Book Marketing Maven

Successful Author Blogs

2009-11-14T09:25:00-06:00

I’m working on a presentation about creating successful author blogs, and I’m looking for terrific examples to include. What are the best author blogs you have seen, and why are they so effective? Please share your favorites in the comment area below. It’s okay to list your own blog, as long as you explain what makes it effective. Thanks!

Turn Your Facebook Profile into a Friend Magnet in 7 Easy Steps

2009-11-13T07:00:00-06:00

Recently author Janice Curran invited me to participate in a Featured Friend discussion on Facebook. For several hours I had a lively conversation on Janice's Facebook wall with a number of her friends, discussing the best ways to use Twitter for book promotion. In today's guest post, Janice offers tips on how you can create similar events on your own Facebook profile.

More and more writers—both the pros and the aspiring—are turning to social networking services such as Facebook to promote their brands. But if "everybody’s doing it," how do you stand out?

One way is to utilize the service in a manner that’s different from the norm. The manner I use is "Featured Friends."

When you look at your Facebook friend list, what do you see? A collection of names? Or do you see, as I do, a wide range of people with a wide range of expertise—people from whom others can learn?

I built my Facebook Featured Friends program around that concept. Once a month, I host what, in essence, is a live mini blog right on my Facebook wall. The Facebook friend featured posts a quick tip on a topic relevant to writing. Then, for a time-limited period following, my guest replies to comments posted by my Facebook friends.

The shared benefits make for an even exchange. The Featured Friend gets to promote a specific product and/or brand. The host gets to network, make new friends and learn along with the visitors.

With a little imagination, anyone from any industry can host a Featured Friends–type program on Facebook. If you can count to seven, you can, too …

1. “Friend” with a purpose. If your mission is to get your name in front of as many people as possible, friend away! If, like me, you prefer to limit your Facebook community of friends to writers, editors and other industry pros so you can network and offer targeted lessons, friend with that goal in mind.

2. Develop a plan. Do you wish to host a mini blog daily, weekly, monthly? Figure out the time you’d like to invest, then decide. Monthly works best for me. Between guests, I post links on topics of interest to writers. By doing so, I foster the impression that my wall is a writer-friendly place and a unique learning environment.

3. Invite friends to present. Everyone in your friend base is a potential presenter. Identify whom you’d like to feature, then e-mail the friend privately or use the SEND A MESSAGE option on the friend’s profile page to extend your request. Suggest a topic, or invite the presenter to choose. Schedule a date as well as the time the presenter will be available to post his or her lesson and respond to visitor questions. I ask my Featured Friends to post a 150-word tip and set aside two hours for interacting with visitors.

4. Invite other friends to attend. To send an invitation to all or some of your Facebook friends, add an EVENTS tab to your profile page. Click on the tab, then the CREATE EVENT button that appears at the top of the page. Facebook will guide you through the process of creating an event page and issuing invitations.

You’ll need to know the basics before you begin: the presenter’s name, the title of the lesson, a description of the event, the date, the time and the location (your Facebook wall). You can send a photo of your presenter or your presenter’s book with your invitation. You can upload photos, video and Web links to the event page you create.

5. Promote your event. Leading up to the big day, I post COMING SOON notices on my wall daily. On the day of, I also post invitations on the message boards of my online writing groups and my Featured Friend’s wall.

6. Get the ball rolling. It’s showtime. Your work is done—right? Not totally. Visitors are sometimes shy about being the first to participate. Introduce your guest with a brief bio. After the guest posts his or her tip, break the ice with questions that encourage visitors to ask questions of their own.

7. Keep the momentum going. A Featured Friend presentation is the start of a professional relationship that can lead to genuine friendship. I’ve had Featured Friends offer to make return engagements, recommend other friends to feature, suggest their friends become my friends, too. Keep alert for opportunities to help promote your Featured Friends’ endeavors in return. At the heart of the program are real people, working hard to succeed in a challenging industry. Everyone wins when everyone helps pave the way.

