Marketing

29 April, 2014

7 author marketing tips for books that appeal to women

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00April 29, 2014|Marketing, Resources|Comments Off on 7 author marketing tips for books that appeal to women

There are as many ways to sell a book as there are people who write them. The one thing that is common among all book selling approaches is that you match the right book with the right buyer.

If your book is written typically for a female reader it makes sense to direct your book selling efforts to the places that women tend to congregate. The following seven tips are perfect for locating new readers for books written for women.

1. Women’s magazines. As a writer, try to get an article published in a women’s magazine. While it may be difficult to get accepted in the beginning by the top magazines in this field (Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day), it is still well worth your time to get published in smaller outlets that reach out to women. Work your way up by starting with magazines that have smaller […]

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9 April, 2014

5 book marketing lies that stops authors from selling more books

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00April 9, 2014|Marketing, Publishing|Comments Off on 5 book marketing lies that stops authors from selling more books

Fiction authors are good at lying. Little lies and big lies that haven’t a speck of truth in them. Authors have no qualms filling their books with lies. They sugar coat their heroes with such virtues of talent, smarts and good looks that ordinary mortals step off the sidewalk to let them pass. Make way for superman and wonder woman! They describe their villains as malicious, scurvy folks that can be killed off with no more remorse than slapping a buzzing mosquito.

Imagination is what authors call it, of course. No one thinks of an author as a liar. That is much too crass and negative a word to describe such literary flights of fancy. Creative flow and artistic license is a nicer, digestible term. And people buy those lies; they love them.  Who can stop with just one? They slap down money on the counter and walk off with the […]

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31 March, 2014

5 great places to give a book reading

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00March 31, 2014|Marketing|Comments Off on 5 great places to give a book reading

Today when most people think of book marketing the first thing that comes to mind is social media — building a mailing list and getting likes on Facebook and tweets on Twitter.  But surprisingly, the old fashioned methods of connecting face to face with live book events are as important as ever.

In fact, the connections made in person are stronger in many cases and can make a deeper, lasting impression. Shaking hands with a person, making eye contact and sharing a few minutes of conversation will create a more memorable bond than online connecting.

Definitely, it takes a bit more effort, and for the introverts among us, it may seem like a stretch out of the comfort zone. However, in many ways, meeting people in person can be a lot of fun and provide valuable feedback and encouragement that is limited when sharing 140 characters on Twitter or a three sentence […]

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24 March, 2014

What authors need to know before starting a crowd funding campaign

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00March 24, 2014|Marketing, Publishing|Comments Off on What authors need to know before starting a crowd funding campaign

First-time authors as well as seasoned ones have successfully raised money through crowd funding. Campaigns have been funded that were as simple as $150 to pay for an inexpensive cover design and as complicated as over $49,000 to publish a coffee table book with glossy, colored pages. The main crowd funding sites used are Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Pubslush , although there are countless others.

Whether the amount is small or large though, crowd funding for a book has some hidden benefits that might be equally or perhaps even more important than raising money to pay for book printing and marketing costs.  Consider these:

Benefit No. 1: Connecting with new readers.

Benefit No. 2: Getting your book known on a wider platform.

Book marketing is about finding readers who will be attracted to your book enough to read it. Once you have shared the book with family and friends […]

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3 March, 2014

Why authors should use Google Hangouts on Air

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00March 3, 2014|Marketing, Resources, Social Media|Comments Off on Why authors should use Google Hangouts on Air

Google Hangouts on Air is a type of video call that operates like your own private television broadcast talk show. You can have up to ten people participating on the call with as many as 5,000 live viewers submitting questions via text chat. Once the show is completed an automatic YouTube video is published.

For authors, this can be a great way to build up weekly or monthly content as well as deepen connections with your target audience. A recent article on Forbes reported that the reach of video “over white papers, case studies, even live demos with reps” was significantly higher in how audiences choose to absorb new content.

