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Savvy Book Marketing Secrets52 Experts Share Insider Tips for Selling More Books Published in 2011 by The Savvy Book Marketer, an imprint of Texana Publishing Consultants, LLC Smashwords

Savvy Book Marketing Secrets

52 Experts Share Insider Tips for Selling More Books

Published in 2011 by The Savvy Book Marketer, an imprint of Texana Publishing

Consultants, LLC

Smashwords Edition

www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com

Copyright Notice

Each article in this ebook is copyrighted by the author of the article You may not

reproduce any article without the prior written consent of the author of the article

You are welcome to share this free ebook with others, but you may not sell it.

Disclaimer

This is an informational guide and is not intended as a substitute for legal or other

professional services Readers are urged to consult a variety of sources and educate themselves about the business of publishing and marketing While every effort has been made to make this guide accurate, it may contain typographical and content errors.The information expressed herein is the opinion of the author, and is not intended to reflect upon any particular person or company The author and publisher shall have no responsibility or liability with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, by the information or application of the information contained in this guide Some links in this book are affiliate links, meaning that Texana Publishing Consultants, LLC, receives a commission on sales of other companies’ products and services sold as

a result of clicking on the link

Table of Contents

About this Book

Book Marketing Strategy

Getting Endorsements for your Book

Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To?

Book Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail – Finding Niche Markets for Your Books

Confessions of a Reluctant Marketer

The Self-Confidence to Sell More Books

Building Relationships Increases Readership

Habits of Action: How Authors Can Get Things Done

Resources

Online Book Promotion

Recipe for a Book-Focused Home Page

Jazz Up Your Web Site or Blog with Simple HTML

The Right (and Wrong) Way to Comment on Blogs

Evaluating Your Current Online Visibility

Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own

5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign

Top 10 Ways to Maximize Book Sales on Amazon.com

Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea

Resources

Social Media Marketing

Why Social Networking is a Must for Authors

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

Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Do's and Don'ts

Book Marketing with LinkedIn – Top Mistakes and Solutions

Promote a Book with Twitter: Top 10 Strategies for Authors

Promote Your Book with a Twitter World Tour

Resources

Fiction Marketing

What Do You Talk About On Your Blog If You Write Fiction?

Blog Ideas for Fiction Authors

What Novelists Can Learn About Marketing from Nonfiction Authors

Publicity for Books and Authors

Five Tips to Create Publicity for Your Book

Anatomy of a Successful Press Release for Book Promotion

Five Tips for Writing a Strong Press Release

Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy

Author Branding: The You That Is Everywhere

How to Build Your Author Platform

Perk Up Your Bio

How To Develop Key Messages and Get Them Across Quickly

Building Author Platform by Pitching Yourself to the Media

Use the Calendar to Promote Yourself and Your Book

Nine Tips for Helping Your Publicist Do a Great Job

Blog Talk Radio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own ShowsBest Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows

Do Book Reviews Matter?

Resources

Speaking and Events

12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events

How to Exhibit at Book Industry Tradeshows

Promote Your Book by Becoming a Keynote Speaker

Resources

Virtual Book Tours

Promote Your Book with a Virtual Book Tour

How to Plan Your Virtual Book Tour

Blog Tours for Authors – Do They Work?

Library, Educational and Corporate Sales

How to Sell to Libraries – Top Ten Strategies for Independent Authors and Publishers

How to Market Children's Books in Schools

How to Sell More Books to Corporations

Resources

Publishing and Distribution

How to Get Started Writing Your Book

Why Authors Need an Editor

Mistakes of First-Time Authors

Drafting Your Back Cover Sales Copy

How to Craft Back Cover Copy that Sells Books by the Boatload

Judging a Book by Its Cover

How To Find A Literary Agent (When You’ve Self-Published)

The Role of Retailers, Distributors and Wholesalers in the Book Trade

How Do Books Get Stocked in Bookstores?

Ebooks and Information Products

How to Publish an Ebook

Publishing Content for Amazon's Kindle

How to Make Your Books Available in Multiple Ebook Formats

Selling Information: Competing In A World Where Information Is Free

From Book to Multiple Streams of Income

About The Savvy Book Marketer

The Savvy Book Marketer Guides

About this Book

Over the past couple of years, dozens of book marketing and publishing experts have enriched my Savvy Book Marketer blog at http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com with their guest posts

I have learned much from these experts and I’m pleased to share a selection of their articles with you in this free ebook I’ve added a few of my own articles and also

included a list of resources in each chapter

You are welcome to share this free ebook with others, but you may not sell it If

you’d like to let other authors know where to download a free copy of this ebook, here are some posts to use on social networks:

Authors, get book marketing tips from 52 top experts – free Savvy Book Marketing Secrets ebook at http://bit.ly/SavvySecrets #pubtip

Free ebook for authors - Savvy Book Marketing Secrets: 52 Experts Share Insider Tips

for Selling More Books http://bit.ly/SavvySecrets

Please remember that each article in this ebook is copyrighted by its author and may not be reproduced without the author’s prior written consent

I hope you find this ebook helpful in promoting your books Get more book marketing tips and two more free ebooks when you sign up for my newsletter at

http://www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com

To your success!

Dana Lynn Smith

The Savvy Book Marketer

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Book Marketing Strategy

Getting Endorsements for your Book

by Sarah Bolme

Have you ever seen a book cover where the name of the celebrity providing an

endorsement for the book was larger than the author’s name? This little trick is used to catch a book buyer’s eye because publishers know that celebrity names sell books

As an author, make pursuing endorsements for your book a priority Why is seeking endorsements for a book so important? Endorsements lend credibility to a book and state a book has quality A good endorsement can make the difference between a few sales and a multitude of sales

1 Endorsements lend credibility to a book.

With so many books to choose from, most book buyers depend on name recognition when making purchase decisions A new or unknown author has no reputation and thus little credibility with consumers The best way to gain credibility in the consumer’s eye is

to have your book endorsed by someone who already has credibility When consumers trust the person endorsing your book, they trust that you are a credible author

2 Endorsements state a book has quality.

Booksellers have limited shelf space from which to sell books Distributors can only market a finite number of books and generally choose to represent those books they think have the greatest possibility of selling Consumers have limited spending dollars

on which to spend their hard-earned money as well as limited time in which to read Each of these book buyers needs to be assured that the book they are considering purchasing is a quality book worth their money and time Endorsements send this message

It is best to secure endorsements for your book while it is still in manuscript form That way, you can use the endorsers’ names on your book cover and in all your pre-release book review requests and marketing materials

When requesting an endorsement, send a complete copy of your manuscript for the endorser to review It is acceptable to provide endorsers with a list of names of other

persons from whom you are requesting endorsements Most celebrity endorsers will be pleased to be included in good company and those who are not celebrities will be

excited to have their names printed with famous people

Endorsements are truly an essential ingredient in a good book marketing campaign

About the Author

Sarah Bolme is an author, speaker, and Christian marketing coach She is the author of

the award-winning book Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace at

http://www.marketingchristianbooks.com and director of the Christian Small Publishers Association at http://www.christianpublishers.net For more information, read her

Marketing Christian Books blog at http://marketingchristianbooks.wordpress.com

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Who Should You Be Promoting Your Book To?

by Dana Lynn Smith

A written book marketing plan is an essential tool in effectively promoting your book One of the first priorities in developing a book marketing plan is to define the target audiences for your book

Your audience may be wider than you think A book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching several different target audiences, including:

1 Readers – These are people who buy the book to read This is the most obvious

category and it includes your primary audience (the "ideal customer" that the book was specifically written for) as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre

2 Purchasers – Many book buyers purchase books for other people For example,

people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, and women buy men's health books Companies and organizations buy books to give away

to their customers, members and prospects Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?

3 Influencers – Don't overlook the importance of people who communicate with your

target customers and can let them know about your book This includes bloggers, other writers in your genre, journalists, book reviewers, and other experts in your field

In online book marketing, the influencers may be the most important category of all Think about how much you can multiply your book promotion efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers and customers

Other people who cater to your target customers can promote you and your book in several ways, including blog posts, links to your website or blog, Twittering, newsletter articles, and media sharing tools like Digg and StumbleUpon It's important to develop relationships with these influencers, as part of your book marketing plan.

Traditional and online media are also important influencers You can reach them

through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article

distribution

Be sure your book marketing plan includes strategies for promoting your book to all of these important target audiences

About the Author

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer

Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com For more book promotion tips, follow

@BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and

get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free

One of the best things you can do to spread the word about your novel is to find a tightly focused group of people who would love it In other words, a niche

Entrepreneur magazine defines a niche as “A portion of a market that you've identified

as having some special characteristic and that's worth marketing to.” Quite frankly, I have built my entire retail business on this principle In this article, I’ll give examples from both my writing and my retail business, with links provided to give you a better feel for what I’m explaining Here’s how niche marketing works, and how it can work for your books:

1 Identify a specific segment of people whom you think would be especially interested

in your books Be very specific Don’t worry about “leaving out” a large portion of your

readers from this niche That’s the point You’re going to market to this niche in special ways that don’t apply to all of your target readers.

Example: I started an online retail business several years ago by identifying niches in the craft supply business that weren’t being adequately supplied online Our first two products, Perler Beads at http://www.koolstuff4kids.com/ and Quilling Supplies (not quilting, quilling is a paper craft) at http://www.quillingsuperstore.com/, are given a very small amount of shelf space in local craft stores People who are interested in these products find the selection disappointing They turn to the Internet, and they find us I’ve built a successful business by identifying this very small niche in American crafters and offering them hundreds of products for their craft

You can do this with your books Brainstorm for niches It’s a bit easier with non-fiction, but work to think of people in your novel who could relate to its theme, premise, setting, etc Can you identify a very specific group who would be interested? For example, if your book’s theme were about juggling a career and a family, a niche might be

“professional women having their first child after at least ten years in the corporate world.” Do you see how this small niche fits into your larger target market?

I write historical fiction So do many other authors! How are my books unique, and what

is a niche that I can identify? My Seven Wonders Novels at http://bit.ly/hzfBTL are

historical suspense, fairly fast-paced, and set in ancient time periods like Egypt, Greece, and Rome There are several niches I can identify, but the first one I am focusing on is this: homeschooling high school students and their mothers Do you see how this fits? Homeschoolers are always looking for creative ways to approach history and literature

in a combined way They are likely to enjoy my fast-paced suspense that gives a

glimpse into these ancient cultures And they are likely to appreciate the faith element woven into my books

2 I’ve already touched on the second step a little bit in the paragraph above Once you’ve identified your niche, identify their needs How can your books benefit this group

of people?

In my retail business, the unique benefits I offer to my customers are wide selection and easy navigation By creating entire websites at http://bit.ly/h6YutB for a single niche such as Quilling, Polymer Clay, or Origami, I am able to carry many products for that niche without bogging down the site navigation, and customers feel as though they’ve stumbled upon a specialized store that focuses only on them and their craft A welcome discovery for most of them, after feeling that the local stores have largely ignored their needs!

Find the benefit you can offer your niche It may require some extra work on your part I

am in the process of developing “bonus content” materials for homeschoolers that will complement my fiction (As an aside, if you are a homeschooling family and this

interests you, I would love for you to contact me at

http://www.tlhigley.com/pages/Contact.php and give your input!)

3 Take the benefits you can offer your niche, and go forth and find those people! The

Internet has greatly expanded our ability to connect with niches There are places

(online and offline) where you are likely to find my example of “professional women having their first child after at least ten years in the corporate world” or whatever your niche might be Figure out where they are, who the influencers are, and how you can connect with them – either online or in person

If you’re able to identify more than one niche for your books, or perhaps different niches for each book, all the better Go after them systematically Don’t be lured into the trap of saying, “but everyone should buy my books.” This mentality often leads to no one

buying your books! Niche marketing is really an extension of the concept of branding Once you’ve figured out your brand, identify the groups of people most likely to be interested and benefited, and then find ways to meet their needs

Niche marketing works I’ve watched it result in loyal customers over my years in retail, and it will work for your books if implemented well

As a post-script, niche marketing also gets you noticed I was recently contacted by the Martha Stewart Show to provide the audience giveaway for her segment on Polymer Clay As a result, Martha mentioned our store on her show, and her website now links to

my Polymer Clay Superstore at http://www.polymerclaysuperstore.com/ This free

publicity would not have occurred without niche marketing!

About the Author

Tracy Higley is the author of a number of historical suspense novels, including the

Seven Wonders Novels at http://www.tlhigley.com/pages/Readers.php To check out her website and the way she incorporates marketing strategies there, visit

When my first book came out in Spring 2008, Overcome Writer’s Block at

http://www.overcomewritersblock.com/ I barely marketed it When my second book

came out July 2009, Writer’s Adventure Guide at

http://www.writersadventureguide.com/, I did the minimum and quickly focused on other things, like earning a living I was overwhelmed by all my book marketing options, and chose actions at random Probably not the most effective

Then, I attended a lecture by Patrick Swertdfeger, the author of Webify Your Business

2.0 at http://www.webifybook.com/, and learned about social networking He made the tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.com seem like so much fun I

realized something That marketing my books could be fun, if I did the things I liked And what I liked was using social networking These tools capitalized on my strengths:

writing, connecting with others, and chatting

So, I have a question for you You know you need to get the word out about your books

So, what is fun for you about marketing?

