Source: http://www.goblogin.com/index.php/internet/1203-book-marketing/3991-book-marketing-101-for-self-published-authors

No matter what any POD publisher or marketing company tells you (even the traditional publishing houses) you, the author, are almost 100% the reason your book will sell.

It is your belief, excitement, enthusiasm, and energy that will get a reader excited about buying your book.

Publishers are certainly a vehicle by which you can communicate your passion to the rest of the world, but, for ANYTHING to happen you’ll need to know a few things about yourself and your book – and be able to communicate them very clearly.

1. What is your definition of success for your book?

Some authors write for themselves and their families only – they don’t dream of their books as bestsellers in the marketplace. Some authors write for a very specific personal need to tell their story. Some have unique insight into very specific topics. Many have dreams of seeing their book in the front of Borders or Barnes & Noble. Each author is different, but you MUST decide what your real definition of success happens to be. Don’t try to pursue a goal that may not be what you actually feel is important.

2. Who will buy your book?

This is the big secret to sales success in self publishing. Target your marketing to your potential reader – and have it be someone who is reachable.

“Everyone will want to read my book!” Sorry, but that doesn’t work. Even the absolute best selling books – that sell 2 or 3 million copies in a year – only penetrate to a very small percent of the population. Sales success for your book will be driven by defining a very clear picture of who is interested in what you have to say.

And – they must be identifiable: Make a list! Which groups would be interested in your book? Why? Who is next? Why should the need or want your book? (remember this – someone is more likely to buy something they NEED before something they WANT)

Now – narrow it down even more. Years ago books on computers were all the rage – the market was saturated at the “beginner” level, and it seemed impossible to get anymore books into consumers hands. Then a company came along with the bright idea that they would write a computer book for beginners – but beginners who felt intimidated by their computers – and the now ubiquitous and quite famous “For Dummies” series was born – at the time the books hit, there were nearly 3 dozen titles out for beginners. Yet this one scooped up nearly a 70% market share overnight. The rest were left to fight for the scraps. Find a unique angle about your book – and don’t try and be everything to everyone, because you can’t – instead target 100% of a specific part!

3. Where will you sell your book?

Start Worldwide (world wide web that is) and then get local: Where are your customers? Probably scattered around the country. Use the power of print on demand and just in time fulfillment to deliver books all across the nation without having to print hundreds at a time. Where does your customer hang out online? What magazines and papers do they read? What stores do they frequent – that AREN’T bookstores? What associations, clubs, or affiliations do they join? What conventions to they go to? How can you reach them? Promote your books where you find your potential buyers.

4. How will you promote your book?

The least expensive and most effective ways to promote books are with book reviews, news releases, search engine registration, and some form of highly targeted direct advertising – such as email campaigns, news releases, and pay-for-performance click through advertising. Longer term promotions include author signings, TV and Radio spots, and tradeshows – these are also the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive to secure.

Do NOT neglect the power of you the author – many publishers promotional packages include materials that can help turn you into a promotional machine. Business cards, posters, bookmarks – all are available to support your marketing efforts.

Follow these steps on creating a plan for your book, and you’ll find it much easier to create an effective and efficient marketing program for your book.

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Self-publishing is business whether you agree or not. Being independent involves a lot of financial investment. As an entrepreneur and a self-published author, it is necessary that you consider ways to utilize monetary investment and generate a substantial return on your investment.

For most people, budgeting is never an easy task. Money is something that everyone else in the world worries about.

Mistakes, no matter how small, can cost you dearly. You should decisively look at the “big picture”. Decide on how much money should be devoted to what stage of your book’s publication. Learn to organize things according to their priority. Identify the things that are not necessary to fully optimize your budget.

Here are a few suggestions to determine a realistic budget for your pre-publication marketing plan:

(1) Have a list of quotes and estimates for all publication, distribution, marketing, and promotional activities.

Printing

-          book printing (number of finished copies)

-          ISBN numbers (do you have to pay an additional fee?)

-          Advance Reading Copies (are all your recipients interested?)

Distribution

-          list of distribution centers (local, national, or international)

-          postal or online purchasing for booksellers

Marketing

-          bookmarks, flyers, posters, and postcards (design, printing, and distribution)

-          book launching (date, venue, expected number of guests, gimmicks, and reception)

Online Marketing

-          author website (hosting, content, domain, design, and maintenance)

-          ads (banners, e-mail ads, pay-per-click ads, etc.)

-          online bookstore fees

Publicity and Promotion

-          PR (number of copies, type of media outlets and organizations, and distribution)

-          press kits (supplies, shipping and postage fees)

(2) Spend more on interested parties.

Marketing and publicity can be quite a risk, especially when you are new in the industry. It is wise to ask first before sending out your ARCs (Advance Reading Copies). Identify which individuals or media outlets may be interested. This way, your efforts and publicity materials will not most likely to end up in paper shredders.

(3) Take advantage of the Internet.

Blogging will definitely help you disseminate information about your book – at no cost. By joining and participating on social media sites, you can develop reader to writer relationships. You don’t only sell your books; you have to market yourself as an author. Have your author website provide another avenue for getting more readers, online book orders, and link exchanges.
(4) Embrace innovation.

Create a perfect media mix for an effective and extensive marketing campaign. Radio and television appearances can be quite pricey for self-publishers. Print and online publications, on the other hand, are tangible and are perfect for references. Read and take time to adopt what’s new. Learn how to maximize micro blogging and how to keep your prospective readers following you. Technology and innovation have endless marketing and promotional possibilities.

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source: http://www.newsletterjournal.com/information/book-marketing/your-book-marketing-plan-winning-strategies-and-tips.html

Many authors hit a roadblock when it comes to putting together and implementing a book marketing plan. You know you need to have one, you have a vague idea of what it needs to include, but pulling it all together into a step-by-step plan of attack is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

A good starting point is to break your plan up into major categories. From there, you can further define and set up strategies for each area of your book marketing plan.

The first thing that comes to mind for most authors and self publishers is book store sales. Makes sense doesn’t it? That’s where people buy books don’t they? It’s true that making your book available to the general public through bookstores is a very vital component of your marketing plan.

However, it is just that — one single component of your plan. There are many elements that will make up your book marketing plan and arranging to have your book available in bookstores is just one of them. Let’s call that component #1:

Book Marketing Plan Component #1

Making Books Available in Bookstores

Now, it’s one thing to secure placement for your book on the bookstore shelves, but now how are people going to know it’s there? Customers can’t (and won’t) buy something they’ve never heard of. This is where the publicity component of your Book Marketing Plan comes into play. Setting up and ongoing publicity campaign is the number one way to drive customers to the bookstore to buy your book. We’ll call this component #2:

Book Marketing Plan Component #2

Setting up and Implementing a Successful Publicity Campaign

Besides book stores, you can also sell your books to nontraditional book buyers like display retailers, book clubs, catalogs, gift retailers, volume buyers (think Costco and Price Club), corporations, foundations and foreign markets. We sell thousands of self published books to buyers like these all the time and targeting these buyers should make up a good portion of your book marketing plan. This will be component #3:

Book Marketing Plan Component #3

Non-traditional Markets

In this day and age, you would be making a big mistake if you didn’t include the internet as a vital component of your Book Marketing Plan. The internet is the best way to directly reach your target customers. It is also the best way to sell to them since you cut out any third parties and retain 100% of the profits. There are many ways to research the internet to ensure that there is a demand for your book and the best ways to fill that demand.

Book Marketing Plan Component #4

The Internet – Your Book Website

These are the four most important components of your Book Marketing Plan. Now you must research each component individually to customize the approach you take for your book.

© Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. We have all the tools you need to succeed in book marketing and book promotion. Let us help you make your book a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com/BookMarketingKit.htm

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GREEN BAY, WI (7/29/10) – A first from the book marketing industry, BookWhirl.com produces a series of starter videos to educate self-published authors on how to maximize online book marketing tools. Known as “Service Starter Videos”, each video basically features essential points and insights on how a specific online tool can strengthen and complement a book marketing campaign. Each starter video has an average of 3 minutes.

The Service Starter Video Campaign features how to utilize the following online book marketing tools: author websites, e-mail advertisements, media releases, online directory listings, and the newswire service.

BookWhirl.com’s Service Starter Video Campaign was completed and released last July 12, 2010.

“Last year, we launched our first promotional video. This year, we aim to continuously help self-published authors by giving them a series of cost-free audio-visual presentations on how to effectively conduct marketing campaigns. What we want is simple. We would like to see our clients to decisively prepare for their success”, said Jake Olvido, BookWhirlcom’s Marketing Officer.

BookWhirl.com’s Service Starter Video Campaign can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/BookWhirl.

