Category Archives: Book Marketing

To market your book successfully, you don’t need a book full of jargon and buzzwords – but you do need a marketing plan. For most authors, and many large publishers even, a marketing plan will produce rather underwhelming results. There are numerous opportunities for a marketing plan to go awry, so I’ve outlined a few of them below that are the most common and fundamental – hopefully this will help you avoid them!

Common Marketing Plan mistakes:

Missed your target

Quite frequently, a book’s marketing plan is designed to appeal to an author’s ego, or spouse, or an ideal of what a “book marketing plan” should be – not for the ultimate consumer of your book, the reader. Remember to think about where your target audience spends their time, and how they are likely to be looking for your book. What appeals to you (or anyone who is already familiar with your book) isn’t necessarily the same thing that will appeal to an uninitiated reader.

Remember, for your marketing plan to be effective, it needs to concentrate on presenting those things that are most important to the end consumer – not how great you are as an author, nor even how amazing your book happens to be – concentrate on what you know your reader needs most.

Lost your focus

If the word “everyone” is anywhere in your marketing plan – or even in your brain while writing your marketing plan – you probably lost your focus. As with most things in life, trying to do or be “everything” is a pretty sure formula for failure. Successful marketing is all about targeting and understanding the unique reasons consumers will buy your product – and finding ways to reach those specific individuals who are most interested in what you have to say.

Targeting a specific segment of a market (called “niche marketing”) – and tying your marketing activities (“Plans” and “Actions” from last month – remember?) to these niche segments will guarantee far more success than a broad, vague, “shot-gun” approach. Large companies need huge volumes of business to succeed – so they can spend tens of thousands of dollars on broad, sweeping marketing. Most likely, you don’t have those resources and need to compete intelligently – niche marketing allows you to develop a strong market position against other competitive product.

Thought you were superhuman

Going right along with being “everything to everyone” is “doing everything all the time” – and it’s a great way to go broke and get exhausted. Don’t let your marketing plan become some behemoth tome – 4 effective, targeted, and achievable things are far better than 40 items, of which 39 you’ll never get to or have the cash to perform. Be very very honest with yourself on how much time, money, and energy you have for your book marketing. Then, when your plan is done, take out half of what you set as Objectives and rewrite 2 more Actions for each Plan.

Remember – your marketing plan is a “living” document, and for it to thrive, it must be put into action, and for you to take any action at all your plans must be realistic.

Forgot you wrote a marketing plan

Every weekday should have something you are attending to on your marketing plan – and you should be making notes or checking check boxes on at least a weekly basis.

The vast majority of marketing plans fail because they got written and forgotten.

KEEP IT IN YOUR FACE! On your desk calendar or to-do list, in your daytimer, in Outlook Express, email yourself reminders, whatever – but you should be taking some sort of action almost every day. Put your Actions on a pocket calendar and carry it with you – this really is about “concerted effort”. It needs to become second nature – a way of thinking!

Made it vague and full of buzz-words like “paradigm shift”
(which is probably why you forgot it up above…)

Your Goals need to be aggressive – they also need to be concrete. “Sell 5000 copies in 1 year” is a heck of a goal, but you can build something around it… “Be A Bestseller in 1 year” is pretty much meaningless. “Create a shift in the attitudes towards toe-nail fungus” doesn’t work either – there is nothing there…
It is quite normal to struggle with creating a marketing plan that has Goals that seem achievable – but if the goals are vague, you’ll never be able to create “Actions” to support them. In fact, if you find yourself unable to create “Actions” to support your Goals – then you most likely are off track somehow.

Didn’t make it measurable

For any marketing plan to be a success, there must be a way to measure that success – and items must be completed, follow-ups created, and Objectives obtained. You need to be able to see if you are making progress – even if it’s just ticking off to-do items. Your marketing plan succeeds from the bottom up, not the top down – that means it’s ticking off the little items way down in your “Actions” list that begin to achieve the bigger things farther up the food chain. These are the little items you need to think about each day.

