Category: Marketing and Promotion

Marketing and Promotion

Rely on Reedsy – Really!

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If you haven’t explored the Reedsy Website’s offerings available to authors and publishers lately, it’s time you did so. Among other great self-marketing and -promotional resources you’ll find:

Best Book-Review Blogs – Discover the best book review blogs in your preferred genre, from general fiction to YA paranormal romance. Their search bar connects you to a vetted catalog of active book blogs and thoughtful, quality book reviewers. A great opportunity to pick up some new reviews.

Book-Promotional Services – Looking for that ideal book promotion site within your price range? Reedsy’s vetted database can eliminate the scammers while their tier system is designed to give you a better picture of the sites that tend to deliver the biggest bang for the buck.

Writing Contests – Adding some book awards to your resume or your book’s Website might be just the ticket for drawing more attention to you and your book without running afoul of the losers and scammers that dwell among legitimate competitions. These are “the finest writing contests of 2018,” according to Reedsy, for both fiction and nonfiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays, novels, and more. 

Marketing and Promotion

It Takes More than a Blog

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Great. You’re an author with a blog. What next? Well, just sit back, bide your time, and wait for those thousands of dedicated readers to begin buying your book. Right?

Wrong! You don’t need a mere blog. You need a community of dedicated readers to serve as a launching pad for new books, announcements, speaking engagements, contests, and whatever else you might envision to help peddle your wares.

According to author/marketer Joel Friedlander, “Simply having followers or a large email list won’t create engaged readers who will answer calls to action. To create that kind of relationship, bloggers need to project three vital qualities: authority, trust, and likability.”

Friedlander, whose book, A Self-Publisher’s Companion, has become something of a cult marketing guru, goes on. Check out what he has to say.

Marketing and Promotion

How To Sell Books

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Latino writer promotional guru Marcela Landress has a suggestion for getting the buzz out about your new book.

“No surprise here, but ‘word of mouth’ on Twitter spreads very quickly. The word can spread very fast within a 24-hour period, so the more information available about you, your work, and your interests, the greater the chance of gaining a fan, a feature, or a sale. With that said, I urge you to start the chatter!”

She advised authors to be social, share themselves, and be authentic. “Make sure that you have a variety of places where you can share information and grow your features, publicize your book, and share your successes. All of these outlets provide more exposure for your book and help to establish a strong digital footprint. Publicity breeds more publicity. So, my advice is to chat it up, be social, and continue building a social network.”

However, she admonishes authors not to be a living, breathing advertisement. Her rule of thumb? Share on a four-to-one ratio. “You can post something self-promotional if you post four other non-promotional links that are helpful to your followers. The key is to build credibility.”

In other words, convince the reader that you’re interested most of all in him.

Marketing and Promotion

Book Reviewer Links #3

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Here’s yet another round of book-reviewer links you might want to check out. The links tested live before publication. If an e-mail bounces, run a search for the organization and find a current Contacts e-mail address on that Website. You may have to do some fancy footwork to find reviewers appropriate to your book’s theme or genre or find information on how to submit your book for review.Always strive to provide the review sites you contact with whatever they require in order to review your book. Be prepared to wait for from several weeks to several months for the reviews to go live, and, of course, be as courteous when corresponding with your contacts or reviewers as possible.

Marketing and Promotion

BookBub – To Be or Not To Be?

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If you haven’t yet heard about the ultra-successful eBook site, BookBub, take heart. You will. BookBub promotes itself as a place where readers and authors come together. Here’s what you might not know.

If you’re an avid reader who’s concerned about eBooks at the lowest possible price, BookBub will send you email alerts whenever a book that fits your criteria is offered at a deeply discounted price (and oftentimes completely free). It claims to have more than two million subscribers, which would make it the premier service for e-book discounting.

According to the BookBub Website, publishers often provide flash sales on their books in order to stimulate sales or to make them stand out from the competition. However, these price reductions are generally only offered for a limited period of time, and finding out when they occur can be a painstaking process.

To change this, BookBub sends its subscribers daily e-mail updates for discounted eBooks that are free or deeply discounted; of top quality content; available for a limited time, and geared to your reading preferences. The categories handled include:

  • Bestsellers
  • Mysteries, Thrillers, & Action
  • Romance
  • Other Fiction
  • Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror
  • Nonfiction

Once you complete a short form, you’ll begin receiving free daily e-mail alerts. You’ll also be able to enter your eBooks for BookBub promotions, which have been known to generate thousands of downloads and tons of author-recognition. For more information, check out the BookBub Website.

Marketing and Promotion

Book Reviewer Links #2

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Here are some additional links that tested live when last checked in mid-January 2018. You may have to do some fancy footwork to find reviewers appropriate to your book’s theme or genre or find information on how to submit your book for review. If all else fails, send out an e-mail query to the contact listed on-site. Always strive to provide the review sites you contact with whatever they require in order to review your book. Be prepared to wait for from several weeks to several months for the reviews to go live, and, of course, be as courteous when corresponding with your contacts or reviewers as possible.

  • Bookfetish.org (specializing in genre fiction reviews from horror and true crime to romance)
  • Bookpage.com (hundreds of monthly reviews)
  • Bookslut.com (wouldn’t you love to meet ’em? A monthly web magazine and daily blog for those who love to read)
  • ForewordReviews.com (ForeWord reviews books from small presses)
  • Goodreads.com (the “eye candy” of review sites wrapped up in a single package)
  • Galleycat.com (great traffic, great lists, great reviews, and great e-blast updates)
  • IndieAuthorNews.com (book reviews, interviews, e-Books, and self-publishing advice)
  • LibraryJournal.com (news and reviews from Library Journal staffers)
  • LibraryThing.com (like Goodreads, a hybrid community of readers, writers, and reviewers with some 1.5 million readers)
  • MidwestBookReview.com (easy links to get a book reviewed or become a reviewer)
  • NPR.org (for serious books and authors, with lots of lists, interviews, and reviews)
  • NewYorker.com (“Page Turner” is the name of the blog featuring criticism, contention, and conversation about “books that matter”)
  • NYBooks.com (The New York Review of Books has great traffic and plenty of reading material)
  • NewYorkTimes.com (not for everyone, of course, but worth a shot)
  • PublishersWeekly.com (a universe all to its own)
  • Shelfari.com (an Amazon-owned site where you can click-and-buy as well as join your favorite reading tribe)
  • ShelfAwareness.com (co-founded by long-time P/W executive editor, John Mutter, with reader and trade versions)

 

Marketing and Promotion

Five Things This Self-Published Author Did To Sell Over 20,000 Books with Almost No Money

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Two years ago, author Rob Dircks self-published his first sci-fi novel, Where the Hell Is Tesla? It sold 10,000 copies in the first 12 months and has since sold a whopping 18,000 copies. His second novel sold nearly 5,000 copies, and his new release, Don’t Touch the Blue Stuff! is “opening strong, too,” according to the author. How did he do it? Was it luck? Skill? A magic spell? Something in between?

The title of this article in Entrepreneur says it all. But the article itself says even more. Check it out and learn, learn, learn!

Marketing and Promotion

Book Reviewer Links #1

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Here are some links that tested live when last checked in mid-January 2018. You may have to do some fancy footwork to find reviewers appropriate to your book’s theme or genre or find information on how to submit your book for review. If all else fails, send out an e-mail query to the contact listed on-site. Always strive to provide the review sites you contact with whatever they require in order to review your book. Be prepared to wait for from several weeks to several months for the reviews to go live, and, of course, be as courteous when corresponding with your contacts or reviewers as possible.

Marketing and Promotion

Pro’s Guide to Better Radio Interviews

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Arielle Ford made a name for herself as the publicist behind many bestselling authors, including Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and others. Since retiring from doing book publicity for others, she has written several books of her own, including, Wabi Sabi Love: The Ancient Art of Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships. She has been doing radio interviews to promote her books and has some advice for becoming a better interviewee.

Her top three tips for doing well on radio? 1.) Get media-trained by a professional, and have your most important tips on note cards in front of you at all times; 2.) Stand up during your phone interviews–and SMILE!–to project more energy and authority (doing so produces a stronger, more believable voice), and 3.) Don’t hold back; be willing to share every good idea, tip, statistic, or helpful piece of information you can think of.

Marketing and Promotion

Free Kindle Marketing Advice

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Book marketing and promotion is a thankless and often unfulfilling job. What works for one author may not work for another. And the promotional ploy that works for a nonfiction book may produce negligible results for a novel. A good example of marketing advice that can be hit or miss is the Amazon Kindle title, Book Marketing Primer. It’s loaded with ideas, some of which are relatively useless and some of which you may have already employed. But the section entitled “Author Insights: Advice on Marketing” (Kindle Locations 486) is worth a look if only because it’s a compendium of different marketing plans and ideas from a number of different authors. You may find something of value for you. The book is a free Kindle Edition eBook, available directly from Amazon, so you can’t beat the price!

https://www.amazon.com/Author-Marketing-Primer-Kindle-Press-ebook/dp/B01F7W9JFW