Miscellaneous Low Cost Ideas To Promote Your Book

Nate Fortner

Here are a few simple ideas for increasing your marketing reach. Some are more traditional marketing techniques. Others rely on the web and some technical skills. If you do not have the technical skills you can easily contract out portions of the work.

Press releases

Write a press release. It is simple and low cost, so why not? Maybe it will get picked up by somebody if your book is on a timely topic. Probably not, though. The world is flooded with press releases and the vast majority of them are completely ignored.

Should you pay somebody to write a press release for you? Unless your book is on a very timely topic it is highly unlikely that you will get your money back. As I said, odds are the press release will be ignored. However, on the off chance that it manages to catch somebody’s attention you should write one.

When can a press release work? If it is on a timely topic and you can present yourself as an expert of some sort. This is why you have to do a lot of personal brand marketing even before the book is released. If you can position yourself as an expert then you have a much better chance of getting your press release picked up.

It also helps if you can get press coverage from other people on your own. Even if it's a small, local press, it can help. That kind of validation makes members of the press feel safe in covering you. If others have done it then you must be okay.

Reviews

Reviews are important marketing in several ways. If the review is from a reader with no incentive to write the review, that is the most powerful review of all.

Is it dishonest to pay for reviews? The general rule of thumb is that it is dishonest to pay for reviews that must be positive. There is mixed opinion on whether or not you can pay for honest reviews.

Giving books away for reviewers is a standard technique that the big publishing houses use. The honest reviewer will disclose that they received a copy of the book for free.

Host a Book Release Party

It may just be friends and family that show, but everybody loves a good party. At the very minimum it will get them talking about your book. Your family and friends will be your very first advocates. They know people. They know people that you do not know. They can spread the word about your book.

Give them all free signed copies. This is why you want appeal editions of your book, remember?

This is another reason why you want to make your book the very best it can be. If you want your family and friends to market your book for you then you do not want to embarrass them. They do not want to recommend a lousy book to their friends.

Videos

For better or for worse, the Internet thrives on videos. As a writer and a reader, it is likely that you hate them. There is nothing worse than having to sit through 30 seconds or even several minutes of people talking when I could have gotten the same information in 10 seconds by reading it.

People like their videos. If you want to market to them you need to be able to release videos. YouTube.com is a great video publishing platform. If you need a video book trailer produced for your book, then visit WhosoeverPress.com. The internet is full of potential readers, they just need to know your book exists! Video book trailers are great!

Slideshare

If your book is non-fiction then there is nothing easier than creating a simple PowerPoint presentation about your topic. Make it information dense so the reader is getting real value out of it. Mention your book at the very beginning and at the very end.

Then post the presentation on Slideshare.com It is a website dedicated to sharing slideshows.

What makes a good presentation?

-It must be complete. None of this “for the answer, read my book.” People will click off the page before they even finish reading that sentence.

Make a webinar

This is a video on steroids. Take the presentation that you just made and create a whole half hour long presentation from it. Mention your book once at the beginning and once at the end. Don’t make it a half hour long sales pitch.

You can do a live webinar and record it or you can just record a webinar type video at home and then upload it to your website. This is what I recommend for beginners until you get really good at pacing your presentations.

Fortunately for you, making the videos is easy. Most laptops come with web cams already built in. Visit Ustream.com and create an account. Ustream.com is an awesome online platform where you can share your webinar directly with your social media accounts. I have used this site on multiple occasions.

Article Writing

You can write articles for the web on the topic of your book and post them around the web. Again, this makes the most sense for non-fiction books. It also works for fiction if there is a central theme in your story.

How-to sites are the easiest and most popular sites to submit your work.

Many times you will not get paid for these contributions. If you are not making money directly, make sure that you get a link to your site. Preferably, the link will be indexed by Google and will help the search engine rankings of your main site. You may also write articles, and submit them to Nate@WhosoeverPress.com to be considered for publication in the Whosoever Press Magazine.

 

Buy the Full ebook!   "Book Marketing in the 21st Century"

Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com

Your Website

Nate Fortner

Get a website. You need to have one as an author and preferably you should have a separate one for each book. Web hosting is cheap. If you are the do-it yourself type, you can get a single shared hosting plan and host multiple websites under the same plan.

If you do not have website coding skills, you can easily find somebody. I recommend finding a local web development company. You can also find individuals at Meetups in your area. If you can’t do that or you are REALLY on a tight budget you can find freelancers online. The quality of site you will get is mixed and good communication important. Remember that not all of them write and read as well as you. Their skills are in computers, not communications. The cheap ones will barely speak any English.

What are some of the things that need to be on your website?

You need a biography, preferably with a picture.

You need information about your books.

You need a calendar of events for your book promotions (if you are running any).

You need links to your Facebook and Twitter pages.

You need a blog or a link to your blog. This is the topic of the next chapter.

And you need a way to build your email list.

Let’s focus on that last one.

How do you do that? Sign up for a list service. I recommend Mail Chimp. Sign up instructions are on their site. They are one of the easiest to use and integrate into your website. An email list provider will make sure you stay on the right side of Spam rules. Have you ever had to click a confirmation link to confirm you want to be on somebody’s email list? That is the doing of the list provider.

You want to keep in touch with your fans. An email list is the way to do it. Not everybody is on every social media account. Some people aren’t on social media at all. Almost everybody in the world has at least one email account.

Now what do you do with your email list? An email list is long-term marketing. I am fond of saying that you can’t eat an email list. However, you aren’t just stopping with one book, are you? You want to be able to market all of your books to your audience. After all, if they liked one then they are more likely to like the others.

Are the people on your email list knowledgeable marketers? Maybe some of them are? If you are selling you book on Amazon (and you certainly should be) then remind your readers that if they promote your book through the Amazon Affiliate program, they can earn a percentage of the sales they drive your way.