Thought you’d never change it (or, are resistant to changing it)
Marketing plans are a living thing – and they need to be updated and modified as market conditions change, new ideas arrive, or old ideas are proven impractical or useless. Always be looking for better ideas – but work them from the bottom up. You should update, modify, and change “Actions” far more frequently than your Goals and Objectives. However, do not pursue a path just because you wrote it down – give everything a chance to succeed, but bail if you feel you are spinning your wheels. Cut out the offending part of your plan and replace it with something new and fresh.

..and last, but not least…

Figured you should only use your own ideas

Guess what? Nothing’s new… and everything out there can be adapted to fit your situation in some way. Read every book, newsletter, forum, web site that you can get your hands on – and borrow ideas from everywhere! Ideas can come in from all sorts of directions – be open!

***

That’s it – avoided all these common traps? You now have the world’s best marketing plan for your book. Get moving!

Let us know if we can answer any questions, and thanks for reading. As always – if you like this information (and found it helpful) please feel free to post it on your site, put it in a blog, toss it in your newsletter, or in general spread it around. Please just give us credit here at www.dogearpublishing.net.

May you have success in your creative efforts!

Ray

Ray Robinson is a partner in Dog Ear Publishing http://www.dogearpublishing.net a self publishing services company specializing in delivering “high touch” services to the author community. His company provides a full range of services to authors, from editorial to page layout to marketing and fulfillment. Visit the web site for a complete discussion on marketing your book.

Author: Ray Robinson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Advice on AdSense

Today, I’d like to lift the veil a little bit more and talk about the single most overlooked aspect of book marketing. If you’re like most authors without a recognizable name or a major publishing house behind you, you understand that a lot of the onus on book sales falls on the author. Authors who have invested time or money into writing their book already are understandably fairly hesitant about pouring MORE money into their book to market it. What most fail to understand though is that writing the book is the hard part; the easier part is actually marketing and promoting it if you do it right – and it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Sure, there are a lot of things authors can do in book marketing which take a significant investment. Advertising, whether it be online, offline, outdoors or in print, costs some money. Building a website around your book doesn’t take a lot of money necessarily but does take a lot of time to do it right. Doing other forms of guerrilla marketing takes both time and money.

So what exactly is THE most overlooked asset an author has for marketing his or her book? Free copies.

Most authors get an allotment of free book copies from their publisher. The number varies by publisher, but in most cases the number is not insignificant. Most people’s initial tendency is to send free copies of their book to their family and close friends, which is fine. But what do you do with the rest of them? Are you thinking strategically about who to send them to? If you do think long and hard about each and every copy you send out, the chances of maximizing your book marketing efforts from the free copies is great.

What I mean precisely is that you should track each and every book copy you send out or give away. Build a spreadsheet and put people’s name in one column and the “outcome” in another. Obviously for friends and family, the outcome is N/A since you’re not necessarily expecting a whole lot of sales to be generated from that group; you’re simply sending them out as gifts with no other ulterior motives in mind.

Where the “outcome” column comes into play is with everyone else outside your innermost circle. Have you sent free copies to notable book reviewers? Did you think about sending copies of the book to major bloggers? What about to website owners in your book’s genre? Bloggers and websites are always looking for interesting content to talk about and write about, and most will likely talk about your book without you even having to ask if you send them a copy or two. Did you send any to your alma mater? Your alma mater’s bookstore? Your hometown newspaper? The list goes on.

After you compile your “hit list”, track whether or not those individual free copies resulted in anything. Did you end up getting a positive book review? Did your alma mater respond positively and buy more copies of it? You get the idea.

One final tactic under your overall “free copy book marketing strategy” is that you should never walk around without at least one copy of your book in your bag or purse. In fact, I keep two with me at all times. Why? Because you never know what powerful, influential person you will randomly meet who is interested in your book. To be able to personally hand them – signed or unsigned – a finished copy of your book on the spot is a great way to make a strong impression and generate marketing for yourself. If the new person you meet is interested enough in talking about your book with you, he or she might be interested in talking to someone ELSE about your book, or at least how they came upon getting a free copy. This can generate sales, positive word-of-mouth, and better establish your own personal brand.