About BookWhirl.com

BookWhirl.com is an online book marketing services provider, specializing in providing low-cost, high-quality marketing services for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. Through its unique, inexpensive book marketing services, BookWhirl.com helps authors promote their published works more effectively and connect to readers in a more effective, more efficient system. BookWhirl.com employs an experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers, whose combined talents ensure an effective online marketing campaign at easily affordable rates.

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Every self-published author will go through the roughs and bumps of publishing their book before reaching the pedestal of success. When working your head and heart out on your manuscript, not everything is beyond your control despite you can never accurately predicting if majority of the market will love or take a spike at your book.

Face it. The intense competition within the market from established authors, famous books, and whatnots will most likely intimidate you. But unless you learn how to face it, you will find it difficult to move forward. Face it. That’s the way to make it through.

Make the most of what you have. If you are confident with your skills then lessen outsourcing the labor for your book’s marketing. For example, in generating publicity, it is advisable that you write your own press release. If you have experience in journalism, why would you hire a publicist? As an author, it is your responsibility to bring out the best of your book.

Embrace resilience. There will be times when things won’t go your way. So, learn to constantly love change and make the best out of it.

Leave little room for cynicism. Being optimistic fuels your drive to achieve bigger dreams. However, looking at both the positive and negative outcomes will help in making decisions. Thinking of the worst result of every situation will prepare you for whatever may happen and allow you to create the necessary contingencies.

Dreams don’t just happen unless you work hard for it. Working hard means having initiative and persistence and doing what makes a lot of sense.

It’s easier to react than to create. Expect having your share of critics and tormentors. No matter how you do things right and work hard, not everybody will love what you write. Keep in mind though that negative reviews and impressions are opinions; it does not necessarily make them facts.

Do not give up if things go wrong. Failure is a necessary step in your growth process. It’s a sign that you are doing something to reach your goal.

Readers, more often than not, are complicated. Writing is an art. Not everyone will have the eye to appreciate what you have written. Failing to successfully penetrate the preference of readers does not necessarily diminish you and your work. Diversity is the beginning of art.

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source: http://www.go-publish-yourself.com/articles/book-marketing/pramschuferm.php

By Matt Pramschufer

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can with what you have right where you are.” There is no better way to implement your resources than with your own website. A website provides three invaluable tools for self-publishers: worldwide advertising at the click of a mouse, lightning fast responses to customers, agents and publicists, and a website ultimately gives writers a virtual book tour without ever leaving the comfort of home. Best of all – this is an affordable option for self-publishers.

Who needs a website? Don’t the classifieds or banner exchanges on the internet do the trick?
The bottom line is that banners and classifieds turn people off. A website is a great method of advertising that targets not only local interests but reaches a market worldwide. And it can say as much as you want, and you leave it up to the viewer to decide what they want to read. Think of your website as a virtual brochure. It provides readers with invaluable information, at a reasonable cost, about the book and the author. The more information made available, the more buzz that can be generated about your writing.

How would my own website facilitate communication to customers, agents, and publicists?
The internet is now the place where journalists, and agents seek out new writers, so you can reach them without actually going to them. Journalists are looking to find the newest story about upcoming authors, and agents do the same. Either can contact you via your website and this way they are the ones doing the “knocking on the door” so to speak. And of course, customers can research invaluable information about you and your book and hopefully place orders too.

How can my website create a virtual book tour?
It is daunting to realize the average shelf life of a book is only three to six months and this only applies to 15% of the books that make it into stores. So how are the other 85% of books sold? Through self-promotion! Websites aid in self-promotion in that they create a virtual worldwide book tour open 24 hours a day. The website can include book discussions, purchasing information, information about the author, and so much more! This virtual book tour travels the world faster than you could ever hope to.

Is a website really that hard to make? Can’t I do this myself?
There are many aspects involved in developing a website that people take for granted. For instance easily understood navigation, effective color schemes, overall look and feel of the site, and proper maintenance and upkeep, not to mention proper programming for effective results in search engines. The entire process is not that hard if you know what you are doing but for the amateur it can be quite daunting. If you feel that you would like to take on the proposed project yourself by all means go for it, but just remember that a poorly designed website can hurt your advertising campaign more than not having a website at all.

It sounds like worldwide advertising is effective, but is it cost effective for a self-publisher?
Absolutely! Whereas other forms of advertising can be quite costly – potentially ranging into the hundreds of thousands of dollars – a website is wholly cost effective. In fact, companies like Go Publish Yourself and E-Moxie Data Solutions, Inc. offer self-publisher website design packages from $375.00.

