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Today, more than ever before authors are presented with publishing opportunities that have never existed before. This is not to understate the hard work that authors have to go through to get recognition, write great books, and make a full time living from their passion of expression. However, it is to say that today, due to advances in communications technology, authors can now get their books distributed much easier than they could a decade ago. One very popular way that authors are distributing their work is digitally through ebooks. Digital books are gaining so much popularity that even some of the most popular authors in the world have used it to distribute their books. Stephen King for example published “Riding the Bullet” exclusively in ebook format. When this ebook began distribution over Barns and Nobel and A om there was so much demand for the download that the servers of these two book giants slowed down almost to a halt. People that wanted to download the ebook were put in a large queue with the hundreds of thousands of other who downloaded the ebook as well.

It’s not only big name authors that are finding success in ebooks. Many of these people are first time authors and are often amazed with the success of their ebook sales. Below are some of their ebook writing tips.

Don’t underestimate the power of the Ebook

Ebooks are still looked upon as unpopular by many authors who have not yet taken the time to learn about the success within this industry. For example, while the traditional publishing industry growing at the sluggish rate of 5% a year the digital publishing industry is growing at rates between 30% -50%. This means that the opportunities within the publishing industry are growing at a fraction of the rate that opportunities within the digital publishing industry are growing.

To set up an ebook you don’t need to be a tech wizard

Setting up your ebook from the idea conceptualization stage to the selling stage can’t be completed overnight but it is definitely something that can be done by anyone regardless of your technological background. If you can use a word processor then you can create and sell an ebook online. While it is recommended you set up your own website, it is not necessary. There are outlets such as om, EBay and L om to name only a few sites that allow you to post your ebook on their servers.

Setting up an Ebook site is virtually costless and you keep 100% of the profits

With traditional publishers you’ll be lucky to see 10% of the profits from your book. With ebooks however, you keep 100% of the profits minus the fees required to set up the site which are minimal. Here is the fee breakdown for ebooks vs traditional books:

Ebook vs Book cost
Ebook = Free to create an unlimited number of copies
Book = approximately $1500 for 200 copies of a 200 page soft cover book
Rights and profit
Ebook = You keep 100% of the profits and rights to your ebooks
Book = You get 10-40% royalty (usually about $2-$5/ book)

With the above examples it is easy to see that for first time authors ebooks make a lot of sense. The risk associated with publishing an ebook is much lower than it is with distributing a soft or hard cover book. Likewise, as an ebook author you’ll keep virtually all of your own profits.

If nothing else, it is something worth consideration. Ebooks may not replace traditional paperback books, but they certainly are gaining popularity at a rate that should make all authors stop to think about how they could use ebooks to their advantage.

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source: http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/readers-who-like-you-or-readers-who-friend-you-which-is-better/

Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield

This year, Facebook topped 550 million members. If it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest in the world (ahead of the United States, in fourth place with a mere 309 million).

Impressive numbers, but why should that interest authors – interest you as an author? Here’s why.

If only a tenth of a relatively small percentage of all “Facebookians” became your loyal readers, you could easily attain the Ultimate Author Dream: Writing the books you most want to, while netting the royalties associated with authors who are mega famous.

Maybe you’d like to know, right about now, what the basic guidelines for attracting readers on the biggest social networking site in the world are?

You Have to Play to Play

If you don’t already have one, set up a “profile page” – a basic Facebook account. Simply go to www.facebook.com and fill in the requested information (realize that you must christen your profile page with your real name – a Facebook rule; if you need to differentiate your page from all the other Jane or John Smiths on the site, use a middle name or middle initial).

Once you have a profile account, you’ve earned the right to create a “fan page.” That’s where you’ll stage the serious book promotion designed to attract your new readers. (Quick aside: you can create as many fan pages as you want, but you only get one profile page — in the same way that you only get one name.) Go tohttp://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to set up your fan page, or pages.

Profile Page, Fan Page, What’s the Difference?

Your profile page is for friends — for fun. But only 5,000 people can “Friend” you, or join your page and get your status updates in their Facebook feed. Your fanpage is for fans, readers, clients — for business. An unlimited number of people can “Like” you, with the same result as above. There are, however, some areas of overlap, and your profile page can and will draw potential readers, too.

