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

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C. Patrick Schulze is a writer and retired self-employed businessperson. He graduated from Old Dominion University in Virginia, USA with a B.A. in, of all things, Political Science.

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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source of article: http://www.sellingbooks.com/how-to-double-your-book-sales-on-your-website

by Penny Sansevieri

Face it, times are tough! The economy blah, blah, blah. Tell me something new. The key is:

Everyone loves a bargain, especially today. And, bargains drive sales. Here’s a great way you can explode your sales:

Call a bargain what you want: a discount, coupon, sale, bonus package, gift with purchase, etc. The point is, people love it. Several weeks ago, we tried an experiment. We decided to bundle my latest title: Red Hot Internet Publicity, with an older book called Book Promotion Made Easy. By older I don’t mean outdated, I mean that it was an evergreen title, older to the list so the author had moved on from aggressively promoting it. The match was perfect and on the first launch our sales of Red Hot Internet Publicity quadrupled. I was stunned.
For many publishers, a backlist is either gold or stagnant. In either case, there’s likely a title that you can pair up with a newer one you are promoting. In the case of the bundle mentioned above, I didn’t even write Book Promotion Made Easy. So if you’re looking for pairing options and you don’t have a suitable book in-house to pair it with, consider co-promoting the titles with another author. Not only will you get a quality bundle, but if they have a list they can promote it to you can participate in their promotion as well.

The breakdown was easy, here’s how we did it. We bundled together my new book Red Hot Internet Publicity with Book Promotion Made Easy. Total value: $30.95.

Red Hot is $18.95 and Book Promotion Made Easy is $12.00.

Book Marketing Experts offered the bundle that offered both books for $20. That’s a 35% savings or $10.95.

Want to know how we did it? I’ll tell you and here’s how you can create your own special website promotions to double or triples sales from your site:

-Analyze your book and its cost.

- Look to raise the price of the bundle “a bit” to cover the cost of the add-on or bonus item. – Offer great value to your customer.

-Look for bonuses you can add in. Successful examples include a booklet, book, eBook, checklist, article or special report. An MP3 audio program or CD.

The key to success is to offer a bonus or package that is Valuable to your customers. That [value] drives sales.

-If you’re going to partner with someone to do this (and what a great idea!) then contact the author/seller. Most vendors, inside and outside publishing, love to make bulk sales at a steep discount. Often 70-80% off retail.

-Don’t want to spend money or pair up? No worries. As an author or publisher you can write your own special report, booklet, eBook, etc. Just make sure it has a significant value.

-Assign a value to your new publication. Some eBooks have a price of $9.97, $17, $17.95, $19.95, $24.50 and in some cases even higher. Set the price based on your market’s perceived value of the product.

-Round up the price. Make it easy to make a purchase and the dollars and cents clear.

We rounded up the price of Red Hot Internet Publicity from $18.95 to $20 and gave away Book Promotion Made Easy for $0.00.

It’s important, however to explain the savings clearly so the customer sees the great value you’re offering.

-Add a special landing page to your website that promotes your special offer.

For an example, here’s ours: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=104

-Link the landing page (offer) to your shopping cart, PayPal, etc.

-Fill the orders asap. Buyers are a very impatient group these days.

-Promote your package to your mailing list and if you’re partnering with someone, make sure they promote it to their list as well.

Book bundling is a fun and easy way to increase sales of virtually any book. I have found that when I pair up Book Promotion Made Easy with mine at speaking events, I quadruple the sales there as well. Two books for $20? You bet that’s a great offer and not only that, it moves books and moves them quickly.

The key is to feed into the bargain mentality that seems to permeate society. You can play the bargain game and win and the best part? As you’re selling all these books you’re also growing your mailing list, yes? As a bonus, we offered a free Twitter class to everyone who bought the bundle. We didn’t advertise it though, we told them after their purchase. It adds that special “thank you” to our message and builds customer loyalty.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:[email protected] Copyright 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

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