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BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine "The Ezine for Do-It-Yourself Successful Book Promotions" Past Issues Archives: http://archives.zinester.com/11698 Issue 4 Year 1 June 8, 2006 http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com ****************************************************** On this issue: ****************************************************** 1- From My Desk 2- Article - Promote Your Book: 5 Free and Low-cost Ways to Boost Book Sales 3- GetBookReviews.com 4- Learning to Blog Part IV 5- Letter to the Editor 6- Articles Wanted ****************************************************** From My Desk ****************************************************** In addition to look for valuable information to share with you on this ezine, I'm enjoying developing some new marketing strategies we'll put to work on our website very soon. It's great to be able to interact with other authors and storm up ideas that will be useful to others and most of all sharing others success. I look forward to Summer time, it is the time in which my schedule opens up and I'm able to catch up on my reading and writing so I must use my time wisely. This year I've taken up a few new responsabilities as I try to help other authors but it also serves as inspiration and support for me. If you find the information offered here every couple of weeks useful or inspirational, let me know. And if you have any ideas, let me know as well. This is your ezine and I want to offer you the help that you need. Enjoy your new issue. You can contact us at: editor@clarylopez.com Subject: eZine Looking forward to help, inform and empower authors to succeed. Best Regards, Clary Lopez Editor-in-Chief BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com ******************************************************** Article: Promote Your Book: 5 Free and Low-cost Ways to Boost Book Sales ******************************************************** By Karen Bledsoe Congratulations! You've published a book! The hard work, all those hours of writing, of editing, and of sweating over just the right word, are over. Right? Not quite. Now it's time to take off the "artist" hat and put on the "marketing" hat. If you're self-published, this is one serious hat that you'll have to wear often if you expect to earn back the money you've invested in your book. But even if you've been published via a traditional publisher, you'll need to do at least some of the marketing yourself. Publishers have only so much money to spend on marketing, and most of that money goes into a few big, blockbuster titles. The more you can help promote your book and increase sales, the happier your publisher will be with you -- and the more likely they'll be to look on your next book with a favorable eye. 1. Website Every author should have their own website. It can be as simple as a single page with your name and contact information and links to where people can buy your books. It can be as complex as a full-service site with articles, a blog, links pages, and other helpful things that will keep your visitors coming back for more. If you've never made a website before, consider starting with a blog. There are lots of large blogging sites out there, such as Blogger.com. Choose a simple name for your blog that will make you easy to find in the search engines. Your own name would be a good choice. The title of your book would be another. Then keep the blog content fresh and active so that people will want to return to the site. Your blog will be indexed with the larger blog community so that people can find it. If you design your own website, learn everything you can about website promotion. Before you can promote your book through your website, you need to promote your website so that people can find it. Learn about Search Engine Optimization at Organic SEO Wiki. Don't worry if you don't understand everything you read there. There's some pretty technical bits. Follow the advice that you do understand, and you'll be ahead of most of your competition. If your book is listed on Amazon.com, consider signing up for Amazon's affiliate program, and use your affiliate code in your links to your book on Amazon.com. You'll receive a small commission from Amazon for each book that is sold through the link. When it comes to contact information, protect your email address. Spam robots search sites for email addresses, including those that are in the page's code but hidden from the viewer, such as addresses hidden in a "contact the author" form. You can use a paint program to make a graphic that includes your email address. Robots can't read graphics. This is a bit inconvenient for other people, however. Another way to protect your name is to use a service, such as Bravenet, that will allow you to make contact forms to post on your site that will direct the mail to the service, which forwards it to you. After your site is up and running, think of ways to get people to visit often. You might include articles on writing or on the topic that you've written about. Bulletin boards, JavaScript games, and other interactive features can also help bring return visitors. 