To see how the differences play out, let’s explore the Facebook world of author and attraction coach, Eva Gregory. Esteemed in her field, she’s written two books, one of them with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame. (Another quick aside: the Facebook pages of famous authors aren’t particularly helpful, as they’re either maintained by their publishers – see Dan Brown, or they only contain a Wikipedia profile – see Jodi Picoult. But Gregory’s pages are instructive.) Here’s her profile page: http://www.facebook.com/evagregory ; and here’s her fan page:http://www.facebook.com/evagregoryfan (notice how she finds a way to use her name for both pages while making the difference clear; yet she’s still playing by Facebook’s rules).

If you go to the Info tab on Gregory’s Profile page, you’ll see a multi-paragraph description of her background, her service offerings, her books and programs, and her several businesses. You would not be amiss to wonder what all that has to do with “fun” and “friends.” But this is where that aforementioned overlap between the two pages resides. (Also note that, like everyone else with a Facebook profile page, Gregory’s nearly 5,000 “Friends” are most likely not friends in the usual sense, but in the social networking sense.)

Now, if you click over to Gregory’s fan page, you’ll see an immediate difference in both design and approach. A first-time visitor will enter through a Welcome page, and will be greeted with a pitch video, an ezine signup form, and a big, bold logo. You know right away that this page is about business – a friendly sort of business – but still, those profile page lists of interests and favorite movies are gone. In their place, you get a guided tour of Gregory’s many, many offerings.

Why Bother with Facebook When You’ve Got a Site?

It may seem odd that Gregory has established her presence so solidly on Facebook when — as you may remember from the Info tab of her profile page — she has three websites. Well, here’s why it’s not redundant, why it’s actually new territory. Facebook is where the people are. More people, in fact, than the entire population of the United States. Optimistically speaking, up to half of them could be readers. Being able to access that many potential book buyers in one place offers a huge advantage to any author — one that has never been available before. How can you make the most of it?

Finding Readers on Facebook

Scroll up to the top of any Facebook screen and you’ll see a Search box. To find potential readers, type in keywords like “Self-Help Author,” “Mystery Author,” and “YA Author” — based on your book genre or niche. Then try the plural and singular variations of other author- and book-related words. The results may appear erratic, at first, following as they do some arcane algorithm beyond the interest level of most bookish types. But you’ll eventually find authors who interest you. When you do, “Like” their fan pages and send them a friendly message about anything you may have in common. They may or may not “Like” you back, but keep at it.

Next, search for like-minded groups on Facebook — using such keywords as “Author Groups,” “Mystery Book Groups,” “Children’s Book Groups,” and a nearly infinite number of others. Join the conversation in the groups that attract you, make some connections, and you’ll begin building your potential-reader base. True, it won’t happen overnight, unless you’re already well-known. But, gradually, you’ll accumulate a following on Facebook – especially if you add new, interesting content to your fan page each week, while participating in the groups you’ve joined.

So, we’re back to our original question. Is it better to have readers who “Like” you, or readers who “Friend” you?

Readers may be readers, but it’s still better to encourage those for whom you are primarily an author to join your fan page. You can have an unlimited number of fans there, and you can promote your work in a way that’s not at all “indirect.”

Before you do, though, study the fan pages of other authors, and Google on “Facebook promotions” to be sure you violate none of the site’s ever-changing guidelines and terms of use. Once a page has been banned, for whatever reason, it’s impossible to get it restored (everything is automated; there are no customer service people to intervene). And that would be a shame, since – despite its many flaws – Facebook is the biggest social networking site on the planet. So it’s an ideal place to meet people who could become your loyal readers, and enable you to live the Ultimate Author Dream.

Laurel Marshfield is a professional writer, developmental editor, and ghostwriter who helps authors shape, develop, and refine their book manuscripts for publication. She offers manuscript evaluation, developmental editing, co-writing, collaboration, ghostwriting, book coaching, and consultation for authors.
Her blogsite publishes inspiration and advice for the author’s journey: Blue Horizon Communications And her free eBook, available for newsletter signup (see the upper right-hand corner of her homepage) is titled: I Need to Be a Bestselling Author – Is That True?: The Five-Destination Roadmap to Authorship.

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source: http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/the-single-best-marketing-tool-for-an-author/

Guest Expert: C. Patrick Schulze

In my last article for Bookbuzzr, I discussed the need to identify your niche market, those people who might purchase your book. Today, we’re going to discuss one of the major tools you use to market to those potential customers, your blog.

If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of a blog, the term comes from the contraction of the phrase, “web log.” A blog is simply a way to post whatever you wish to the Internet. Many think of it as a free, simple, easy-to-maintain website and others consider it an open journal.

