Five Tips for Book Marketing and Promotion

Book marketing and promotion is like an ocean. Wide and vast. Are you uncertain about doing your own marketing? Feel like too much of an introvert to be successful as a marketer? Don't know what a marketing plan is? Can't distinguish between promoting and marketing?

Well, you've come to the right blog then.



1. Authors should get as much knowledge about book marketing/promotions as they possibly can.

Recently, I watched over twenty videos, listened to over thirty podcasts, and am reading one of many many good books on this subject. I am not trying to toot my own horn here, just letting you know that I have done my homework, and encourage you to do likewise. There are more than enough resources out there.

2. Book marketing takes a lot of time, so if you have prepared a plan and know when and how to execute, you will find it a lot less burdensome.

A book marketing plan is the outline of how you are going to sell your book. Make it detailed, include what you want to achieve out of this plan, how you intend to get there, including book packaging (cover, edits, etc.), distribution (where will it be available for sale) and price (how much will you charge for it). Don't forget to include who will be your target market. Who is going to buy and read your book?

3. Understand the difference between marketing and promoting.

There is a gulf here that a lot of authors don't understand. Promoting your work is a piece of the marketing plan. They are a collective. Marketing can be about pricing structures, but promotions is about how to get that buyer to like that structure enough to hit BUY.

To promote a book, you should know what you are selling and who you are selling to. You can go out and talk about your book until the cows come home but until you understand that you are in the midst of bulls and not cows, you will never make a sale.

4.Get started early. Before that book is on the virtual shelf, you should already have plans in place and already actively be using them to sell that book.

It is important to get started with your book marketing plans before you self-publish.

While writing the book, ask yourself who am I writing this for? What do I want them to take away from the reading of my book? These sorts of questions will help you get that book marketing plan rolling.

5. Use promotions wisely. This facet of book marketing takes a lot of savvy and time.

If you are going to promote from your blog, be focused with your posts. You do not have to post all the time about writing the book, and so on - readers love to know the WRITER behind the book too.

A word to the wise: if you are interested in gaining readers for the book pre-publish, don't make everything about you. Readers are readers after all. Give them some excerpts, details about the cover art, like a cover reveal. Keep them interested.

I am happy to answer your questions, and love comments!

Top news for what's hot in marketing your book

Kim Smith is the author of The Dread Room, now available on Amazon. You can find more about Kim at her website at http://www.kimsmithauthor.com including news and info on her podcast,

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Hey there Murderers, welcome to OCTOBER! wow...where did the year go?

So...over on my blog I am running a survey (CLICK HERE) to get input on my site. If you are interested, be sure to check it out and leave your email address to be in the running for a free copy of my latest, The Dread Room. Very Halloween-ish.

I also have a really cool podcast interview (and video) with Jeanne Gassman, historical THRILLER author. You should check it out here.

And more info about The Dread Room can be found here

Recently, over on my blog, I discussed popular marketing tips. Here it is :
What is working so far as marketing your book is concerned? I can recall a great number of things that used to work and work well. But in reality, book blog tour and Goodreads giveaways for promoting your new release is SO 2011.

They have joined the ranks of things that used to work. Along with a slew of other things, like a constant stream of "my book is free" and "my book is 99 cents" on every site that would allow it.

Now? Not so much. Book buyers are smarter, more savvy, and way way more into mobile apps.

So what DOES work? Well, I am glad you asked.

Here are a few things I have found from Internet searching.

My top 5 things to sell more books.

1. Own your own content. That means buy the domain name and you own it. And that includes every blog post, etc. You can invite readers to read your site info and that's considered pretty harmless promo.

2. Use social media to draw attention to yourself. Your readers want to know YOU. They won't follow a book, but they will follow a person. IF that person happens to be a writer, well cool.

3. BookBub ads. The ad life is hard to break into. Facebook ads work on some levels, for some people, but BB ads seem to be more concentrated in the right niche.

4. Write more books! For crying out loud, you can promote until tomorrow never comes or you can just dig in and WRITE another book. If customers aren't interested in the first one, then it could happen to number two. Haha. I just said number two.

5. Remember this is a marathon not a sprint. So many people say that, but few remember it. Now you have been reminded. Getting a book noticed takes a good cover, great editing, and a long while for people to figure out it exists.

Can Social Media Really Help to Promote your Book?

Three Questions That Can Change Your Love-Hate Relationship with Social Media

By

Beth Jusino

 

 I'm delighted to welcome Beth Jusino to MB4. Beth is the book marketing guru over at The Editorial Department. Her new book, The Author’s Guide to Marketing: Make a Plan That Attracts More Readers and Sells More Books (You May Even Enjoy It), is a must read for any author trying to promote a book in today's changing environment. Today she talks about Social Media and the writer. Can it really help to promote your book?

Enjoy!

D.

*****

“I signed up for Twitter because everyone says I have to do it to market my book. But I hate it.”

Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. As a marketing consultant, I spend more time talking with writers about social media than any other channel. Too often, Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest has become nothing but a black hole of dread that seems to suck time away from their writing, without giving anything back.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Social media works only when it’s social—when there’s a comfortable give-and-take between real people. Think of it like a very big cocktail party—if you hover silently in a corner and don’t talk to anyone, you probably won’t get much out of the experience. It’s a waste of time. And if you stand in the doorway and accost every person who passes you with a sales pitch, you’ll do more harm for your cause than good.

But if you walk into the room with a smile and the attitude that people here are worth engaging with, and if you’re prepared with a few conversation topics to break the ice, you might make a new friend or two. You might even enjoy yourself.

Changing your perspective on social media starts with asking three questions:

1.      Who do I WANT to meet?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the depth of the social media pools. There are millions of people here, usually talking about every conceivable silliness. So let go of the idea that you will talk to everyone—and get proactive about finding people who share your interests and passions.

That means your existing readers, of course, but also those people who should read your books.

Don’t wait for those people to find you; go looking for them. Start by identifying three or four general interests that you might share with your audience. For instance, if you write thrillers about a former rodeo cowboy who now solves crimes in Montana, search for people who are already talking about reading* thrillers, OR about rodeos, OR about Wyoming. These are your people. Follow them. Comment on what they share. Be friendly. (But don’t be pushy. Don’t try to sell anything to a stranger.)

* Look for readers rather than writers. I see a lot of authors who use social media to follow and chat with other authors—their coworkers, essentially—instead of their readers and fans.

2.      What can I offer?

No one remembers the wallflower at the cocktail party. For Twitter or Vine or whatever to work as a platform-building tool, you need to say something that others want to hear. Don’t approach social media asking “how can I sell more books?” Ask:

What can I do to help my audience right now?

Think about the way you engage acquaintances and readers in real life, and spin that into your online persona. What do people respond to? (Follow the links for Twitter examples)

·         Information. If your brand is based on knowledge (you’re an expert of some kind), share tips, facts, and links to relevant articles on your blog.

·         Humor. If there’s humor in your writing, bring it to your social presence. If we’ve learned anything from all of those cat videos on YouTube, it’s that people love to laugh.

·         Encouragement. Break through the noise of social media with a quote, a verse, a thought, or a wish that will brighten someone’s day.

·         Links. Become a curator of relevant, interesting content. If you write historical fiction, share photos and stories about the era. If your work has an environmental angle, link to the latest research. If you write romance, share happily-ever-after stories (or pictures of hot men, connecting both humor and links). 

·         News about yourself. Providing value also means sharing what’s happening with your books and your writing. Share links to interviews on other sites, sales, major milestones (did you finish a manuscript, or even a chapter?). This isn’t a channel for hard sales pitches or “buy my book” messages.

And remind yourself to engage. Social media isn’t a one-way communication channel. It won’t work if you broadcast what you have to say and then disappear. Treat social media as a conversation, and the people who are there as individuals who are worth your time and energy. Ask questions, and engage when people answer you. Follow and comment (or share, or like) what other people are posting. This is the chance for you to listen to your readers, and learn more about them—which in turn can help you write better books for them.

3.      What do I want to get?

There’s a lot more to Instagram or Tumblr than people selling books. Venture out and look around; social media might meet some of your needs, too.  