Janice Curran is a freelance writer, short story author and aspiring novelist. Her stories have appeared in New Love Stories, True Romance and True Love magazines. Writers and other industry pros are invited to friend her at www.facebook.com/janice.curran.

Facebook Restricts the Use of Contests

2009-11-11T07:09:00-06:00

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about using contests to attract fans to Facebook pages. On November 4, Facebook issued guidelines that impose strict restrictions on the use of contests, making them effectively impractical for individuals and small businesses. Mari Smith has written a good article explaining the guidelines.

Think about other ways to offer value to people who visit your Facebook fan page or group, while still adhering to the Facebook guidelines. For example, you can set these pages up as information portals, offering valuable tips and links. Also, consider offering downloads of a free ebook or a sample chapter from your book.

Twitter contests are still a good promotional tool for authors and publishers. So far, it appears that Twitter has placed no restrictions on contest promotions, so long as their anti-spam rules are not violated. See the Twitter rules for more details.

Blog Ideas for Fiction Authors

2009-11-05T08:00:00-06:00

In today's guest post, I'm delighted to have marketing expert Cathy Stucker share her creative blogging ideas for fiction authors.

You have heard that you should have a blog, but you may have no idea what you should blog about. Do your readers want to know what you had for lunch (probably not) or your opinions on some political issue (even less likely)? Although your blog does not always have to be about you and your books, here are some ideas that can keep you writing great blog posts and selling more books.

Your Events

Let your friends and fans know what you are doing and where they can meet you in person. Do posts about:

Upcoming Events - When and where will you be reading from your latest book? How can they attend your book launch party or order autographed copies of the book?

What Happened at Your Last Event - After the event, tell what happened. Was there a big crowd? Include pictures of you reading from your book, autographing books for fans, and everyone having a great time.

The Process of Writing

Most people will never write a book, and that makes them very curious about how someone actually writes an entire book. Write posts describing:

How You Decide What to Write About - Where did you get the idea to make your heroine a truck driver? Why did you set your latest novel in Miami?

How You Write - Do you write in longhand or at a computer? Do you create a detailed outline, or just start writing? How do you know when a book is finished? Do you imagine movie stars in the film version of your books while you write.

Where You Write - Do you write in a home office? At the library? In a corner at your local Starbucks?

Your Research

Even though the stories are made up, most novelists do at least some research to create credible characters and locations. Let your fans and aspiring writers know:

How You Research - Most people haven’t a clue how to do research. You might be surprised by how many people can not even do an effective Google search. Where do you start with your research? Do you travel to locations in your books? Have you ever worked at the jobs any of your characters have, or have you shadowed people in those jobs? What are the fun parts of research vs. the tedious parts?

Facts and Juicy Tidbits - Chances are your research turned up some very interesting information. It is also likely that lots of your research didn’t make it in to your book. Share some surprising and little-known historical facts or how-to with your blog’s readers.

What You Are Reading
Writers read, and your fans want to know what you read. Tell them!

The Novels on Your Nightstand - What books have you recently read? What books are on your nightstand, waiting to be read? What are your favorite books?

Books About Writing - Remember that many of your readers are also interested in writing, so let them know the books you find most useful. These might include grammar reference books, how-to books on writing, or books about the process of writing by your favorite authors.

Your Characters

It is your blog, but there is no rule that you can’t turn it over to your characters now and then to let them have their say.

Lead Characters - Let the lead characters in your upcoming book introduce themselves in a blog post. If you write a series, they might blog about what is happening in their lives between books.

Quirky Secondary Characters - Sometimes the minor characters are, in some ways, more interesting that the leads. The quirky characteristics that make them fun and interesting would drive everyone crazy if you read about them on every page of the book, but when they pop in for a few scenes, they grab interest and move the story along. Why not let one of them do a blog post? Readers will love it, and you will have fun, too.

Ask for Reader Feedback

Give readers a sense of ownership in your next book by asking for their advice. Ask them anything from whether your heroine should be blond to what her name should be or where the book should be set. Let them vote from a list of choices or make freeform suggestions.