Pick one tool of technique you’re passionate about and take one action on it right now Today And everyday If it’s fun, you’ll stick with it In addition to sticking with it, you’ll want to track your results You know the mantra: “What we pay attention to grows”? Today you may have 50 Twitter followers Next week you may have 60 Yippee! But you won’t be able to see your progress unless you track

Find what is fun for you, persist at it, track your results, and you will become a super marketer

About the Author

Copyright 2010 Beth Barany Beth works with authors, speakers, coaches and

consultants across US, Canada, and Europe, and helps them get their books completed

and out into the world Beth Barany is the author of The Writer's Adventure Guide: 12

Stages to Writing Your Book More at: http://www.bethbarany.com, and her blog, http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog

bestsellers, an interesting pattern has caught my attention

For example, I’ve noticed that my author clients with a high self-esteem tended to be more creative with their marketing plans and actually sold more books In contrast, those with low self-esteems struggled to implement new marketing activities

Predictably, their book sales languished I’m not saying there is a direct correlation, but there is definitely a pattern that bears attention

The problem is that there are real consequences when an author allows low

self-confidence to affect their book marketing efforts For instance, he or she will tend to:

- Avoid building an online or offline community of readers around them.

- Balk at developing peer-to-peer relationships with influential leaders

- Avoid finding and contacting large reader groups who could buy books in quantity

- Ignore spur of the moment media opportunities, such as tying into national headlines

- Shun speaking engagements or promoting their book to the audience

- Lack consistency with key marketing tactics, such as blogging or sending newsletters.Global management consultant Alan Weiss says, "There is no music if you don’t blow your own horn." This statement is profoundly true for book marketing, at both the author and publisher levels Writers, editors, and marketing staff must believe strongly enough

in a message to promote that book above the noise of all the competition Yet, this can only happen when there’s an ardent belief in a manuscript accompanied by the

enthusiasm to tell people about it

Oddly, self-confidence issues seem to especially plague the fiction and religious

publishing communities For example, I know novelists who are scared to appear in public Likewise, I’ve met Christian authors who avoid marketing their books, because of the misguided notion to appear humble They make pious statements, such as “It’s not godly to draw attention to myself.” But, these attitudes are usually a disguise for a low self-esteem The reality is that they don’t want to draw attention to themselves, because they’re struggling to feel worthy – ironically before a God who loves them and fans who like their books

Please don’t think that I’m advocating for writers to shamelessly plug their books Some people go overboard and develop a negative reputation for being pushy You probably know some of these individuals, and they’re a turn-off On the contrary, my point is that readers appreciate authors who believe in their ability to provide answers, inspiration, or entertainment

So, how can an author improve their confidence along with their book sales? Some esteem situations may truly require counseling However, in most cases, one can be enlightened by dealing with the following questions:

self-1 Do you truly believe in your book’s own value? Has your message actually worked in your own life? If so, recite clear examples of results

2 What makes you comfortable recommending a favorite restaurant or product to a friend? Can you mimic that same feeling to mention your book to someone else?

3 What’s the worst that could happen if you tell more people about your book?

If you’re a good writer, don’t let self-confidence issues prevent your message from helping the people who need it Just because someone might say “no” doesn’t mean you’re worthless or a bad person Be proud of the way you’re trying to help society Toot your horn a little What’s the worst that could happen? You just might sell a lot more books

About the Author

Rob Eagar is the founder of WildFire Marketing who helps authors and publishers sell more books through innovative marketing strategies He has trained over 200 authors, from beginners to bestsellers For more information, call 1-800-267-2045 or visit

www.StartaWildFire.com

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Building Relationships Increases Readership

by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen

*The Key to Successful Marketing in 2010 is to Expand Your Network*

For an author, building an author platform that stands out from the rest worked in 2009 but now an author will have to be MORE THAN GREAT Don’t let this scare you away Much of what you’re doing right now is good and is very close to being more than great As authors, we have a built in, natural ability, to converse and this is the major building block to forming relationships

Marketing in the New Decade – What can we expect now? A successful blogger will have to be CONNECTED Having friends and building relationships has never been so important Now is the time to chain to your follows and build a trusting bond How do we make friends and build relationships?

1 ACCEPT INVITATIONS

a Post memorable comments

b Guest post

c Participate in interviews

d Conduct interviews by asking intelligent questions and responding graciously

2 ATTEND CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

a Contribute to chat discussions

b Whisper answers to individual participants

c Give positive encouragement

*Sizzle with energy and play the part of being the ‘life of the party—your enthusiasm will

be felt through the net-waves*

3 SPARK INTERACTIONS BY NETWORKING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

a Ask an irresistible question

b Generate a discussion that others will view with interest

c Keep the discussion active by Inviting the lurkers to contribute, and

d Show that ALL folks are important regardless of who they are by—accept others by finding something in their answer worth praise

*Staying positive is the key*

4 JOIN PRIVATE GROUPS BASED AROUND YOUR NICHE

a Supply clear and concise answers to the questions

b Back your answers with credentials with prior written posts or quotes

c If you don’t have the answer, steer them in the right direction

d Discover a balance between conversational writing style and formality

*Coming across as being approachable with knowledge is very attractive*

5 RECIPROCITY

a Supply others with what they want

b Search for relevant content and give valuable content to create awesome posts

c If you don’t have the answer, make a genuine effort to steer them in the right

direction With time and constant persistence, lurkers will become followers Followers become fans Yet…don’t forget to make the time and effort to create the relationships

*The best gift you can give is your time*

Appreciation goes a long way Friends bring along more readers They will take you under their wing and introduce you to other popular bloggers These other popular bloggers have their own following Accept connection by linking their blog to yours and vice versa Continue doing favours, expanding your network, and producing great

content in your blog and very soon—very, very soon, you’ll discover that YOU CAN CONQUER ALL OBSTACLES

About the Author

Jo-Anne Vandermeulen is the author of Premium Promotional Tips for Writers, featuring

simple yet very effective techniques writers can implement into their marketing plans Visit http://vandermeulen.laurusbooks.com/ to get more information about her book and get a FREE sneak-a-peek

so overwhelmed that you feel paralyzed Either way, the task you must complete is just sitting there, gathering metaphorical (or perhaps literal) dust, and growing more

ominous by the day.

A recent study by the Families and Work Institute found that a full third of Americans are overworked; more than 50 percent of those surveyed said they are either handling too many tasks at the same time or are frequently interrupted during the workday – or both

In short, we are overloaded Is it any wonder, then, that we have trouble getting jobs started, keeping them going, or finishing them up?

As a consultant and coach over the past twenty five years I’ve observed that smart and savvy business women use three habits to get themselves to take action, even in tough times These habits act as an inoculation against procrastination and feeling

overwhelmed so that these busy women are ultimately able to press through and get things done

Habit #1: Chunking Down: Focus on the Trees Not the Forest

In the computer world, chunking means to break things into bits To chunk down is to move from a whole to its parts; to chunk up is to move from parts to a whole, or from the specific to the general Chunking your projects and goals down into smaller pieces will help you take action more quickly and easily, while at the same time helping to combat the feeling of too much to do

Habit #2: Take Energetic Credit for Completion

When we have a big goal or task to work on, many of us wait – unnecessarily and

sometimes to our detriment – until the entire project is finished before we experience any sense of completion, satisfaction, or accomplishment

Often, even though we’re achieving pieces of our projects and goals all the time, we don’t fully acknowledge them The most productive people we know are in the habit of enthusiastically taking energetic credit for any action they complete, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant These people know not to wait until the big item is 100 percent done before experiencing closure Rather, they generate energy all along the way by recognizing each item they complete

Habit #3: Time-Planning: Put a Stop to Putting It Off

Smart people are in the habit of using a plan to get beyond procrastination A plan is a method of assigning blocks of time to those items you want to get done (but not a minute-by-minute description of your day!) To harvest the power of planning and create your own time-plan, follow these two easy steps:

time-Step #1: Identify your power times for different types of activities.

