Dana Lynn Smith's Blog

In today's guest post, Susan Daffron shares five ways to promote your book while spending next to nothing.

Marketing your book can be daunting. You have so many choices, you could do so many things, and you could spend a whole lot of money. But promoting your book doesn't have to cost a fortune. If you don't have a big book marketing budget, here are five extremely inexpensive things you can do to get the word out about your book.

1. Outsource the "little stuff."

Many book-marketing tasks require collateral material like banners or simple graphics. If you're not an artist and don't have good design tools, doing little blog badges or even working with your book cover graphics can take way longer than it should. For small tasks, check out Fiverr.com. Amazingly enough, everything costs just $5. 

2. Create simple videos.

Many people avoid video and YouTube because they're worried about the technology or they don't like what they look like. However, it's easy to create a video that doesn't require fancy technology or your face. For example, I experimented with a Book Publishing Dog Walk Q&A video. The video is me walking my dog Fiona through the forest (it's fun to watch her little tail bob along). You don't see me and I didn't have to worry about sounding out of breath as I toddled through the forest because I did the voice over separately. A video I did for my Vegan Success cookbook didn't even involve a video camera. I used still photos and transitions with a voice over. It's not as hard as you might think.

3. Do audio recordings.

Like video, audio isn't as difficult as you might expect. I do a podcast/radio show for the PetLifeRadio.com network. I have a little device called a QuickTap from JKAudio that plugs into my phone, so I can record interviews with people at animal shelters and rescues about the pets they have available for adoption. Alternatively, you can get a radio show on BlogTalk radio. You can do one 30-minute show per week for free.

4. Communicate via email.

Periodically you hear that email is dead. Except it's not. You still send and receive email don't you? Email newsletters are a great way to communicate with people on a particular topic. On your website either give away a freebie like an ecourse or PDF or just let people subscribe to your blog posts. One way or another, you'll develop a mailing list of people you can communicate with when something happens related to your book. Remember to post links to those posts or newsletters in social media.

5. Advertise on your own websites.

This idea is so obvious, I'm not sure why more people don't do it. If you have a blog, put an advertisement for your book on the blog. Or at the end of your articles, include a little teaser text ad for your book. Sure banner ads don't get many click-throughs, but even if you only got one book sale per month from your ad, that's 12 books you wouldn't have sold. And it costs you exactly nothing.

The most expensive idea on this list costs all of $5; the rest are $0. When it comes to book marketing, every little bit helps. All these activities work together to increase awareness about you and your book. And in the end, that means more book sales.

If you'd like to learn more about marketing your book and the business of book publishing, get inspiration and advice at the Self-Publishers Online Conference. The fourth annual event is May 8-10, 2012. Use the code Savvy12 and get a 10% discount!

About the Author

Susan Daffron, aka The Book Consultant owns a book and software publishing company. She spends most of her time writing, laying out books in InDesign, or taking her five dogs out for romps in the forest. She also teaches people how to write and publish profitable client-attracting books and puts on the Self-Publishers Online conference every May.

 

Recently an author asked me "How do you stage an in-person book launch with a novel that's published as an ebook? How do you autograph a computer screen?"

Here are some suggestions for doing a live book launch event for an ebook:

Plan the event much like you would any other book launch party, except you will probably need to find a venue other than a bookstore. Try to use a venue that has some kind of tie-in with the book, and offer refreshments and perhaps some form of entertainment. See this article by Tolly Moseley for creative ideas on planning a book launch party.

Do a presentation based on the book's content, not just a signing where you sit at a table. Nonfiction authors can speak on their book's topic or plan an interactive activity based on the topic. Novelists can do a presentation based on some aspect of the book's story or do a short reading. Children's authors can read the book aloud, speak on the topic of the book, and plan fun activities for kids. All authors can talk about writing and publishing and take questions from the audience. Be creative and plan something interesting!

Print lots of bookmarks and handout several to all of the attendees so they can share with others. If you print your bookmarks with uncoated paper on the back side, you can sign the back of the bookmarks. See this article to learn more about using bookmarks for book promotion.

