Book Marketing Landmines and How to Avoid Them

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In order to conduct a successful book marketing campaign as a POD published author, you will need to understand the challenges that can hinder your success. If you are not aware of these challenges and try to blindly market your book, you will find yourself caught in the middle of a book marketing minefield – surrounded by landmines that can seriously limit your career as a published author. Once your book is released and you begin to market it, you will discover:

1. “Being available” means being buried among the thousands of books posted on the online bookstores and computer book ordering systems.

2. You are expected to be an expert on your topic and market your book without any help.

3. Hiring a book publicist is expensive and probably outside of your budget.

4. Your book will not be stocked in traditional bookstores due to your publisher’s no return and/or non-standard discount policies.

5. Many mainstream book reviewers have a policy against reviewing self-published or POD books, regardless of quality.

6. Your family and friends are your best customers when your book is released – then you struggle to sell additional copies.

7. If you do invest in a public relations campaign, you don’t sell many copies because:
a. Your book is “available” to be ordered but not in stock, or
b. You have to buy the books and offer them on consignment. There is little profit and you get stuck with the non-returnable unsold books.

8. You have little PR experience and are scared to death of calling the press to try and get coverage. You are also either a full-time parent or working a full-time job which hinders your ability to market your book – even if you knew how.

9. You build a free Website and try the free Internet marketing options. Your Website receives little, if any, traffic and you feel like your Website is about as effective as being buried in a dense rain forest.

10. You buy a few “Secrets” type books but the only ones making money are those that sold you the books.

11. You realize that there are no “secrets,” just skills that need to be learned and techniques that must be mastered. You are totally overwhelmed and feel that book marketing is a complex jigsaw puzzle.

12. You try talking to other authors in forums and groups and they’re equally confused, frustrated and demoralized.

Is there a way out of this book marketing minefield?
Now that your enthusiasm has been doused with cold water, you have two choices. You can continue to do more of the same and hope for a better outcome, or you can become an Authorpreneur.

What is an Authorpreneur?
Authorpreneurs do not compete using the traditional book marketing model. Instead, they view their books as products and effectively combine their writing skills with proven Internet Marketing techniques to accomplish better results. This allows them to become an expert within a niche, based upon their book’s theme. An Authorpreneur understands HOW to write effective Web content and use technology to generate:

o A consistent amount of laser targeted traffic

o The right kind of links to their Website to increase their search engine ranking

o A large worldwide subscriber list to brand themselves as experts

o Consistent book and niche product sales from their list

What about book promotion?
Authorpreneurs also use technology to level the playing field and gain a competitive advantage in gaining PR. They understand that:

o 98% of journalists go online daily

o 92% do it for article research

o 76% to find new sources and experts

o 73% to find press releases

By building a content-rich professional Website that achieves “Top Ten” search engine placement, Authorpreneur Websites are easily found by journalists and producers researching niche topics for their articles and programs. This leads to interviews and media exposure for Authorpreneurs.

Additionally, Authorpreneurs know where to find online media databases to quickly research a list of media contacts interested in their niche topics. Then by conducting targeted e-mail campaigns, they get added to many “expert contact lists” that gain them future interviews.

Additional Benefits
Once Authorpreneurs establish an expert status with their subscriber list and generate steady sales, they use this track record to rise above the clutter to attract literary agents and mainstream publishers with a “ready to buy” market for their books. Their book proposals are also more credible because they are based upon the actual “wants” of their niche audience which substantiates the “need” for their book.

Conclusion
Most POD authors learn book marketing as they go and do not understand the power of leveraging technology to brand themselves as experts. This is usually a painful experience. However, by becoming an Authorpreneur, writers can gain a competitive advantage by combining their writing skills with sound Internet Marketing techniques to avoid the book marketing landmines that can seriously limit their writing careers.

V. Michael Santoro is a published author and creator of the Book Marketing 3.0 program. For a free Book Marketing Toolbar, visit his Website at http://www.proauthors.com. Additionally, you can demo the cool new Video Marketing Assistant on you book’s Website. See how this technology can help turn your visitors into customers.

