8 Tips To Make Your E-mail Blast Book Announcement More Effective by Sandra Beckwith

My guest today is a sponsor of my recent Twitter contests and the expert of Building Book Buzz, Sandra Beckwith. Sandra will be tapping into her experience to give us advice on how to use e-mails to effectively announce our books. She is one of the go-to experts I use when I want to know anything related to sending out author publicity material.



Before we get to her post, I have an exciting announcement. Marketing Tips For Authors has been named as a Top Ten Blog For Authors by the Self Publishing Coach, Shelley Hitz's. I'm honored for the recognition. Check out the cool badge on my left sidebar commemorating this honor.



Also, check out the feature that Roger C. Parker did on me and my Twitter contests on his blog today, Twitter Contests can attract 20 to 25% more targeted followers,and the guest post that Dana Lynn Smith did with me on The Most Crucial Step To Effective Book Marketing.



Now, on to Sandra's post...



8 Tips To Make Your E-mail Blast Book Announcement More Effective

By Sandra Beckwith



I am generally not a negative person. Really, I'm not! But I've received so many narcissistic book announcement e-mail messages recently that I find it hard to approach this topic with a positive attitude. I keep reading these messages, hoping to find one I can use as a good example, but the "rejects" far outnumber those that inspire.



I received one this week that asked me to help the author achieve Amazon best-seller status. I know these campaigns are popular but because I know how they're put together, I now look askance at anyone who subsequently claims "best-seller status" for their book. I assume – right or wrong – that the author was just a really good nag who knew lots and lots of people who didn't mind spending money on a specific day for a book they didn't necessarily want. I suspect that the book editors receiving proposals from authors making these claims are just as cynical as I am at this point.



Another recent announcement was almost 2,000 words long – and used only 72 of those words to describe the book. 2,000 words is considered a long magazine article, not an e-mail message.  



I've received some that didn't provide the book's title, others that didn't offer a link to an online purchase site, and one that used just two sentences to announce the book's publication and offer a purchase link.



You get only one chance to announce your book via e-mail. You don't want to alienate, confuse, or annoy people with that precious opportunity. So what's the right way to approach this process? Here are a few tips designed to generate a positive response – book sales! – from your list:



Remember that the quality of your announcement reflects the quality of your book. I received one that looked like a ransom note, with multiple fonts and sizes. I know this wasn't what the author intended, but, well, that's what it looked like. If your announcement isn't well-written, looks odd, has typos, or is generally inarticulate, I'll assume that's what I'll find in the book, too.



Use the descriptive text from your back book cover. Why reinvent the wheel? Your back cover probably contains everything we need to know about why your book will interest us. You might need to tweak it to make it more personal or informal, but it should have most of the information you need to describe your book in a compelling way.



Focus on me, not you. Don't use this valuable marketing space to tell me how thrilled you are to finally become an author or to detail how or why you decided to finally tell your story. Tell me what your book will do for me. Will it educate, inform, entertain, enlighten? What's in it for me? How will your book improve my world, help me improve someone else's world, or help me forget about my world?



Forget the "help me make my book an Amazon best-seller" plea. Unless we are close personal friends, I don't care if your book is a best-seller. I know that sounds harsh, but I have bigger things to worry about in life – and not enough time to read the books I've bought already. All I want to know is whether I'll like or need your book or, just as importantly, whether I know someone else who would like it.



Don't come on too strong. Remember that you are, essentially, asking your list to do you a favor and buy the book. Some of us will buy it whether we want it or not just because we want to support you and some of us will make the purchase because we truly are interested in the topic. Don't make us feel guilty if it's not in our budget or if it's just not a good fit. And don't follow up with messages asking if we've bought it yet. (Yes, I know somebody who does that.)



Provide a purchase link. I am always surprised at how many messages don't have this. Don't force me to search on Google or Amazon to buy your book – make it easy for me.



Ask me to share your news with my networks. If I know people who will want to know about your book, I'll help spread the word. But sometimes I need to be reminded. A simple "I'd love it if you'd share this message with your friends who might be interested," is enough of a nudge for most of us.



Show it to a friend or colleague before you send it. Ask for feedback on tone, content, and length. Have you overlooked anything? Would it make that person want to buy the book or share the information with others? I've been writing for publication or marketing purposes my entire adult life and still run things past others for feedback.



I hope these tips are helpful. I truly want your book to succeed. You've put so much time, effort, and heart into it – let's make sure that you give it the best possible introduction possible!



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Former publicist Sandra Beckwith helps authors learn how to be their own book publicists. Learn more and subscribe to her free Build Book Buzz e-zine at www.buildbookbuzz.com.







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 -------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests .