Heather Hart's Blog, page 38
February 18, 2013
The Cost of Exclusivity
A Guest Post by Author Karen Baney
Kindle Direct Publishing’s Select program was announced by Amazon just a little over a year ago as a tool for authors to give away free books and earn a royalty on book lending through Amazon Prime. Authors flocked to the program as rumors of insane eBook sales success circulated. Everything was great until Amazon changed their algorithms, no longer giving equal weight to free books.
The biggest kicker in the whole KDP Select phenomenon was a claus...
February 17, 2013
Optimizing Amazon
“For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?”~ James Allen
I’m not really sure where I first heard the above quote by James Allen, and I’m not sure he was talking about marketing – but it fits. Why are you marketing your book? Why not? Why shouldn’t you be the one to do it? Why not work on it right now? The answers are simple. You should market your book so that people can read it. There isn’t any reason that you shouldn’t market it. There is no o...
February 16, 2013
Change It Up
“Insanity is the belief that you can keep on doing what you've been doing and get different results”~ Alcoholics Anonymous
Doing what we have been doing is easy. We know how to do it. But we have to realize that if we continue doing it, we will continue to see the same results. If we want to increase our exposure and sales, we have to add to it, change it up, and do more.
If what you have been doing isn’t working for you, it’s time to change. If what you have been doing is working for you,...
February 15, 2013
Who Do You Think You Are?
“Today I will be a successful sales professional, and I will learn something today that will make me even more professional tomorrow.”~ Zig Ziglar
Zig Ziglar is awesome. His quotes are always encouraging and motivational – and he’s usually right on target. You are what you think you are. When you wake up, do you dread working on book marketing, or do you confidently say that you will successfully market your book, and learn something to help you market your book better in the future? The...
February 14, 2013
Give a Little Book Love
“Do what is right, and the reward will be immediate and multitudinous. Think what is right, and your authority will grow.”~ John Kremer
Often times as authors, we have the opportunity to reach other people. Whether it’s through our books themselves, or some other way, we can change lives. But the choice is always ours. We can choose to give a reader who can’t afford our book a free copy. We can help another author who is just learning their way. Or, we can choose to help ourselves. Doing the r...
February 13, 2013
Where Do I Go?
“Meet people where they are, instead of expecting them to seek you out.”~ EJ Thornton
Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product that didn’t tell you where to go from there? I was flipping through a magazine recently and was shocked at all of the ads that didn’t give a call to action. Yes, their products looked great, but I didn’t know where to get them. There wasn’t even a website to look up. In order to find out more about their product, I would have had to Google them and see wh...
February 12, 2013
Persistent Marketing
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”~Calvin Coolidge
You can be the best writer in the world and never sell a single book - and I also know several bestselling authors that can’t write worth a darn. I don’t know why people buy the...
February 11, 2013
The Big Picture
“Real marketing begins at the moment you conceive the central idea for the intended book and includes a clear sense of who the book is for, how it serves its audience, and how it fits with the competition.”~David Cole
Everything about your book is book marketing. Every aspect from the idea of your book, to the design, to the editing and formatting all play a part in the marketing of it. The first time you get a 2 star review for a typo, you’ll realize how important editing is.
Marketing is als...
February 10, 2013
Referral Sources
“It’s important to know who your readers will be and how they will hear about your book.”~Catherine West
Do you know how your readers hear about your book? Are they hearing about it from you, finding it on Amazon, or being referred from another website? Depending on the links and sources you use for marketing your book, you can sometime trace your referral sources.
Besides just knowing where your traffic is coming from, it can also be a great networking opportunity or a learning experience if...
February 9, 2013
Attitude is Everything!
“Attitude is everything”
Has your attitude about marketing changed since you started reading this years challenge?
You’ve already formed a habit of marketing, so hopefully instead of seeing marketing as a chore it’s starting to become a normal part of your life. Your attitude determines your outcome.
When you start to see marketing differently, you will ultimately become more productive at it. Instead of spending hours trying to figure it out, you’ll spend your time executing it.
Marketin...
