Category Archives: Book Marketing

Whether you’ve just published a book or have a book that isn’t selling, now is the time to get to it; start marketing today! Ensuring the success of any book is something even the biggest publishers have never been able to guarantee, but with a good book, a little or a lot of money, and just plain hard work the odds are in your favor; many have done it. Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book.

Your book press release should not be written as you would a sales letter or flier, it should be written for the editor and tell about your book in a factual way, no opinion or glowing remarks. Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly. Make sure you have at least one good press release, written in AP style, that you can send out for the lifetime of your book.

Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media. Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book’s website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Send out at least 10 press releases to the print and broadcast media in your area every month.

Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories.

Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline. You can give away your book in a raffle at a local function to get more book recognition. I’ve seen publishers lose a lot of money paying for expensive display ads, so beware if you do this; I don’t advise it in the beginning — get your feet wet first so you know what you’re doing.

Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don’t assume it’s already listed. Women buy more books then men; see how you can fit your book into the women’s’ market. Contact any companies, corporations or organizations that might use your book for promotions; offer significant discounts for volume orders or for thousands of copies offer a specified amount above book production costs.

Place free ads periodically for your book’s website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website. Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers.

Every day it’s important to focus on a variety of marketing approaches. Local radio shows and television appearances are good but are often forgotten within hours of the broadcast; make sure to make or get a copy of any television broadcast for future promotions. If your book solves a problem, focus on this in your marketing.

Your sales letter or flier should include an eye-grabbing headline, the benefits to the buyer, the book features, book sales information and testimonials. Be your own publicist and send a press release along with a review copy of your book to publications in your book’s genre and to book review magazines.

Market your book to your number one market first, and then go after the secondary markets. Get as many testimonials about your book, as possible, from experts in the field relating to your title, not customers; use on your fliers and back of books.

Make sure do some serious marketing and promotion every single day, no excuses. One of the biggest problems self publishers and book publishers tell me about is the hundreds of books they have in inventory they haven’t set up a marketing plan for; don’t let this happen to you — get prepared now. Use your book promotion and book marketing dollars wisely; go after the free and cheap resources daily.

For more information on book marketing tips and selling more books go to http://www.TwinPeaksPress.com founded in 1982, specializing in help for authors, self publishers, ebook and book publishers with tips, advice and resources, including information on media, library and other mailing lists, and press releases – online, wire service and offline distribution

Author: Helen Hecker
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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As an indie author, you are engaging in marketing every time you send a tweet, whether through direct marketing (i.e. pushing product) or indirect marketing (i.e. building your brand as an author). On Twitter, direct marketing should be minimal. The bulk of your marketing efforts should be indirect and focused on getting your name out there and providing valuable content for your followers. As part of that, you’ll want tangible followers who, because you’ve built relationships with them, will help you market your books and enhance your brand.

With that in mind, it’s not the size of your Twitter following but the quality. You’ve undoubtedly seen many Twitter users (whether indie authors or otherwise) with massive followings. You’re probably even a bit jealous of some of them. In my experience, most of those impressive follower numbers are hollow and don’t actually add much value. Twenty thousand followers won’t help you much if you don’t interact with them and you’ve added people simply to pad your numbers.

Here are a few suggested marketing dos and don’ts for Twitter that will help any indie author maximize their use of Twitter and improve the quality of their Twitter experience. These tips apply equally to authors selling hard copy books or ebooks.

1. DO follow quality people. Find established and successful authors in your particular genre(s) and review their followers on Twitter. Follow those people that seem the most interested in reading and your genre. They are your market and the people most likely to purchase your books. Follow a dozen or so twice a week and see how it goes.

2. DO NOT over-follow indie or self-published authors, particularly those who don’t have a broad following. You’ll see many indie authors make the mistake of heavily following fellow authors. There are certainly benefits to following fellow authors, but for the most part, it’s a lot of noise, self-promotion and ‘attaboys. Broaden your network and make authors a small portion of the people you follow.

3. DO interact with your followers and those you’re following. Comment on their tweets. Have conversations. Get to know them. Re-tweet interesting tweets. This is networking 101 and is a must to enhance your brand as an author via Twitter.

4. DO NOT directly market your book more than a couple times a week. We’ve all seen the indie authors whose tweets are nothing but direct, in-your-face marketing. This gets old quickly. At the very least, make the marketing tweets interesting to your followers, such as using quotes from your novel or posting questions about themes in your book. Also consider sharing timely articles that discuss or touch upon themes in your book. If you have followers interested in these issues, then it’s a natural way to generate additional interest in your book.

5. DO provide quality tweets and information that your followers will value. This can be links to news articles, interesting quotes or random facts. Focus on things that will make your followers laugh, think, question a belief or best of all, interact with you.

6. DO NOT use auto-responders when somebody follows you. Your interactions on Twitter should be personal, not manufactured. This is especially true if the auto-responder is of a promotional nature. Resist the hard sale or risk making a bad first impression on your new follower (and possibly damaging your brand).

7. DO unfollow people who do not follow you back within a reasonable time (two weeks or so). There are certain Twitter users who are well known enough to only follow a few people. Most do not fall into this category. By all means, if there’s a particular person who you feel provides beneficial content and they don’t follow you back, keep following them. In general though, it’s perfectly reasonable to unfollow anyone who’s not following you back. This will help make your Twitter feed more manageable.

There’s also a practical reason for doing this. Twitter has implemented a strict ratio of followers to those who are following you. If your ratio becomes too unbalanced, Twitter may restrict your ability to follow other people. ManageFilter is a great tool to determine who you are following that is not following you ( http://manageflitter.com/ ).

8) DO NOT over follow people who send excessive tweets. When somebody has sent 20K+ tweets, it will clog up your main feed with noise. Similarly, think twice about following people who follow an excessive number of people. In both cases, these people are likely more interested in quantity rather than quality. They are unlikely to be good allies in your marketing endeavours. The same applies to you – resist the urge to pad your followers or inundate your followers.

9) DO use a quality Twitter application like TweetDeck or HootSuite. Apps like these allow you to schedule tweets, manage your lists, and build feeds for particular key terms, people you’re following and hashtags (such as “#amwriting,” “political thriller,” etc.). These apps will save you time and increase efficiencies in your marketing efforts and brand development.

10) DO NOT follow people who do not retweet or interact with their followers. Twitter should be a symbiotic relationship. It’s about people helping other people, either directly or indirectly. Some people view Twitter solely as a direct, in-your-face promotional tool. Maybe that works for them, but by and large, it won’t for you. People who only promote themselves are unlikely to be of value to you as an indie author.

With Twitter, quality trumps quantity. Let me know if you can think of any others that I overlooked. Thanks, and good luck!

Allen Mitchum
Author of 28 Pages – A Political Thriller
http://www.allenmitchum.com
Free Sample or purchase 28 Pages: http://amzn.to/sovNfV

Author: Allen Mitchum
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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If you haven’t heard of bestselling thriller novelist, Barry Eisler, it’s time you have. Former CIA operative and technology lawyer, Barry is now the bestselling author of the insanely popular John Rain series of thriller novels.

In this Q&A, Barry discusses his latest title, “The Detachment,” the writing life & the three reasons he turned down a $500,000 advance from a mainstream publisher, to self-publish.

SO MANY OF US HAVE BEEN EAGER FOR THE RELEASE OF “THE DETACHMENT.” CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT IT?

“The Detachment” marks the return of my half-Japanese, half-American assassin John Rain, who took a little time off to try to get his life together after the sixth book in the Rain series, “Requiem For An Assassin.”

His on-again, off-again romance with Mossad agent Delilah didn’t end happily (find out more in my short story, “Paris Is A Bitch”), and in The Detachment, he finds himself on the wrong side of an attempted American coup, up against rolling terror attacks, presidential hit teams, and a national security state as obsessed with guarding its own secrets as it is with invading the privacy of the populace.

WHAT ASPECTS OF “THE DETACHMENT” ARE YOU PROUDEST OF?

Well, it was a blast bringing together the two series universes I’ve created – that of the Rain books, and that of black ops soldier Ben Treven, who readers met in “Fault Line” and “Inside Out.” Putting together Rain, Dox, Treven and Larison, and forcing them to manage their alpha-male, lone-wolf instincts to survive the forces arrayed against them, was great.