Encourage attendees to bring their ebook reading device to the event. They can download the ebook on the spot.  You could even provide a laptop computer where people can order the book if they don't have their ebook reader with them, but you'll need to make certain that each person logs out of their Amazon or other ebookstore account after using it.

You can "autograph" Kindle ebooks by using KindleGraph to send personalized inscriptions and signatures to the customer's Kindle ebook reader.

If your ebook is available on the Nook store, you may be able to arrange an event at a Barnes & Noble store. Last year B&N announced that they were going to offer autographing services for Nook Color devices, but it's hard to find any details on how to do it. Your local store event manager may have information on autographing.

Remember that you'll need to promote your event heavily. Suggested promotions include press releases to local media, emails or evites to your friends and local contacts, announcements on your blog and social media accounts, and postcard invitations. Ask others to help spread the word.

Do you have any suggestions on how to do a live launch for an ebook? Please share in the comments section below.

April is National Poetry Month. In today's author success story, I'm interviewing author and poet Debra Winegarten about her success in promoting her book "There's Jews in Texas?" through local events.

Welcome Debra. You posted a photo of your signing at Austin's Bookwoman bookstore on your Facebook page, and I couldn't help but notice the giant $160 check in the photo, made out to Bookwoman. What's the story there? 

On my birthday, I decided to run a Facebook promotion and asked my friends to buy a total of 54 books, one for each year I've been on the earth, and for each book or ebook sold, I would donate $1 to Bookwoman. The promotion turned out to be so successful (I think I sold 12 books the first day I posted it), that I decided to continue running the special up to my book launch -- and ended up selling 80 books. I then decided for even more fun, and to support my local independent bookstore (one of the last 12 feminist book stores left in the U.S.) I would match the donations, 1:1. Hence, the check for $160. Fun!

That's a great story! Tell us more about the signing at Bookwomen.

For invitation purposes, I did a combination Facebook event page invitation, and good old-fashioned postcards. I ordered oversized postcards from Vistaprint with my book cover on one side, and information about the event on the other. I also put my website on the postcard and told folks if they couldn't attend the event but wanted the book, they could order from my website. I received three orders that I know of from the postcard. 

The event was magical. About 40 people came, filling up every available chair. There were people from my synagogue, Austin Writergrrls, women I didn't know who read about the signing in the Chronicle and brought friends, members of my critique group, people from the UT Astronomy Department where I work, and many members of the Austin poetry community. I even had a friend in Israel Skype in – we gave her a front-row seat and talk about a trooper – it was midnight in Haifa when we started and 1:30 am by the time we ended, and she stayed up for the whole event. 

I read new poetry as well as a few poems from the book, talked about my other three books, my writing career, and encouraged folks to buy "There's Jews in Texas?" We laughed a lot and cried a little, I took questions from the audience, and then we went to book buying and signing, as well as gobbling up goodies from the veggie and cheese trays from Central Market. I think we sold 34 books, with some folks buying multiple copies, always a good thing.

That's an excellent result from a bookstore signing. What other local events have you done and how did those come about?

All the marketing mavens say to start the marketing plan six months before your book it out. I didn't have that luxury, this book came out because I won a contest. I was told originally the book would be out in the spring, two weeks later the publisher said, "No, it's going to be out in December."

A friend of mine said, "Oh, it'll be here in time for Christmas!" I told him he had to buy the book and read it; Jews don't celebrate Christmas. He blushingly said his wife was half-Jewish, so I "made" him buy the book.

I delayed my launch until the end of January, and started reaching out and scheduling signings. One of the women in my critique group runs a monthly writers group called "The Re-Story Circle," and she asked me to be the guest speaker in February. Another friend-of-a-friend saw my Facebook posting somewhere and invited me to be the guest speaker at a dinner even at Chez Zee which is a fund raiser for Texas Hearing and Service Dogs. When I do these types of events without charging a speaker's fee, I always make sure I can do two things to make it worth my while:

1) I make sure I can sign and sell my books at the end of the evening; and

2) I ask the audience members to think of which groups they belong to where they need a speaker (groups always needs speakers), and I have a sign-up sheet. I ask them to put down their name, phone and email contact information, and the type of group, and then I take responsibility for following up with them to schedule another event. That way, I create a list of potential speaking engagements and since the folks have just heard me talk and know what a terrific speaker I am, it's a pretty easy sell.