Run a Contest

Everyone loves to win stuff, so hold a contest and give away a few copies of your book. Structure the contest to get readers involved, such as asking them to write a short poem about something in the book, or telling what their favorite one of your books is and why, or anything that gets them involved. (Note: Laws generally prohibit requiring that entrants make a purchase, so be careful about that.)

Blog often to keep readers engaged. These ideas should get you started. What other topics do you blog about?

As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. For more tips on writing, publishing and marketing books, see Cathy’s book publishing site, http://SellingBooks.com/.

Book Marketing Experts Share Their Top Tips

2009-11-02T07:30:00-06:00

We are fortunate to have a number of book marketing experts share their valuable tips through guest posts on Book Marketing Maven. Here are some recent posts, in case you missed them:

Book Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own by Joanna Penn

BlogTalkRadio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows by Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Dos and Donts by Patrice-Anne Rutledge

How to Market Children's Books in Schools by Melissa Williams

Best Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows by Karen Melamed

Thank you Joanna, Phyllis, Patrice, Melissa and Karen for sharing your expertise!

Is Self-Publishing an Impediment to Landing a Publishing Contract?

2009-10-29T07:00:00-05:00

Authors sometimes ask if self-publishing their book will hurt or help their chances of landing a contract with a traditional publisher. In today's guest post, Stephanie Gunning, a former senior editor at Bantam-Doubleday-Dell, shares her expertise on this topic.

Often self-publication is meant to be an interim step to finding a mainstream publisher. But if the author publishes his book independently or through a print-on-demand company, is it still be possible to sell it to a traditional publisher later on? Could he ruin his chances by bringing the book to market himself?

Unlike the sure thing of hiring a printer, you have to pitch a publisher. Traditional publishers are businesses that operate on the bottom-line of profit and loss. Executives try to avoid unnecessary risks, so they want proof you can succeed. When they consider a book for acquisition, they don’t care where it came from—they care where it has the potential to go.

For better or worse, self-publishing leaves marks. If you already sold a bunch of copies, they want to know if you tapped the entire market or just a tiny piece of it. They know your resources are less than theirs; therefore expectations for your sales volume are low. This can be a wonderful thing (from their perspective), as it means you won’t have polluted the marketplace with ineffective marketing efforts. But even more wonderful is if you did succeed in selling tons of copies.

If you had success, think of what they could do! They might see it as a sign that you are the luckiest monkey on the planet, or you have a following, your book idea is fantastic, and you’re a smart salesman. When making their decision of which author to partner with, the smart salesman with a good book is most appealing. If you want to take your book to a traditional publisher, you must prepare a solid marketing plan no matter whether you are or are not yet published. And you must learn how to be a smart salesman for yourself. Prove it.

The marketing plan in the book trade is known as a book proposal. This document resembles the kind of business proposal you would give to investors in that it spells out who you are, what you are doing to make this project viable, who you think the consumer is, and why you believe you can pull it off. The document is a promise of your actions and intentions, and it communicates your authority over your subject matter. (Yes, that’s where the word “author” comes from.)

While the quality of your book must be high, the text of a book by itself is usually not sufficient to generate a book contract. You also need to demonstrate your expertise and how well your intended audience knows you. You can skip drafting a marketing plan as a self-published author since you’re the boss, but you shouldn’t—at least not if you ultimately want to attract a publisher. Self-published authors who operate like businesspeople have an easier time winning book contracts.

Stephanie Gunning is a bestselling author, editor, and publishing consultant who coaches authors on how to get book deals. A former senior editor at Bantam-Doubleday-Dell, she’s mastered the art of transforming powerful ideas into highly marketable books. For information, visit www.stephaniegunning.com.

How Often Should You Tweet?

2009-10-26T07:30:00-05:00

Twitter can be a terrific networking tool, but many users wonder how often they should tweet. It's best to post several tweets a day, but it is hard to say what is the optimum frequency. I generally make five to seven posts a day. Some people post several times an hour, but that takes a lot of time and it may annoy your followers. And it's not a good idea to post unless you have something interesting to say.