A blog, as with every part of your marketing, has but one main purpose. It’s to raise awareness of you and your books and novels.

However, it also serves a number of other purposes.

Your blog:

• helps establish your credibility as an author
• allows others to learn of your books and novels
• sells and pre-sell your books, 24/7
• allows you to have a two-way conversation with your potential customers
• serves to promote your existing and upcoming books and novels
• allows you to communicate about things that are of importance to you
• can put you in touch with other authors for collaborate, not competitive, efforts
• can even help you develop the habit of writing on a regular basis

Best of all, with a blog your prospective book buyer volunteers to receive your marketing message. Now that is a powerful marketing concept and, by itself, is reason enough to blog. (How often do you voluntarily ask people to send you commercials?)

Though you can pay a great deal for a blog, there is no need to spend anything beyond the time you invest to establish and maintain your blog. The cost depends on the company with which you set up your blog, and whether or not you hire someone to run it for you. I recommend the free route and with that in mind, here is a list of organizations that can provide a blog for you.

• Wordpress
• InstaBlog
• OpenJournal
• GeekLog
• Blogger

I personally work with WordPress and Blogger and find them easy to use and understand. Of the two, WordPress is my favorite as it affords more options to customize your site.

Most who are aware of blogging yet do not take advantage of the medium indicate the time needed to keep it maintained is a major obstacle. Understood. However, one secret to a successful blog is not daily updating but regular updating.

Regular can mean once a day, once a week or once a month. I personally recommend a minimum of twice a week and no less than once a week. Regardless, the trick is to maintain a schedule and stick to it. Humans are creatures of habit, and if you don’t offer your prospects some sort of routine, most potential buyers will gravitate to your competitors’ more regular blogs.

One common comment I hear from those who do not blog is, “Nobody wants to know what I had for dinner.” Another is “I don’t know what to blog about.”

These and most other reasons for an author’s failure to blog are most often rooted in the their misunderstanding of what blogging is all about. Blogging is about sharing. Sharing what you have a passion for, sharing what you know and sharing what you want your readers to know.

As an author, we are passionate about our books and novels and most often about the subject matter of our books. Further, we want people to know about our books. So guess what you blog about? Yep. Your books and the subject matter of your books.

I’ll use my own novels as an example. I write historical fiction set in the time of the American Civil War. Why then? Because I’m passionate about the Civil War. So what do you think is the focus of my blogs? You’re right if you said my books and the Civil War. Is this picture becoming clear?

In my last article for BookBuzzr, we spoke about your niche market, right? Well, target your blog toward your niche market and what they want to learn in relation to your subject matter. For example, if you write about psychology, your blog should at least cover that topic and cater to others interested in that same information.

Now, the real secret to blogging?

There is no secret.

Regardless what you hear, nobody has the secret. Like anything, it’s a learning process and experience is the best teacher. So jump on in and get your blog set up and running. It’s a relatively new, no cost, form of marketing that works. You, as an author, really should the idea take to heart.

Now, what questions do you have about blogging?

Until we speak again, know I wish for you only best-sellers.

~C. Patrick Schulze

He is married to his lovely wife Katy and they live in Richmond, VA (USA). He has two daughters, two step-children and six grandchildren. He is an avid photographer and life-long student of the American Civil War.

He has published two novels and has a third on its way. His articles have appeared in Williamsburg Living Magazine and he is a regular contributor atBookBuzzr.com and Publetariat.com.

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Guest Expert: Tony Eldridge

Marketing, especially book marketing, takes place on two fronts. First, the front that helps us find new readers. Second, the front that helps us keep the readers we already have. Why is it important to keep our current readers? Because they help us spread the word about our book; they buy more copies of our books as gifts for others, and they buy our new books when they come out.

So, as we focus on finding new readers, let’s not forget the ones we already have. An easy way to stay connected with our current readers is by having customer appreciation program. This can take many forms and does not have to entail us having to give away something we have to purchase. Often, simple recognition is a bigger deal than we can imagine. Below are a few ideas of how you can initiate a customer/reader appreciation program:

1. Reader Of The Week/Month/Year- You know how much you enjoy it when someone toots your horn in public. This is a way for your readers to feel that same special feeling. All it takes is a quick mention on your blog to make their day.

2. Name A Character After Them- If you are a novelist, then you can immortalize a fan by naming a character after them. I know authors who name all of their characters after their fans, at least their first name.

3. Mention Them In Your Acknowledgment- If you are a non-fiction writer, consider mentioning some of your raving fans in your acknowledgement.

