Source: http://adzines.com/Book-Marketing-Articles/Creating-a-Book-Poster/6467

Written by: Laura Hickey

Posters can be a great and inexpensive way to promote your book. But don’t rush right out until you know the key items to include on your poster.

The Title and Author’s name

Make sure to have a bigger font than the rest of your poster to bring attention to the title and author of the book. This may be the only aspect of the poster they remember.

ISBN, Where to Purchase, Price, Pages and Cover

Be up front with where customers can purchase your book. Including the ISBN number can also help with searching for your book on line. Many times a customer will look for the price and become annoyed at having to search for it and how many pages the book contains. When having your book cover on your poster, you want it to be as clear and sharp as possible.

The Facts

Be straight forward on what your book is about. Mystery may entice a reader, but clear facts are more likely to progress to a sell if your content is what the customer is looking for.

Reviews

It’s a good idea to show blurbs of your favorable book reviews both customer and editorial.

Optional Items

A photo of yourself- Sometimes customers feel better buying with a face in mind, but this sometimes can backfire.

Table of Contents- This part may become very long on your posters so perhaps partial view of the TOC would be best.

Contact/Homepage- Your customers may have questions, please keep in mind that this could lead to spam. Directing others to your homepage would be a better option. Treat your e-mail as if it were your phone number.

Don’t forget to make sure your poster is printed on good quality paper with rich ink. Good luck!

About the Author: Laura Hickey is an up and coming author. Her work includes Mysterious Chills and Thrills for Kids and a co-writer position for the TV pilot, Officially Lush. You can read more free articles by Ms. Hickey on her homepage:

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Ebooks are Promotional Powerhouses
Book Promotion Woes?

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Source: http://www.forerunner.com/e-business/X0010_Ebooks_are_Promotion.html

Written by: Jay Rogers

Ebooks are part of the new frontier of cyberspace.

They are an entirely new medium for sharing marketing

information, ideas, techniques, and expert knowledge.

Each day the number of people accessing the Internet

grows, causing the exposure of your ebook to increase

incrementally. It’s obvious why electronic

self-publishing has become so popular so quickly.

The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend to

forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of

history. Books in print have their own special

qualities and merits, and the world would be

diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that, let’s look at what makes ebooks so

important and so unique. Ebooks have certain abilities

and qualities that other mediums do not possess.

For example, ebooks are fairly easy to produce, and

their production cost is inexpensive. Just think about

it: you don’t need a publisher, an agent, a printing

press, offset film, ink, paper, or even a distributor.

You just need a great concept, the ability to write it

or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally, ebooks are easily and rapidly

distributed online. They are also easily updated; they

do not require a second print run. All you need is to

go into your original creation and modify the text or

graphics. Because of this flexibility, ebooks can

change and grow as fast as you can type.

Ebooks are also immediately obtainable. You don’t have

to go to a bookstore or search through endless titles

at an online bookstore. All you have to do is download

it from a website, and presto! It’s on your computer,

ready to be read.

Ebooks are interactive. This is one of the most unique

and specific qualities that ebooks offer. You can add

surveys that need to be filled out, order forms for

customers to purchase your products or goods, sound

and video that draw your reader into the virtual world

of your ebook, even direct links to relevant sites

that will expand your ebook outward. The potential is

virtually limitless.

Ebooks have a particular kind of permanence that other

mediums do not possess. Television shows and radio

shows air once, and then may rerun a few times. Ebooks

remain on your computer for as long as your choose,

and they can be read and reread whenever you choose

to. They can even be printed out and stored on the

shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that ebooks have no

barriers in terms of publishing. You don’t need to go

through the endless process of submitting your

manuscript over and over again, and then once you land

an agent, having the agent submit your manuscript over

and over again. Nor do you have to shell out thousands

of dollars for printing a self-published book. All

ebooks require is a writer and appropriate software.

Figure out your market, write your book, post it on

your website, and with the right business savvy, your

audience will come to you.

Finally, you have creative control over your ebook.

You don?t have to compromise with an editor or the

publishing trends of the time. You don’t have to

haggle with a designer or wait for copyedited galleys

to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete control

of the design and the text.

How to Use ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

There are innumerable ways to use ebooks to promote

your business and drive quality traffic to your

website. Once posted on your site, you can turn them

into a daily course, which brings your customer back

to read the next chapter. You can use them as a free

gift for making a purchase or for filling out a

survey. Put your ebook on a disc, and you will have an

innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by

inserting the disc into your sales packages.

