TOP BOOK PROMOTION STRATEGIES THAT WORK

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In today’s publishing world, many authors are now going beyond traditional tactics to market their book. Promoting books through social media marketing has become a popular strategy not just for authors but for publishers as well.

 In fact, online book promotion through social media has been found to be an effective tool for getting your book out. This is why it is important for you to know how to use it.

Just like social media networking, here are among other book promotion methods today:

• Blogging
• Book Reviews
• Press Releases
• Radio and TV talk shows
• Podcasting
• Book Trailer
• Article marketing
• Email marketing
• Book signings
• Testimonials

That is not say, though, that online book promotion has taken the place of traditional methods, such as radio interviews. Traditional book marketing strategies are still and will always be important.

In fact, traditional and online tactics can even make for a more effective book marketing plan when used with the right mix, allowing the widest reach and maximum book sales potential.

MARKET YOUR BOOK. GET THE WIDEST REACH.
RECEIVE YOUR FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE. 

MARKET YOUR BOOK: GRAB THIS LIMITED OFFER

This month of January, Xlibris has come up with a fantastic offer for published authors to get their book out there, out loud.

Get 20% off on the Bookstore Returnability Program, a marketing package that enables your self-published book to be displayed in physical bookstores. Plus, you also get an Email Marketing Campaign for FREE. This online book marketing event targets your book to 1M readers.

This offer is good until January 30, 2010 only. With huge savings and a wider coverage, this limited book marketing offer is something you definitely should not want to miss.

Read here to learn more or receive your FREE book marketing guide.

YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK ON RADIO AND TV

Xlibris just keeps their best offers coming. For writers who decide to self publish a book with the book publishing company, the Radio-TV Interview Report Book Marketing packages are made available to give widespread coverage to the author’s book.

With six packages to choose from, the RTIR Book Marketing campaign is the perfect tool for authors to test the waters or to aggressively market their books to the media.

Make the most of the power of radio and TV inteview advertising. Find out more about this book marketing service.

MARKET YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK EFFECTIVELY.
RECEIVE YOUR FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE.

 

HOW TO GET SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS FROM RADIO INTERVIEWS

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Speakers are great at getting information, verbally, from point A to point B. One difficulty occurs, however, in situations where an intermediary (like radio) is involved. Radio is “invisible” to most people, including speakers; it is largely unknown to speakers why or how things are chosen to be “on the air”. If you only remember one thing, make it this: It is not how good a person speaks that determines if he/she will be PLACED on the air.

However, once a speaker IS chosen to be on the air, his/her speaking ability will have great affect on the listeners. This is why speakers do well with listeners once they get on the radio. It’s just the getting “on” in the first place that is the hard part. (And, doing well with on-air-sales is a different matter entirely, requiring you to know how to make contact announcements). So here are some specifics, tailored to speakers, to help you get radio interviews; these are the exact same techniques we use with clients, and they do work. They are, starting with the easier ones:

1. When promoting yourself to the radio producer or host, ask for a referral to a local business person, meeting planner, group organizer, or event promoter who may have interest in hiring you to speak for them. Since the radio person now knows your topic, and since radio people keep in good contact with most businesses and groups in their city, this is fairly straightforward for them to do. And note that this can be accomplished whether OR NOT they decide to interview you on-air.

2. If your topic is business or sales related, call the station’s sales manager and offer to do a one-hour telephone consultation with their sales department for free, in exchange for an on-air interview. If this works once, then offer to make it a weekly event, in exchange for a weekly on-air “bit”. If your topic is any kind of voice/acting/drama skill, then do the same thing but ask the program director instead. And if your topic is any kind of personal improvement/empowerment, then do the same thing but ask the general manager instead.

3. Offer the station program director a weekly custom-recorded topical “bit”, usually 30 seconds long, that they can air. The topic would depend on your personal topic, and the topic that the station wants to air. In return for this, they would interview you on-air. The number of “bits” required for one interview would be up for negotiation.

4. If your topic is sales, then offer the radio station sales manager this deal: When they give up on a tough prospect, you will call that prospect and attempt to close him (for a specified minimum dollar amount.) If you succeed, you will get an on-air interview. It’s important, however, that you only attempt this with the station’s “failed” prospects, because the salespeople there will not want to you interfering with their “hot” or “current” prospects.

(The following require field trips. The bonus of this is that since you would be in their city, you can do the on-air interviews live-in-studio. Traveling expenses are “usually” covered.)

5. Offer the general manager to speak for free at a “station sponsored” event. Many times these are charity/fundraiser events that the station donates air time for, and since these events are usually with groups or outdoor activities, it makes for a good crowd for you to speak to. In trade for your appearance there, the station would give you one or more on-air interviews (depending on what is negotiated).

6. Offer the sales or promotions manager to speak for free, live and in-person, at a station client’s event if the station gives you an on-air interview. If your topic matches up with one of their hot prospects, then your speaking (for free) at the client’s event may just help close the deal for them. They do the closing, and you do the traveling and speaking.

Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion
1828 Broadway, 2nd Fl
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310-998-8305 x10
fax:310-998-8323
bryan1@radio-media.com

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK.
RECEIVE YOUR FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE.

GET MEDIA ATTENTION FOR YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK

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The ugly truth about getting a book published is the difficulty of finding an audience, no matter how good your book is. This is why it greatly helps for a self-published author to get media people to write about his/her book. Many ‘self-pubbed’ authors still find it a major challenge, though.

Here are some tips on how you can effectively pitch your self-published book to media people and get them to write about it:

Link in to the news. The simplest way to get media attention for your self-published book is to link your topic with current events. For instance, you can get your book on climate change into a journalist’s piece on global warming.

Nonfiction books naturally have news links built in. Yet, tying in to the news does not just apply to nonfiction books, as this can be even more advantageous for fiction books well. You might want to incorporate something into your book that relates to a hobby or any field of interest, putting media focus on that. Doing this allows you to link in to similar topics for media appearances.

Be brief. Considering a media person’s (or anyone else’s) time, media people just do not have the patience with a pitch that is just too long. Keep your pitch simple and concise as much as possible, otherwise your effort may just be dumped into the trash. It is safe to maintain your pitch to at most 5-6 sentences. Anything longer than that may no longer be pitch-worthy.

Another thing to keep in mind aside from avoiding a lengthy pitch is to observe proper conduct when sending your material to media persons. Follow proper email etiquette – make sure that your subject line is informative and avoid sending attachments.

Be suggestive. As stated earlier, media persons just do not have the luxury of time devoting an entire story to your book alone. In this case, you might want to do your part at determining how your book affects a movement. You can prove yourself to be helpful by pitching other important sources that media persons can use. This makes you even more worthy of getting coverage.

Go local. Never forget that a local angle may just be all you need to get national media attention. So if you are aiming to pitch on the national scope, try incorporating your sources with local information. Doing so may even get you more media attention.

KNOW WHICH MARKETING PLAN IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BOOK.
RECEIVE THIS FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE. 
 

MARKETING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK

Marketing can help you reach your target audience and boost its market exposure.

When marketing your self-published book, you need to know what it is you really want. Perhaps the toughest part of publishing a book is marketing; and not having a publishing house to assist you can be an uphill struggle on your end.

Now that your book is ‘publication-complete’, you may want to come up with things to help you get your book out.

Here are some ways:

1. Be heard. Podcasting is a great option for self-published authors to talk about their book. A type of audio blog, a podcast allows authors to further expand their audience and gain more following. It enables you to successfully create a series of your books, inform about your latest events and upcoming activities and foster a deeper and more personal relationship with your listener.

2. Be seen. Create a video. A booktrailer is a compelling medium that turns words  into motion graphics, leaving a lasting impression on viewers. If you are on a budget, however, you can make a YouTube video using photos as still frames for less than $30. Make sure to get a license from website/s where you will be getting your photos and music from.

3. Schedule appearances early. If possible, schedule bookstore appearances in your area three months before date of publication and start of sales, at the very least. Keep in mind that marketing is the toughest part in publishing. This is especially helpful for new authors coming out with their book placements. Bookstore returnability is important, so be prepared to take the risk of returns whenever you sell a given number of books to a bookstore. Compel readers to buy your book at that store.

4. Establish connections. Joining networks and other organizations that promote books of your genre can be very helpful – way before you even think of publishing. These groups can be a great avenue where you and other struggling authors can get the support to make it in your respective publishing endeavors.

POD publishers offer a wide range of marketing services, of which many authors spend a fortune on high-end packages to boost their book’s marketability. Remember though, to be extra careful with how you spend your money on these products. Just because you can do it does not always mean that you should do it. If you cannot master the trend, self-publishing may not be a feasible option for you.

These are just the basics to ‘putting your book to bed’, by yourself. Self-publishing entails the ability to adapt to new skills, broaden your horizons and deal with other people who still have flak against self-publishing. (Let’s face it: There are, and there will still be people who will pass judgment based on the assumption that any self-published book is not worth reading, which isn’t always necessarily true.)

You may not know it, but a good, well-prepared self-published book can actually go through the same marketing trouble as a traditionally published book by a new author. The only difference though, is that when you self-publish, you are entirely responsible for each and every step – gains, losses and all. Set achievable goals and then do what is best for your book.

Publishing is a tough world, but hey, who ever said it was easy?