4. Have A Colleague Let Your Send Them An E-Book- Think about how special someone would feel if you sent them an e-book from a colleague, especially an e-book that is for sell and not given away for free. You may be able to work out a swap with your author friend that allows them to give out 10 copies of your book and allows you to give out 10 copies of theirs. Not only will you have a reader appreciation event, but your book will be introduced to some of your colleague’s raving fans as well.

5. Send A Personal Message- Most of us have auto responders of some sort (i.e., Thank you for signing up for my newsletter…), but imagine the goodwill you will build by spending a few minutes to write and send a personalized e-mail message of thanks. Find something unique to personalize the message with so they know it’s from you and not from your software.

6. Ask For Their Feedback- Invite a few of your customers to give you honest feedback on your marketing efforts and/or your writing. This is not asking for editing feedback, but things like “What did you like about my book” or “What did you wish I would have left out?” Ask permission before you involve them and you will be surprised how many people will feel special that you are seeking their advice.

7. If Possible, Allow Your Raving Fans To Purchase Your New Book Before The Public- Being invited to an exclusive event is a great way to tell your readers how special you think they are.

These are just a few ways you can let your readers know how special they are to you. By taking a few moments to single them out for praise and/or recognition, you are strengthening that bond you worked so hard to create. It will also help to ensure that your raving fans keep on raving about you and your book.

Tony Eldridge is the author of the action-adventure novel, The Samson Effect, and author of the video e-book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. On his Marketing Tips for Authors Blog you can find practical advice on low cost and no-cost methods for marketing your book. Sign up for his free newsletter to get video tips to help you with some of the more technical aspects of marketing your book online.

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source: http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/personality-promotion-an-authors-best-friend/

Written by: Laurel Marshfield

You’ve heard the numbers. Over a million new books were published last year, in this country alone. The numbers for 2010, when tallied, will be even more daunting. And that’s not including eBooks.

So what do these numbers mean for authors?

One thing they mean is that, with a million-plus books competing for readers, the likelihood of a not-yet-known author attracting huge sales looks fairly slim. But you knew that. And you wrote your book anyway, secretly hoping you’d be the exception — at least in your niche. Now, it hits you: how will not-yet-known Youdraw readers your way?

Here’s your “Author’s Best Friend” option. Given the crowded book landscape, what you need is a strategy that makes your book pop, when readers are gazing at those crowded shelves. That strategy is “personality promotion.” Sure, it comes from the simpler, black-and-white world of marketing, but it can be adapted for the nuanced world that authors inhabit.

“I’ve got five minutes,” you say. “Tell me how it works.”

Well, okay! First, you find — and second, shape — your personal story, while keeping in mind that your potential readers need to feel something for you. They need to empathize with who you are as a person. Think of this as the same kind of empathetic connection that occurs between readers and the main characters of your novel. You want your readers to identify with their plight and eventual triumph, to vicariously suffer and succeed as they do.

This type of identification should also occur with you, the author. And your personal story makes that possible — by inspiring an empathy that leads to a connection that drives the sales of your book. Over time, that connection may also blossom into a reader-author relationship. (Quick. Would you buy the latest book by your favorite author? “Of course,” you say, “right away.” That can’t-wait-to-read-it response comes from the empathy-connection relationship. You want that.)

So you’ve heard the what and the why. Now you need to know how to get the personality promotion process going. The clearest way to see how the first and second steps work — finding and shaping your author story — is to glance back in time at authors who’ve become literary objets d’art. Hemmingway. J.D. Salinger. Virginia Woolf. We know what they stand for; their personal stories are clear and simple (in our minds), and they, along with their books, have long since fossilized into authorial “brands.”

The Hemmingway brand we associate with manly excess, safaris, a hidden code of honor, and ultimate suicide. The J.D. Salinger brand we associate with never-ending adolescent alienation, a lifelong obsession with being absolutely reclusive. And the Virginia Woolf brand we associate with extreme intelligence, complex literary aspirations, and mental torment that led to self-drowning.

Here’s what you need to notice: The books these authors produced reveal a relationship to their personal stories, and vice versa.

“But,” you say, “I’m not Hemmingway, Salinger, or Woolf.” True. Nor should you be; you have your own story. Here’s how to unearth it: find the point where your novel, your self-help book, or your memoir intersects with your own life. In the latter case, it’s obvious; in the first two, it may not be. But wherever that intersection is, write it as a story that you perfect and polish — so it’s clear, dramatic, and not convoluted (simplify, if need be). Then use it in every one of your book promotion efforts, in some way, shape, or form.

Need a little more info? Let’s look at the intersection between a current author’s life and book. And let’s choose a memoir, because the personal story of that kind of author is quite a bit easier to see.

In 2005, Jeannette Walls published The Glass Castle and, a mere two years later, she’d sold 1.5 million copies. Walls’ first-book success came from something that’s abundantly clear in her memoir’s many reader reviews on Amazon.com. Here’s an excerpt from one: “It’s probably the best account ever written of a dysfunctional family — and it must have taken Walls so much courage to put pen to paper and recount the details of her rather bizarre childhood — which although it’s like none other and is so dramatic — any reader will relate to it. Readers will find bits and pieces of their own parents in Rex and Rose Mary Walls.”

Note the reader identification, the empathy, the feeling that — though Walls describes a “rather bizarre childhood” — “any reader will relate.” This is a memoir and an author you can identify with; her story touches you. She gets you on her side.

It’s this kind of response that you want. Why? From this empathetic identification with your personal story – the intersection between your book and your life – your book sales will grow. As proof, Walls was herself unknown to readers before publishing her first book.

So here’s the bottom line: Your personality. Don’t promote your book without it.

Laurel Marshfield is a professional writer, developmental editor, and ghostwriter who helps authors shape, develop, and refine their book manuscripts for publication. She offers manuscript evaluation, developmental editing, co-writing, collaboration, ghostwriting, book coaching, and consultation for authors.
Her blogsite publishes inspiration and advice for the author’s journey: Blue Horizon Communications And her free eBook, available for newsletter signup (see the upper right-hand corner of her homepage) is titled: I Need to Be a Bestselling Author – Is That True?: The Five-Destination Roadmap to Authorship.
On Twitter, you can find her at: @BookEditorLM

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source: http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/everything-you-do-online-reflects-on-your-book/

Everything You Do Online Reflects on Your Book: Make Sure That Reflection Is Professional
Guest Expert: Phyllis Zimbler Miller

This month’s guest post is a natural extension of last month’s guest post “Do Your Offline and Online Book Promotion Activities Support Each Other?”

In that post I talked about how your book author website should present consistent information about your offline and online book promotion activities.

In addition, all your online book promotion activities should present you as a professional book author, regardless of whether your book was traditionally published or self-published.

Recently a book marketing consulting client asked me why he could not build a website himself for his nonfiction book the same as he had built for his business. I asked if he wanted my honest response.

When he said yes, I told him that his business site did not look professional. (And he agreed.) Then I added, as everything related to a book reflects on that book, he should have a book site that does appear professional.

And this advice about professionalism extends to everything you do online to promote your book.

For example, I’ve noticed typos in the Twitter profile bios of many people. Now this bio has a maximum of 160 characters. Do take the brief time to make sure you have spelled all the words in the bio correctly.

I always proofread my tweets and the comments I leave on blog posts before hitting “submit.” Now I know I may still occasionally miss an error, but I do try to ensure that whatever I write online is professional.

And this same advice goes for tweetchats or forum discussions or whatever.

Why is this so important?

You do not want to appear unprofessional and risk this reflecting negatively on your book.

And as you have spent a great deal of time writing your book, you should take the time to make sure you are not hindering your own book promotion efforts.

Bonus tip for customizing your Facebook and LinkedIn URLs rather than having those long URLs:

Facebook: Sign into your account. Then go to www.facebook.com/usernameand get your customized URL for your Facebook personal profile.

(Note that this profile must be in your own name and NOT your business name or you are in violation of Facebook terms. See my blog post )

Also, if you have a Facebook Page for business – formerly called a Fan Page – Facebook currently requires that you have at least 25 people who have “liked” your page before you can go to www.facebook.com/username and get a customized URL for your Facebook Page. But when you have at least 25 people, also get a customized URL for this page.

LinkedIn: Sign into your account. Then click on PROFILE (in navigation bar) and click on EDIT PROFILE.

On the right-hand side of the next screen click on CHANGE PUBLIC PROFILE SETTINGS.

Then you’ll see at the top of the next screen YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE URL and click on EDIT.

And, yes, having a customized URL instead of a long, awkward URL can reflect positively on your image as a professional book author.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. The company is committed to taking the mystery out of social media so that individuals and companies can utilize the power of social media marketing. Check out the company program Quick Start Social Media Track.

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