Everyone has high and low periods of energy, attention, and focus By knowing and understanding your own energy patterns you can create a time-plan that takes

advantage of your personal rhythms Reflect on your own energy patterns When are your power times? Use your power times to take on your most difficult items Use your down time for more routine items and errands

Step #2: Set aside blocks of time for getting certain things done.

Keeping in mind your power times, go through your calendar and schedule a specific day and period of time when you will work on an item Time periods ranging from 15 minutes to 2 hours are most effective Every hour or so, schedule a ten minute break from your task; this will both keep your brain from getting tired and give it a chance to process any information, so that you can return to your project refreshed

Lastly, don’t just plan your time in your head – write it down! Whether you use a PDA, a calendar contact program, or a plain old date book, keeping a written record of your time-plan is key

This article is excerpted from the book Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to

Make the Most of Your Day and is copyrighted by Karen Leland and Keith Bailey If you

would like to reprint it on your blog or website you are welcome to do so, provided you give credit and a live link back to www.scgtraining.com

About the Author

Karen Leland is the bestselling author of six books including Time Management In An

Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day She is the co-founder of Sterling

Consulting Group at http://www.sterlingmarketinggroup.com/, which helps organizations and individuals learn how to fight distraction and find their focus in a wired world For more information please contact: kleland@scgtraining.com

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Resources

The first step in marketing a book should be to develop a solid book marketing plan For

an outline of what to include in your marketing plan, go to

www.CreateYourBookMarketingPlan.com

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Online Book Promotion

Recipe for a Book-Focused Home Page

by Carma Spence-Pothitt

- Clear purpose for the landing page

- Image of the book

- Image of the author

- Call to action

Directions

Clear purpose for the landing page

There are two goals that a good book-focused home page can have:

1 Sell copies of the book

2 Start a relationship between reader and author

Before you design your book-focused home page, you need to be clear on which one of these goals you want to achieve Having too many goals for a home or landing page can dilute its effectiveness, so clarity is key

If your goal is to sell books, then the focal point of your landing page will be a sales letter, audio or video something that emphasizes the benefits of purchasing a copy

of the book You’ll want a good strong headline supported by sub-heads and benefits focused sales copy

If your goal is to start a relationship between the reader and the author, the focal point

of the page will be the opt-in box Selling the book will take second place to acquiring the name and email address of visitors to the page

This means you'll need to have a compelling offer an opt-in incentive that is related

to the book and is something the ideal reader of your book would want to have and therefore be willing to pay for it with their name and email address It is important that the opt-in incentive is related to the book, because it will now act as your first attempt to sell your book After consuming your opt-in incentive, the visitor to your website should feel compelled to buy your book

Image of the book

Since this is a book-focused landing page, it might seem obvious that there should be

an image of the book on the page But how you display that image is not necessarily so obvious

If the goal of your page is to sell the book, the image should be up top, large and

dominate the eye when first landing on the page It should be obvious to the visitor of the page that it is all about the book Everything else from the author bio to related articles should be placed on other pages, not here

However, if the goal of the landing page is to start a relationship with the visitor, the image should be much smaller or it will clash with the opt-in box graphics Remember, a relationship-building home page is focused on getting that name and email address, so

your compelling free offer is front and center not your book.

Image of the author

An image of the author is optional it all depends on the type of book and whether what the author looks like is integral to the goal of the page If a secondary goal of the home page is to help establish the author as part of a brand, then an author image is important However, you should be strategic about this decision It might serve your needs better to save the author image for another page, perhaps the bio page or media room

For example, let’s say you are creating a landing page for a James Bond book Would you want to include an image of Ian Fleming? Or of James Bond? That all depends on if the goal is to get readers hooked on a series of books about the character or all books by the author

For another example, let's say you are creating a landing page for a weight loss book

Do you include an image of the author or of a woman on a scale looking happy because she's lost weight? Again, it depends on the goal of the landing page If the goal were to sell one of a series of books by a well-known fitness expert (say Kathy Smith), then an image of the author would help sell the book However, if the author is less known or writes about more than just this subject, the woman on the scale might be a better option

Call to action

Every landing page needs a call to action For a book-focused landing page your call to action should be one of these:

- Buy the book now

- Subscribe to my list now

Make sure your call to action is clear and mentioned "above the fold" – before the visitor has to scroll down

Also, notice that "now" is a key part of this call to action If you encourage your visitor to think about it and come back later chances are you’ll never see them again Your home page needs to convince the visitor to make a positive decision now, before they leave Memories are short and even if the visitor has every intention of returning, he or she may not remember where it was they wanted to return

For a list of standard pages for an author’s website, visit

http://www.wordpressforauthors.com/standard-pages/

About the Author

Carma Spence-Pothitt helps creative professionals develop and nurture a thriving web presence, helping them create an online footprint that supports their career and

business goals Through April 1, Carma is throwing a virtual book launch party for her

new book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and

Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How to Fix Them! at

http://www.homesweethomepagebook.com/ Be sure to visit this creative website to check out all the goodies she has to offer and get inspiration for your own book

a few simple code tags can make your posts pop off the page

The great news is that HTML is a very intuitive code language It uses simple tags to tell text content how to appear on the page For instance, the tag <b> is used to make text bold Below we’ll cover the most common tags, what they do, and how to properly use them

All HTML tags must be enclosed within these two symbols: < > This alerts the browser that the characters inside the symbols are code tags and not content To end the effect

of the tag, a slash mark is used inside the symbols, like this: </>

Bold Fonts

There are two tags that make font characters bold They are <b> and <strong>

Here’s an example of the content: This word is bold.

Here’s an example of the code: This <b>word</b> is bold

Any content between the <b> and </b> tags would appear in bold face

Or you can use this code: This <strong>word</strong> is bold

Italics

There are two tags to make fonts appear in italics They are <i> and <em> You’ll want

to use this tag for the title of your book

Example of content: All Just the FAQs books help you create an online presence.

Example of code: All <i>Just the FAQS</i> books help you create an online presence

Or you can use this code: All <em>Just the FAQS</em> books help you create an online presence.

Using Multiple Tags

You can make the title of your book appear in both bold and italics by using nested tags They are called nested due to the order of their placement An easy way to remember this order is FILO, which stands for First In, Last Out

Example of content: My book, Blogging for Riches, will be in print next year.