Another fun event was Fiction Friday, which takes place at a coffee shop on the square in Georgetown, twice a month, and has quite a supportive group of folks. My partner read there one Friday, and there's an open mic, so I read, too, along with other folks. The organizer was so gracious (and also a Jewish woman from Louisiana), that she invited me back to be a featured reader. And the audience bought 5 copies of my new book, which coincidentally, were all the copies I brought with me that night. More fun!

I'm in the process of scheduling events in all the major Texas cities – Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. One of the secrets to getting entrée is knowing who your target audiences are. For me, since the book is called, "There's Jews in Texas?" I have a built-in audience in the Jewish community.

Each November, most major cities host a Jewish Book Fair and I have already been in contact with the woman spearheading that festival in Houston and started the conversation of having me be a speaker there.

I am also working on an article for the Texas Jewish Historical Society's newsletter, and my plan is to have events scheduled in the major cities with dates and locations prior to submitting the article, so that I can publicize the events when the article runs. Also, these communities have Jewish newspapers which reach probably 70% of the Jewish populations in their cities, so as I get these events scheduled, I'll be contacting those newspapers for articles, as well. 

I also have a list of my friends, whom I have started contacting, asking them to set up speaking engagements with their various community groups. I'm lucky in that public speaking is one of my all-time favorite things to do, and there's almost nothing I love better than getting in front of a large group of people and sharing my work with them. For me, the book is like a speaker's delivery device – a means to an end, the end being sharing my stories and work and ideas with folks. 

About the Author

By day, Debra Winegarten, a third-generation Texas Jew, is the First Undersecretary of the American Astronomical Society at The University of Texas, at Austin. By night, she writes. You can find out a bit more about her and order her books at www.sociosights.com.

Have you hugged a librarian today?  Join me in celebrating National Library Week, April 8-14 2012, and check your local library's website to see if any special events are planned for this week.

Libraries enrich communities in so many ways, offering children's reading programs, internet access, adult programming, research assistance, and other services. They house wonderful collections of books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, ebooks, videos, music, online databases, reference materials, and more.

I was a voracious reader as a kid. I still remember the fun of loading up on books each week for the summer reading program at my local library. Today, I still love the library and I'd like to give a shoutout to my terrific public library in Round Rock, Texas. They have an amazing collection of audiobooks and I usually have at least three checked out at a time.

How about you? How have libraries impacted your life as a writer and reader? I invite you to share your story by posting a comment below. I'll select a winner from all the comments posted by April 14 to win a free copy of my book, How to Get Your Book Reviewed.

And, in honor of National Library Week, I'm offering my Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling Your Book to Libraries at half price through April 14, 2012. The discounted price of $9.50 will automatically show up in your shopping cart at checkout.

Welcome to my roundup of book marketing tips and resources for authors and indie publishers. 

Where do readers get book recommendations? According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, family, friends, and co-workers are the most popular source of book recommendations, followed by online bookstores and other websites, recommendations from the staff of retail bookstores, and recommendations from librarians or library websites.  Learn more about American reading habits in this detailed survey.





I'm doing a teleseminar on the "Top 10 Book Promotion Strategies for Authors" as one of 15 speakers at the Self-Publishers Online Conference in May. Save $50 when you sign up before May 1, and save an additional 10% when you enter Savvy12 in the Coupon Code field on the registration screen. 





Authors, here's a new way for you to promote your ebooks on the days that they are free on Kindle or other ebookstores. A few days ago I created a new Facebook group designed exclusively for free ebook listings. Please read this page to learn how the group works. 





April is National Poetry Month. Here are some recommended reads from Publishers Weekly.  





Perhaps the greatest benefit of Twitter is the ability for your message to get shared or "re-tweeted" to others. To encourage people to re-tweet your content, limit your message to 120 characters. That keeps others from having to shorten your message to make space for their Twitter handle plus "RT" when they re-tweet your message. This article shares more tips for getting more re-tweets.





