Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru ![]()
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Posts Tagged ‘self publish’10 Social Media Tips for Effective Book MarketingAugust 31st, 2014Hi All! With the boom of self-publishing, most authors don’t have the backing of a traditional Publishing House to handle the marketing of their books. And, nowadays, even if you do land a book publishing contract, many Publishers don’t provide the marketing support they used to. So, regardless of whether you self-publish your book OR sign a book deal, you’ll find yourself having to be your own Publicist and Marketing Expert. Unless, of course, you can hire someone to do it for you. However most authors who contact me are on a tight budget and can’t afford a costly Publicist. That’s why authors hire me to provide them with customized strategies and plans that they can execute themselves and/or with the help of a cost-effective Virtual Assistant. Please keep in mind that Social Media is just ONE strategy in your overall book marketing mix. You need to also include PR, media outreach, and other marketing strategies for effective book marketing. And I’ve written plenty of blogs and articles on those, too. But in this article, I’d like to focus on 10 tips that you can use to promote your book, increase your book sales, and build your brand, using Social Media: 1. Embed a Retweet Button Who doesn’t love a free sample? Give one chapter away for free to your audience and embed a retweet button in strategic locations, motivating readers to easily share it with their followers on Twitter. Side Note: Avoid just sending tweets that are all about “Buy my book!” with a link to it on Amazon. 2. Promote Your Personal Brand Promoting your Personal Brand as the author is as important as promoting your book! So in your Social Media posts, make your prospects want to connect with you. Share stuff about your hobbies, interests, your writing process, and expertise. Let the audience (who could be prospective buyers of your book) get to know you as a person by not JUST focusing your content all about your book. 3. Ask Readers to Spread the Word Ask readers of your book to tell their networks about it. This is something MANY authors don’t think of doing. Don’t think that just because someone loved your book they’re going to remember to share the news with others. People get busy and forget! Remind them about your book and give them a little nudge to tell their networks about it. 4. Network with Other Writers in Your Genre Find authors who target the same audience that you do for your book. Don’t look at them as competitors even if those authors have written books on the same topic as yours. Promoting other writers can help attract readers to your book, and those authors may reciprocate. Get involved in their social networks: “Like” their Facebook Pages, follow them on Twitter and retweet their posts, and ask them to write a Guest Blog for your blog, and ask if they would accept a blog post from you for theirs. Building relationships with other authors in your genre is a great strategy for cross-promotion that benefits you both! 5. Create a Video Contest Run a contest asking readers of your book to share a video about why they liked your book so much, and award the person who provides the best one with a $25 or $50 Gift Card (i.e. for Starbucks or a VISA gift card). You can then post the Top 10 videos (or all of them) on your YouTube Channel, your Facebook Page, on your website, tweet the links to the vids, share them in your e-newsletter, etc. Those videos all become marketing tools to promote your book in a wide variety of ways. 6. Use Hashtags Use hashtags of your industry to promote your book on Twitter (and elsewhere) to reach a larger audience who are interested in your topic. Confused by hashtags? Read this great article for an overview and tips! 7. Participate in the Conversation Monitor the conversation about your book online, and post responses to comments. Engaging with your audience will grow your audience base and encourage others to join the conversation. Again, it’s another strategy for people to get to know you as a person, and that can forge bonds with them. 8. Go Niche Search Google to find social networks in the same niche as your book. Become a fan of these networks or pages. Participate in the conversations and when appropriate, mention your book. But be sure to avoid only posting comments promoting your book because that will annoy people. 9. Mention Your Book in Your Social Network Bios I’m always shocked by how many authors who contact me DON’T have their books mentioned in their bios on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Your book, and a link to it, should be added to every online bio you have. 10. Add the Book Title to Your Email Signature Again, this is another very simple thing to do that many authors don’t think of. Add your book title and a link to it in your email signature block so that EVERY person who receives an email from you sees it. How One Author’s Self Published Book Became a Best SellerDecember 10th, 2011Hi All! Many of my clients are authors, or aspiring authors, who self publish their books or who have gotten traditional publishing deals. But regardless of how they published, they come to me for help with book marketing. And, as the author of 3 books myself, I can tell you first hand that just because your book is on Amazon (or available elsewhere) it doesn’t matter if no one knows it exists! That said, I came across an interesting article published by The Wall Street Journal, written by Alexandra Alter, about how one self published author took matters into her own hands and ended up with a best-seller that has now sold over 400,000 copies! I wanted to share this great story with you because it’s not only inspirational for any of you who are authors or planning to become one, but it also explains HOW she made this happen. Here’s an excerpt from the article: Article: “How I Became a Best-Selling Author”: This summer, Darcie Chan’s debut novel became an unexpected hit. It has sold more than 400,000 copies and landed on the best-seller lists alongside brand-name authors like Michael Connelly, James Patterson and Kathryn Stockett. It’s been a success by any measure, save one. Ms. Chan still hasn’t found a publisher. Five years ago, Ms. Chan’s novel, “The Mill River Recluse,” which tells the story of a wealthy Vermont widow who bestows her fortune on town residents who barely knew her, would have languished in a drawer. A dozen publishers and more than 100 literary agents rejected it. “Nobody was willing to take a chance,” says Ms. Chan, a 37-year-old lawyer who drafts environmental legislation. “It was too much of a publishing risk.” This past May, Ms. Chan decided to digitally publish it herself, hoping to gain a few readers and some feedback. She bought some ads on Web sites targeting e-book readers, paid for a review from Kirkus Reviews, and strategically priced her book at 99 cents to encourage readers to try it. She’s now attracting bids from foreign imprints, movie studios and audio-book publishers, without selling a single copy in print. The story of how Ms. Chan joined the ranks of best sellers is as much a tale of digital marketing savvy and strategic pricing as one of artistic triumph. Her breakout signals a monumental shift in the way books are packaged, priced and sold in the digital era. Just as music executives have been sidestepped by YouTube sensations and indie iTunes hits, book publishers are losing ground to independent authors and watching their powerful status as literary gatekeepers wither. Self-publishing has long been derided as a last resort for authors who lack the talent or savvy to hack it in the publishing business. But it has gained a patina of legitimacy as a growing number of self-published authors land on best-seller lists. Last year, 133,036 self-published titles were released, up from 51,237 in 2006, according to Bowker, a company that tracks publishing trends. To read the rest of this info-packed article and learn more about Ms. Chan’s amazing story, CLICK HERE! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Sell, or Make Your Free e-Book Available, on AmazonJanuary 28th, 2011Hi All! Recently, this question has been posed to me a lot: “I want to sell my e-book on Amazon, or I have a free e-book that I want to make available on Amazon. How do I do it?” So, I decided to write a quick blog post to answer this question for authors. This isn’t intended to give you the step-by-step instructions! It’s intended to give you the general info you need to get started: TIP ONE: Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP) Service: This enables you to self-publish ebooks for Kindle downloads: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin Note: This is for whether your ebook is free or you plan to sell it. It also has directions for getting your ISBN and provides that info once you’ve logged in to your account (IBSN info is also provided in the 2 article links below). Directions for log in/account set-up are provided on the link above. This page also provides info about Amazon’s DTP compensation program when you’re selling an ebook. Also, read this short “how to” article. It says that in order for your ebook to be SOLD on Amazon for download on a Kindle an ISBN IS REQUIRED: http://www.ehow.com/how_5740131_sell-ebook-amazon_s-kindle.html TIP TWO: Here’s a good “how to” article about creating and distributing your ebook through Amazon. It states this info is for whether your ebook is FREE or to be sold. According to this article, an ISBN number is NOT required for FREE ebooks on Amazon (but I’d get an ISBN for an ebook even if the ebook is free): http://www.ehow.com/how_4489551_sell-book-kindle-format.html TIP THREE: If you’d prefer NOT to do all of this yourself, here’s a turnkey service that will layout/format your ebooks, get your ISBN numbers, and set-up your ebook with major online retailers. They handle all of it for $149 per title (plus 15% commission of net per sale): http://www.ebookit.com/ Okay! That should take some of the mystery out of this process for you, and hopefully saved you time in researching the answers on your own. Good luck! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Tags: amazon, authors, book marketing, book publishing, e-books, self publish, selling e-books online
Posted in authors, book marketing, Business Tips, marketing, sales | 7 Comments » Cool Service For Publishing A Book and Product DevelopmentDecember 15th, 2010Hi All! I’m certainly behind on my blogging the past couple of weeks. My Father has been very sick so I’ve been away from work quite a bit to be with him. The good news is that it looks like he’ll be released from the hospital in time for Christmas! Go, Dad, go!!! OK…onto the topic of this post…a question I get a lot is,”How do I publish a book (or develop products)??”. There are many ways to do this, and here’s one solution that’s worth looking into. And, no, they don’t know that I’m writing a blog post about them! So I’m not receiving anything from them for posting this. The service is called FastPencil.com. They are ideal for self-publishers of ANY type of book. BUT, if you don’t want to write a book, they also create products like: ebooks, small how-to guides, picture books, etc. And they can be developed in printed and electronic formats. Plus, they offer a turnkey solution where they’ll upload to all the major online retailers for you, AND provide distribution services (meaning they’ll print and ship the orders for you). Another cool thing is that they provide templates, so you can design and layout your own book, guide, booklet, ebook, etc. This can save you money on having to hire a graphic designer. AND, they even offer book writing software to make the process easier for you! I also noticed on their website that they offer a service called “Premiere”, which appears to be a publishing imprint service for established authors. That’s worth looking into more for publishing your future books. Here’s a brief blurb from the About Us page on their website: FastPencil is book publishing without the pain. The traditional book publishing process can take many months of effort and more money than most writers anticipate. It’s no wonder authors get discouraged. You shouldn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to write and publish your own book! We have removed the hurdles inherent in traditional book publishing by combining amazing advances in print on demand technology with a sophisticated online workflow system. While powerful technology makes it possible for anyone to publish a high-quality book, our collaboration capabilities make FastPencil the easiest, fastest, and most exciting way to write and publish. Regardless of the type of book they’re writing, most writers need feedback as they create. When authors have ready access to friends and collaborators, the writing and editing process is faster and easier. At any point in the writing process you can connect with like-minded people, share knowledge, chat, gather feedback from reviewers and editors, and collaborate with other authors, all without leaving FastPencil. OKAY! Take a look at their website for more info…I’m interested in using them for e-books and short guide development, so I’ll be learning more about them soon, too! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa P.S. If you have used their service, please post a comment about your experience! Tags: book marketing, book publishing, book writing, product development, publisher, self publish
Posted in authors, book marketing, branding, Business Tips, marketing | 2 Comments » Literary Agent vs Publicist: What Is the Difference?November 27th, 2010Many new authors are confused by the different roles of support professionals in the publishing world. It can be a very overwhelming world! So the goal of this article is to shed some light on the basic differences between 2 support professionals who often cause new authors to scratch their heads: Literary Agents and Publicists. Literary Agent Overview: You’ve written a book manuscript and you don’t want to self-publish it…your dream is to land a publishing deal with a major publishing house. Great goal, but what many new authors don’t realize is that nowadays you typically need to land a Literary Agent to represent you FIRST, and then they’ll shop your manuscript to Publishers. Most Publishers won’t even accept a manuscript unless a legitimate Literary Agent delivers it to them. And, quite honestly, finding a Literary Agent to represent you can take quite some time – months and even years. This is a big reason many authors choose the self-publishing route…out of total frustration! But, for the sake of this article, let’s say you are totally determined to land a publishing deal with a traditional publishing house. Here is some general info you need to know about Literary Agents. What exactly is a Literary Agent and what do they do? In general, they are marketing and sales experts who know how to give your manuscript pizzazz. Their purpose is to determine the compelling pitch that (they hope) will make Publishers want to review your manuscript and offer you a publishing deal. Literary Agents also negotiate the book deals for their clients (often with an attorney involved). How do they charge? Like a Talent Agent, they work on commission based on the deal they get for you. So if you contact an agent and they say they will charge a fee to represent you, RUN! That’s a scam. Legitimate agents only get paid if they land you a publishing contract. Here’s a bit more detail from AgentQuery.com about this: Literary Agents charge a commission whenever they sell the publishing rights (and various sub-rights) of a book. Standard commissions range from 10-15% for the sale of domestic rights and 15-20% for foreign rights. Major Publishers pay authors an advance against royalties. A Literary Agent negotiates the terms of the sale, and then collects a commission for their hard work. Publicist Overview: Whether you are self-published or traditionally published, you can hire a Publicist. And their main purpose is to get you, and your book, mass exposure. So a Publicist typically comes into the picture when your book is close to being published (or after it is) and assists with the book marketing. What exactly is a Publicist and what do they do? Basically, a good Publicist comes up with strategic ideas for event promotions, tries to get book reviews, finds opportunities where you and/or you book would fit nicely (like speaking at an event or coordinating a virtual book tour), contacts the media on your behalf to land interviews, and also “cooks up” interesting story angles to grab the media’s attention. Plus, if you’re “famous” and run into trouble that becomes public, your Publicist is there to protect you from bad press OR (try to) address the issue with a positive spin…think Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods! How do they charge? Unlike Literary Agents, Publicists do not work on commission. Most of them have an hourly rate or monthly retainer fee. However, there are some who charge based on “pay for placement” (i.e. charging $3000 if they secure you 10 radio interviews), but under those placement arrangements they are not helping with all the other services I mentioned above. And you typically have to come up with the “story angle” yourself to pitch the media and then they contact the media they think will be interested. But, most authors I work with need help with more than just landing a few media interviews. They need help with Marketing, PR, Branding, and Social Media strategies, too. So I assess and strategize all of the elements needed to market the book and the author – and I consider “publicity” just one piece of the big puzzle. Therefore, I don’t just limit my services to being a “Publicist”. I bring this up so you know what to ask a Publicist before hiring one! I know one author who was pitched by a Publicist and for $2500 a month all she was going to do was contact the media. This so-called “Publicist” had no experience with all of the other puzzle pieces needed to successfully market the author or their book, and my (now) client, who was new to the “publicity” world, came close to signing a contract with her. That could have been a very expensive lesson with very little return! Bottom line? If you contact a Publicist and they don’t mention strategies beyond contacting the media (such as conducting a Virtual Book Tour, or assessing your marketing materials, website and positioning), don’t waste your money on their services. In terms of retainer fees, they vary greatly. You’ll see some Publicists who charge $1,000 per month (for a limited amount of hours), and others who charge $25,000+ per month. Most of the “bigger” well-known Publicists I’m aware of won’t take on clients for less than $10,000 per month, and they require 6-month contracts – a pretty hefty price tag for most authors I know. So, there you have it. I hope this snapshot of differences between Literary Agents and Publicists has given you some clarity. They each play very different roles in the publishing world, and (the good ones) can often make a big difference in your quest for publishing greatness! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Conduct A Virtual Book Tour to Increase Your SalesNovember 13th, 2010Hi All! Book authors are on a never-ending quest to promote their books, sell their books, and increase awareness for them. Yet, many authors struggle with this. I know this first hand because I have a lot of clients who are authors and seek my help with their book marketing. One effective book marketing strategy that most authors do not use is conducting a Virtual Book Tour; using blogs as the vehicle. There are many ways to do one, so this post will give you some general guidelines to follow and you can adjust, alter and brainstorm additional ideas for your tour. And the great thing about Virtual Book Tours is that it doesn’t matter if your book is new or not! There are many authors who have books that are several years old and their Virtual Book Tour brings the book back-to-life, generates interest for the book amongst people who didn’t know about it when it first came out, and ramps sales again. So don’t think this strategy is just for NEW books! And, it doesn’t matter whether you self-publish or not! I know authors who get hung-up on the self-published status of their book, but it’s NOT an issue! 1.) Establish a timeframe for your tour. This can range from one week to one month. And you’ll want to start organizing it 1-2 months ahead of time for effective planning. 2.) Find blogs that reach the audience you want to target for your book, and contact the owners of those blogs. This can range anywhere from 10 to a million blogs! How many blogs involved on your tour just depends on the time you have to do this outreach and how many blogs are the right fit for your book’s topic. 3.) Tell each blogger the tour’s timeframe and what your expectations are when they participate in the tour. This may include: During the tour, they need to write a review of your book that includes the book’s cover linked to your Amazon page or wherever your book is sold; and you’ll provide them with 1-3 articles that pertain to your book’s topic that they will run during the tour as “guest blog posts” (from you) on their blog. And in the articles you provide them, they’ll include your short bio, pic of your book (or of you), and link to your website. You’ll provide EACH of the blogs that participate the same articles and each of them can run the articles in any order they want during the tour. 4.) Send each participating blogger an organized “kit” for the tour (via email). This should include: General tour info (restate expectations, tour timeframe, roll-out schedule, etc.); file of your book cover; file of your headshot; and the articles you wrote for them to use as “guest posts” (as Word docs with links embedded to your website, Amazon page, etc.). Don’t rely on the bloggers to find the correct links to YOUR stuff! 5.) Mail each blogger a copy of your book. Obviously you need to do this so they can read it BEFORE the book tour launches. And, no, don’t ask them buy it! Mail them a free copy! 6.) Offer several copies of your book to each blogger who participates to use as a giveaway item for a contest they can create (or use it as a free gift for something the blogger wants to promote). You may not want to do this with every blogger who participates (if you have TONS of blogs on the tour), but you’ll want to offer it to the ones who have a lot of traffic. This is a good strategy because aside from them writing a review for your book and running the articles you provide to them during the tour, they can create a contest (or promotion) “around your book” which will be additional exposure for your book. 7.) Thank and mention the blogs who participate on YOUR blog throughout the tour, on Twitter tweet the links to the blog posts they do about (and from) you, mention them on your Facebook Fan Page, etc. Doing all of this is critical because you are giving the participating blogs exposure to YOUR social networks, and that’s good business. The bloggers who participate on your tour are doing YOU a favor so giving them some “link love” and exposure is only right. 8.) Consider sending each blogger who participated in your tour a Thank You gift when it’s over. Again, show them gratitude for their time, effort and help in promoting YOUR book! Okay! That’s a general overview of how to do a Virtual Book Tour. Yes, I could go on & on with more ideas for conducting a successful tour, and ways to make it more elaborate (but that can get costly), so this gives you a good starting point. The “basic” approach I provided can get you great results as long as you PLAN ahead of time and connect with enthusiastic bloggers who are excited to participate in your Virtual Book Tour. And if you want help with ideas, planning, and execution of your tour, or need other book marketing strategies, you know where to find me… Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Cool Online Tools to Reach Targeted Media Interested in Your NewsNovember 01st, 2010Hi All! I wanted to share some very cool tools that can help you reach TARGETED media and industry influencers; who are specifically interested in YOUR news and expertise. By using these tools, you can attract media interviews and get mass media coverage to build your personal or business branding platform, increase your income, and increase the sales of your products (i.e. your book if you wrote one!). AND, I don’t care whether you’re a one-person company, small business, self-published book author, etc. The media (print, broadcast and online) is on the hunt for interesting news and topics 24/7, 365-days a year. So you don’t have to be famous or have earth-shattering news to get their attention! They just want interesting news or segment ideas that will appeal to their audiences. I recently helped an author-client land a featured interview on a popular talk show on Lifetime! And she is a self-published author who just started working with me…getting media exposure rolling CAN happen fast if you make some effort! SO…go for it! 1.) PitchEngine.com Overview: Unlike traditional wire services, PitchEngine enabled users to openly create and share their own content, while including images, videos and attachments at no cost. In 2009, more than 70,000 pitches were shared by 27,000 organizations looking to get the word out to not just journalists, but to bloggers, consumers and other influencers as well. PitchEngine’s “Co-op SEO” concept enables brands big and small to experience exceptional indexing in major search engines. 2.) MediaSyncOnline.com (FREE!) Overview: MediaSync is a free Web-based service from mBLAST that allows Marketers to easily research and use detailed, up-to-date media intelligence on print and online publications, their staff and their areas of coverage. With MediaSync, you can find:
MediaSync allows users to search for the information they need (on their companies, clients OR the competition), refine the results, save their search and receive alerts when new information is available that matches their criteria. They can also upload existing media lists and/or create and maintain new ones, and export it all into a contact list or briefing book. Overview: Check-out my info-packed Learning Guide that outlines the PR & Publicity strategies I help my clients with, and the ones I personally use (which have landed me over 100 media interviews!). This special guide typically sales for $37, but for a limited time I’m offering it for $27. I charge a lot more than $37, let alone $27, for the seminars, workshops and webinars I conduct on this topic…and the info in this Learning Guide is the same as I share in those more expensive events. It covers everything you need to know about attracting the media, pitching the media, writing a killer Press Release, online tools and resources, and MUCH MORE. Simply CLICK HERE for the details of what you’ll learn…it’s on the Products Page of my website. So there you have it…3 very cool tools that can help you reach the media YOU want to reach, and who are interested in YOUR news. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Find a Literary Agent to Sell Your Book ManuscriptAugust 12th, 2010Hi All! You’ve been slaving over your manuscript forever, it’s done, it’s brilliant…everyone you know says it’s going to be a best-seller (and not just your Mom), and you don’t want to self-publish this work of art. Your dream is to land a publishing deal with a major New York publishing house and see their logo printed on the spin of your book cover. I respect that goal, and I have some clients who pursue it – some successfully, and some not so much. But what I find many new authors don’t realize is that nowadays you typically need to land a Literary Agent to represent you FIRST, and then they’ll shop your manuscript to Publishers. Most Publishers won’t even accept a manuscript unless a legitimate Literary Agent delivers it to them. And, quite honestly, I’ve heard endless stories from authors about how they tried to land a Literary Agent for a long time…and I’m talking 1+ years. This is a big reason many authors choose the self-publishing route…out of total frustration! But, for the sake of this blog topic, let’s say you are totally determined to land a publishing deal with a traditional publishing house. Here is some general info and resources that could help you grab the attention of a Literary Agent who may love your manuscript, and choose to represent you. Some common questions with answers: What exactly is a Literary Agent and what do they do? In general, they are marketing and sales experts who know how to make your manuscript sizzle. They determine the compelling pitch that (they hope) will make Publishers want to review your manuscript, and then offer you/agent a publishing deal. And, a good agent has the contacts you don’t. Do they charge a fee? Yes, but not up-front. Like a Talent Agent, they work on commission based on the deal they get for you. So if you contact an agent and they say they charge a fee for them to represent you, RUN! That’s a scam. Legitimate agents only get paid if they get you a publishing deal. Here’s a bit more detail from AgentQuery.com about this: Literary agents charge a commission whenever they sell the publishing rights (and various sub-rights) of a book. Standard commissions range from 10-15% for the sale of domestic rights and 15-20% for foreign rights. Major Publishers pay authors an advance against royalties. A literary agent negotiates the terms of the sale, then collects a commission for her hard work. I have no connections to Literary Agents, so how can I find one? You can do Google searches to find directory listings. And there are websites like these where they have agent listings: Association of Authors’ Representatives These types of websites also provide loads of great info about how to contact and approach an agent, how to write a query, how to avoid being scammed, and much more. Getting an agent to represent you is not impossible, but it can be very challenging. So if you really want to try to land a publishing deal, be patient and start by finding a great Literary Agent to represent you and your best-selling manuscript! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Tags: book marketing, book writing, literary agent, publishing, self publish
Posted in authors, book marketing, Business Tips | 4 Comments » Authors: 10 Solid Tips for Selling More of Your Books on AmazonMay 27th, 2010Hi All! I’m a bit behind on by blogging because I’ve been on a much needed vacation, enjoying some sun, ocean and fun. While on vacation I read Brent Sampson’s book “Sell Your Book On Amazon“. And I will tell you it’s worth the $15 (you may even be able to get a used one for less on Amazon). Not only does he list all the strategies to be aware of, but he goes into details about “how” to implement them and provides real world examples (so that you get “why” they are important). There are TONS of strategies to get more exposure for yourself and your book(s) on Amazon, yet most authors I know only know of a few…heck, I’ve written 2 books, and they are on Amazon, and I didn’t even know about many of these tips. OR, I was aware of them but didn’t totally get the “benefit” or the strategy around them. And I will say that Brent states several times in his book that Amazon doesn’t make it easy on authors to find or execute these strategies. That’s why I liked his book! It gives step-by-step instructions for each tip he shares. I won’t go into all the “how and why to execute these ideas” here, because that’s what a book like Brent’s is for (and I don’t want to rewrite his book on my blog). But here are 10 tips (out of MANY) that he suggests, and you can research how and why they are important for marketing and selling more of your books on Amazon. You can also see my video about selling more of your books on Amazon. Click here to view it! And, please note, whether you self-published your book, or published through a traditional publisher, these tips apply. 1. Start and AmazonConnect account 2. Create an Author Profile Page 3. Make sure you upload a professional photo on your Profile Page and make sure you add a caption under it. You can include your name, book name, web address, etc. Use it for marketing! 4. Complete the About Me info on the Author Profile Page, and make sure to write a good “signature”. Your signature will show-up on all the posts you do on Amazon (e.g. reviews of other peoples’ books) so it will help market you. 5. Write “So You’d Like to…” Guides (a feature on Amazon) 6. Make sure you implement the Search Inside feature on your book’s page 7. Check out Amapedia: This is Amazon’s version of a wiki. You can post factual info pertaining to your book and info related to your topic. 8. Write as many reviews for other peoples’ books as possible…even for your competition. But don’t write one to “trash” them! If their book was good, give them a 5 star rating and a good review. And everyone who reads it will see your signature and book title in your review, and this can drive traffic to your book page. Why? Because if someone is reading that author’s reviews, they are interested in his/her topics and may want more books pertaining to that topic! Plus, the more reviews your write, the higher your Amazon reviewer ranking climbs. This all gives you more exposure. 9. Use the Tag This Product feature on your book’s Detail Page. 10. Look into, and participate in, the Listmania feature. OKAY! Those are the quick tips. So do some research on the ones that are new to you and start implementing! Or, if you are like me, and you don’t want to spend tons of time researching, just pick up a copy of “Sell Your Book on Amazon“. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Tags: amazon, authors, book marketing, publisher, self publish
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