Example of code: My book, <b><i>Blogging for Riches</i></b>, will be in print next year

Notice that the tags were closed in reverse order The <i> tags are nested within the<b> tags Most browsers will accept tags that are not closed in the proper order But, to ensure that your content appears correctly in all browser types, it’s a good idea to

cultivate the habit of using nested tags properly You can nest any number of tags

together, not just bold and italic

This is line one

This is line two

Example of code:

<p>This is line one.<br>

This is line two.</p>

Using the <br> tag is a great way to control layout, especially if you are formatting

poetry It guarantees that the lines will break where you intend

To add two line breaks and begin a new paragraph, use the <p> tag

Example of content:

This is line one

This is line two and a new paragraph

Example of code:

<p>This is line one.</p>

<p>This is line two and a new paragraph.</p>

Notice that there is no extra line space between the lines of code You can put one in if you like, for clarity, but the browser will do it for you when the content appears online.

Color and HEX Numbers

While creating your blog or Web site, you will likely be faced with choosing colors for different elements While many blogs offer a simple color chart from which to choose, you may want to match a specific color of something, like your logo To get exact colors, you’ll want to know the HEX code of the colors in your logo HEX is simply a format used to count in binary (1s and 0s) in computer language A HEX color code looks like this: #FFFFFF, which is the code for white The HEX number #000000 is the color black Notice that the # symbol always precedes the actual HEX code

There are hundreds of sites on the Web that display full HEX color charts to help you choose the right colors for your site Simply search the terms “hex color” or “hex code”

Using Widgets

At some point you may want to incorporate a third party widget into your blog Widgets are special features, like the book carousels offered by Shelfari and Amazon These contain special code known as “scripts.” Sites that offer widgets often let you customize them and then auto-produce the special script code, sometimes called a “snippet”, for you to copy and paste into your site or blog This code will have the tags <script> and </script> around it

Here’s a little keyboard shortcut for copying and pasting Once you highlight the script code, hit the keys Cntl + C That will copy the code to your clipboard After you select the place you want to place the code, hit the keys Cntl + V to paste it

Good to Go

With just a few simple tags of HTML, you can jazz up your posts and make your text outstanding If you want to learn more about HTML tags, there are wonderful free

tutorials all over the Internet

About the Author

MaAnna Stephenson’s BlogAid site at http://www.blogaid.net/ features a wealth of tips and resources for blog and website owners, along with books, classes, and site

consulting that are specifically for non-geeks who are on a budget Her experience as a web developer, professional engineer, nonfiction author and artist allow her to draw together the right mix of teaching skills, technical expertise, and online promotion

techniques that are best suited to each site owner and their target audience She

specializes in working with creative folks like authors, artists and musicians

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The Right (and Wrong) Way to Comment on Blogs

by Dana Lynn Smith

Commenting on other people's blogs is a great way to get visibility, build relationships with bloggers, subtly promote your book, and get links back to your site (if the blog gives

"do-follow" links) But you will only hurt your credibility if you go about it the wrong way Here are some tips for successful blog commenting:

Actively look for relevant blogs to comment on Subscribe to the feed of the most

important blogs in your area of interest, and use tools like Google Alerts to keep an eye out for relevant posts on other blogs You can also use Google Blog Search or blog directories like My Blog Log to find blogs that are a good fit

Contribute to the conversation Don't just drop by and say "great post." Instead, make

a thoughtful comment that contributes something You might offer an additional tip or real-life example, or expand on a point the blogger made If you're commenting on a book review, explain why you enjoyed reading the book Your comment doesn't have to

be long, but you do need to say something useful and relevant Do not give the

impression that you are just there to promote your book or leave a link to your site

Don't make inappropriate comments There's nothing wrong with disagreeing with a

point that someone has made (and many bloggers encourage disparate views), but do

so in a polite, respectful way I'm amazed at some of the rude and tacky things people say on blogs and in online forums

Don't be overtly promotional Commenting on someone else's blog is not the place to

blatantly promote your book or services However, there are subtle ways to convey that you are an expert on the topic being discussed and encourage people to click on your name to visit your website

You might work in a reference to your book related to the comment you are making Here are some examples:

"Twitter is such an important tool for authors that I devoted an entire chapter in my book

to promoting through Twitter."

"In researching my book, Selling Your Book to Libraries, I discovered that "

"Because I write mystery novels myself, I really appreciated the way that the author "Depending on the topic under discussion, I sometimes sign my name with a tag line such as "Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer" or "Dana Lynn Smith, author of Facebook Guide for Authors." Some people include their website address in their

signature, but many bloggers frown on this Creating a signature that's several lines long and blatantly promotional is not appropriate Some people think that including any type of signature or reference to your book is too promotional

You will have to use your judgment to determine what is appropriate, but you might look

at what other commenters on the blog are doing as a guideline Just remember that you are a guest on someone else's site and mind your manners

About the Author

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer

Guides at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com For more book promotion tips, follow

@BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and

get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free

What’s your platform like?

Your author platform refers to your ability to promote yourself and your book online where books are sold and product and service decisions are made Your platform is a measure of the quality and quantity of your website presence plus your ability to keep in touch with clients, prospects, peers, and opinion-makers

- Start by asking, What shows up when you enter your name, or your firm’s name, into a search engine like Google.com or Yahoo.com?

- Then, enter the keywords, or terms clients, prospects, or the media use when asking questions or searching for information about issues and topics in your field Does your blog or website show up on the first page, or two, of results? Are there a lot of results, or just a few?

The stronger your platform, i.e., the more visibility you already have, the easier it will be

to get your book published and into the hands of readers who you hope will turn into prospects and customers

Questions to ask when evaluating your online platform

The best way to evaluate your online platform is to evaluate your current web presence

by asking questions like the following:

1 When did you last update your website? Visitors and search engines like

frequently updated websites, beginning with the home page Just as you wouldn’t buy your daily newspaper if the front page always looked the same, your website needs to

be constantly freshened with new content

2 Can you update your website by yourself? Your ability to promote your book and

your career is based on your ability to easily update your website yourself, without needing to contact and pay money to a webmaster or web designer

3 Do you have a blog? Blogs are no longer fashionable options for sharing the details

of your daily existence Today, blogs are fundamental marketing tools that permit you to develop and share your expertise by easily and efficiently adding text and graphics by yourself, without incurring the costs and delays of paying someone else In an age of WordPress blogs, there’s simply no excuse for a website you cannot edit and update yourself

4 Does your site offer a sign-up incentive? It is essential that your website contains

an incentive for visitors to sign-up for your email newsletter or tips Unless you have a way of capturing your visitor’s e-mail address and permission to contact them via email, you’ll only get one chance to sell the visitor before they go elsewhere and forget about you and your site Capture their e-mail address and permission, however, and you can convert that one-time visit into a long and profitable relationship

5 How often do you send e-mail updates? Do you remember E.R on television, the

drama that took place in a hospital emergency room? Remember the oscilloscope displays tracking the heartbeats of the patients? Each time their heart beat, the trace rose to the top of the screen But, it never stayed there The rise to the top was quickly followed by a drop to the bottom of the screen The same effect happens with your marketing Each time you send out a tip or a newsletter, your visibility rises to the top of your prospect’s attention But, the more time that goes by between your e-mail contacts, the more likely you won’t be visible when your prospect is ready to buy Short, weekly e-mail updates are far more effective than monthly or quarterly contacts