Think about how the posts appear to your followers. As each new tweet appears on their home page, it pushes the earlier ones down a notch. Most people probably don't read beyond the first page when they log onto Twitter. If you make several posts at once, they will all be bunched together on your follower's screen. But if that person doesn't happen to be on Twitter at that time, they might not see any of your tweets if they have already been pushed beyond the first page. If you make several posts spaced out during the day, it's more likely that one or more of them will be seen.

If it's not practical for you to post several times during the day, you can use a scheduling service such as SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) or FutureTweets to pre-schedule your tweets.

For more tips on using Twitter effectively, see Twitter Guide for Authors.

Book Promotion Articles

2009-10-23T10:05:13-05:00

Here are some excellent marketing articles for authors and publishers:

A Look at One Author's Successful Book Launch and How She Did It by Susan Kendrick

Seven Mindsets to Get Publicity for Your Book by Shel Horowitz

10 Steps for Creating a FANtastic Facebook Fan Page by Mari Smith

5 Types of Web Content That Readers Love by Lynn Terry

Promote Your Book to Multiple Audiences

2009-10-19T07:30:00-05:00

Who should you be marketing your book to? Most books have a primary audience -- the ideal reader that the book was written for -- as well as several secondary audiences. In the October issue of The Savvy Book Marketer newsletter, you'll learn about several different types of target audiences, including readers, purchasers, retailers and influencers.

To get each monthly issue of The Savvy Book Marketer delivered to your inbox, use the subscription form in the upper left corner of this page.

When Should You Begin Marketing Your Book?

2009-10-19T07:30:00-05:00

As a book marketing consultant, I often hear from authors who have recently published a book and are looking for marketing advice. Regardless of whether a book is traditionally or independently published, the marketing process should begin far in advance of publication.

It's best to develop at least the outline of a marketing plan early on, and refine it as you approach the publication date. It's especially important to begin building an author platform and network right away, because it takes many months to develop a reputation and a significant number of followers and opt-in subscribers. For ideas on what to include in a book marketing plan, see www.CreateYourBookMarketingPlan.com.

Even if you have a publisher, you are primarily responsible for promoting your book. When you're seeking a publisher, you will need to include promotional plans in your book proposal to demonstrate to publishers that you understand how to promote the book once it's published.

Authors need to educate themselves about the business of publishing and book marketing so they can make intelligent choices about publishing methods, distribution, and book promotion. I advise new authors to begin by reading Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual and John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, but there are many other helpful books, blogs, newsletters, and classes available. Of course, I also recommend my own books and newsletter.

Book Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own

2009-10-17T08:30:00-05:00

In today's guest post, author and book marketing expert Joanna Penn shares her tips for creating and posting book promotion videos. She makes it sound so easy -- give it a try!

Book trailers are videos posted online and distributed via video networking sites like YouTube. These can be big budget blockbuster movie clips, or budget MovieMaker slides to music.

You can make it an advert or a social media fun clip that people want to watch. It can be a human interest story made more like a documentary. It can be a cartoon. Essentially, it is anything you want it to be. Anything that catches people’s attention. You can get a professional to make you one or you can make your own for little or no money.

I made this book trailer with Windows Movie Maker (which is on most PCs). It took me several hours but was essentially free, and you don’t have to be too techy to make one too. Instructions after the movie! (comments and feedback welcome!)

1. Research other book trailers that are similar to what you would like to do. Just search for book trailers on YouTube. Decide what you like and don’t like (and what is within your capacity and budget).

2. Write a brief script for the trailer so you can get it straight in your head and understand what images and text you will need (I just did this on Microsoft Word).

3. Find and download images to match your words. You can use your own or get free ones online by googling “royalty free photo”. I use iStockPhoto which I find easy to use with a variety of pictures and I did pay a small amount for some photos. You can also use movie clips (which I am still learning about!)

4. Import the pictures into Windows MovieMaker. (File -> Import Media)

5. Order the pictures. Drag them into the movie bar at the bottom of the screen in the order you want. Right click and Cut to remove again. Basic drag and drop functionality. Remember to save regularly!

6. Add script by clicking on the picture in the movie bar and then clicking Edit -> Titles and Credits. You can add text in various styles, colours and transition effects here. You can add text before, on top of or after your pictures.

7. Edit. Once you have got the basic pictures and text setup, see how long your movie is. Most book trailers are no longer than 1 minute 30 seconds. Edit as necessary by clicking and dragging the size of the boxes to shorten the time frame they show on the screen.

8. Find music to match the length of your movie (or cut to fit). I used SoundSnap.com but you can google “royalty free music” to find other sites. I searched on audio length within classical music and listened to a few before choosing.

9. Check you are happy with everything and then Publish your movie to your computer.

10. Find tags. Now you have a file you can publish it to the internet movie sites to get some viewers. You need to know what tags you want to add to your video when you upload it, so I suggest you also research what people are searching on in your genre. I use Google Keyword Search which has a number of tools and recommended related words.

11. Upload your video to appropriate sites. I have loaded mine to YouTube and Google Video so far. It takes some time per site, unless you use a video submission site like TubeMogul.com or TrafficGeyser, which is expensive and really only for companies with lots of video.

You can submit manually to sites like Revver, MySpaceTV, Metacafe, Yahoo Video, Book Trailers, AuthorsDen. No doubt there are many more! Remember to also use the embed links to post to your own website, blog and social networking sites.

Have you had any promotional success with book trailers? Where do you post them online?

Joanna Penn is an author and blogger at The Creative Penn: Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion . . .for your book. For more information on how to use Web 2.0 to write, publish, sell and promote your books, get your FREE Author 2.0 Blueprint here.

Promote Your Book and Yourself With Facebook

2009-10-15T07:30:00-05:00

Social networking sites like Facebook are a great place to connect with others and subtly promote your book and yourself.

In addition to meeting potential customers, you will make lots of other valuable contacts, such as other authors in your field or genre, publishing and marketing folks, bloggers and editors.
There are several ways to network and gain visibility on Facebook: through your profile, fan page, groups, events and pay-per-click advertising.

For tips on how to use Facebook (as well as Twitter) to promote your book and build your author platform, listen to my new podcast, hosted by MaAnna Stephenson. See the articles below for more ideas on how to promote your book though Facebook:

Six Ways Authors Can Promote on Facebook

Promote Your Book with a Facebook Group

For detailed instructions on harnessing the full power of Facebook, check out my new ebook, Facebook Guide for Authors. I'm Dana Lynn Smith on Facebook, and I invite you to befriend me there.

Book Promotion Tips for Authors

2009-10-12T07:30:00-05:00

I see lots of terrific book promotion articles as I surf the Internet. Here are some good ones to check out:

5 Ways To Prepare For a Powerful Audio Interview by Lynne Klippel

A Simple Way To Funnel New Traffic & Sales From Buried Blog Archives by Lynn Terry

Creating An Elevator Pitch For Your Author Platform by Tony Eldridge

9 Ways to Make Sure Your Blog Post is Read by Someone Other Than Your Mother by Darren Rowse aka Problogger

Creating Book Titles: From Working Title to Final Title -- article and checklist by Susan Kendrick

Book Publicity: BlogTalkRadio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows

2009-10-09T11:37:22-05:00

In today's guest post, author and marketing expert Phyllis Zimbler Miller shares her expertise in generating book publicity through online radio shows such as BlogTalkRadio.

BlogTalkRadio.com – an internet radio “station” that offers anyone the opportunity to host his or her own show for free – is an ideal opportunity for book authors to promote their books on a regular basis while providing valuable content to their target audiences.

To begin with, no technical knowledge is needed. You simply sign up at BlogTalkRadio.com, follow the directions, and you can become the host of your own live show. You don’t even need a microphone. You call into a number at BlogTalkRadio to be the host, and your show guest – as well as show listeners who want to ask questions – call into the same number. Show listeners can also “chat” questions during the live show.