They get money. You get money and readers. Everybody wins.

What else should you have on your website?

It goes without saying, that you should have links to where you can buy your books. Somehow, this is not addressed as it should be. If you are selling on Amazon, make sure the links are affiliate links so that you can earn a little extra from each sale. Amazon explicitly allows this.

Buy the full ebook!    "Book Marketing In the 21st Century"

Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com


 

Determining Your Audience

Nate Fortner

Have you defined your target audience? Do you know what they are looking for? It will make the marketing process much easier if you start with marketing in mind before the book is even written.

This applies to fiction and non-fiction equally.

Whether you are writing a short how-to guide as a Kindle book or a hundred thousand word epic novel, your target market is not “everybody”. Even for best-sellers the target audience is not everybody. There are people who cannot stand Stephen King’s writing. There are people that gag at the thought of opening a book by Nicholas Sparks. Yet we are all envious of their success. They write mega-bestsellers even with targeting “everybody.”

Just because a book is written for a particular audience doesn’t mean that they will be the only ones who read it. If it is well written, then your target audience will want everybody to read it.

Think of Harry Potter. Who is the target audience for the first Harry Potter book? If you said 10 year old boys, then you are our big winner. Now, are ten year old boys the only people reading Harry Potter? Hardly. You are not limited by your target audience, but you still need one for focus.

Buy the Full ebook   "Book Marketing In the 21st Century"

Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com
 

Why do you need to market?

Nate Fortner

It would be nice if all you had to do was write. Then you could let somebody else handle all of that “marketing” stuff. Unfortunately, the reality is that you will have to do it yourself. This is true even if you have a contract with a major publisher. They do the work to get your book in bookstores, but the rest is up to you. Sometimes you even have to be the one to actually convince the bookstore to carry your book.

Want to do a book tour? You are booking it yourself most of the time. This means getting on the phone with the bookstores yourself. My first book tour, I scheduled myself!

You can’t expect your customers to come to you. You have to go to your customers. There are a lot of books out there right now. A whole lot of them. People must know you exist. You can talk about niches all you want, but there are already books in your niche available.

So how do you differentiate your book from all of those other books? Marketing.

Your readers aren’t just buying your book. They are buying a bit of you. The book comes with a story beyond what is in the pages. It comes with your story.

You need to make your readers care about not only the book but the author as well. If you are writing fiction this means that they think you are an interesting person with an interesting story to tell. If you are writing non-fiction this means that you want people to believe that you are an expert.

However, marketing is not just about telling your story. It is about getting potential readers to take action. Learning to write persuasive sales copy is an important part of the book marketing process.

And the last reason you need to market:

Because nobody else is going to do it for you. If you are self-publishing you probably have already figured this out. This applies equally to traditionally published books as well.

You must take massive action in marketing and promoting your book if you expect it to go anywhere.

Buy the Full ebook!    "Book Marketing in the 21st Century"

Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com
 

The Dollar Is Bouncing Back From Poverty

Nate Fortner

According to the Washington Post, the euro has fallen to a 12-year low of $1.07, down from $1.39 just last year. So with a stronger dollar, doesn't that mean our economy is getting stronger? Of course it does! Business is booming in the US and we have all started to get back to our normal lives again, the way it was before the recession. With the majority of the European countries still trying to get their finances in order, the US has the ball in its court. However, this could mean interest rates may soon be on the rise.

So what does this mean for the publishing industry? At this point, it may be too soon to tell. For the self-published author, prices may be going up on publishing packages and promotional products. However, the good side is royalties should also go up. As always, be creative and look to gain massive exposure. Do your part to get more of the American dollar while it's worth it.

Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com

What Is An Author Platform?

Nate Fortner

What is an author's platform? Who are you engaging with? What is it that you do that gets you massive exposure and attention? Who are you influencing? The platform is simply your realm of influence.

For example, if you're a Pastor, your platform is basically your church. You're influencing a congregation of people to follow what you teach. If you're a singer, then your platform is your music. You're influencing fans to buy your albums. These people like what you have and will go to great lengths to hear what you have to say. This is your platform.

However, just because you may have a platform, doesn't mean you know how to produce a sale. As an author, your product is your book, but before people buy it, they want to know that it's worth it. Anyone can write a book. It's how you stand out that gets you the sale.

What authority do you have to write a book? What credentials do you have? If you're a nonfiction author, and your writing giving advice on a particular subject, what gives you the right to do so? What experience or education do you have on this subject? Do you have a degree in that field, or are you just looking for a lucky streak? People want quality, and if you can't provide that for them, they'll move on.

How many people are you reaching? How many sales are you producing? How many people have subscribed to your email list? (Mailchimp.com)

So, how do you grow your platform if you're just starting out?

First, you need to identify your target market. Who is your crowd of readers, and how and where can you engage with them?

Try creating and distributing quality content. Write some articles or short stories and take them, or email them to your local media outlets such as newspapers, television, and radio. This doesn't guarantee you any results, but it can't hurt you, and you are starting the process of presenting yourself as a professional in your field. Include your name and contact information on this one page article and offer to appear as a guest on their show for an interview.

You have no excuse for not doing this. It's easy and only costs you about a dollar, if that! Be sure to include in your signature that you're the author of “Your Book Title.” If you can afford it, send a free autographed copy of your book as well.

For more information on building your author platform, check out this great site.
www.janefriedman.com/2012/03/13/author-platform-definition

Authors: SUBSCRIBE to Whosoever Press on YouTube. www.YouTube.com/WhosoeverPress

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Whosoever Press
P.O. Box 1513
Boaz, AL. 35957
256-706-3315
Nate@WhosoeverPress.com
www.WhosoeverPress.com