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GREEN BAY, WI (5/25/2010) – BookWhirl.com, the leading marketing services provider for self-publishers launches its Affiliate Marketing Program, open to all self-publishing companies. This is another major feature that the company has launched within this year aside from the Refer an Author Program (RAP) which benefits their former and existing clients.

BookWhirl.com’s Affiliate Marketing Program is a product of the company’s long-term purpose to create relationships among self-publishing companies that are potential affiliates for sustainable developments. “We are inviting all self-publishing companies to be our affiliates. This is definitely an opportunity to widen and increase brand awareness without monetary requirement. We also believe that creating affiliations with other companies can broaden a consumer’s options; trust is a very important factor”, expressed Jake Olvido, BookWhirl.com’s Marketing Officer.

Furthermore, the Affiliate Marketing Program involves an exchange of an ad line consisting of the company’s logo and description that links directly to a specific landing page. BookWhirl.com will also offer 30 free online directory listings to the affiliate’s clients with newly published books. All of these at no cost at all for the affiliate.

For more information, log on to http://www.bookwhirl.com/Affiliate-Marketing-Program.html

About BookWhirl.com
BookWhirl.com is an online book marketing service company, specializing in providing low-cost, high-quality marketing services for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. Through its unique, inexpensive book marketing services, BookWhirl.com helps authors promote their published works more effectively and connect to readers in a more effective, more efficient system.

BookWhirl.com employs an experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers, whose combined talents ensure an effective online marketing campaign at easily affordable rates.

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Best Tips For Book Marketing For The Self Publisher

By: Helen Hecker

Assuming you’re a self publisher or book publisher and you’ve already published your book, you need to immediately implement a strong, no-holds barred, book marketing and promotion strategy to sell your books fast. Your book selling, book marketing, and book promotion planning should begin before the manuscript is completed. Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book.

Your book press release should not be written as you would a sales letter or flier, it should be written for the editor and tell about your book in a factual way, no opinion or glowing remarks. Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media. Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly.

Make sure you have at least one good press release, written in AP style, which you can send out for the lifetime of your book. Send out the same press release to the editor of your local daily newspaper every week until you are called for an interview or are written up. When picked up by wire services, a press release can easily end up generating hundreds of mentions for your book.

Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Don’t underestimate the value of a good press release for making book sales.

When you get a nice write up or feature about you and/or your book, have it laminated and set it up on an easel at trade shows. Create an online contest and list it in online contest directories to drive traffic to your website. Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don’t assume it’s already listed.

Get as many testimonials about your book, as possible, from experts in the field relating to your title, not customers; use on your fliers and back of books. Market your book to your number one market first, and then go after the secondary markets. If your book fits a specialty market, find a store that fits the genre and offer to leave books on consignment; many publishers have sold thousands of books this way.

Build a web site that provides another avenue for ordering, a virtual online press kit and link exchanges with sites that relate to your topic. Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book’s topic to drive customers to your website. It’s important to publish a website that focuses on your title; you’ll be able to refer editors and customers and all interested parties to your book information with the click of a mouse.

Make sure not to overlook the Internet; get yourself interviewed or profiled for sites both about writing, publishing and about the topics covered in your book. Every day it’s important to focus on a variety of marketing approaches. Offer to trade writing a monthly column in a trade publication in your books’ genre, in trade for display ads on the same page.

Local radio shows and television appearances are good but are often forgotten within hours of the broadcast; make sure to make or get a copy of any television broadcast for future promotions. Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book.

Print and online publications provide longevity to your marketing campaign in terms of having something tangible for people to reference ongoing. Make sure your sales letter or flier is first class; this is your formal presentation of your title to the prospective buyer.

Make sure to test, test, and test some more before you lay out large sums of money. The success of any book marketing effort depends on a good book and just plain hard work; its been done many times before and you can do it too. I hope this article has provided you with helpful tips to accelerate your book marketing and book promotion efforts.

About the Author

For more information on book marketing tips and selling more books go to http://www.TwinPeaksPress.com founded in 1982, specializing in help for authors, self publishers, ebook and book publishers with tips, advice and resources, including information on media, library and other mailing lists, and press releases – online, wire service and offline distribution

(ArticlesBase SC #137140)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Best Tips For Book Marketing For The Self Publisher

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