Getting Started

To get started doing your own Google hangout on air, you will need to pick a topic that offers valuable content to your target audience. Offer a tutorial on a subject such as photography, business, cooking or create an […]

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17 February, 2014

Why you should use your real photo in creating Social Media profiles

By |2018-03-29T11:09:28-07:00February 17, 2014|Marketing, Social Media|Comments Off on Why you should use your real photo in creating Social Media profiles

An important part of building brand awareness is image awareness. Like the golden arches of McDonald’s you want your face to be recognized as an expert. When people see your face, you want them to instantly say, “Yes! I know that person.”

Recognition builds association, which builds greater credibility.

The more your target audience sees you in different places and doing different things, the greater the image of “Oh my, that person is everywhere. They must be much more important than I realized!”

A photo tip is to use a unique personal image for different social applications. This way when your name is searched on Google, the page of images for your name will have more instances of “you” than images of other people with the same name.

When getting professional images taken, come prepared with different outfits and ask the photographer to use different background images. This way you get more mileage out […]

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21 January, 2014

Building your 100 book marketing gold list

By |2018-03-29T11:09:29-07:00January 21, 2014|Marketing, Social Media|Comments Off on Building your 100 book marketing gold list

If you are looking for a magic bullet to speed your book to greater selling success, creating a 100 gold contact list might be just the ammunition you need.

A gold contact list is simply a list of 100 people that would help you to sell more books. This concept comes from John Kremer of Bookmarket.com. Kremer explains that building a list of 100 key media and book marketing contacts will help you to focus your relationship building efforts where they will have the most punch.

The first thing you have to realize when you build your list is that you don’t have to already know and have a relationship with these people. Come up with a list of people in the field that you want to know and then try to build a relationship with each one.

This will take some time. It will mean finding out where this person […]

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16 January, 2014

Why print newsletters can be more effective in keeping your fans connected

By |2018-03-29T11:09:29-07:00January 16, 2014|Marketing, Writing|Comments Off on Why print newsletters can be more effective in keeping your fans connected

The pendulum is swinging back. For the last five or ten years the push for authors to send out a digital newsletter was encouraged on every front. Turns out that it became so popular everyone did it. So much so that as email newsletters became more and more prolific, readers soon felt overwhelmed. In order to handle the load, people started filtering the emails into sorted files that rarely were opened or simply deleted them after a casual disinterested glance at the subject line.

Even though digital newsletters could be sent in full color, 84% of the browsers that received them had pictures and images turned off to guard against spam and viruses.  An email with plain text has to be pretty amazing to be read in this day and age of short attention spans.

As email turned into a chore and a headache, the delete key started being used with greater […]

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18 December, 2013

3 free press release sites

By |2018-03-29T11:09:29-07:00December 18, 2013|Marketing, News, Resources|Comments Off on 3 free press release sites

While you will have greater results if you send a targeted news release to a specific journalist, there are times when sending press releases out to the masses is not a bad idea. The chances of getting results are much slimmer, but if your release is timely and powerful, it might get picked up by media that you would never have contacted.

In many instances, it might be smart to do both types of news releases. Make sure that each release is different enough in content and focus so that your ideal targeted journalist will not feel like they are getting a mass letter. After all, if you go to the trouble of finding a journalist, connecting with them and writing the release to fit their coverage, then you want to build an ongoing relationship.

If you are ready to send your release out to the public, here are free press release […]

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12 December, 2013

Christmas Publicity – Don’t knock it!

By |2018-03-29T11:09:29-07:00December 12, 2013|Marketing, News, Social Media|Comments Off on Christmas Publicity – Don’t knock it!

You may think it’s not ethical to do something “nice” and make money off of it at the same time. But if you had a choice between creating publicity through a nice project and simply creating some publicity, you’d probably choose the nice project every time.

The news is full of media darlings doing anything possible to get a little camera coverage. Instead of yelling and getting drunk or married or divorced in order to get attention, how about doing something nice?

WestJet Airlines created a bit of Christmas cheer with its latest publicity video. The airline asked 100 people on two different flights what they wanted for Christmas as they boarded the plane. Then the WestJet “elves” went into action to buy and wrap the gifts and fliers received them at baggage claim when they landed. The whole video is about six minutes, which is long for an advertisement, […]

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