The most effective marketing products are those that

are unique. Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you

have a powerful tool that you, and you alone, can

offer to the public. People will have to visit your

site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow

of quality traffic and the potential of sales and

affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep your ebook current. Update it

frequently as the market and trends change. Add new

advice and techniques to show your prospects how your

goods or services can enrich their lives. By

constantly keeping abreast of new trends and

techniques, you can continue to see profits from your

ebook for years after your original creation.

Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can

test their marketing potential without putting out

hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an ebook

one copy at a time, each time you receive an order,

eliminating the need for storage and inventory. By

this method, you can gauge the saleablity of your

ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the

orders start pouring in. Ebooks allow you to learn

about your market and customer habits and motivation

over a period of time, without risking your precious

financial resources. They also provide you with an

invaluable way to gather marketing information, which

you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and

problems are in your specific industry. Then figure

out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook

with this invaluable information. This will increase

the value of your business, upgrade your reputation,

and get you known as an expert in your field.

You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking

the book down into chapters for a serial course, into

special reports available on your website, or into

audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into

several different promotional materials by excepting

some of the articles and using them to promote your

product. You can include a catalog in your ebook to

promote all the products or services you sell. You can

include a thank-you note for reading your book and an

invitation to download a trial version of your

product. Or you can include a form for your audience

to contact you for further information or with

questions, thereby building your business

relationships and your mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of

individually producing separate promotional materials.

You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and

to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and

ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like a

spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go

and create that web, and see how many customers and

prospects you can catch!

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Book Promotion Woes?
Tips for Using Article Marketing to Promote Your Book

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source: http://www.authorinsider.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1150387379&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

By: Lillian Brummet
Marketing, promoting and networking must be done every single day, for the life of the book, in balance with your other activities and obligations.Too many new authors believe that once their book is written the sales will just come pouring in and they will make a bundle. Sadly, this disillusionment is shattered when they receive a royalty check. The honest to goodness truth of the matter is that the writer’s work is only started when the book is released. Even the huge author names of today began by peddling their books out of the back of their car. Many big-name authors also began by self-publishing because no one recognized their talent. They did not start off their career with a huge bang. They did not have the money to afford publicists and big marketing firms when they started out and yet they are super successful now. Take heart from their examples.

Many new authors feel their only way to success is through book signings and bookstores stocking their book. They are wrong. While in larger centers with good promotion a book signing event or book reading event may result in as much as a couple hundred one-time sales… most smaller venues can only expect less than 10 sales. Is this worth the 2 hours or more that you spend at the event? Not counting all the preparation, marketing the event, promotion materials, time taken from work and any displays that you have designed and possibly paid for ahead of time. These events do not pay authors to host an event so any sales they do have may not even cover the traveling costs, hotel cost, meals, parking or supplies – let alone the time they put into it. Nor do they usually result in long-term sales – sales are often only during the few days around the event.

Bookstores can only realistically stock less than 1% of the 3 million books available on the market. Their discount with the publisher/distributor is large. Authors are paid royalties only on what their publisher has received. So is all the time and effort going into attaining spots on bookstore shelves worth it?

While the markets above are valuable and important to any author – what authors need to do is think outside the box. Figure out where your efforts will bring the greatest results. Don’t expect immediate and overwhelming acceptance by the media or your audience. Marketing, networking and promoting are long-term efforts that will reap greater rewards as efforts continue.

Many authors live in tiny towns and hold down jobs or have physical limitations that prevent out-of-town promotions; much like ourselves. This can be overcome. Again, think outside the box, use the Internet and your contacts – and be persistent. Newspapers, libraries, and bookstores are only the most obvious markets and also are the most difficult to gain the attention of without a strong image because everyone is vying for their attention. Work on your image and get strong promotion materials that help you stand out among the hundred thousand or more new books released annually.

So develop a long-term marketing plan and stick with it for the full term of your contract with the publisher. The market plan will grow and change as time goes on. And keep good records so you can determine how you will go about marketing the next book.

I just wanted to mention here that some authors get overwhelmed by the immense amount of effort it takes to market a book. If we take one day, one step at a time we will find it is not so overwhelming. I find it works best to figure out what you will concentrate on this week and then set a goal for today. I do this nearly every day. It helps me keep a steady pace going, without taking on too much or too little.

Remember too, that efforts you are making today may not reap immediate results. You may have to hit a market several times before they pick up your proposal. For instance, some contacts from nearly a year ago are now resulting in promotions in their publications. So be patient and professional in all that you do. Again, keep records so that you can follow up.