But proudest? Probably the realism and timeliness of the backstory and the plot.

Since the end of the Cold War, there’s been much whether the thriller, at least the contemporary version, is still a viable form. Despite then Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey’s admonition that “We have slain a mighty dragon, but now find ourselves in a jungle filled with snakes,” villains seemed scarce during the “peace dividend” years of the Clinton administration. Nine-eleven and the explosion of al Qaeda in the popular consciousness, of course, changed all that, and Islamic fundamentalism provided a new treasure trove of contemporary villains and plot lines.

For thriller writers interested in realism, though, the familiar “Islamic Terrorist Villain” plotline has a serious shortcoming: terrorism, of whatever stripe, poses far less danger to America than does America’s own overreaction to the fear of terrorism. To put it another way, America has a significantly greater capacity for national suicide than any non-state actor has for national murder. If thrillers are built on large-scale danger, therefore, and if a thriller novelist wants to convincingly portray the largest dangers possible, the novelist has to grapple not so much with the possibility of a terror attack, as with the reality of the massive, unaccountable national security state that has metastasized in response to that possibility.

This is of course a challenge, because unaccountable bureaucracies-what Hannah Arendt called “Rule by Nobody”-make for less obvious villains than do lone, bearded zealots seeking to destroy the Great Satan, etc., etc. The trick, I think, is to create an antagonist who is part of the ruling power structure but who also maintains an outsider’s perspective-who personifies and animates an entity that, destructive and oppressive though it is, is itself is too large and cumbersome to ever really be sentient. This is Colonel Horton, probably the most ambiguous villain I’ve ever created (and therefore probably the most compelling).

And thus, The Detachment: a small team of lone wolf, deniable irregulars, each with ambiguous motives and conflicting loyalties, pitted against the relentless, pervasive, grinding force of an American national security state gone mad. It’s real, it’s timely, and it’s built on an unnervingly possible premise, and I’m exceptionally proud of that.

WHEN WE SPOKE LAST, YOU SAID THAT IT TOOK YOU 4-5 MONTHS TO COMPLETE THE FIRST DRAFT OF A NOVEL. OVER THE YEARS, HAS YOUR DRAFTING PROCESSED CHANGED?

Not that much. Still about a month or two of thinking things through followed by about four months of feverish writing. All, alas, with lots of interruptions, but somehow it all gets done.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO FORGO THE $500,000 ADVANCE YOU WERE OFFERED TO INSTEAD STRIKE OUT ON YOUR OWN AND SELF-PUBLISH?

The first reason is the digital split. A legacy publisher offers authors 17.5% of the retail price of a digital title; a self-published author keeps 70%. That’s a lot of volume the legacy publisher has to move to make up for the deficit, and I decided that, over time, I could move enough on my own to come out ahead.

The second reason, though I supposed it’s really so separate from the first, is control over pricing and timing. The current business imperative of legacy publishing is to preserve the position of paper and retard the growth of digital.

Legacy publishers try to accomplish this objective by charging too much for paper books and by slaving the digital release to the paper. I believe my sweet spot per-unit price (the per-unit price that, multiplied by volume, results in maximum revenues) is around five dollars, and legacy publishers won’t price new digital titles that low (in fact, they went to war with Amazon over Amazon’s $9.99 price point, which they judged too low).

I also want to release the digital version as soon as it’s ready and the paper version afterward because a paper book takes longer to get to market (you have to glue it, ship it, etc), and legacy publishers insist on holding back the digital version until the paper version is ready. That costs me money, because until my books are available for sale, they don’t earn anything.

Anyway, in short, my second reason was that my philosophy on price and timing is antithetical to the price and timing philosophy of legacy publishers, and theirs to mine.

A third reason, by the way, was control over packaging decisions. I’ve lost too many sales to lazy, ill-conceived covers, and prefer to be in charge of such matters.

IN REGARDS TO SELF-PUBLISHING, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL SEPARATE THE TRULY TALENTED AUTHORS WITH NOVELS THAT HAVE LEGITIMATE COMMERCIAL APPEAL FROM THE REST OF THE PACK?

Hard work and luck – same as always.