Wait, you say! How do you think of topics to talk about? Let’s answer this by taking two imaginary book projects. We’ll start with a fiction project, then do a nonfiction book project.
We’ll imagine that Janice has a novel titled Sally Smith Confronts Her Ghosts – and the book centers on a protagonist who realizes she has undiagnosed PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and seeks help. When the help fails her, she goes on a quest to cure herself.

Janice decides to have a half-hour show once a week with the title “Confronting Your Ghosts.” She invites psychologists and other mental health workers as guests on the show. Sometimes the topic is PTSD, sometimes eating disorders, sometimes any number of “ghosts” that people face. At the beginning and end of each segment, Janice announces that she is the author of Sally Smith Confronts Her Ghosts and gives a brief blurb about the novel.

Then Janice uses her weekly show to get more exposure for herself on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other social media sites on which she is a member. She sends out tweets, updates, discussion questions about the guest topic for that week’s show.

Now what about Paul, whose nonfiction book How to Speak to Your Plumber provides tips on how to speak the language of the various repair people you use in your home or office. Paul starts a BlogTalkRadio show with the same name as his book – “How to Speak to Your Plumber.”

Each week Paul has a person from a different occupation as the show’s guest – an air conditioning repair person, an upholstery cleaner, a fence builder – talking about information for that specific specialty.

And, yes, Paul also uses his social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about his show, which gets the word out about his book.

One of the benefits of doing a BlogTalkRadio show is that, after doing the live show, the recording of the show is available on your show’s page for downloading. People can listen on the site – and guests can download the show onto their own website or blog.

Build a fan base for your BlogTalkRadio show by offering quality content, and you’ll have a weekly platform for promoting your book.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant whose company website http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com has lots more useful advice like this. Download her free report on “The Top 3 Internet Marketing Elements” to enhance your own Internet marketing experience. Phyllis is also the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show at http://www.YourMilitaryLife.com, which promotes her novel, Mrs. Lieutenant and her blog.

Promoting Books With Keyword Rich Articles

2009-10-07T09:07:29-05:00

Posting articles on your own blog and submitting articles to article directories, newsletters and other blogs are very effective ways of promoting books. Articles posted on other sites can drive direct traffic to your website and improve your site's search engine optimization.

Good keyword optimization will increase the chances of people who are interested in your topic finding your articles in article directories and through search engines. Here's my formula for promoting books by writing keyword rich articles:

Determine the goals of the article: how will this article help you in promoting your books and what action do you want readers to take?

Define the target audience: who are you writing to?

Select the topic of the article: what do you want readers to learn?

Determine the approximate length. I usually shoot for around 500 words, but anywhere from 400 to 700 is a good length.

Outline the points you will cover.

Select a primary and perhaps a secondary keyword phrase for the article. I use Google's keyword tool for keyword research.

Write the headline, using the primary keyword at the beginning.

Write the article.

Go back and find ways to work the keywords into the text of the article, while keeping it sounding natural. I highlight keywords in yellow as I insert them, so I can easily see how many times the keywords are used.

Write a good resource box at the end of the article, giving readers a reason to click through to your website.

Proofread carefully. I find it more effective to print my articles for proofreading.

You may hear various experts talk about keyword density – the ratio of keywords to total word count on a Web page. I don't count the words, I just try to make it look natural and don't overdo it. If you stuff in too many keywords or write awkward sentences, it will be obvious and will tend to turn readers off.

In this article, Promoting Books is my main keyword. I didn't try to optimize for Article Marketing because that term is too broad and not focused enough on my target audience, authors. I used the keyword phrase Promoting Books seven times in this 434-word article.

Keep in mind that the most popular keywords are not necessarily the best ones, because you will face much more competition. According to Google's keyword tool, Book Marketing gets 60,500 queries a month, while Promoting Books gets only 1,600. But there are far more web pages using the term Book Marketing. I use a mixture of highly popular and more specific "long tail" keywords when promoting my books through article marketing.