Newsletters can be small but effective markets for your work. On average, they can range in size from 1000-17,000 readers or more. E-zines typically reach an audience larger than 5000. Get a few of them in one month and you are reaching a wide audience! You don’t need to be rich or famous or have a publicist if you are determined and able to commit effort every single day. (Do take some time for yourself, though!)

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Tips for Using Article Marketing to Promote Your Book
Book Promotion – Mistakes to Avoid

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Written by: Judy Cullins

Source: http://www.authorinsider.com/article.php?subaction=showfull&id=1150390746&archive=&start_from=&ucat=7&

Want to sell a lot more books? Want clients calling every day to find out more about your service? Most emerging businesses forget the #1 way to promote anything–the Internet. Specifically, writing and submitting articles.

These ten Tips will help you write a winning article that top ezines and Web sites will want to publish.

1. Include your non-fiction book’s chapter how to’s or your fiction’s juicy chapter excerpts in your articles. Your book coach encourages novelists as well as self-help authors.

2. Keep your articles around 200-800 words each. Remember today’s audience likes short copy. They want it one, two, three. Online writing is so different from what print magazines want.

3. Keep your article focused on just one thesis or point. That means mindmap your article or make a linear outline what points to keep before your write it. A plan helps.

4. Create a hook for your two or three-sentence introduction. Notice this one asked you a few questions to engage you.

5. Forget the old school of writing for print magazines and getting paid. Follow the Internet way– give your article away like Mrs. Field cookie samples, so people who read them and notice your signature file will want to visit the site where you sell your book.

6. Keep yourself out of it. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them. Replace those “I” constructions with “you.” “If you are like me….”

7. Number the main points for clarity. People love easy to read tips. Remember tips have a format that pros know. Start with a command, follow it with a benefit for doing it, and follow that with examples of how.

8. Collect ten well-edited articles before you blast off. Online readers will look at you more seriously when they see you offer more than one quick thing. They will see you as the savvy expert and click to where you sell your book.

9. Leverage one article into five. Change your audience. Change your number of how to’s. Three Tips to… or Five Tips… or The Two Best Ways to….

10. Remember free information is the reason people go to Web sites, so put your articles there as well as in a blog.

Once you get dozens of short articles or fiction excerpts out to no spam ezines or top web sites in your field, you will notice the search engines optimizing your site because they see your important key words that link you, your book, or your service together. Your submitted articles lead to the magic of “viral marketing.” The thing is that this is attraction, natural marketing at its best. Your coach’s URL and signature file is now on over 33,000 Web sites.

By Judy Cullins

Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says…,” “Business Tip of the Month,” blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

===============
Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com

Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins

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Book Promotion – Mistakes to Avoid
Relevance and Credibility – Key Selling Points in Promoting Your Book

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Source: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2010/08/relevance-and-credibility-key-selling-points-in-promoting-your-book.html

Relevance and credibility are two key points in any form of advertising or promotion which includes social networking. I have yet to see book marketing experts address these topics when they tell us social networking, building our list, creating groups on Facebook, or a whole gamut of other marketing ways is of utmost importance if we want to sell our book. In reality, doing all these things isn’t go to get us anywhere if we don’t have relevance and credibility to what we say or do.

Relevance: You must prove to your potential reader how pertinent, connected, or applicable your book is to them , current times/ social issues, or currently popular.

Credibility: You must prove to your potential reader you are trustworthy and an expert on the subject. This also includes your personal code of ethics, integrity and reasonable grounds to be believed.

Relevance without credibility is just hype and without substance. Credibility without relevance is boring. But combining the two together you get power.  You get the potential reader’s attention, you get respect, and you create interest in your book.

Are you frowning right now and wondering how you can do both?  It’s easy:

source: http://www.sellingbooks.com/use-your-networks-to-market-your-book

by Rick Frishman

Promotion campaigns for your books are not isolated events but part of a lifelong process, the success of which depends on:

• The continual development of your knowledge of promotion
• Your skill as a promoter, and just as essential
• Your relationships with as many allies as you can enlist to help you

How can your networks help you? They can:

• Be mentors who provide feedback on your ideas, your proposals or manuscripts, and your promotion plans
• Tell all the people they know that they must buy your books
• Share their knowledge of writing, selling, and promoting books with you
• Be part of a mastermind group of five to nine knowledgeable professionals who meet regularly by phone or in person to serve as your unofficial board of directors, advising you on how to improve what you’re doing
• Help you reach media people, experts in your field, and other authors
• Share information about Web sites and other sources of information online and off
• Write introductions and give you cover quotes for your books
• Write articles about you and your books
• Share or trade their mailing lists with you
• Give you tips on how to save money on the products and services you need
• Be your eyes and ears for information you need
• Sell your books at their talks (Thanks to the zeal of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, hundreds of speakers sell Chicken Soup books at their talks.)
• Give you the lay of the land and a place to lay your head as you travel around the country
• Do book tours with you to share expenses, an excellent example of cooperation
• Make presentations with you
• Have your promotional material at their presentations
• Set up reciprocal links between your Web sites
• Use their entree to the media to set up joint media appearances
• Help you create or sit on panels for media appearances, book festivals, writers’ organizations, and conferences
• Collaborate on books
• Review your books

From “Guerrilla Marketing For Writers”

By Rick Frishman
Reprinted from “Rick Frishman’s Author 101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.author101.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

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How to Pitch Your Book
7 Vital Book Promotion Tips

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by Shennandoah Diaz

Source: http://www.sellingbooks.com/how-to-pitch-your-book

Any opportunity you have to get in front of an agents or publishers and tell them about your book is a precious opportunity, no matter how brief the encounter. Don’t waste it. Make the moment memorable (for the right reasons) by crafting a series of brief, targeted talking points about your project.

Qualities of a Good Pitch:

1. It’s brief: A good pitch starts with a single sentence, known as a logline or hook. Prepare one or two additional sentence-long talking points about your project based on the book’s synopsis.
2. It gets to the guts of your book: By boiling your pitch down to a single sentence, you are forced to get to the heart of the story or message. The hook should be the book’s compelling central idea and will be used to sell your idea again and again.

The elements of a pitch are slightly different for each genre, but the purpose is the same—to convey the meat of the project in as few of words as possible.

A fiction or memoir logline contains the following elements:

1. Protagonist: Name your hero/main character.
2. Core conflict: Lay out the main issue of your book (only use relevant subplots for additional talking points if the agent or publisher asks—for example, they may ask if there is a love interest in the story).
3. Differentiating factor: Explain to the agent or publisher what sets your book apart.
4. Setting: Establish the time period, location, or specific subgenre, if applicable.

Here is a sample logline from the copyright page of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

“In a future North America, where the rules of Panem maintain control though an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districs against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place.”

This logline hits all the elements listed above; we see that

1. The main character is a sixteen-year-old named Katniss.
2. The main conflict is that Katniss must compete for her survival against other teens.
3. The story is different because of the idea of children fighting each other as a means of entertainment.
4. The setting is a future dystopian North America.

If you would like additional examples, read the blog post “Writing a Logline” from Query Tracker.

A nonfiction logline is slightly different from a fiction logline. A typical nonfiction hook will contain

1. Genre: Whether stated or implied, the agent or publisher should be able to surmise the book’s genre—business, new age, health, etc.
2. Key problem addressed: Are you helping women with weight loss, new parents with discipline skills, business managers with communication skills?
3. Promise: How does the book solve the problem? Are you teaching people how to be more assertive, how to eat better, how to delegate?
4. Differentiation: What makes this title different from its competition?

Here is a sample logline for the upcoming title Briefcase Essentials by Susan Spencer:

“A woman’s guide to discovering the 12 natural talents that can help her achieve success in a male-dominated workplace. “

We see that

1. This is a business book that deals with success in the workplace.
2. The problem addressed is women competing in male-dominated industries.
3. The promise is to give women 12 tools to help them find success in a male-dominated workplace.
4. The book is different in that it encourages women to embrace their natural abilities rather than try to adopt masculine traits.

Again, you can refer to the examples in Query Tracker or look on the copyright page and back cover of comparable titles for ideas on how successful authors and publishers have crafted their pitches.

As you develop your pitch, avoid the following mistakes:

1. Don’t talk about the process: Although the journey has been the most exciting and rewarding part of your writing experience, it is not relevant to the agent or publisher’s decision-making process. Refrain from explaining how you developed your characters or where you got your ideas. Those topics are better reserved for author interviews.
2. Don’t pounce: Take the time to open up a natural conversation if at all possible (if you’re pitching roundtables or attending a crowded conference, you may not have this luxury). Building rapport before the pitch makes the agent or publisher more receptive to your message.
3. Don’t verbally vomit: Stick to short, one- to two-sentence talking points that make them respond with “Tell me more.” People lose interest during long-winded pitches. Pause, take a breath, and if you see their eyes gloss over, stop.
4. Walk away when you’re ahead: Once you hear the magic words “Send it to me,” say thank you, stop talking, and move on. You’ve done your job, now congratulate yourself and end the conversation before you undo the progress you’ve made.