WHEN I SPOKE WITH YOU LAST, YOU DIDN’T ADHERE TO A WRITING SCHEDULE. STILL NO WRITING SCHEDULE?

Still trying to find one! So many interruptions. But I think digital will be good to me. I’ve written two short stories (“The Lost Coast” and “Paris Is A Bitch”) and they’re selling well, and the immediate gratification I get from writing a short story and making it available the very day it’s done is a huge incentive to avoid distractions.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT RESEARCHING, WRITING OR PROMOTING?

I write about politics and language at my syndicated blog, Heart of the Matter, and work out, and, when I’m very lucky, get to take a quiet walk at night.

And there’s nothing like a good book and a fine single-malt Scotch.

DESCRIBE YOUR WRITING ENVIRONMENT.

A quiet office, good light, Mac 24-inch monitor, and appallingly comfortable sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Ordinarily with green tea; as the deadline approaches, with a pot of coffee.

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL EVENING IN THE LIFE OF BARRY EISLER.

Hah. You’re looking at one right now.

A TYPICAL WEEKEND?

Not so different, alas. I work too much.

I JUST FINISHED JOHN LOCKE’S “HOW I SOLD A MILLION EBOOKS IN 5 MONTHS.” IT SEEMS AS THOUGH HE SPENDS A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA. ESPECIALLY ON TWITTER. IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, HOW IMPORTANT IS THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SELLING BOOKS & HOW DO YOU STOP YOURSELF FROM GOING OVERBOARD TIME-WISE? OR, DO YOU?

I’m not sure I do stop myself. Everyone has to answer this one for herself because the answer will depend on how much you like or dislike social media and what you’re trying to get out of it.

For commercial purposes, I think a strong online presence is important. I can see that just from how high my short story sales pop when I announce them on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog.

ANY OTHER WORDS OF ADVICE CONCERNING SOCIAL MEDIA?

The main thing is to use social media to build relationships, not to sell books. If you offer people value – entertainment, information – you’ll build relationships, and the sales will follow naturally. If you just try to sell, people will flee screaming in horror.

But I think digital self-publishing has shifted the value of an author’s time back to writing. I think the best marketing use of an author’s time lies in writing more stories. Not that social media and advertising aren’t useful; they certainly are. But nothing is as effective in selling a book as writing and publishing a new one.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?

Finding a way to get people to pay you to do what you would pay to do.

IS IT TOO EARLY FOR ME TO ASK WHAT FANS CAN EXPECT NEXT?

Next up is a Dox short story, a Delilah short story, and probably a Rain prequel novel. A lot to look forward to.

Jennifer Minar-Jaynes is the editor-in-chief of http://www.WritersBreak.com. She also blogs about parenting twins, whole foods nutrition & other health/nutrition-related topics at http://www.ProjectJennifer.com.

Author: Jennifer Minar-Jaynes
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing

Way back in 1998, people who were interested in a topic did one of a few things:

(1) They went to libraries; and

(2) They browsed in bookstores.

They bought things called magazines, and hard and soft cover books. And usually, they settled for what they saw on the shelves, believing naively that the harvest before them represented the best and for the most part, the only material on the subject.

If you were an author lucky and talented enough to write a book that a conventional publisher would buy, that firm would get your book onto the shelves of Barnes & Noble and independent retailers, at least for a while.

Most writers don’t appreciate that traditional publishers are “consigning” books to
Barnes & Noble and to smaller stores. If your titles don’t “sell through” to retail customers, the books are returned to publishers, generally for 100% credit.

This makes retailers impatient to discover and dedicate space to books that will sell.

So, traditional publishers and everyone in the supply chain GAMBLED, rolling the dice, hoping they’d win big every so many times.

But authors weren’t asked to gamble, not in the same sense.

We were given advances, generally non-returnable fees for submitting our manuscripts. So, when publishers bought, they were out of pocket to us and they needed to recoup.

General wisdom was when publishers paid bigger author advances they had more skin in the game and they were much more likely to PROMOTE our titles, as well. So, authors got cash up front, distribution to stores, and promotional push, at least proportionate to what publishers thought of the promise of financial gain from titles they acquired.

If authors purchased any books for themselves, to sell to their clients and to give away and to hawk from the back of seminar rooms and speech venues, publishers appreciated the gesture, but this was not the main reason they contracted with authors.

