These free, cheap and easy book marketing, promotion and publicity tips will get you headed in the right direction fast. It’s one thing to write a book, but an entirely different thing to write one that’s saleable, viable, and marketable. As a self publisher you can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget, thousands have done it;  be careful about your promotion and marketing dollars and don’t plunge into unknown waters — test, test, and test.

Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book’s website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Mail a press release to at least 1000 print and broadcast contacts just prior to publishing your title and again and again after you publish; you can never send too many. When picked up by wire services, a press release can easily end up generating hundreds of mentions for your book.

Send out at least ten press releases to the print and broadcast media in your area every month. Learning to write and use powerful optimized press releases can often drive tons of traffic to your website while providing multiple back links that can lead to increased page rank and numerous top ten search engine rankings for your targeted keywords. Make sure your press release spells out the ‘who, what, where, when, and why.’

Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media.

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. Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book’s topic to drive customers to your website. Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment.

Make sure your sales letter or flier is first class; this is your formal presentation of your title to the prospective buyer. If your book solves a problem, focus on this in your marketing. Contact any companies, corporations or organizations that might use your book for promotions; offer significant discounts for volume orders or for thousands of copies offer a specified amount above book production costs.

Women buy more books then men; see how you can fit your book into the women’s market. 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. Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book.

Arrange to speak at local, regional and national events that relate to your book topic; bring books along and have an associate sell them at the back of the room. 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.

I’ve seen publishers lose a lot of money paying for expensive display ads, so beware if you do this; I don’t advise it in the beginning — get your feet wet first so you know what you’re doing.

Be your own publicist and send a press release along with a review copy of your book to publications in your book’s genre and to book review magazines. 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. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers.

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. Use your book promotion and book marketing dollars wisely; go after the free and cheap resources daily. Make sure to test, test, and test some more before you lay out large sums of money.

Written by: Helen Hecker

About the AuthorFor 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

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/save-your-money-cheap-easy-book-marketing-tips-for-book-publishers-119344.html

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Source: http://www.freearticles.com/article/Choosing-A-Best-Selling-E-Book-Topic/3813

Before you even start writing your first E-book, deciding on the right topic comes first. Fortunately, choosing a topic couldn’t be much easier since people are hungry for information. They are constantly searching on the internet to supply their desire for more knowledge. In this case, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to choose the best-selling E-book topic as long as you know the majority’s demand. Here’s how.

Observe And Brainstorm

Take a look around you and observe what people love to do. Identify what subjects interest them as well as you. Think of the problems that some people may be encountering at the moment. You can even deliberate on the dilemmas that you have recently worked out or the sorts of problems that others have had or could have in the future. There are lots of people on the internet who are trying to find solutions to their current problems. They can be your potential customers.

Moreover, brainstorming a list of problems that you and those around you have had in your lives will give you the idea of what topics others are looking for. For instance, your friend Mary has been finding ways on how to drop off fifteen pounds from her weight. Or lets say your neighbor Mike had lost his job. How did they manage their situations or find solutions to their problems?

Ask Your Target Market

This is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to look for a topic. Do research on popular keywords and explore what is the latest trend. Go to various chat rooms, forums, and discussion boards wherein the members post subject matters that they can discuss. Observe what they are talking about.

You may want to post a thread and inquire about their current complaints and problems. The good thing is they actually respond and tell you what they think. Next thing you’ll know you already have loads of excellent ideas to start with. Through this, you can be assured that there are people who are eager to purchase your solution.

Do Some Keyword Search

This is also a great way to ensure that there’s a market for your chosen subject area. By doing a keyword search you can determine if there are lots of people interested in that specific topic. You can begin your research with a free version of Word tracker. It will show the number of people searching that particular keyword phrase as well as the number of competing web sites for that keyword.

Of course, you want to look for keywords with high traffic and somewhat few competing pages in order for your E-book not to be dead in the water before the market even reaches it. Determining that there is a strong demand for your chosen topic will make your E-book the best-selling in the industry.

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Source: http://www.sideroad.com/Information_Product/ebook-format-pdf.html

Last week, someone asked me to recommend a good e-book generator. It’s a question I get a lot. And I told him what I tell everyone: forget e-book generators. Instead, create your e-books and other print documents in PDF format.

Why choose PDF over a special e-book format?

Familiarity and Ease of Use
Nearly everyone with a computer has Adobe’s *free reader on their machine and knows how to use it. The same cannot be said for the proprietary e-book formats. E-book files create a learning curve for your customer as they try to familiarize themselves with document set-up, navigation and functionality that they may *never have encountered before. That’s work. Who wants to do extra work to use a product?

Trust Factor
E-book formats may require that customers install new files on their machine to read the book. Some e-book files are delivered as .exe files, which are notorious for their ability to carry *nasty viruses. Your file may not be an .exe and it might be clean as a whistle, but customers may be reluctant to install the files anyway. The PDF format is well-known and trusted. No mysterious installations, no viruses.

Readable by Anyone
PDF is a universal format that can be read on any type of computer. Most e-book generators create files that can only be read on PCs, leaving your Mac and Linux customers out in the cold.

File Stability
PDF documents have a far smaller chance of containing technical glitches. An e-book I once downloaded wouldn’t forward through the chapters properly. Sometimes I’d *click on a chapter title and get a blank page, or only the first page. The problems only got worse over time. I’ve *never had such problems with a PDF document and the files remain stable over time.

What About Security?
What about security and preventing file theft, you say? This is a common concern among e-book publishers and often the reason they go searching for an e-book generator in the first place.

To those people I say: piracy happens. No matter what format you create your e-book in, if someone is intent on stealing it, they will find a way to do so.

Publishers focused on tightly locking up their material often end up creating barriers between themselves and *legitimate paying customers. For example, you might decide to lock the print function so that people can’t print and photocopy your content. Then a paying customer who doesn’t want to read the whole thing on screen tries to print it out and can’t. They get frustrated. Frustrations don’t lead to more *sales or good customer relations.

I’m not saying you turn a blind eye to large-scale theft. To maintain your copyright, you do need to pursue people who are trying to pass off your content as theirs, reproduce whole pieces of your work in their work without permission, sell your materials without permission, or give them away on a large scale (say, as a *free public download from their web site). But if someone wants to share their e-book with their sister, it will happen anyway. In my opinion, trying to track down and stop these pass-alongs will cause you more time, *money and grief than it’s worth.

If you really want to use security functions such as password protection or locking the print function, they’re available in PDF anyway. Just be aware of the compromises you might be making in your ability to truly serve your paying customers.

A Case in Point
Some of you will know that I used to give away a free e-book with each subscription to my e-zine. But I stopped doing that in October 2004 because I was having many of the problems I’ve just described – it was an .exe file, Mac users couldn’t read it, and some people had trouble opening the file.

The publisher didn’t offer a PDF version so I pulled the book altogether. I’m now developing a special report of my own – in PDF format – that I can offer to new subscribers instead.

Jennifer Tribe is the president of Juiced Consulting, a company that helps business owners turn their expertise into money-making information products like books, special reports, teleclasses, and audiotapes and CDs. Jennifer holds a degree in journalism and has worked extensively as a writer and editor. Her articles on information products have been published in Management Magazine, Home Business Magazine, BusinessWoman Canada, and other leading publications. Subscribe to her free e-zine, Infopreneuring Strategies, at www.juiced consulting.com.

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by: Dana Lynn Smith

Source: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2010/11/book-publicity-tips-for-authors.html

Book publicity is the process of seeking and getting media coverage for books and their authors. Media coverage can potentially exposure your book to a large number of people and it offers more credibility than some other promotional methods. It’s also a great way to build your author platform, name recognition, and expert reputation.

Although a newspaper article or radio interview won’t cost you anything, you may have costs associated with generating interest from the media, such as hiring someone to write a press release, paying for press release distribution services, or hiring a publicist to prepare publicity materials and make media contacts on your behalf. If your budget is limited, you can do these tasks yourself.

Below are some resources to help you learn how to generate your own media coverage:

* Award-winning publicist Sandra Beckwith offers a terrific publicity workbook packed with book publicity forms and templates.

* Author and marketing expert Marcia Yudkin recently wrote and distributed nine different press releases for her new series of books. In this case study, she shares the details.  Also, take a look at Marcia’s article on how to generate media coverage.

* This book publicity article by Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, has some very helpful tips for the most effective ways to pitch the media.

* Joan also offers an excellent free course on how to use news releases effectively. You can sign up to receive a daily lesson by email for 89 days at no charge, or purchase the entire series in ebook format so you don’t have to wait three months to get all these great publicity tips.

* This collection of book publicity tips on the Savvy Book Marketer blog includes several guest posts written by experts in book publicity and promotion.

There are many online press release distribution services. For my most important releases, I use the paid service at PRWeb.com. For routine releases, I use the free service as PRLog.com.

Media coverage can be valuable way to gain attention for your book. If you don’t already have a book publicity plan in place, get started today.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com.

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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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As an aspiring or published writer, book marketing is of great importance to you career. At some point – if you haven’t already reached it – you will come to understand that you must take matters into your own hands to market your book. Depending on who you are, what you’ve accomplished, who you know or are related to, what your spending budget is and so many other variables, book marketing can be simple or difficult. For the everyday person, the key to a successful marketing plan is implementing cheap or free techniques that are effective.

So let’s get down to business. If you’re reading this article you have an interest in the subject matter, yes? This is target marketing. Come up with a plan that works for you. What are your strengths, weaknesses and resources? Know what you can and cannot do. Keep your costs down.

Here are eight book marketing tips to help you get started:

Create a Fan Page on Facebook (this is a great online viral marketing tool).

It’s popular because it works.
o Create a Flickr.com profile and add pictures that would attract your targeted audience. Be sure to include your author website URL in your profile so viewers can find you.
o P.O.S – Point of Sales is both a checkout counter in a store and the location where a transaction occurs. Consider selling your book in a local Mom & Pop store and have them place it near the register.
o Library Press Release – Are you a member of your local library? Once your book has been published, meet with the branch manager and ask her to issue a press release in the library system’s newsletter.
o Trade Shows and Festivals – Set up shop or just mingle at local trade shows and festivals. This gives you an opportunity to connect with your community and prospective readers.
o Community Outreach – Organize an outreach event in your community and have yourself announced as author (title of your book) or as a writer.
o Local Radio Station – Contact a local radio station. Preferable one that will have listeners who might be interested in your book. Explain as a local to the town or city, you have written a book and would like them to do a feature on you. Community oriented opportunities are usually easier to secure than national ones.
o Celebrity Association – Discuss a celebrity in detail on your blog or author website and your page will come up in searches associated to the person.

Did you like any of these book marketing ideas? There are more ways to market your book online and offline through common and unique marketing strategies. Keep your eyes open when you are out and about. Your neighborhood can offer many untapped book marketing tips you’ve never considered. An online search with quotation marks will also help you better target your researc

Now Pay Close Attention –

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Read more: http://business.ezinemark.com/8-great-book-marketing-tips-16cede0da3d.html#ixzz14z5mMAyF
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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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Source: http://www.millermosaicllc.com/discussion-questions/

You’re a book author and you want to promote your book. You have a website where you have downloads of your first chapter or chapters. Have you also made available discussion questions for book clubs to use?

Book groups can be a good target market for your book, especially if it’s fiction. But given how busy people are, it’s helpful for readers to know that if they suggest a book to their reading group they won’t have to struggle to come up with questions. All the work has already been done for them by the author!

If you haven’t yet provided downloadable questions off your website, do so now.

Here are 6 tips for creating these discussion questions:

• Direct your questions at the appropriate age level for your book. If you’ve written a children’s fiction or non-fiction book, questions should be targeted at the reading level of your book’s market.

• Questions for adult fiction or non-fiction books should include a range of questions so that different levels of book groups can find questions that appeal to their groups.

• For fiction books, are there any current or historic events that impact the story you’ve told? If so, create questions based on these events

• As people often read discussion questions before reading the book, be careful about accidentally revealing a fiction book’s surprise plot points in the questions. With careful consideration, you will usually be able to find a way to discuss a question topic without revealing these plot points.

• Before making available your discussion questions, test them on friends who haven’t read the book yet. Check that the questions mean to others what these questions mean to you.

• Offer the questions to anyone who might be interested besides making the questions available as a free download on your website or other author platforms.

By making available good discussion questions for your book, you’re providing book clubs with the resources for a better discussion. And, with any luck, the better the discussion the more buzz will be created. – P.Z.M.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a National Internet Business Examiner at http://www.InternetBizBlogger.com as well as a book author, and her power marketing company http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.

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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.millermosaicllc.com/cart-before-horse/

Book marketing in the age of the internet provides numerous opportunities for an aspiring nonfiction book author to have a following before he or she submits a nonfiction book proposal.

The typical advice for someone about to write a nonfiction book proposal is that the person must first have a platform – which basically means a huge following (such as host of a national tv show) or a huge mailing list (perhaps amassed from years of doing business).

The reason for this is that publishers want to know there’s already a built-in fan base of people presumably eager to buy the potential author’s book.

And for someone who doesn’t have this huge following or huge mailing list – it’s too bad but agents and publishers probably won’t be interested in that person’s nonfiction book proposal.

In the past it could take years to “grow” a following. Perhaps, for example, starting off with an advice column in your local newspaper, then working up to an advice column syndicated to a few newspapers, and finally achieving a national syndicated column.

Or you could start off as a talk show host on your local station, work up to a talk show on a few local stations, and finally achieve a national talk show.

The good news is that the internet has changed everything. In fact, the internet has completely eliminated most barriers to entry.

Thus today there’s no reason to put the cart before the horse. Don’t write that nonfiction book proposal until you have established a solid online reputation. Why ask to be rejected when, with some targeted work, you can position yourself as someone to whom agents and publishers should say yes?

If you have an expertise – let’s say you’re a relationship expert with a unique spin – and you want to write a book about your relationship advice, here are some of the internet opportunities you can use to get your own platform BEFORE you write that proposal:

• Start a blog that offers your relationship advice.
• Leave insightful comments with the URL to your blog on other relationship blogs.
• Write guest posts for other people’s blogs.
• Start a BlogTalkRadio show giving your relationship advice and interviewing people who need your advice.
• Join Facebook and start a Facebook group for relationship advice.
• Join Twitter and tweet about your BlogTalkRadio shows.
• Join LinkedIn and start a relationship advice group there.
• Join other social media sites that offer the opportunity for you to demonstrate your unique relationship advice.
• Launch a website that includes testimonials to your advice with an irresistible free offer for people to give you their email addresses (building your list).
• Post brief videos on YouTube and other video sites of you giving relationship advice.
• Make podcasts about relationship advice and have the podcasts downloadable from your website.
• Write reports or e-books about specific areas of relationship advice and distribute these for free or for a fee from your website.
• Offer your reports or e-books to others to use for premiums for their projects.
• Do free or fee question-and-answer teleseminars.
• Write relationship articles and post on free article sites such as ezinearticles.com.
• Write press releases about your teleseminars and post on internet press release sites.

Does this take work? Yes, it does. And will you do all of these? Probably not.

But if you start doing some of these activities as a preamble for writing a nonfiction book proposal, you will be much better positioned to convince a book agent and/or a book publisher that you have the required platform to sell your book.

And the added benefit of doing all this work first? With all the advice you’ve dispensed on the web, your book will almost be totally written thanks to all the material you’ve already produced. –P.Z.M.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a National Internet Business Examiner at http://www.InternetBizBlogger.com as well as a book author, and her power marketing company http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.

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