film to another level.
So, in the marketing and promotional spirit of Ron Burgundy, here are some tips authors can use in the promotion of their own books.
1. Don't hesitate to do a small town, small market local news show as it might have national implications. Ron Burgundy made a guest appearance on a local news program in Bismark, North Dakota. The clip was so funny it was shown on news casts on every network all over the USA. How does this work for authors? I’ve seen my author interviews on local news picked up on by the national affiliates of FOX, CBS, NBC, and ABC-TV, shown across their syndicated network. In fact, many stories are put up ‘on the satellite’ so other affiliates can grab them and run the story. Sometimes those stories are localized by adding a local twist. Furthermore, the national news desks have people in the newsroom whose job it is to push and promote those stories to their affiliates. Contact your local news outlet for an interview, and don’t hesitate to travel to a small market for an interview. Here’s the infamous North Dakota TV clip in its entirety. http://youtu.be/2b5IhzGuMPg2. Write your own testimonial. In his book Let Me Off at the Top, Ron Burgundy put his own blurb right on the cover: “I Wrote a Hell of a Book!” Most authors agree their book is “One Hell of a Book” but it’s rather self-serving and you won’t be able to get away with it. But who can say that for you? Find that person and get that testimonial. I’ll often ask an author if you could get anybody to blurb your book who would it be? Make a list of the top ten. Then if it’s in the realm of possibilities go out and get it. Check out the Let Me Off at the Top book trailer here: http://youtu.be/to2UYdirkpg
3. Be willing to travel all over the country. Ron Burgundy went from North Dakota to Connecticut to Los Angeles to New York. Obviously travel costs money, but so does obscurity. If nobody knows about your book what was the point in writing it? Your book is a ‘start-up’; spend time and money to promote it. Get your name and your work out there and as far out there as possible. Don't settle for “hometown press” with the headline “local man/woman publishes book” story. Take your work and promote yourself across the country. Look to special events like book festivals across the nation that you can tie to your book. Check out my list of book festivals and plan to attend a few.
4. Target internationally. “Comedy is very subject to local and cultural sensibilities,” Andrew Runyon, Paramount’s vice president of interactive marketing points out. “It requires a little bit more customization.” In order to be equally relevant and funny in America, as well as abroad, Will Ferrell created some videos for markets in the U.K., Ireland, and Australia. How can an author do this? Delve deep into the messages, themes, and characters of your book. Think about different cultures and how they might perceive your work. Make your book appeal to different nationalities. Show them why your book is as relevant in America as it is in Italy or England. YouTube goes worldwide, so does your Pinterest page and so do most press releases. I get phone calls and inquiries from all over the world requesting my authors conduct interviews. If you are not trying to get attention worldwide, it won’t happen by itself. Check out this clip from Australian TV. http://youtu.be/K0olH1FmP1Q
5. Ron Burgundy clips are shown on local newscasts. Context is key. "Part of the reason these clips work so well is that it's placing Ron Burgundy in a modern context, something that adds a fish-out-of-water element to his already goofy charm," says Drew Taylor of indiewire.com. Ron Burgundy found his niche in broadcast journalism. Think about where your book fits in best. A restaurant chef protagonist might sell well in Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma. A murder mystery book might gain press at a murder mystery themed weekend getaway. A lifestyle book may be picked up in a hotel bookstore that's renowned for team-building activities or company retreats.
6. Stir up a little competition with your readers. AdWeek.com's Christopher Heine explains, "Working with Zemoga, Paramount is employing a social media-styled casting call. The talent show-like initiative, 'Join Ron’s News Crew,' asks people from around the world to audition for the positions of anchor (#TeamRon), meteorologist (#TeamBrick), sportscaster (#TeamChamp), and live reporter (#TeamBrian)." The people auditioning will post their videos online and hashtag which team they're on. Start your own social media competition. Encourage fans to submit videos, GIFs, artwork, or stories to win a competition of your choosing. Your fans could create the cover art or choose an alternate ending. They could win a day in the life of your lead character or be chosen to have a private lunch with you, the author.
7. Think big, but also think small. The Anchorman II promotional team was especially proud of their collaboration with Tumblr. Nine animated GIFs were pieced together in order to create a socially embeddable poster for the film. Cliff Marks, president of National CineMedia, feels it is possible for GIF mashups to be the future of movie posters in this digital age. “These small, chewable formats are a cool way to present your content,” he says. “And the studios are starting to make that content a focus.”
The Bottom Line: Think like Ron Burgundy and consider some non-traditional marketing methods to get your book on the radar. If you ever want to become a top-selling author, get some swagger, step over the line, and steal a line from Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this, but I am kind of a big deal.”
About Book Publicist Scott Lorenz
Book publicist Scott Lorenz is president of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their fifteenth. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA officers, Navy SEALs, homemakers, fitness gurus, doctors, lawyers, and adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, and Howard Stern to name a few. Learn more about Westwind Communications’s book marketing approach at http://www.book-marketing-expert.com, or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist
Friday, January 17, 2014
Discovery—Courting Catalogs and Bulk Sales
Have you ever dreamed of selling your book to a catalog or large corporation? A sale like that would register several thousand copies of non-returnable product on the book sale meter. The trick is knowing who to pitch and when.
Before you embark on this type of a project, it's important to understand the possibilities: these include incentives, gift basket inserts, sales to catalog companies, and corporate buys. All of these can be fantastic ways to gain some extra momentum for your book. The first step with this is to identify your market. Where does your book fit into this market and where could they use it? For example, a number of years ago I stumbled onto an event company that was planning a lot of corporate retreats to golf courses. The company would organize gift baskets for the executive sleeping rooms so when they arrived they had a lovely “welcome to the retreat” basket. This sparked an idea. At the time we were working on a golf book that would have been a perfect gift for them. When I offered it to them they got in touch with the author and purchased several thousand copies of this book. The key here is to start being aware of incentive items you might see and understand how they are used. Many are offered as consumer gifts or incentives while others are used as training tools or morale boosters for employees.
You may have to do some research because if you’re going after a corporate target, you want to find one that aligns with your book in some way. Thirteen years ago when I was first in business it was pretty easy to place books with companies and even airlines. I once coordinated a purchase for Southwest Airlines that took less than a week to close. Things have changed. Companies are more selective about what they buy, some no longer buy, and others have limited any incentive buys to once a year.
Some examples of bulk sales might be:
• Books offered at yearly company sales meetings
• Books offered to consumers at a discount (consumers are usually asked to send in product UPC's to qualify for these specials)
• Books offered to new customers at financial institutions
• Books offered to new home buyers
• Catalog sales
Corporate Buys
Once you analyze your book and the appropriate market, you’re going to want to put together a sales pitch. The pitch needs to be sharp and educational. Most of the folks you are going to be pitching may have never dealt with bulk buys before. They won’t know the benefits of offering a book; they won’t see the immediate tie-in with their audience, or the benefit of buying your books in bulk, so you’ll have to spend some time telling them why.
The why, however, should be pretty easy. First, books have a higher perceived value. If you've ever been given a swag bag, you know that much of it gets forgotten or discarded, but people are less inclined to toss a book. There is more value to the person receiving it.
Second, you may want to share with your potential buyer some of the success you've had with the book such as reviews, blurbs, etc. All of these things are positive. Perhaps even other sales you've made (unless it’s a competing company!). Also, if you are doing a short print run, remind them that the books can be customized with their company logo and perhaps even a letter from the president of their organization.
If you're going after a particular market and are trying to locate companies within that industry, try doing a search in Google. Your search should look like this: "your industry and companies."
Next, don't overlook companies in your own backyard. Think about industries, companies and organizations in your area that might work well for your book and begin going after them. Many times, local companies will welcome the opportunity to support hometown authors.
Once you've put your list together, you’ll want to create a pitch packet. While most of the pitching we do now is via email, when it comes to bulk sales to companies we’ll generally do a pitch packet that includes a book, endorsements, blurbs, and a cost breakdown of the book. Keep in mind that you’ll likely have to offer a significant discount to get them to buy. For example, you could offer 45 percent all the way up to 80 percent if the buy is big enough. When you start to get into big numbers like 5,000–10,000, etc., I recommend doing an offset print run to drop the cost of the book. Short print runs are always more expensive.