2. Book signings When you think of book signings, you may think of a grand event, where the pampered author sits behind a table, facing a long line of adoring fans, signing book after book, while the bookstore personnel or a private entourage bring cool drinks. In reality, unless you're Stephen King or John Grisham, a bookstore signing is a much humbler affair, with a lone and sometimes desperate-looking author smiling stiffly from behind a table, hoping that someone might at least come over and say hello. Still, even so humble an event can get your book out in front of the public, and the contacts you make one evening may pay off months or even years later. The key to a good book signing is preparation. When your book is just about to be shipped, call your local bookstores to arrange book signings. Independent bookstores are often very willing to assist local authors. Even the big chains can be open to arranging a book signing. Discuss with the bookstore owner whether you will provide books to sell through them, or if they will order the books for you. Ask if they will provide a sign for your table, or if you should make one. You can go to an office supply store and find nice acetate stands made for slipping a printed sheet of paper inside. You might also buy your own bookstand so you can prop up a copy of your book at the signing table. Have something that you can give away. Bookmarks are great giveaways. If your publisher doesn't provide them already, search online for printers who will print mass quantities of bookmarks cheaply. Put a picture of the book cover on the bookmark (with publisher permission), add a blurb about it, and put in the URL of your website. Also add information about where people can buy the book. It may be obvious to you that practically every book in print on the planet is available through Amazon or Barnes & Noble online, but that may not be the first thing that your visitors will think of. Make it as easy as possible for people to find and buy your book later. Call a couple of days ahead of time to make sure that all arrangements are in place, and that the bookstore has your books if they are doing the ordering. Arrive early and check the arrangements. Stack your books neatly, and set one in a bookstand so that the cover is easily visible. Have three or four good pens ready. When customers wander near, smile and them, greet them with a cheery, "Good evening!" If they seem inclined to talk, engage them in a conversation about your book or about writing in general. Don't monopolize their time, and don't do the hard-sell on them. You want to draw people in with your warm personality, not drive them away with a desperate sales pitch. Hand them a bookmark. Hand them two. "Take two, they're small. Maybe you have a friend who would like one." Then let them wander away. One or two people may buy books right then and there and get them autographed. Some people will need to wander around and think about it. Some people will take the bookmark home, use it, see it often, and months later may order your book for themselves or as a present, thinking, "Oh, yeah, that nice author, maybe I ought to buy his book." All of them should be impressed by what a nice person you are. 3. Discussion Boards There is a right way and a wrong way to promote your book via discussion boards. The wrong way is to sign up for a discussion board solely for the purpose of promotion, post a hard-sell message about your book, and disappear -- or worse yet, return again and again to promote your book, report on sales, give away t-shirts, or otherwise sound pushy or desperate. The right way is to become a trusted member of the board, to participate in discussions, to help others, to be grateful for the help that others give you, and to put a link to your website or your book's site in your signature. Writing discussion boards may have a place where members can post announcements about their latest publications. If you're an active member of the board, go ahead and announce your new book. But don't sign up for the board if that's the only place you're going to post. 4. Online Articles If writing and publishing a book has made you an expert on a topic, consider writing articles for publishing online. You won't get paid for most of these articles, but writing online articles gives you a tremendous opportunity to post links back to your website. Don't use the article to promote your book, of course. This is a hard-sell tactic that won't win you readers. Instead, give something to your readers. Give them information they can use. Suppose you breed chihuahuas and have written a book on chihuahua care and training. You might write an article on "Choosing a Healthy Chihuahua Puppy." Then in your signature you can put "John Jones is an expert chihuahua breeder and has recently published a book on the topic, The Chihuahua Expert." Make the book title into a link back to your website, where the reader can get further information. If the article is syndicated and used elsewhere on the web, the links back to your site will be multiplied. 5. Newsletters Consider starting your own email newsletter. If you've written a nonfiction book, your newsletter might be on the topic of your book. You could also write a newsletter on writing. Or if you're writing a fiction series, your newsletter can include "The further adventures of..." thus giving your readers more stories for free. Use a mailing list service to mail your newsletter. If your website's server doesn't provide one, there are several on the web that are free up to a certain number of subscribers (such as Bravenet). Fill each newsletter with useful information. You can either write it all yourself, or find useful articles on the web, write a teaser for each, and include a link. DON'T reproduce the article in its entirety and pretend that you wrote it. Plagiarism can ruin your reputation as a writer. Free mailing list service providers will also provide the code for a newsletter sign-up form to put on your website. The form will email the service directly, so your email address won't get spammed. Include a link to your book in every issue of your newsletter, and use the newsletter to announce any new books. Your subscribers will appreciate the useful information that you send them, and will be more open to reading short