I'm one of 15 speakers at the virtual Nonfiction Writers Conference, where I'll do a teleseminar on "How to Sell More Books on Amazon."  Save 40% when you register for the Nonfiction Writers Conference by April 14.





Have you uploaded a "cover" image for your Facebook Profile and Fan Page yet? The optimum size for the cover image is 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high. See this page for more details on what you can include in the cover image for your Fan Page. You can see my new cover images at http://www.facebook.com/DanaLynnSmith and http://www.facebook.com/SavvyBookMarketer





I'm thrilled that the Savvy Book Marketer blog has been named one of the Best Websites for Independent Authors by the Association of Independent Authors. 

That's all the news for now. Here's to your publishing success!

I'm honored to be one of the 15 speakers at the Nonfiction Writers Conference, a virtual event conducted via teleconference May 16-18, 2012. I'll be speaking on How to Sell More Books on Amazon.

Other topics include traditional and self-publishing, ebooks, virtual book tours, social media, blogging, SEO, professional speaking, and other book marketing tactics. Other speakers include Dan Poynter, Mark Coker, John Kremer, Michael Larsen, Stephanie Chandler, Penny Sansevieri, Jane Atkinson, Jim Horan, D'vorah Lansky, Roger C. Parker, Karl Palachuk, Kevin Smokler, Peter Bowerman, and Bill Belew.

For a chance to win a free pass to this virtual conference, just leave a comment below. I'll select a winner at random from all entries posted by April 3. Good luck!

 

One common mistake that authors make is thinking that their book is for "everyone." Sure, some books appeal to a wider group of people than others, but all books have a niche.

Few of us have the resources to market to the world at large, and it's much easier to sell a book to people who already have an interest in the subject or genre. 

But who exactly is your target market? Most books actually have several target markets, but each is still a niche market.

Your primary market is the ideal customer that your book was written for. Then you have secondary markets of other people who have an interest in the book's topic or genre, or who buy books like yours to give to others.

To learn more about defining and reaching the right target markets for your book, join me for the Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Workshop, starting on March 29. When you complete this hand-on training program, you'll have your own book marketing plan, customized for you, your book and your target markets. 

 

 

In today's guest post, Kent Weber explains the benefits of a dedicated book landing page on your author website. You will notice references in Kent's article to earning affilate commissions from Amazon. See this page to learn more about the Amazon Associates affilate program.

6 Ways a Book Landing Page Can Increase Your Book’s Revenue

by Kent Weber

Warning: bold claim on approach. I believe this simple (and often overlooked) book marketing technique could increase traffic and sales revenue for the majority of book authors.

Seth Godin talked about these in the early 1990′s.  The Software, SEO, Info-product and other ad-driven industries all utilize variations of this technique to great success. Most book authors do not. But could.

I’m talking about the dedicated landing page.

Book Landing Page: a Definition

A landing page refers to the first page a new visitor sees on your website, usually arriving via an ad or search engine.  Specifically for books, we’re expanding on that definition a bit.  A book landing page is a single permanent page (permalink) on an author website or blog which contains all the relevant information for a given book, including a link to purchase. For example:

http://www.YourAuthorSite.com/your-bo...

Surprisingly, a very large segment of authors do not leverage any sort of book landing page. Instead, most use one of these two popular but less effective alternatives.

The Sidebar Listing

You put a link to your book on your site’s sidebar, link to Amazon or a similar site, and rely on them to sell it. With this approach, at least your book is visible on every page in your site. But if this is your only strategy, I think you are missing an opportunity. Optimizing your Amazon listing is also important. But I believe there is important work to be done at each author’s website as well.

A “Books Page” Listing Each Book You’ve Authored

This approach is obviously more standard for multi-book authors. You put your seven books in a nice list available at one URL. I’m a believer in this approach as well, again, as part of the mix.In my opinion, a better approach is a probably a combination of the two, plus the key ingredient here: a single permanent page at your author site, with complete book information, all on the same permalink.

Whatever combo you use, there is a strong case that a permalink book landing page can grow your revenue. Here it is. 