Author: V. Michael Santoro
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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An Internet Business Can Get Your Past the Economic Downturn by Self Publishing Books

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Starting your own internet business will allow you to gain a little extra profit. It is not uncommon that a person might be looking for another source of income in these tough times. With massive lay offs many people need a steady income. The old hard day’s work is not what it used to be. You need to manage your work wisely.

Many of these new internet business put a focus on one niche. A lot of the time, selling certain products is not worth the investment or time that is put in. The internet eliminates this risk and some products do not even require an initial investment in a risky scheme.

Self publishing ebooks are one of the options.

Electronic books are just as they seem – a book published in a digital format. There are many different digital formats, ranging from a word document to PDFs; each one has its pros and cons. Trying to carry a thousand or two books around by oneself is almost impossible. Now imagine trying to sell these books as well within a small amount of time to gain profit.

If these were eBooks than all you would need is a DVD or flash drive. If the books are small enough or the drive is big enough, you could possibly carry up to a million. With this new found opportunity selling or publishing your own products is almost free to do.

Of course, the printed page will most likely never lose its customers, but many people love to replace everyday items with gadgets or electronics. With this new innovation people will be able to read anything they want anywhere they want; this is what people have wanted for their entire lives instead of carrying around books.

If you want it explained plain and simple to you, this allows for easily made profits. Your consumers are everyone who browses the internet who have money to spend. If they want to take a break from something or just need a quick reference then you might be able to fulfill their needs.

Making money is as easy as can be this way.

There is no production costs, one digital book can be sold to as many people as possible. There is no need for printing multiple copies or shipping costs so a single eBook could make you a big profit if advertised well. This is a great opportunity and it involves little risk because there is almost no investment needed, even if you hire others to help you write.

Today the economy is not what most want it to be so you will need to take your chances and put in the time to make some profit. This means that you need to take advantage of the good opportunities. This also means that you could potentially make just as much money as you did in that cubicle. Of course, this will require working a lot of hours and management skills, but running an internet business by selling ebooks is a great opportunity to make money.

Brand new, and FREE, guide that will walk you through starting your own internet business so you can start watching the cash roll in a month from today. Click Starting Internet Business [http://www.writeandsellebooksguide.com/squeeze.html] to get your free copy now.

Visit the write ebook resource.

Author: Robert Boyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Self Publishing Books Can Get You Past the Recession

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Having an internet business can really shore up the income for anyone who wants just a little more money for their time.  It isn’t surprising that people would be looking for more sources of income – the financial crisis looms far beyond the horizon, with no magical solution in sight. People getting fired or otherwise removed from work left and right.  Working hard is no longer working as well as it should.  This is the time to work smart.

Most internet businesses in fact revolve around selling a particular product. For most people, producing or creating a product worth selling requires enormous amounts of capital to truly make the best out of.  Luckily, thanks to the nature and concept of said internet, there are products worth selling that don’t require capital, factories and sometimes even any sort of delivery system beyond email.

The solution: self publishing ebooks.

Ebooks, or electronic books are exactly what it suggests – a digital or digitized book.  Formats can vary, from the standard Word file to the more commonly used PDFs, but they all carry some common advantages.  For example, a thousand books would pretty much be impossible to carry by one’s lonesome.  Selling those books would require shipping, which would cost more money and would demand more of you.

A thousand ebooks could fit within a single DVD or flash drive.  Millions, perhaps, depending on the size of the ebooks themselves. This means that even a cheap hosting account could store products that make you big money.

While books and paper will never truly lose their audience, some people were born, live and cannot live without their electronics and gadgetry. This connection with these electronic innovations allows them to read anywhere they want, whatever they want – truly a fantastic gift for people on the go who don’t want to lug around big and dusty tomes or wait for information to come in the mail.

If you’re still wondering, that basically means that there’s a massive market out there for a smart entrepreneur to take advantage of.  A massive market of internet connected people with money in their pockets. They want a more convenient method of correlating and cross-referencing data – or at least, want something they could read on their break that isn’t related to work.

There’s money to be made here and there’s room to breathe too.

A single ebook could be sold an infinite number of times.  Without the need for repeated printing and the costs associated with it, the money made from a single ebook could properly be maximized in a way that a print book could not be.  This means you could make an enormous return on investment without even flinching, more so if you have a ghostwriting or copywriting deal with writers that you hire.

The economy’s looking terrible and no matter how charming or intelligent our leaders are, chances are it’s going to last for another few years.  That does not mean that there are no opportunities to be made.  That does not mean that you cannot make as much money as you used to.  It’ll require a lot of work and a lot of smarts, but running an internet business with ebooks could make you a lot of money if done correctly.

The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page guide for Writing, Publishing, and Selling Ebooks and 17 video tutorials at Writing, Selling Ebooks.

See the original article at Writing Ebooks Blog.

Author: Robert Boyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Getting Your Book Noticed – How to Promote a Self-Published Book

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Self-publishing a book is not easy. On the contrary, it’s rather difficult and overwhelming. You are totally in charge of designing an attractive and professional looking cover design, making sure that your book’s interior layout is likewise professional and up to the industry standard’s, you must edit and proofread your book extensively to ensure proper grammar and spelling, and most of all, you have to write a great story about your topic! After this lengthy process, most authors will find themselves exhausted and ready for a break.

Well, it doesn’t come just yet. Now you will need to put all of your efforts and energies into one thing: promoting your new book. Unless you have the money to hire a publicist or a marketing firm, you’re on your own here too. Try not to be discouraged by this news, since the internet is such a breeding ground for opportunity and I’m happy to tell you there are endless ways to generate buzz for your book.

The following list are the top questions that most first time self-published authors have on their minds after reading that:

  • “How do I get attention for my book?”
  • “How much does it typically cost to get my book noticed?”
  • “Who should I approach for promotion opportunities?”
  1. The answer the first question is very broad. This can depend a lot on what your particular subject and format actually are. For example, if you’re promoting a self-published ebook then you will probably want to devote most of your marketing efforts to online ventures. For print books, in person events and touring may be better options.

  2. The answer to this will vary significantly depending on where you are featuring your book. To be honest with you, online buzz and attention from the media should never cost you anything. These things should be free, because the organization or person hosting your book has decided it is noteworthy enough to create an engaging story which will mutually benefit them as well as yourself. The only thing which is really worth paying for to promote your book (in my opinion) is press release distribution. You should definitely start out your marketing plan with a concise news/press release and pay a professional company to distribute news about your book to media outlets. This usually has surprisingly positive results, but only if your story is captivating enough to catch people’s attention and your press release was written sharply and to the point. Never pay to have your book reviewed!

  3. The answer to this will be specific to the type of book you have written, but there are some general answers that will help all authors. First and foremost, connect with other writers and authors! Network with your contacts and grow your social network to find new opportunities. Think of any organizations, clubs, associations or businesses that might be interested in the subject of your book/writing. That can be a great way to land a public speaking opportunity, or snag an invitation to do a book reading. Book bloggers are a great source of attention for books online also. Always be sure to read their review policy thoroughly before contacting them to pitch your book to them. Make sure they accept your genre and then write them a personalized email with a brief synopsis of your book’s plot, and a polite request for a spot on their to-read and review list. Find websites, podcast shows, online radio shows, local newspaper columnists and pitch your book to them also. Just always remember to make sure you are sending your pitch to the correct person.

As you can imagine, these few questions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing your self-published book. However, try all of the ideas discussed here and you will have made considerable progress in gaining some publicity and exposure for your new book. Best of luck to everyone!

Ashly Lorenzana is a self-published author of a memoir, and works as a freelance writer online as well. Her specialty is marketing copy, particularly press and news releases. If your company or business needs a punchy and memorable piece of writing to catch the attention of the media, Ashly’s press release writing service is the ideal solution for any small to medium sized business. Her list of clients have used her freelance writing services for everything from editing to article marketing, web research and note organization to branding and naming suggestions for new products and company slogans. Visit her site for more info: Article Marketplace

Author: Ashly Lorenzana
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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8 Easy Steps to Self Publishing Books From Your Website Content

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Interested in self-publishing books? If you have a website, you can re-purpose your top articles into a book. Think about it. After you write heaps of quality articles and lots of traffic on your website, why not reuse it, all the same articles in a printed book, PDF eBook, audio books and Kindle book getting the most out of your time and work.

These are My 8 Painless Steps to Self Publishing Books:

  1. Write down an layout for the book chapters with the top articles from your website.
  2. Enter your book in a Microsoft Word template (or your preferred software) formatted for your preferred book size.
  3. Save your book to PDF.
  4. Select a book designer for your book cover or choos a DIY format.
  5. Decide amongst all the publishers who you want to use to publish your book.
  6. Sign up for an account with self-publishing and upload your documents, if relevant.
  7. Now begin your book marketing by selling copies online at Amazon, via your own website and in person when you speak or at events.
  8. Now it is the time to layout the book into a PDF ebook, audio book and Kindle book.

This is what I did with my website Teen-Beauty-Tips.Com. That was the autumn of 2008 when I stumbled upon the concept of self-publishing books. One of our associates, also a speaker, showed us his self-published book.

Quality was great and we found out that he was able to buy his self-published books on his cost of just $ 2-3 for every book. Not only would there be added revenue to promote books at speaking events, but it also gives immediate credibility of a “published author.” “I thought,” Wow… I can I do this.”

The Nuts and Bolts of Publishing My First Book

And so, I put together an draft for my book based on the finest articles on my website. So, I came up with the title.

Next, I started to copy and paste my articles into a Word document template. I subsequently converted my Word document using the free of charge edition of PDF995 (click on properties, then advanced option and select the “Statement [5.5 5 X 8.5 5] “From the dropdown menu for the paper format.)

Despite working full time as a physiotherapist and speaking, as well as travelling from time to time, I had a 190-page book ready to print in a month.

I had a low budget (or should I say no budget) so I took the DIY method. I researched styles of my template and did a book cover in Photoshop. I researched self-publishing and decided to go with Createspace (a company with Amazon), since there are no upfront costs and they list you quickly on Amazon.Com.

As an example, my 190 page black and white soft cover book only cost me $3.13 + Shipping, with the help of the Pro Plan. The Pro Plan is a fee of $39 the first year and then an annual fee of $5, but is well worth the cost in an increase in royalties and decreased cost to buy books. I highly recommend the Pro Plan, by the way. There is actually no reason to go with the Pro Plan (that is, unless you don’t sell any books at all!).

Same Book, Multiple Formats

When my book was released on Createspace and Amazon, I also had it offered in the PDF eBook format. I give away the PDF format away to my newsletter subscribers, which once more has helped me to build my list in a very small niche (Christian teen girls) to about 2700 and expanding.

I therefore decided to make my book as an audio book using Audacity and a $ 30 microphone to record it. I am now selling MP3 downloads through ClickBank and also sell a Disc of my audiobook on Kunaki.C Com. The Kunaki can I buy Disc’s at cost for as little as $ 1 (+ shipping), as I also sell them at my events and online through my website.

Eventually, I took my Word document took out the pictures embedded in my file and saved it as an HTML document. I subsequently uploaded it to Amazon’s digital text platform, and I now offer Kindle version from my website as well.

Making Money Selling Books

In such a small and specialized niche, I’m not getting rich by selling books from my website. But there is a regular paycheck from both online and offline sales, and as my traffic increases (now over 1000 visitors per day), so my sales.

Of course, if you want to “Hit it Big” in publishing, you will want to hire a professional to design your interior book template and your book cover design. I ultimately decided to have a designer update my book cover for me.

If you want to go the TRUE self publishing route and do all the leg work yourself, then you can form your own book publishing company and use Lightning Source. In this case, a book like Dan Poynter’s Self Publishing Manual is a great resource to guide you step by step.

You Can Do It!

Given that you’ve already put so much time and energy into writing your website, it could be worth taking some extra time and re-purpose identical articles to a hard good, as a paperback book, CD and digital products as a PDF eBook, Kindle book and MP3 downloads for your visitors.

If you do not want to be a national bestseller, but simply want to provide extra resources to your website visitors and another paycheck, then download my free book templates, sign up for a free Createspace account and get started! Oh, and have fun…Soon you’ll be a “Published author.”

Download your free book templates at http://www.Self-Publishing-Coach.com and get more advice about self publishing books.

Shelley Hitz is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and consultant to organizations, individuals and businesses who want to multiply their impact through self publishing. She teaches from personal experience. Over a two year span, (More…)while working full-time, she self published five books, multiple audio CDs, authored two websites that attract thousands of visitors each month, and created multiple products that she sells through her website and at her speaking engagements.

Author: Shelley Hitz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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