Whether it’s sustainable gardening or spiritual development, encouragement as a parent or research about the Tudors, it’s there. If you’re researching Yosemite National Park for your Work in Progress (or for the next family vacation), you can find people who are curating information about the park. Or if you need to know what the traffic is like at midnight in a particular Seattle neighborhood, there’s someone online who can tell you.

Piece by piece, social media will start to feel less like a chore and more like an extension of a conversation with people you know and care about—your readers.

*****

About Beth Jusino:

Beth Jusino talks more about social media and all kinds of author marketing techniques in her new book The Author’s Guide to Marketing: Make a Plan That Attracts More Readers and Sells More Books (You May Even Enjoy It). A former literary agent, Beth is now a freelance consultant and the Director of Book and Author Marketing for The Editorial Department, guiding traditionally- and self-publishing authors through the modern maze of opportunities. She teaches a Guide to Getting Published class every quarter in Seattle. Visit her at http://bethjusino.com or on Twitter @bethjusino. 

About Dora Machado

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She is one only a few Hispanic women writing fantasy in the United States today. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories.

When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for the award-winning blog Murder By Four and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

To learn more about Dora Machado and her award winning novels, visit her at www.doramachado.com , email her at Dora@doramachado.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

Book Signings

Book signings leave me scratching my head. They are sort of like a garage sale, sometimes. I do not like having a garage sale because it is not in my DNA to be a saleswoman.

It is the same with flea markets. I can buy things I like or want, but selling? Not my forte. In fact, I probably give more stuff away at yard sales than I make.

So you can understand my chagrin when I realize that all the sales of my book are up to me. Yes, no publicity nor marketing help from anyone in my corner at this time has left all the finer points to me. This part of being a writer is the hardest of all, in my opinion.

If you are a published author, you probably look forward to book signings so that you can connect with your readers. But what about the author who has self-pubbed or is indie pubbed? Or even those who chose electronic only? What do they do for book signings? In fact, electronic only authors, what do you USE to have a sale in a face-to-face event?

An Unexpected Performance

I am promoting my self-pubbed book, An Unexpected Performance. This weekend I will be at the Bartlett Festival in Bartlett, TN signing and selling. It will be hot. 88 degrees with a heat index of middle 90s.

I am ready, I think. I have my books, bookmarks, and poster. What else can I take?

Marketing a la Kim part three

Here I am again...pondering marketing. I told you last time that I would keep you posted. Well, it is official. Hosting a book cover contest on your blog DEFINITELY sends your traffic through the roof.

The only deal is: how do I convert those numbers into followers?

If I had thought about it, I should have asked the people who visited the blog to follow me on it, fan me on Facebook, and friend me on Twitter as a part of the contest requirements. But that is hard to do when the actual contest is for someone else. Who wants to jump through hoops when the prize is going to end up in someone else's hands?

Well, I would for one, especially if it was for my great Mb4 buds who were the judges for the book cover contest. Thanks again, guys.

image by Kim Smith

So, I am still learning, as you can see, but the good news is, I did see a HUGE jump in traffic.

Some of the other things I have done this past week to promote (market) - signed up for Hootsuite for Twitter so I can better manage my tweets-promoted my YA fantasy on Facebook in a variety of places... and submitted a short story to a PRO market. (PS-was rejected and promptly sent to another Pro market the next day) They say the best way to get interest for your work is to write something else, so I took that one to heart and subbed something as well. In my case, if I write it, edit it, and submit it as soon as possible, the chances of it growing mold on my hard drive are a lot less.

And I joined Imagicopter. They have an event coming in September over in Hot Springs Ark. I am going to try REALLY hard to make it, but as my funds get tighter over the winter months, I might have to miss it. There is a con coming to Memphis in a few months and I will definitely be there. Cons are great networking events, I have found.

Up next? Looking into spending money on promotion materials such as bookmarks, postcards, and business cards...Vistaprint anyone?

In between writing, subbing, editing, worrying, and all that, I am crocheting again for the first time in eons. The color I chose is called Woodsy Sylvestre and it sort of looks camo. (I think everyone is getting a blanket this year!)

How ya like this color?

That's it for me...What have you been doing to market yourself this week?