6 Ways a Book Landing Page can Increase Traffic and Revenue

1. It Can Hoist You “above the fold” on Google

Are you there already? Or do the top five spots for your book title belong to Amazon, B&N, and the three highest-traffic sites that reviewed your book? A dedicated landing page with all the info about your book, the title in the URL and a few links to it can go a long way to ensuring you rise to the top. Search engines like proper titles and long copy with headers, keyword variations and lots of updated content centered around a focused topic.

2. It Increases Your Odds of an Amazon Affiliate Commission

The more book searchers you redirect to your site, the more affiliate commissions you will receive. If you are traditionally published, a 6% affiliate commission on a $10 book might be more than half of what you make on the royalty itself. 

3. It Gives Sharers the Correct URL for Linking

Many bloggers don’t want to link to your website. Understandably, they’d rather sell a book themselves. But plenty of reviewers, bloggers and most of your readers are not “Affiliates.” Readers on social media will often link to your book’s page if you show them where. Every link to your book’s permanent URL is also a thumbs-up to the search engines. 

4. It Updates and Refines Your Books Sales Pitch

As new endorsements, reviews, media, interviews and supporting meta-data comes in, you will benefit from a designated place to add these. 

5. It Delivers Ad Campaigns a Bench Mark

This is a landing page, properly so called: the arriving link from an ad or search with a call to action — “buy now” or even just “subscribe.” You may be producing lots of different landing pages if you are doing split testing for ads on Facebook, Goodreads or the like. The key is simply to have one main permalink where interest about your book can be directed. 

6. It Jumpstarts a Relationship with Readers

Think social media engagement and RSS subscriptions. If they are on your site, you have a shot at engaging them. But you won’t get sign-ups if they are somewhere else. If you still need convincing, you might run a few searches at Google for your book title and then a few other books. Pick a few best selling titles and then a few lesser-known titles by first-timers. It’s a great tutorial.

The number and popularity of keywords/phrases you have in your title can certainly tip the scales of utility.  For example if your book is entitled “Social Media” you can probably dispense with the whole exercise. But if you do a good handful of searches, the results are likely to convince most of you that a permalink book landing page is worth pursuing.

Finally, here’s an example book landing page for a recent book that demonstrates this exercise. It’s entitled Surprised by Oxford (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2011). Full disclosure: the author is my wife.  It's a great memoir with 125 Amazon reviews, averaging 4.5*+.  And yes, she makes a well-deserved affiliate commission from Amazon for sales at her book landing page.

Questions:  What are your thoughts on book landing pages?  Do you have an experience you could share?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kent Weber is a book marketing consultant and blogger.  His career as a marketing and sales executive includes experience in the content, software and book publishing industries, and as a managing director in a venture capital firm investing in similar companies. In his non-family time, Kent can be found writing on http://www.GoodBookMarketing.com or working with his favorite author at PressingSave.

In today's guest post, Kent Weber explains the benefits of a dedicated book landing page on your author website. You will notice references in Kent's article to earning affilate commissions from Amazon. See this page to learn more about the Amazon Associates affilate program.

6 Ways a Book Landing Page Can Increase Your Book's Revenue

by Kent Weber

Warning: bold claim on approach. I believe this simple (and often overlooked) book marketing technique could increase traffic and sales revenue for the majority of book authors.

Seth Godin talked about these in the early 1990′s.  The Software, SEO, Info-product and other ad-driven industries all utilize variations of this technique to great success. Most book authors do not. But could.

I'm talking about the dedicated landing page.

Book Landing Page: a Definition

A landing page refers to the first page a new visitor sees on your website, usually arriving via an ad or search engine.  Specifically for books, we're expanding on that definition a bit.  A book landing page is a single permanent page (permalink) on an author website or blog which contains all the relevant information for a given book, including a link to purchase. For example:

http://www.YourAuthorSite.com/your-bo...

Surprisingly, a very large segment of authors do not leverage any sort of book landing page. Instead, most use one of these two popular but less effective alternatives.

The Sidebar Listing

You put a link to your book on your site's sidebar, link to Amazon or a similar site, and rely on them to sell it. With this approach, at least your book is visible on every page in your site. But if this is your only strategy, I think you are missing an opportunity. Optimizing your Amazon listing is also important. But I believe there is important work to be done at each author's website as well.