6 How often do web visits turn into sales? Are you able to track the conversions, or

sales, that originate on your website? If you’re not able to track your website’s

performance, how do you know what it’s contributing to your firm’s profitability? If you can’t track your website’s performance, you can’t test your offers, your prices, and your headlines? You’ll never know which keywords to include in your headlines and body copy Websites and testing go hand in hand; making it easy to test each variable until it delivers maximum sales for each of your product and service offerings

7 How helpful and relevant is your site’s content? If your website consists primarily

of empty claims about how great you are, it’s probably not contributing much to your bottom line Success today is based on sharing genuinely helpful information with

clients and prospects Givers get The more information you share, the more you will be viewed as an expert in your field, paving the way to book sales and back-end product and service profits

8 Is your site’s image unique and accurate? Content is king, but content, by itself,

isn’t enough The design of your website says a lot about you, pre-selling the

importance of your words, projecting a distinct and appropriate look that differentiates your site from the competition and resonates with prospects, inviting repeat visits If your website looks old and tired, however, your message will look old and tired

9 How well are you using web audio and video? Are you taking appropriate

advantage of streaming audio and video? It’s a mistake to think that everyone wants to read as much as you do; today’s world is dominated by iPods, podcasts, and online videos If you’re not taking advantage of them, your profits will suffer It’s imperative that you offer prospects their choice of message formats

10 How regularly do you submit articles online? Your website is just one of your

online marketing tools Articles that you write and submit to article distribution sites like www.ezinearticles.com permit you to expand your search engine visibility and drive addition traffic to your website

11 Are you taking advantage of social marketing? How effectively are you using

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other specialized sites to cultivate relationships and referrals from clients, co-workers, friends, prospects, and subject area experts? It’s never been easier to create quality connections with others who share your interests or challenges and drive traffic to your blog or website

Conclusion

Once you have realistically evaluated the effectiveness of your online presence and author platform, you’ll have a baseline, or starting point, for moving forward You’ll be able to plan a realistic enhancement of your author platform and search engine visibility This will pave the way to building your brand and selling more books by taking

advantage of the historically unique combination of amazing technology and low cost online marketing opportunities currently available

This article was originally published on ActiveGarage.com and is reprinted with

permission

About the Author

Roger C Parker helps others write books that build brands He’s written over 30 books, offers do-it-yourself resources at Published & Profitable

(http://www.publishedandprofitable.com/) and shares writing tips each weekday at http://blog.publishedandprofitable.com His latest book, Title Tweet! 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for

Article, Book, and Event Titles, is available at http://bit.ly/f5wKYU

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Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own

by Joanna Penn

Book video 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 video trailer at http://bit.ly/f5wKYU 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 video 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 video trailers? Where do you post them online?

About the Author

Joanna Penn is an author and blogger at The Creative Penn: Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion for your book at

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/ 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 at

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1011191

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5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign

by Lynn Serafinn

Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to

support them as a book promotion coach/consultant In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their

campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together

For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an

overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients

The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank The reason why people

will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book)

is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts

Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have

brought together Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of

Module 4 at Spirit Authors For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going

Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign

First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign:

- Bonus gift offers from JVPs

- Email/ezine blasts

- Twitter campaign

- A Contest

- Virtual Blog Tour

There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way

Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials

Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as

headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift

A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what

is an appropriate bonus gift A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to

receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have

a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift

As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking

Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups

Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this

page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar.

Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch This sign up form should

be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying

something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about Be sure to mark your diary.”

Step 4: Create Promo Copy

The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs

to use for your campaign There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs:

- Newsletter/ezine articles

- “Tweets” (for Twitter)

- “Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour)

I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month)

I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign

vibrant, fun and very effective

A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour

I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors

In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy

Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs

The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a breakdown of how everything will run I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus

Follow a Real Live Launch

As I am the project leader for the Amazon campaign Check Mates, edited and

co-authored by Vrinda Pendred, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch

at http://conditionalpublications.com/pages/check-mates-launch.html Of course, I also hope you’ll check out the book

And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book Hopefully they will give you ideas

of how to make your own Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!)

This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign If you’d like to know more about creating, running and

benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my

8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing

and Delivering at http://spiritauthors.com/category/module-4/mod-4-overview/ For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out

About the Author

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and author

of the mind-body-spirit bestseller, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers

that unearth the Self at http://amzn.to/eHewei She is the founder of Spirit Authors Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience at http://spiritauthors.com/, which offers training, community and support for aspiring and established mind-body-spirit authors She also works as a campaign manager for book launches, and has produced two number-1 selling authors in 2010 so far Coaching, training and campaign enquiries may be submitted at http://spiritauthors.com/contact

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Top 10 Ways to Maximize Book Sales on Amazon.com

by Dana Lynn Smith

Amazon.com is by far the largest online seller of books and it's a vital market for authors and publishers Below are ten ways to maximize your exposure and boost sales through this important outlet Although these tips focus on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com offers some similar features

1 Enhance your book description.

On the Amazon website, the book description appears under a heading titled Editorial Reviews I recommend posting marketing copy (perhaps from your back cover), your most important testimonial/review quotes, and a one-paragraph author bio

To upload text to appear in this Editorial Reviews section, use this form:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/content-form/?ie=UTF8&product=books

The text that you enter on this form is supposed to replace existing text The staff at

Amazon reviews the information before posting it, so it may take a while.

If you need to make other changes to your book information on Amazon, go to

http://amzn.to/bMvu9E

2 Increase your book's visibility in Amazon's search results.

Amazon customers search for books by author, title, or keyword Like search engines, Amazon uses several criteria in deciding which products to display on the search results page and in what order to display them Popularity (the number of books already sold

on Amazon) and how well the book matches the keywords are major factors in keyword search results

3 Attract five-star reviews.

When consumers shop for books online, many of them read the reviews before making

a purchase Even if they came to the site looking for a particular book, they may read the reviews to verify that they are making a good selection Positive reviews are

especially important for nonfiction books, where consumers often compare several books on the same topic

The best way to attract reviews is to ask people to review your book and to make it easy for them by providing a link to your book's sales page on Amazon

4 Participate in the Search Inside program.

In retail bookstores, customers tend to read the back cover, then flip through the book scanning the contents before making a purchase decision The best way to replicate that experience online is to use Amazon's Search Inside program, which allows

customers to view the book's table of contents and selected pages from the book

5 Update your personal profile on Amazon.

To update your personal profile, click on "YOURNAME's Amazon.com" near the upper left corner of the screen, click "your profile" near the upper right, then click the yellow

"edit your profile" button near the upper right You can add a photo and website

address, enter a bio in the "in my own words" section, and enter a "signature" or tagline When you review books or participate in discussions on Amazon, your name and

signature will be visible to others, so it's important to create a descriptive signature such

as "author of romantic suspense" or "author of Selling for Dummies."