Publishers expected their paydays to come from retail sales.

In the last ten years, much of this has changed, especially the expectations between authors and conventional publishers. Authors are expected to buy in bulk and to personally promote their own titles. Publishers realize their business model that depends on consignment is fundamentally flawed, so they expect fewer titles to be sold in stores and more online.

Instead of being equal partners, or revered contributors to the process, authors are demeaned and publishers treat us as if they are doing us a great favor.

What I call “The Tom Sawyer Model” of business relations is gaining momentum, where in this case publishers are insisting we whitewash their fences and pay them for the privilege.

So, there really isn’t a “choice” that authors have, to use conventional publishers or to self-publish. TODAY, IT IS ALL SELF-PUBLISHING, if you look at the reverse delegation of the key functions that has occurred.

When conventional publishers push onto authors the responsibility for (1) Writing; (2) Suffering through the book acquisition process and editorial sloth; (3) Foregoing advance monies; (4) Purchasing their own titles in bulk; (5) Publicizing their own titles; and (6) Opening new channels for sales, i.e. to their own corporate clients; really, what difference is there, functionally between doing your own ebook or going to Kinko’s and making a limited production run that you pay for and inventory?

If you take it upon yourself to publish yourself you’ll avoid wasting your time and emotions on business partners that are fundamentally, undeserving. You’ll be much faster to market, and able to determine the robustness and scope of your market, because conventional book publishers take nine months to a year to produce your work and to get it into stores.

The POD system isn’t much more attractive, from my viewpoint, but that topic will have to wait for another day.

I hope this helps you, and good luck.

Final thought: Publish for the joy of self-expression, because you truly love to write.

If you develop a large, profitable, and grateful readership, then you’ve reached the bonus round of the publishing game.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. Visit Gary’s web site for product information: http://www.customersatisfaction.com, or contact him directly at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Author: Dr. Gary S. Goodman
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Commercial, Non-Subsidy Publishing

In a non-subsidy relationship, professional editing, cover design, printing, binding, distribution, and promotion are provided to the author at no up-front cost. Authors may receive an advance on royalties and ongoing royalties will range from 5% to 10% of the book’s cover price.

Advantages:
– Market credibility
– No up-front expenses
– Professional design, editing, and production
– Distribution
– Marketing and promotion

Disadvantages:
– Time spent pitching agents and publishers
– Expectation for self-promotion
– Some loss of control and rights over the book

Subsidy Publishing

There are a variety of subsidy publishers such as pure subsidy, vanity presses, hybrid publishing, and POD (print on demand).

In a pure subsidy publishing relationship, the author shares upfront costs with the publisher for design, editing, printing, stocking, warehousing, and distribution. After the publisher’s costs are recovered, the author receives a percentage of the sale of the book.

A vanity publisher formats, prints, and binds the book completely at the author’s expense, offering no editing, marketing, or promotional services. The publisher’s revenue sources strictly from the author, not the book.

Hybrid publishing is a relatively new business model where the author pays the publisher to edit, cover-design, typeset, print, publish, distribute, and promote the book. Authors first recover their investment by receiving all the royalties off the sale of the book. Then the publisher and author share ongoing royalties.

In POD publishing, the author assumes the entire cost of printing, marketing, and distribution. Digital publishing enables print on demand and ebook formatting.

Advantages:
– Faster time to market
– Control of the book project and rights
– Some distribution (primarily through hybrids)
– In some cases, author retains all proceeds off book sales

Disadvantages:
– Stigma of being self-published
– Up front expenses
– Limited distribution
– Limited support in design and editing
– Limited promotion

Recommendations

The best outcome for any author is with a non-subsidy publisher. Even if unsuccessful in your pursuit, the discipline of developing a book proposal and pitching it to agents and publishers before writing the manuscript has great merit: It will help you sharpen your book concept, give you a structure to write against, and force you to develop a thorough marketing plan.

Visit http://www.TheLiteraryCoach.com for more information and support on developing your book concept, preparing your book proposal, and achieving your dream of becoming a published author.

John Fayad
jfayad@theliterarycoach.com

Author: John Fayad
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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