Corporate buys can take a bit of time, so start early. Most companies decide on gift or incentive items months in advance of the event. You’ll need to follow up and that’s really important. Most of the companies will not just call you when they get your packet. You’ll need to call and follow up. And, if you’re lucky to get a call or a meeting, be ready to lead with the benefits.
Catalogs & Stores
This is another area where your book can shine, but be cautious; unlike in the corporate arena, there’s a lot of competition here. First and foremost, you’ll want to identify the right catalog(s) to pitch. You can find a listing here:http://www.catalogs.com/.
Once you locate the catalog, you’ll need to search the site for submission information. If it’s not there (and it may not be), you’ll have to call them. Be warned: you may get the runaround. This isn’t intentional. Most of the phone reps you’ll come in contact with are there to handle customer issues and know very little about sales. You’ll have to be persistent and, if necessary, ask for a manager.
The same is true for stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Goods Store, Home Depot, Macy’s, etc. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find the submission information on their website but, in most cases, you’ll need to call. You will get bounced around a bit, but if you persist (just like the catalogs) you’ll eventually succeed.
As with corporate pitching, you’ll need a package (though, in some cases, you’ll submit your information online) but unlike with corporate pitching, you won’t have to convince them to buy. They know you’re submitting to make a sale, but I do recommend that you send them pricing for various purchase points. Use 0–1,000, 1,001–5,000, and so on. You may not have this pricing handy but a quick call to a printer should be able to get you estimates on printing your book in these quantities.
Gift Shops & Specialty Stores
This is another area that’s often overlooked. We were working with a cancer book recently that we sold into a few hospital gift shops with big or well-known cancer wards. Gift shops, whether in a hospital, amusement park, museum, or some other tourist location, can be a great way to push copies of your book into the exact perfect market. I was in Vegas recently and saw a self-published book on Vegas mob history in several of their gift shops. Perfect fit, right? I asked the shop owner how they found these books, they said, “Often the authors pitch us; if it’s a good fit, we’ll make a buy.” I find this is true for most stores. Consider any store that might be appropriate to your market, regardless of the size. We’ve sold books to church bookstores that continue to order copies year after year. I have one title I placed in a church store seven years ago, and they continue to reorder it. Imagine those sales numbers!
Be open and creative with your pursuit of bulk sales! There are a lot of possibilities out there to sell lots of copies of your book and the more niche you can get, the better.
How long does this process take? As I mentioned above, I’ve seen bulk sales turn around in a week, while others take a year or more to complete. Oh, and the most important part... how many books can you plan to sell? Anywhere from one thousand to several thousand depending on the deal and the company.
With the right book and the right targets, sales like these are not only a great way to gain exposure for your book but also, in the end, they make great "cents."
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
Before you embark on this type of a project, it's important to understand the possibilities: these include incentives, gift basket inserts, sales to catalog companies, and corporate buys. All of these can be fantastic ways to gain some extra momentum for your book. The first step with this is to identify your market. Where does your book fit into this market and where could they use it? For example, a number of years ago I stumbled onto an event company that was planning a lot of corporate retreats to golf courses. The company would organize gift baskets for the executive sleeping rooms so when they arrived they had a lovely “welcome to the retreat” basket. This sparked an idea. At the time we were working on a golf book that would have been a perfect gift for them. When I offered it to them they got in touch with the author and purchased several thousand copies of this book. The key here is to start being aware of incentive items you might see and understand how they are used. Many are offered as consumer gifts or incentives while others are used as training tools or morale boosters for employees.
You may have to do some research because if you’re going after a corporate target, you want to find one that aligns with your book in some way. Thirteen years ago when I was first in business it was pretty easy to place books with companies and even airlines. I once coordinated a purchase for Southwest Airlines that took less than a week to close. Things have changed. Companies are more selective about what they buy, some no longer buy, and others have limited any incentive buys to once a year.
Some examples of bulk sales might be:
• Books offered at yearly company sales meetings
• Books offered to consumers at a discount (consumers are usually asked to send in product UPC's to qualify for these specials)
• Books offered to new customers at financial institutions
• Books offered to new home buyers
• Catalog sales
Corporate Buys
Once you analyze your book and the appropriate market, you’re going to want to put together a sales pitch. The pitch needs to be sharp and educational. Most of the folks you are going to be pitching may have never dealt with bulk buys before. They won’t know the benefits of offering a book; they won’t see the immediate tie-in with their audience, or the benefit of buying your books in bulk, so you’ll have to spend some time telling them why.