A GOOD BOOK SHOULD GO WITH THE RIGHT MARKETING PLAN.
RECEIVE YOUR FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE AND PAVE YOUR WAY TO PUBLISHING SUCCESS.

DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKET FOR YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK

 

As a published author, you may feel that there is cutthroat competition when promoting your book. You may find that there are too many authors and too many books vying for attention. In fact, it has been predicted that competition will be tougher in future time, thus, a need fo trickier book promotion campaigns.

 This is why it is important to learn, if not, master the ropes of book promotion so that you can get ahead and create a successful book marketing campaign, when other authors are struggling to promote their books.

 One factor in which many authors find themselves caught up in a tricky spot is defining their target market. Because they fear that targeting only a narrow audience cannot generate decent book sales, they try to reach out to everyone all at once. You might want to start promoting your book to an enthusiastic few and then create conditions by which your word can spread.

 For instance, if you wrote a book about makeup, you would not want to limit its promotion to makeup artists. You can broaden your audience by reaching out to makeup enthusiasts, makeup sellers or those who want to learn about makeup. A little can go a long way. Set achievable goals and be realistic about it.

 By laying the groundwork right, you will definitely reap sweet rewards later. 

OPTIMIZE YOUR BOOK WITH THE RIGHT MARKETING PLAN.
RECEIVE YOUR FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE.

PROMOTE YOUR BOOK THROUGH SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may not be the first thing in mind when promoting your book. However, SEO is a highly important tool especially if you have a website (which you ought to, by the way). By maximizing your book’s search engine rankings, more people will know you are an author and be able to find details about your book when they Google you.

Just how is SEO important in optimizing your book? Simple. Even if you promote your website somewhere else, your potential market will still look you up in Google to know more about you, your book and other key details. After all, it is easier for people to read more about you in search engines than jotting down your URL.

This makes it really important to boost your presence in search engines. Know what keywords and phrases people are more likely to type into search engines when looking for topics that your book tackles. Your rankings should go up there – your book information should go towards the top of Google’s first page and that is where it should be.

You can try getting other websites to link back to your own site. You may offer bylined articles to other sites which they can use as content and encourage a link back to your site in return. This is perhaps the easiest and most effective way to maximize your presence in search engines.

FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN OPTIMIZE YOUR BOOK
RECEIVE THIS FREE BOOK MARKETING GUIDE.

PROMOTING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK SUCCESSFULLY

While many people think that self-publishing sucks in terms of book marketing and promotion, one needs to really dig deeper. You may find that the idea of promoting your self-published book by yourself can come with more benefits.

Not to mention the higher rate of royalties you can get with self-publishing, your ability to spread the word about your self-published book essentially depends on your commitment to market your book.

Self-published book authors, even those aspiring to get their book published, find it ugly a truth how hard it is for self-published books to reach bookstores, if at all, bookstores ever get to notice them. Whether booksellers simply just want to stick by the book or are still not ready to adapt to the changing tides of the publishing biz, we don’t really know. This is why it is especially important for self-published authors to aggressively market their books online.

For instance, putting up a website that includes your book’s information and order details allows online users to come across your book when they search using different keywords. You can combine this with social media marketing and you may just experience a significant difference with your book marketing and promotional campaign.

Of course, it would not hurt to get trusty assistance from professional book marketing services provider. While it may come with a price, you just need to open yourself to a plethora of possibilities. The rewards you reap can be sweeter.

KNOW WHICH MARKETING PLAN IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BOOK.
RECEIVE THIS BOOK MARKETING GUIDE FOR FREE.

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: HELPING YOU REACH YOUR AUDIENCE

Aside from being a published author is to be able to reach every major worldwide publisher and give your book the recognition it deserves.

Publisher’s Weekly gives you an opportunity to do that.

With more than 130 years in circulation, Publishers Weekly is the leading publication serving all segments involved in the creation, production, marketing and sale of the written word. The prime source of comprehensive news and unique industry data, including bestsellers by multiple categories, book industry statistics, news and more than 7,500 critical book reviews annually, Publishers Weekly has long been recognized as the industry’s publication of record.

Reaching more than 30,000 paid subscribers in bookstores, libraries and publishing, as well as media and literary agents, and movie and studio executives – more than any other publication – Publishers Weekly delivers a total audience of nearly 100,000 of the biggest players in the publishing industry.

When you publish your book, you can take advantage of the Publishers Weekly Marketing Packages, which allow you to access this invaluable market, and make sure your book is put before some of the most important people in the publishing and book industry.

More importantly, you can specifically target the niche market your book is in with exposure in the Christian, children, cooking and comic book genres.

Receive this FREE Marketing guide to learn more about Publishers Weekly Marketing or to find out which marketing plan is best for your book.