Mike Sprouse is a Chief Marketer, Corporate Entrepreneur, Author and Philanthropist. He is a recognized public speaker and marketing expert, having run every facet of marketing and corporate strategy for public and private companies. Mike is the author of the critically-acclaimed book, “The Greatness Gap”, and is a frequent blogger on his website at http://www.mikesprouse.com. He is a former professional tennis player with an ATP world ranking in singles. Mike is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a BA in Accounting. If you would like to read more about Mike, you can visit his “About” page on his website at http://www.mikesprouse.com/about-mike-sprouse-marketing/.

Author: Mike Sprouse
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
How to make baked potato fast

A good book marketing plan aims to accomplish two main objectives. Promoting you as a credible, likeable author and selling copies of your newly published book. Therefore it’s important to know how to market a book. Once you have perfected the art of successfully promoting both, you will see increase in your book sales.

You will also find it a bit easier to schedule appearances at bookstores, speaking engagements, radio interviews and even television programs. The irony of this goal is that you must first tackle all the above mentioned sources before you can climb to higher heights. Here are four elements to focus on when creating learning to market a book that will help promote your name and your book.

Physical appearances at local or national events are a great way to be seen and heard. You want your readers to get to know you and your name. Once readers are familiar with you it will be easier for them to associate your name with your book. This is called an author platform and it’s a necessary way to market a book. Many writers think selling their books will make them famous, but making yourself famous will sell your book.

I’m not suggesting you do anything radical or irresponsible. You want to create a respectful reputation. Booking appearances will get you in front of your local and national readers. Simply attending festivals, charity events, book signings and other activities will build your author platform and help market a book.

Creating buzz can be tricky but worth the while. The term marketing buzz derives from the definition of buzz combined with advertising efforts. Simply put, it means word of mouth advertising. This form of advertising has been and continues to be the most effective and least costly way to market a book. When a person, product, or service receives positive feedback that is shared amongst consumers there is usually an increase in profits.

As more people share their satisfaction with an experience, it encourages others to want similar results. When a friend tells you how great her shampoo is, aren’t you curious to try the same brand? If a co-worker sings the praises of his favorite television program at the water cooler, don’t you consider watching an episode yourself? Now imagine a reader sharing a heartfelt review of your book to her sister. Chances are her sister will want to read the book herself. Yet another reliable way to market a book.

Targeting your audience is a very important part of any good book marketing plan. Without knowing who would be likely to read your book, your marketing efforts will be costly and filled with trial and error setbacks. You don’t want to send your marketing efforts into the world amiss. This is an area that requires specific, diligent and accurate preparation in order to effectively market a book.

Once you have identified your targeted audience, you can then better formulate methods and strategies aimed at this particular group or groups in order to optimize the most sales for the least amount of money. As in any other promotion, efforts to market a book require careful planning. You can use many varied ways of promotion, but you must know to whom you are promoting.

Media advertising whether press releases, online and offline advertisements or email generated leads will propel your book sales to amazing heights. The media reaches readers you will not be able to reach physically. Newspapers, emails, radio and television find their way into the homes, offices, ears and eyes of the world. Not only will it help to market a book, but it will increase the chances of success.

I read once that someone in a small village who knows nothing of world events could know the name of Paris Hilton. This is because Ms. Hilton has been plastered all over the media. Be it good news or bad news, she is well promoted. Keep this concept in mind when incorporating the media to market a book. Knowing what, where and how to advertise in the media can successfully launch your career as a writer.

Take a look at our additional book marketing ideas to help sell more copies of your book.

Author: Alana C. Johnson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
iPhone iPad apps

In the last few weeks, I’ve run into an issue three times. Now writing isn’t a big subject, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was. You see writing also isn’t a subject that evokes passion in people — especially professionals. Or maybe I should say excessive emotions rather than passion. You see writers tend to put their emotions onto the paper, not into their real lives. Maybe that’s one reason writers are such a laid back bunch — we expend the noisy emotions on paper and keep the quiet ones for real life.

In any case, two of these cases involved people claiming that eBooks weren’t real books. And that only printed books were worthy of serious consideration. I must be honest; one of them admitted that digital books — meaning real printed books copied to a digital format — were still valid.

At the same time, I was predicting the effect of the arrival of traditional publishers on the eBook scene.

This got me to thinking since I write both types of books. What is the difference between writing an eBook and writing a traditional book?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to determine what I meant by a book and an eBook. You see eBooks have developed a bad reputation. One that’s deserved. That of being poor quality and being typically a tempest in a teapot. A very tiny teapot.

So I had to put some limits around the terms.

Far too often eBooks are actually just reports with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. They’re really just white papers and extended report length pieces. They’re far too short to be honestly considered as a book or eBook. At most they might fit the definition of monograph. An essay or thesis to be more precise.

And second they are often poorly written and poorly edited. But that’s not a factor of the medium. That’s a factor of the expense and recognition of quality.

But both of these are a vanishing breed. They may last for a short time but the market is going to kill them soon.

On the other hand I also looked at books. And realized that books ran from novelty and executive length all the way up to tomes. So comparing writing different length books was going to be a problem.

The only way to be fair was to compare the same fruit of the writing tree… equal length books of the same type.

So what’s the difference between writing a very long eBook of a hundred pages and an executive length book of a hundred pages?

Does an eBook take less time? Nope.

Does an eBook take less effort? Nope.

Does an eBook take fewer steps? Nope.

Does an eBook take different steps? Not for the writing parts.

So what is the difference?

The publishing step. When writing an eBook you need to format the book in the form it will be sold in. When publishing using a traditional process the publisher does that.

But arguably that’s a publisher’s problem not the writer. And it’s really a function of the use of traditional publishers versus self publishing.

So the answer is… there is no difference. Writing an eBook is exactly the same as writing a traditional book.

Do you want to learn how to write a book in 24 hours? Take my brand new free course here: http://www.learningcreators.com

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

Author: Glen Ford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty tariff

In the last few weeks, I’ve run into an issue three times. Now writing isn’t a big subject, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was. You see writing also isn’t a subject that evokes passion in people — especially professionals. Or maybe I should say excessive emotions rather than passion. You see writers tend to put their emotions onto the paper, not into their real lives. Maybe that’s one reason writers are such a laid back bunch — we expend the noisy emotions on paper and keep the quiet ones for real life.

In any case, two of these cases involved people claiming that eBooks weren’t real books. And that only printed books were worthy of serious consideration. I must be honest; one of them admitted that digital books — meaning real printed books copied to a digital format — were still valid.

At the same time, I was predicting the effect of the arrival of traditional publishers on the eBook scene.

This got me to thinking since I write both types of books. What is the difference between writing an eBook and writing a traditional book?

It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to determine what I meant by a book and an eBook. You see eBooks have developed a bad reputation. One that’s deserved. That of being poor quality and being typically a tempest in a teapot. A very tiny teapot.

So I had to put some limits around the terms.

Far too often eBooks are actually just reports with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. They’re really just white papers and extended report length pieces. They’re far too short to be honestly considered as a book or eBook. At most they might fit the definition of monograph. An essay or thesis to be more precise.

And second they are often poorly written and poorly edited. But that’s not a factor of the medium. That’s a factor of the expense and recognition of quality.

But both of these are a vanishing breed. They may last for a short time but the market is going to kill them soon.

On the other hand I also looked at books. And realized that books ran from novelty and executive length all the way up to tomes. So comparing writing different length books was going to be a problem.

The only way to be fair was to compare the same fruit of the writing tree… equal length books of the same type.

So what’s the difference between writing a very long eBook of a hundred pages and an executive length book of a hundred pages?

Does an eBook take less time? Nope.

Does an eBook take less effort? Nope.

Does an eBook take fewer steps? Nope.

Does an eBook take different steps? Not for the writing parts.

So what is the difference?

The publishing step. When writing an eBook you need to format the book in the form it will be sold in. When publishing using a traditional process the publisher does that.

But arguably that’s a publisher’s problem not the writer. And it’s really a function of the use of traditional publishers versus self publishing.

So the answer is… there is no difference. Writing an eBook is exactly the same as writing a traditional book.

Do you want to learn how to write a book in 24 hours? Take my brand new free course here: http://www.learningcreators.com

Do you want to read more free information like this? Go to my blog: http://www.learningcreators.com/blog/

Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.

Author: Glen Ford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing