If you need Amazon.com reviews and you want them to come with the “Amazon Verified Purchase” notation then you’ll need to send the review copies via Kindle. The Selling Books blog offers a description of how to do this AND includes a step-by-step video. This is great information, for free that you won’t find anywhere else. Click this link to read more.
The Book Deal blog has a great interview with Jackie Morse Kessler, the author of a four-book Young Adulst series with Houghton/Graphia: Hunger, Rage, Loss and the upcoming Breath. Ms. Kessler just finished a blog book tour and explains how it works and what the benefits are for authors. To read this insightful post at the Book Deal blog and let us know if you’ve ever participated in a book blog tour.
Your book readers are critical to your success as an author. So you better know them inside out or you are not going to be successful. I know this is a bold statement but it’s true!
As a publisher I always ask my potential authors if they know who will buy and read their book. Almost all of them say “I believe that everyone could enjoy reading my book.” Wrong! It would be lovely if everyone would buy and love your book but that doesn’t happen even for a bestselling author. People have very definitive tastes in book topics and writing styles. You can’t possibly appeal to all of them and it would be a waste of your time to try target the entire world.
Defining your target reader is the most important thing you can do before creating your marketing plan. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about social media , PR or advertising – if you don’t know who your target reader is none of this stuff will be effective.
Do some research by looking at books similar to your own and check out the reviews. Start by identifying who your readers are by using standard demographics like:
Once you come up with a profile of a target reader you will be able to use that information to find out where these people hang out and then take the steps to communicate with them. Without this information you’re really shooting in the dark!
Patricia Fry offers a frequently updated blog about publishing and writing that is a great resource for writers of all genres. You’ll find lots of great tips on how to sell more books. Take a look and let us know what you think!
No doubt about it… FaceBook is fun. You can find friends from high school, college, old employers… it’s great to see how people are doing. However, the biggest challenge authors have with FaceBook is where to draw the line between the personal and professional.
Branding yourself as an author versus your personal life can be confusing. FaceBook can help or hinder you in this area if you don’t use it appropriately. You can use Facebook Fan Pages to create a separate presence for your book AND to build an audience.
A Fan Page is a page that can be created just for your book. This was done to allow authors, businesses, bands, non-profits and others to have a place to gather. Individuals can become “Fans” of your page, which is completely separate from your personal profile. The benefit for us authors is that you can provide book related content to your fans without them seeing the picture of you sent your grandparents last Christmas.
Now you can begin telling people about your Fan Page and invite them to “become a fan”. You can advertise within FaceBook and target potential readers. On your Fan Page, you want to give folks things to do, learn, try all focusing on the topic of your book. Ask fans to leave comments and respond to comments when you have the time. You can use Social Oomph or Hootsuite to schedule content updates to your Fan Page for you! Use your Fan Page like a mini website to promote your book.
If you are a book agent or publisher you’ll want to register for the brand new newsletter from Random House. Random House says “Following positive feedback about our Author Newsletter, we are launching our Agent Newsletter edition this month, containing the same behind-the-scenes spotlights and information, and highlighting new features and content added to the Author Portal.” You can view the first newsletter here.
Nick Morgan contributor to Forbes has written an article about the not so fun roller coaster that is the world of publishing. You can read the entire article here.
Update your signature line in your business and personal email with your book title (even if the book is not finished). This idea sounds so simple, but I get hundreds of emails every day from authors who don’t add their book t their signature line. Think about how many emails you send every day. Your signature line is a valuable piece of email real estate that most people simply overlook. Yep, it’s simple and easy to do.
Don’t use your book picture in your signature. In some they come across as attachments and can’t be seen without opening the attachment which most people never do. Sometimes they show as broken links if someone has the html turned off in their e-mail settings. Either way, it doesn’t look pretty.
If you haven’t added your book title to your e-mail signature line do it now!
A great way to create a relationship and build trust with a potential reader is to give something to them for free. This could be an excerpt of your book, a free chapter, a tipsheet or checklist from the book, etc. In return you can ask them to give you their name and e-mail address so you can keep in touch.
Some of you may be unsure about this idea. You’re thinking “but why give it away when I can charge for it?” You can’t charge people for stuff if they don’t know you exist. People aren’t going to do business with someone if they have no idea who you are.
There are two things to remember when you give something away:
1. Make sure it has your name and contact information on it.
2. Make sure it has a real perceived to your clients.
In order for this strategy to be successful you need to make sure people know about it. Here are some promotional ideas to try:
1. Issue a press release using a free press release distribution site.
2. Announce it to all your social networks (FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
3. You can put an announcement in your local Chamber of Commerce email distribution.
4. Send an email to all the Associations, Networking Groups, industry groups that you are a part of.
Amazon.com editors have picked the top 20 best books for 2012 (through June). You can read the list at Amazon.com. It’s interesting to note that the top ten books on the list are from traditional publishers. Amazon is also holding a sweepstakes: “Customers can also enter the Best Books of the Year So Far Sweepstakes on the Amazon.com Books Facebook page through July 23 for a chance to win one of 10 Kindle Fire devices, each accompanied by a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card. There is no purchase necessary to enter. Must be a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C., 18 or over. Learn more [here] and enter for a chance to win.”