6 Post reviews of other books.

When you post reviews of related books and products on Amazon.com, you gain

visibility with consumers and with the authors of the books you review

Be subtle about mentioning your own book when writing reviews You don't want it to sound like a sales pitch or detract from the product that you are reviewing For example, you can say "As a romance author myself, I really enjoyed the way that this author…"

You can sign your name at the bottom of your review as "Jane Doe, author of " but it's bad form to include a Web link Amazon has been known to delete overly

promotional reviews, especially those with links

7 Enhance your author page.

Authors who have books for sale on Amazon can set up an author page through Author Central (formerly Amazon Connect) at https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ There's a link from your book sales page to your author page where readers can learn more about you In addition to adding a bio and photo, you can import posts from your blog and make updates to your book description or reviews

8 Conduct an Amazon bestseller campaign.

An Amazon bestseller campaign is a joint venture promotion designed to drive

customers to a special sales page on a specific day, with the goal of selling as many books as possible on that day Your joint venture partners agree to send a message about the campaign to their mailing lists and also provide a bonus item that will be given

to everyone who buys the book that day

9 Release a Kindle edition.

One way to increase your revenue from Amazon is to publish Kindle ebooks Shorter, low-priced books tend to sell well in the Kindle format If your nonfiction book is fairly long, you might break it down into several sections and publish each one separately See this page to sign up for a Kindle publishing account:

https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin

10 Boost your profits with Amazon Associates.

As an Amazon Associate, you create affiliate links to place on your website for your own books and any other Amazon products you’d like to promote You will earn a

commission each time someone clicks on one of your affiliate links and purchases the product This is extra revenue, above and beyond whatever you normally make when you sell your book on Amazon You can sign up for the Associates program here,

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ but residents of some states may not be eligible due to sales tax issues in their state

About the Author

Learn more about profiting from Amazon.com in Dana Lynn Smith's ebook, How to Sell

More Books on Amazon, available in both PDF and Kindle format at

http://bit.ly/AmazonEbook For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bookmarketer and get Dana's free Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you visit The Savvy Book Marketer blog at

http://www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com

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Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea

by Kathleen Gage

One of the most pressing questions from authors, speakers, coaches and consultants using the Internet to market their products and services is, “How do I build a responsive opt-in subscriber list?”

A very simple way is with a Sig File (signature file) A Sig File is a tagline or short block

of text at the end of an e-mail message, article or blog posting The Sig File can identify the sender and/or provide additional information such as the company name, list of services, and contact information

However, the most effective use of a Sig File is to have a call to action for an ethical bribe An ethical bribe is exactly what it sounds like You are offering visitors to your website, blog or landing page something FREE in exchange for them giving you their name and email address

Effectively using a Sig File is one of the most important things you can do to begin building a solid opt-in subscriber list Lists filled with people who have expressed an interest in something you are offering at no cost are warm leads for those who may want to purchase your paid products

Avoid falling into the trap of thinking you don’t have time to offer something free Ethical bribes that are FREE are the cornerstone of building your online business

I have dozens of “giveaways” that I have developed over the years Everything from eReports, eBooks, teleseminars, ezines, a 4-day email course and more This has allowed me to build a list from the ground up (this means I started with nothing and built

a highly profitable list of subscribers) The most successful among us started with

nothing and built from there And so can you!

Your giveaways should not require a lot of time on your part to fulfill the request from your visitor Other than a teleseminar where you have dozens, hundreds and even thousands of people on the call at one time, avoid things like free coaching time

Otherwise you could cripple your business by having to be on the phone 24/7 fulfilling

“free consulting”

You have to start somewhere and a high value giveaway can be just the ticket One idea is to an over the phone interview with an expert, record it and give the recording away (Be sure to get the expert’s permission before giving away their information) From there, you develop a simple landing page with an opt-in box that immediately puts the subscriber into your database

About the Author

For more ideas on building your list, increasing your visibility, using sig files, developing money making information products and more, see what Kathleen Gage is up to at Street Smarts Marketing at http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?Clk=3413741.

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Resources

Learn how to make your books stand out from the huge number of competing books on

Amazon and turn shoppers into buyers, with How to Sell More Books on Amazon,

available in PDF and Kindle format at http://bit.ly/AmazonEbook

BlogAid at www.BlogAid.net offers a wealth of free information about blogs and

websites, along with WordPress training

31 Days to a Better Blog, an ebook by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, is designed to help

you take your blog to the next level http://j.mp/49ABHh

GoDaddy is my favorite source for buying website domain names, but their purchase process is somewhat confusing See this free tutorial to learn the easy way to purchase

a domain name and learn how to forward domain names to any URL

http://bit.ly/DomainTutorial

Get blog and website resources at http://bit.ly/BloggingResources

Find the best keywords to use in your book titles, Web pages and articles using the free Google Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Posting articles online is a great way for nonfiction authors to showcase their expertise and drive website traffic Start with the largest article site, Ezine Articles at

Learn how to create a podcast in this series of articles from Lynn Terry at

http://bit.ly/dmIbKW and this free technical tutorial from Carsten Cumbrowski at

http://www.cumbrowski.com/podcastingguide.asp#itfeed

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Social Media Marketing

Why Social Networking is a Must for Authors

by Dana Lynn Smith

Over the past couple of years, social networking has become an increasingly essential online book marketing strategy—one that you can't afford to overlook

Reaching potential book buyers is the most obvious benefit of social networking, but not necessarily the most important one For many nonfiction authors, developing

relationships with peers and influencers is equally important These contacts may

review your book, recommend you to others, participate in your book launch, and

publish your articles in their blog or ezine

Social networking is ideal for generating word-of-mouth online book marketing, where your message gets passed along by others For example, when people enjoy a book, article, blog, or video, they often recommend it to others online This type of user

endorsement is more effective than traditional marketing

Here are some other benefits of social networking in your online book marketing plan:

- Building author platforms, expert status, and brand recognition

- Getting endorsements and recommendations for your books

- Driving traffic to websites and blogs

- Subtly promoting books, products, and services

- Learning from other authors in your genre or other experts in your field

- Increasing your opt-in subscriber list

- Getting speaking engagements or consulting customers

- Improving search engine optimization and search results ranking through back links from social sites

Which social networks are most important for authors? For nonfiction authors, my top choices are Twitter, Facebook, and professional network LinkedIn

For fiction authors, my top picks are Facebook and virtual reader communities such as GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/author/program Other sites may also be useful, depending on your target audience For example, if you're writing for young adults, MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/ would be a good choice Children’s book authors can network on JacketFlap at http://www.jacketflap.com/ If your target

audience is boomers, check out Eons at http://www.eons.com/ Also search Ning.com and Google for networks that serve specific niche audiences

Here are a few tips for getting the most from social networking:

- Be selective about which networks you join and who you invite as a friend Only invite people who appear to share common interests with you

- Send personalized friend requests, introducing yourself and stating why you want to befriend the other person

- Get involved in the community Add value by helping others, answering questions, and sharing resources and knowledge Don't forget to share a bit of personal information about yourself

- Be careful not to appear too promotional It's okay to promote your products and

services on occasion, but don't make that your main focus Sending out an

announcement of your book launch is fine; sending frequent promotional messages about your book is not

While social networking is a terrific online book marketing tool, it's also great fun to meet people all over the world who share your interests If you haven't already jumped

onboard, get started today!