A "Books Page" Listing Each Book You've Authored

This approach is obviously more standard for multi-book authors. You put your seven books in a nice list available at one URL. I'm a believer in this approach as well, again, as part of the mix.In my opinion, a better approach is a probably a combination of the two, plus the key ingredient here: a single permanent page at your author site, with complete book information, all on the same permalink.

Whatever combo you use, there is a strong case that a permalink book landing page can grow your revenue. Here it is. 

6 Ways a Book Landing Page can Increase Traffic and Revenue

1. It Can Hoist You "above the fold" on Google

Are you there already? Or do the top five spots for your book title belong to Amazon, B&N, and the three highest-traffic sites that reviewed your book? A dedicated landing page with all the info about your book, the title in the URL and a few links to it can go a long way to ensuring you rise to the top. Search engines like proper titles and long copy with headers, keyword variations and lots of updated content centered around a focused topic.

2. It Increases Your Odds of an Amazon Affiliate Commission

The more book searchers you redirect to your site, the more affiliate commissions you will receive. If you are traditionally published, a 6% affiliate commission on a $10 book might be more than half of what you make on the royalty itself. 

3. It Gives Sharers the Correct URL for Linking

Many bloggers don't want to link to your website. Understandably, they'd rather sell a book themselves. But plenty of reviewers, bloggers and most of your readers are not "Affiliates." Readers on social media will often link to your book's page if you show them where. Every link to your book's permanent URL is also a thumbs-up to the search engines. 

4. It Updates and Refines Your Books Sales Pitch

As new endorsements, reviews, media, interviews and supporting meta-data comes in, you will benefit from a designated place to add these. 

5. It Delivers Ad Campaigns a Bench Mark

This is a landing page, properly so called: the arriving link from an ad or search with a call to action — "buy now" or even just "subscribe." You may be producing lots of different landing pages if you are doing split testing for ads on Facebook, Goodreads or the like. The key is simply to have one main permalink where interest about your book can be directed. 

6. It Jumpstarts a Relationship with Readers

Think social media engagement and RSS subscriptions. If they are on your site, you have a shot at engaging them. But you won't get sign-ups if they are somewhere else. If you still need convincing, you might run a few searches at Google for your book title and then a few other books. Pick a few best selling titles and then a few lesser-known titles by first-timers. It's a great tutorial.

The number and popularity of keywords/phrases you have in your title can certainly tip the scales of utility.  For example if your book is entitled "Social Media" you can probably dispense with the whole exercise. But if you do a good handful of searches, the results are likely to convince most of you that a permalink book landing page is worth pursuing.

Finally, here's an example book landing page for a recent book that demonstrates this exercise. It's entitled Surprised by Oxford (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2011). Full disclosure: the author is my wife.  It's a great memoir with 125 Amazon reviews, averaging 4.5*+.  And yes, she makes a well-deserved affiliate commission from Amazon for sales at her book landing page.

Questions:  What are your thoughts on book landing pages?  Do you have an experience you could share?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kent Weber is a book marketing consultant and blogger.  His career as a marketing and sales executive includes experience in the content, software and book publishing industries, and as a managing director in a venture capital firm investing in similar companies. In his non-family time, Kent can be found writing on http://www.GoodBookMarketing.com or working with his favorite author at PressingSave.

The key to successful book marketing is to understand your target audiences and develop a strategic plan for reaching them and persuading them to buy. But how exactly do you do that?

Promoting a book takes a different skill set than writing it, and most authors don't have a background in marketing. I've noticed that many authors are unsure how to best promote their books, while others jump from one activity to another, without any real plan. And of course all of us have limited time and resources.

To help authors zero in on their target audiences and develop a solid book marketing plan, I have developed the new Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Workshop.

In this unique hand-on program, you'll get five training sessions, plus fill-in-the-blank worksheets, checklists and planning tools. By the time you're finished, you'll have your own book marketing plan, customized for you, your book, and your target audiences.

Don't miss this five-week course, beginning on March 29. Learn more and register here and you'll be on your way to developing an effective marketing plan to sell more books!