| TIP # 1
Online reviews are paramount in importance when it comes to drawing
attention to your book. And the best part is, you're in control
of your own destiny!
If you haven't yet submitted your own review on sites like Amazon
and Barnes & Noble, what are you waiting for? This should
be one of the first steps for every published author.
Encourage other family members and friends to review the book,
too. They're inclined to be more generous than perfect strangers,
but don't underestimate the effect of any honest review. Published
reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes &Noble, and the many
other sites Outskirts Press books appear demonstrates interest
in your book. And that's a good thing! Post a review for your
book today, and ask others to do likewise.
TIP #2
Enhance your online listing with Amazon.com by participating
in their "Search Inside the Book Program."
Sign up to join this revolutionary new way to merchandise your
book on Amazon.com. When customers search for books on Amazon.com,
actual words from inside your book -- not just the author or title
-- are engaged to return the best possible matches. With this
powerful new search feature, customers can discover books that
may never have surfaced in previous search results!
With "Search Inside the Book," customers can also browse
sample pages and do additional searches inside a particular book
to confirm that the title is just what they're looking for. All
of this helps authors like you sell more books.
Once you sign Amazon's Publisher Participation Agreement and
are accepted into the program, you will need to provide Amazon.com
with a physical copy of each book you would like to include in
the program.
TIP #3
Become an "expert" in your field and book sales will
follow. It's true that promoting a book requires a great amount
of resolve, but it is also true that working smarter, rather than
harder, can help reap those rewards.
By projecting yourself as an "expert" in the genre
in which you write, you can open new doors for networking, doors
that often remain shut without that expertise status.
How does one go about making himself or herself an expert? Easy!
You already are one. The name on your published book proves it.
Now just use that book as a calling card to line-up speaking engagements,
freelance writing gigs, and other opportunities at a variety of
venues.
Two good places to begin are AOL and the ABOUT.COM information
network. Both have category-specific forums in which you can participate,
and by mentioning that you are the "Author of such-and-such"
within the scope of your communication, you begin to label yourself
as an expert to fellow participants.
Being recognized as an expert in a technical or "non-fiction"
category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective category
of "fiction expert" but even if you have written a work
of fiction, becoming a recognized expert is conceivable.
Whether you've penned poetry, horror, or romance, there is a
forum in which to voice your opinion. The Internet is full of
chat rooms, use groups, genre-sites, and more -- all thirsty for
content from published writers. You just have to know where to
look. Start selling books tomorrow by being an expert today.
TIP #4
"Pay For Performance" internet advertising is making
big waves lately. While most search engines feature such sponsored
links, there are currently only a number of engines providing
the back-end technology, and of those, only one serves the majority
of search engines used by the public: Overture.
The way pay-for-performance (or p4p) works is simple. You bid
on search terms (either words or phrases or a combination of both).
Your webpage link then appears in search engine results relative
to the price of the bid. If you're the highest bidder, your webpage
appears at the absolute TOP of many search engines. Remember the
frustration of typing in a search for your webpage and never finding
your link? No longer!
But that's not even the best part. The best part is this -- you
only pay if someone actually clicks on your link. And since you've
defined the search term, the people clicking on your link are
already predisposed toward your subject. In essence, they're already
pre-sold.
Let's look at an example. Say you've published a mystery novel
about the death of a land baron in Louisiana. Not exactly a new
plot, and yet millions of "whodunit" readers would be
anxious to read it. Your solution? Open an Overture account and
bid on search terms like "Louisiana Mystery Novel" and
"Mystery Book Plantation" and similar terms. Counter-intuitively,
the more vague the term, the better, since very specific searches
deliver very motivated buyers to your page, and since you're paying
for each click, you want those people to buy!
That brings us to the down-side. You have to be very careful
managing your bids, or it can be expensive. Do not bid on ridiculously
vague and popular words like "book" because you will
never recoup your money. Instead, focus your search terms as specifically
as possible.
If you've been clamoring for more traffic to your free Outskirts
Press webpage, Overture may be just your ticket. To sign-up, click
below. They'll even give you a $10 credit to begin.
Visit Overture at their website for more information.
Tip #5
Use ebooks to help promote and sell your paperback or hardback
edition.
Think of e-books as a teaser. With a lower purchase price and
more immediate gratification, many people are inclined to give
an e-book a try when they might pass on a traditional paperback.
Furthermore, if they like the e-book, 80% of people end up purchasing
the "real" book, too!
There are three schools of thought concerning the way in which
e-books should be sold.
1 - Some believe that e-books should have a very low purchase
price, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00 for the entire book.
2 - Other believe that e-books should only contain excerpts,
or sample chapters of the full book, and that they should be provided
for free.
3 - Still others believe that e-books best serve their purpose
when the entire e-book is given away. This encourages word of
mouth about the author and the book, which in turn helps support
additional book sales and really shows dividends when a subsequent
book is published by the same author.
Whichever course you follow, there is little doubt that e-books
are beneficial to your promotion efforts. If you don't yet have
an e-book, what are you waiting for?
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