About the Author

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and the author of several book marketing

guides, including The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing,

available at www.SavvyBookMarketer.com For more book promotion tips, follow

@BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and

get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free

newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com

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

by Janice Curran

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

About the Author

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.Back to top

Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Do's and Don'ts

by Patrice-Anne Rutledge

LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/ is one of the world's most popular professional networking sites, with more than 90 million members around the world It's also a great place to promote books Here are six ways to promote your book on LinkedIn, plus two ideas to avoid

1 Feature your book prominently on your LinkedIn profile One of the best ways to

do this is to add a publication section to your profile with a link to your book (either on your website or on a site such as Amazon).You can also draw attention to your book on your profile headline and summary Another idea is to create a separate position as an author, which gives more emphasis to your book Be careful not to overdo this

promotion, however You don't want your profile to read like an advertisement for your book

2 Update your status regularly Your LinkedIn status is one of the best ways to

communicate news about your book to your LinkedIn connections You can start when you first land your book deal (or begin the writing process on a self-published book) Then update your status as your book progresses Don't stop when your book is

released, however You can also update your status when you receive any media mentions or post something interesting on your blog that relates to your book

3 Install the Reading List by Amazon application and add your book This

generates exposure on your profile and across your network

4 Review LinkedIn Answers for questions that relate to the topic of your book

Provide genuine, helpful information to demonstrate your expertise and then identify

yourself as the author of a related book at the end of your answer.

5 Participate in LinkedIn groups where your target readers congregate Add value

by contributing to discussions and sharing relevant links If the group has a Promotion tab, post information about your book release, book tour, and any speaking

engagements

6 Display book excerpts on your LinkedIn profile Upload your PDF excerpt to

SlideShare and install the LinkedIn SlideShare application to share these on your

profile Doing this also gets you added exposure on SlideShare itself

Here are two things, you don't want to do:

1 Don't spam your LinkedIn connections with sales pitches for your book One

fellow author actually sent me three "buy it now!" messages on LinkedIn in just a few weeks This isn't a good way to endear yourself to your LinkedIn network, nor it is a good way to sell books At most, consider sending one (just one!) message to "share the good news" about your book with selected LinkedIn connections In this way, you're just letting your network know about a big event in your life Hand-picking the people in your network who are a good match for your message is an even better idea

2 Don't spam LinkedIn groups with sales pitches either Group owners can remove

you from their group if you violate the rules of good group behavior by posting frequent sales pitches disguised as discussion items Instead, focus on participating in group discussions in a genuine way, using your book only to identify your area of expertise

In general, a low-key approach to book promotion generates the best results on

LinkedIn Let people know about your book, but let your knowledge and expertise do the selling for you

About the Author

Patrice-Anne Rutledge is the bestselling author of more than 30 books on business and

technology Her latest book, Using LinkedIn at http://amzn.to/hoxALt (Que/Pearson,

2010), is available at online booksellers and bookstores worldwide She is also the founder and principal of Pacific Ridge Media, which offers consulting and training on small business marketing, branding, and social media You can reach Patrice on her author website at www.patricerutledge.com, business website at

www.pacificridgemedia.com or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/patriceannerutledge.Back to top

Book Marketing with LinkedIn – Top Mistakes and Solutions

by Judy Cullins

Are your book sales slow? For social media marketing, you may have tried Twitter and Facebook Maybe, you’ve even put up a book blog to stimulate and engage your book’s audience I too used Twitter and Facebook and dropped my first blog over 2 years ago thinking not enough results That is, until I got some coaching on social media

marketing I discover that LinkedIn markets my new blog beautifully LinkedIn works so well for consultants, coaches, authors and other small businesses

Maybe you made these two big mistakes on social media

Mistake 1 You collected followers, friends, and contacts, but most of them

weren’t your book’s best audience.

Until I got my 1,000 friends and book group members to join my fan pages, I got low results at Facebook So, for all three of my social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) I shifted my marketing strategy from collecting numbers to concentrating

my social media marketing only on my book’s best audiences This may shock you, but this change makes all the difference in my results of getting my specific audience to my site

Results, Results, Results!

You need to also check what social media marketing is working and what not each month is

Check Google Analytics Monthly.

For LinkedIn, my Web site got 25% more targeted visitors each month for the months of February, March, April and May, 2010 And more are coming from LinkedIn each

month

Check your Alexa Score Monthly.

I check my Alexa score monthly It seems that my social media book group at Linkedin

is partially the reason for so much new targeted traffic–only people who want to

establish a relationship with me as a book coach and the 1,075 other members who are

so moved my how to messages, my positive personality, that they will visit and

comment on my blog and eventually open up their wallets to buy my books and my short term coaching offers at my site

My Alexa score has gone from 600,000 a few months ago to 280,000 in February, 2011 (That’s a good score) and my goal is 100,000 That score and lower mean very

successful small businesses

My Results Can be Your Results.

Some specific visitors just read my blog articles Some come for my free reports Many

in my target audience take my hands-on teleseminars The committed ones either read some of my books or contact me for my famous half hour coaching sessions to get specific solutions for their specific needs

Less is More.

I still tweet, but only 2 times a day I interact a few times a week at my Facebook (FB) fan page and Twitter with people who want book writing, self-publishing and social media marketing

Mistake 2 You haven’t’ become active enough on LinkedIn.

You may have joined and put up a short profile, but this is not enough You may

complain it takes too much time Yes, you don’t want to waste time on just any social media–that’s why I suggest you give LinkedIn a better chance From my newest book,

“LinkedIn Marketing-8 Best Tactics to Build Book and Business Sales,” I’ll recommend a few of the 8 Best Tactics now (Tactics that are working well today)

LinkedIn 3 Best Tactics that Bring Top Results

1 Do the most important thing first Edit your Profile

Your first profile probably needs freshening up Make sure it engages your profile visitor Show them the benefits of working with you, or buying your book Don’t start so many sentences with “I”

In all content marketing as LinkedIn and blogging, start from the YOU point of view What can you do for your audience?

Include testimonials near the top because they sell books

2 Join 5-10 groups that relate to your book or skills you need

Keep researching and adding groups weekly that fit your book or business Find these through search words for help like “book writing” and “LinkedIn strategies.” or search words of your audience who will want your book Hint: My best audience is business people

Do you know your book’s top 5 benefits? Put them in your profile and mention them in the groups Do you know your book’s target audience? You need to know this for any book promotion to work This is the pre-marketing know how that brings an author real success Remember, benefits sell; features explain

3 Get active on ten or more groups you that fit you

Once you join, request weekly emails on what new discussions are going on Then, when they show up in your email (how convenient) you can decide which ones to chime

in with your useful comments

Each time you contribute, the whole group sees your face and who you are That’s great exposure to brand you or your book You can contact individuals privately by email too, which can eventually lead to a sale

Develop Patience and Start Relating to Others in your Audience