The why, however, should be pretty easy. First, books have a higher perceived value. If you've ever been given a swag bag, you know that much of it gets forgotten or discarded, but people are less inclined to toss a book. There is more value to the person receiving it.
Second, you may want to share with your potential buyer some of the success you've had with the book such as reviews, blurbs, etc. All of these things are positive. Perhaps even other sales you've made (unless it’s a competing company!). Also, if you are doing a short print run, remind them that the books can be customized with their company logo and perhaps even a letter from the president of their organization.
If you're going after a particular market and are trying to locate companies within that industry, try doing a search in Google. Your search should look like this: "your industry and companies."
Next, don't overlook companies in your own backyard. Think about industries, companies and organizations in your area that might work well for your book and begin going after them. Many times, local companies will welcome the opportunity to support hometown authors.
Once you've put your list together, you’ll want to create a pitch packet. While most of the pitching we do now is via email, when it comes to bulk sales to companies we’ll generally do a pitch packet that includes a book, endorsements, blurbs, and a cost breakdown of the book. Keep in mind that you’ll likely have to offer a significant discount to get them to buy. For example, you could offer 45 percent all the way up to 80 percent if the buy is big enough. When you start to get into big numbers like 5,000–10,000, etc., I recommend doing an offset print run to drop the cost of the book. Short print runs are always more expensive.
Corporate buys can take a bit of time, so start early. Most companies decide on gift or incentive items months in advance of the event. You’ll need to follow up and that’s really important. Most of the companies will not just call you when they get your packet. You’ll need to call and follow up. And, if you’re lucky to get a call or a meeting, be ready to lead with the benefits.
Catalogs & Stores
This is another area where your book can shine, but be cautious; unlike in the corporate arena, there’s a lot of competition here. First and foremost, you’ll want to identify the right catalog(s) to pitch. You can find a listing here:http://www.catalogs.com/.
Once you locate the catalog, you’ll need to search the site for submission information. If it’s not there (and it may not be), you’ll have to call them. Be warned: you may get the runaround. This isn’t intentional. Most of the phone reps you’ll come in contact with are there to handle customer issues and know very little about sales. You’ll have to be persistent and, if necessary, ask for a manager.
The same is true for stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Goods Store, Home Depot, Macy’s, etc. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find the submission information on their website but, in most cases, you’ll need to call. You will get bounced around a bit, but if you persist (just like the catalogs) you’ll eventually succeed.
As with corporate pitching, you’ll need a package (though, in some cases, you’ll submit your information online) but unlike with corporate pitching, you won’t have to convince them to buy. They know you’re submitting to make a sale, but I do recommend that you send them pricing for various purchase points. Use 0–1,000, 1,001–5,000, and so on. You may not have this pricing handy but a quick call to a printer should be able to get you estimates on printing your book in these quantities.
Gift Shops & Specialty Stores
This is another area that’s often overlooked. We were working with a cancer book recently that we sold into a few hospital gift shops with big or well-known cancer wards. Gift shops, whether in a hospital, amusement park, museum, or some other tourist location, can be a great way to push copies of your book into the exact perfect market. I was in Vegas recently and saw a self-published book on Vegas mob history in several of their gift shops. Perfect fit, right? I asked the shop owner how they found these books, they said, “Often the authors pitch us; if it’s a good fit, we’ll make a buy.” I find this is true for most stores. Consider any store that might be appropriate to your market, regardless of the size. We’ve sold books to church bookstores that continue to order copies year after year. I have one title I placed in a church store seven years ago, and they continue to reorder it. Imagine those sales numbers!
Be open and creative with your pursuit of bulk sales! There are a lot of possibilities out there to sell lots of copies of your book and the more niche you can get, the better.
How long does this process take? As I mentioned above, I’ve seen bulk sales turn around in a week, while others take a year or more to complete. Oh, and the most important part... how many books can you plan to sell? Anywhere from one thousand to several thousand depending on the deal and the company.
With the right book and the right targets, sales like these are not only a great way to gain exposure for your book but also, in the end, they make great "cents."
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com
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