Again, the pitch is not a retelling of the whole story. It is a brief statement depicting the core idea of your book. When you’re competing against hundreds of other writers, a well-crafted pitch can make or break your chances of connecting with a potential agent or publisher. Take the time to do it right. Practice saying your pitch out loud. Test it on a couple of friends. Whittle it down until it contains only the barest essentials. You’ll be glad you did.

Shennandoah Diaz is the Business Development Assistant at Greenleaf Book Group, a publisher and distributor supporting independent authors and small presses. Diaz develops educational materials for authors in addition to managing Greenleaf’s social media, writing case studies and white papers on the publishing industry, and coordinating Austin Publishing University.

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7 Vital Book Promotion Tips

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Source: http://www.newsletterjournal.com/information/book-marketing/7-vital-book-promotion-tips.html

As a literary publicist I often am asked about publicity tips, tricks, and the magic behind my work. It’s not magic. All you need to know are the basics and from there you will be able to create an effective book promotion. Below I’ve listed the most vital and basic tips to a successful book publicity campaign.

1. ALWAYS Take ‘No’ for an answer

It can be frustrating when the media isn’t interested in your book or story idea, but always thank them for their time and move on. If you try and persuade or argue with them you will leave a bad impression of yourself and your chances of working with this particular media in the future are slim. Try back in a couple months if it’s a show or publication that you’re particularly interested. The media changes with the seasons, and trends, so they may love your show or feature idea then, rather then now.

2. Don’t Hound Your Publicist

The more time you take up with your book publicist the less time they have to talk with the media. When you first begin your book publicity campaign ask your book publicist when an appropriate time would be to have a weekly chat, and see if they have a number to call in case of a publicity emergency. This will be well received by your book publicist and their efforts will be more successful!

3. Start NOW

A book publicity campaign is the most successful within the first 6 months from your book’s publication date (differs for traditionally published authors). This is because the media wants the latest products and they want to be the first to tell their audience about them. It’s best to start publicizing your story to mainstream and industry media prior to your book’s release and reach out to consumers once your book is available to order.

4. Don’t Pitch Your Book

Make sure that you’re pitching a concept, show idea, or solution when you begin promoting your book. If you sound more like?. “Hello, I am an author who just published my women’s interest novel…..” rather then, “Hello, is this a good time for you? Great. I’m a relationship expert who has proven that love novels bring couples closer in bed?” The second pitch is more intriguing and will most likely get a few minutes from the person on the receiving end. Your goal with every pitch should be to get their attention, a few minutes of their time and booked or featured as a guest, depending on the type of media.

5. Create a Press Kit

Before you begin promoting your book you should have a press kit ready to go. The essentials in most literary kits are a cover letter, press release, author bio, Q&A page, sample interview questions, and articles that make your topic relevant today. You’re publisher should supply you with these materials and if you’re self-published you’ll most likely need to create these materials from scratch and on your own. This can be a daunting task to some, but the internet or library can be helpful when researching the proper formats of these products. Or, find a publicist to create a press kit for you!

6. Know Your Target Audience

Who will buy your book? ‘Everybody’ is not the correct answer to this question, although it is a common answer. The more focused you can get with your efforts the better your results will be. If your book is more main stream rather then specialized, then try beginning with a smaller audience and broadening your focus after you’ve saturated this first audience. Just a tip: Authors should always start with their local media, then regional (surrounding areas and states), and finally saturate national media.

7. Have fun!

Your enthusiasm, humor, and smile should shine through in every phone pitch, letter, and e-mail. If you’re not excited about getting your work out there, then why should a producer or editor be excited to give you time on their program or space in their publication.

I truly believe that any author can publicize their own book if they have the drive, energy, and time to see it through from beginning to end. Publicity is the most vital within the first six months from its publication date, so authors should hit the ground running. If you need more guidance or would rather hire a professional to handle your book’s publicity then start looking now. There are many publicity companies out there, but you need to find the one that’s right for you and that is as excited about your book as you are.

Please visit us for more information on our book promotion services: Book Promotion and Book Marketing Services

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