promotions about your new book. For more ideas about writing newsletters, try signing up for several author's newsletters and see what kind of information they provide. Conclusion There are, of course, hundreds of ways to promote your book. These five will get you started, but if you're serious about marketing, be sure to read all that you can get your hands on about book promotion. Don't expect your publisher to spend piles of money on you and your book. Your success as an author is entirely up to you. About the Author Karen E. Bledsoe is a children's book author, and has written many books for the school and library market. For more information on writing for children, including a writing discussion board, see her website at http://www.gkbledsoe.com Macintosh users: Get the best novel-writing software at Glass Writer Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Bledsoe ********************************************************* GetBookReviews.com ********************************************************* While the motto in real estate is 'location, location, location' in book marketing is 'connection, connections, connections.' Authors need to know a lot of mediums, people and places where to promote their books. The reality is that you build those connections with time in the industry and when you publish your first of second book you probably don't have them yet. GetBookReviews.com have been in business for a long time and have gathered an amazing list of contacts which they utilize to help promote books. You can choose from getting a review, to promote to bookstores or libraries for a reasonable price. For a complete description on their services please visit their website: http://www.getbookreviews.com/authors.html ********************************************************* Get your own Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe merchandise and other awesome clothing and stuff at: http://www.cafepress.com/guerrilla_cafe ******************************************************** Learning to Blog - Part IV by Clary Lopez ******************************************************** In Part III of Learning to Blog you learned the importance of establishing yourself as an authority and offering up-to- date information. Providing the information your readers might be interested in will bring them back. On this part of Learning to blog we'll talk about linking to others. When you read others blogs that relate to your theme or topic of discussion the people who read their blog potentially can come visit yours as well. If the owner of the blog you link to likes what you have added to his blog he might even link your blog to his. Sometimes is controversy what attracts them to you as an oppossing point of view. Either way what you are looking for is to attract readers to your blog and get the chance for them to get to know you and trust you. You might also want to include something of interest like pictures, graphics or poll to your entries in order to entertain your readers. They come to visit for a few reasons; to learn, to be informed, entertained and to get to know you. If they like how you come across they'll be back for more. Blogs are open ended, they are geared not only to express your thoughts but to make their readers think or reflect about what you write about and hopefully you'll manage to inspire them to share with you their views with their comments. Always be respectful of their comments, good or bad, and answer any questions they might have. If they take the time to write you a comment, the least you can do is reply. We'll continue with more information in the next BookPromo Guerrilla Ezine edition. If you would like to share your experience so far with your blogging, go ahead and email me. I'll be glad to include some of your comments here. I'll welcome your questions as well,email them to me at: editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Blogging I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. Visit our Blog: http://guerrilla.clarylopez.com/blog/ ******************************************************** Letter to the Editor ******************************************************** Please send us your comments and questions to be included in this section. editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Letter to the Editor Do you have an idea for a topic on this newsletter? Send it to ideas@clarylopez.com Subject: Ezine idea ********************************************************** Articles Wanted ********************************************************** If you would like to write an article for this Ezine please send your request to: editor@clarylopez.com Subject: Article Submission ********************************************************** BookPromo Guerrilla Style Ezine Copyright 2006, Clary Lopez All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Clary Lopez will not be held liable for any direct or indirect losses or damages originating from the use of any information listed on our website or in our newsletters. By using this site and newsletter you agree to indemnify and hold all owners and representatives parties of Clary Lopez/Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe harmless from any claim or demand originating out our your use of Clary Lopez/Guerrilla Marketers' Cafe website and/or newsletters. Use of our website and newsletter is and indication of your complete understanding and acceptance of these Terms of Service. No part of this newsletter and/or website can't be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage or retrieval systems without the written permission from the publisher/owner. ************************************************************** |
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