Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

Can Bloggers Help Me Promote My Self Published Book? YES! Part 2 (Book Marketing Podcast)

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 19:43:43 GMT

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This post is for every author who has ever asked the question, “Will bloggers help me promote my self-published book?”

My answer is always an emphatic YES!

In fact, we think bloggers are so important to an author’s marketing plan that we did a pair of episodes on pitching them. Today’s post is a recap of Episode 10, “Getting More Blogger Reviews for Your Book Part 2,” on our Book Marketing Tips & Author Success podcast.

In last week’s post recapping Episode 9, we covered how to find bloggers; today, we’ll dive into how to pitch them.

We go deep in our discussion about these important influencers, so be sure to download and listen to the shows for all the details, recommendations, and considerations!

Short Really Is Sweet

First off, let’s talk about brevity, because that’s SO important. If your pitch is over a page, it’s too long.

And don’t start futzing with your font size and margin to keep the content – you have to be ruthless. A pitch is not the place for every nuanced angle in your book.

I recommend you keep in mind two old chestnuts about messaging:

Use your elevator pitch. You have 90 seconds to explain your book in an elevator to a potential influencer.
Think above the fold. This comes from the newspaper world; when we all read physical newspapers, the stories most often read appeared above the fold. I suppose the digital equivalent of this would be above the scroll!

So many of us read email on our phones that I’ve gotten in the habit of including a shortened elevator pitch of 1-2 sentences before the Dear X in a pitch. That way, it shows up in the preview section of their email program.

Customizing Your Pitch

The subject line, however, might be the most important part of your pitch because if you can’t get them to even open the email, you’ll never get a review request. Think about who is reading your pitch and write to your audience.

In the same way, you might customize the pitch itself. This is especially true for nonfiction authors.

At AME, we like to create a core pitch and then change the angle depending on the market segment we’re targeting. So a pitch about a career book might have a few different versions if we’re targeting female entrepreneurs, millennial lifestyle outlets, and self-help bloggers.

You should always read the review policies of the blogs you’re pitching, but I recommend also reading some posts and the About Me content.

Use what you learn and personalize your pitch by mentioning a recent post or commenting on a detail in the blogger’s bio: maybe you also have a golden doodle or live in Texas, or maybe you wish you did.

Bloggers will help you promote your self-published book if you demonstrate that you value what they have to offer and if your pitch is grounded, authentic, and doesn’t waste their time.

For more tips and information on bestfriending bloggers, don’t forget to give Episodes 9 and 10 of the podcast a listen. And should you need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to discuss how AME can work with you on a successful book marketing and promotion campaign.

Good luck!

Resources and Downloads

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Promotion for IngramSparks Authors

Are You Ready for Big Media Coverage?

Get More Book Reviews and Features with These Simple Tips

The post Can Bloggers Help Me Promote My Self Published Book? YES! Part 2 (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Sell Self Published Books Through Your Website

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 15:00:36 GMT

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This post is for every indie author who has ever typed “How to sell self published books” into a Google search bar and hoped that the answer would include “through your website.”

It’s often a goal of a self published or indie author to sell books off of their website. This is harder for traditionally published authors because of agreements between publishers and retailers. But if you’re an indie author, it is a lot easier to push readers to your website instead of Amazon.

Though Amazon is a trusted source for book buying, I know a lot of authors would like to keep a larger percentage of their sales and sell off of their website. So let’s look at ways to do that.

It All Starts with Your Website

The first piece of this is going to be your overall website, and this is where a lot of authors struggle. It’s in our nature to want to put everything front and center and to offer readers lots of choices.

But a multitude of choices often discourages actual choosing, and you wind up losing readers.

Make sure your website is easy to navigate, with a somewhat limited navigation bar.

Unless you’re selling your book right on your homepage, you’re probably asking readers to click over to another page. And this is certainly fine; there’s no reason not to send them to a book-specific landing page.

Just be mindful that each time you ask someone to click, you risk losing your reader.

Shorten the Buying Staircase

The analogy is this: would you want to climb a long or a short staircase to buy a book? If you’re like most people, you’d probably rather take an elevator.

If you’re asking readers to make multiple clicks, as I mentioned above, you’ll lose them. In fact, more than two clicks to find your book is already too much.

Take a look at where your website store is now. How hard is it to find it and get there? To successfully sell your self published book to readers, make that pathway as straightforward as possible.

Understand How Consumer Navigation Works

Have you ever wondered why both eBay and Amazon have lots of content down the left-hand side of their websites? It’s because that’s the power side.

When consumers land on a website, their eye first goes to the left – top left to be exact. If your primary goal is to sell your self published book off of your website, maybe that’s a good place to put a badge that reads: Get My Book Now! Or something similar.

You don’t have to put a buy button in that coveted left-hand spot, but certainly don’t bury the lead. Meaning don’t invite readers to buy your book by making them scroll down your homepage. Make sure your store is obvious and easy to navigate to.

Why Should They Buy from You?

When considering how to sell more self published books through your website, consider what’s in it for the consumer. What’s the benefit to buying from you?

During the holidays, especially, consumers love free shipping on Amazon. Can you offer that on your website? Or maybe the book is autographed by author — signed books make great gifts!

Or you could offer buyers get a free novella, or something else like an eBook you can easily deliver to your reader, as a bonus for buying from you.

I know one author who offered fun character trading cards as a bonus for buying the book off of her website, and they were a hit! Readers loved them.

Another incentive to consider to sell your self published book from your website involves giving readers early access to your book – meaning you’re selling the title on your website before it’s available anywhere else.

If you’re a non-fiction author, could you create a companion workbook that readers can only get by buying your book on your website?

What about a coupon for a friend? Anyone who buys the book is offered a discount to share with a friend.

Even better, what about a buy one, get one offer? But the freebie would be an eBook so you aren’t shipping print books all over the place (and maybe eating the shipping costs, as well).

You could also offer a special edition hardcover copy of your book available exclusively on your website. Fans will love this – and if it’s autographed even better!

The point is, finding a way to encourage shopping from your website, vs. Amazon will take a bit of work, and maybe a special offer, but it’s certainly doable.

To successfully sell your self published book through your website, I suggest experimenting with a few different ideas to see what works!

The Shopping Experience

Once you’ve got a buyer, how will you get paid? Make it easy.

Use Apple Pay or Amazon Pay or PayPal: give consumers a few, trusted options to pay you. These brands add some next level credibility and also help give a boost to the sales experience.

Shipping Books

This is often where authors get hung up because shipping options can be confusing. If you’re paying for shipping and want to save a bit of money, I’d opt to do a media mail package (which is perfect if you’re sending books).

And save a step by getting a Stamps.com account (I’ve used this for years) or Click-and-Ship through the USPS website. Remember if it’s not easy, you’ll spend a lot of valuable time messing with shipping.

We ship a lot of books (to media, reviewers, etc.) so it was crucial that we got the shipping down to a science. Use an existing service rather than waiting in line at the post office. It’ll save you a ton of time.

Selling your self published book off of your website isn’t complicated, but it does take a bit of work to make sure you’re set up and ready to take orders.

If you aren’t sure if your website is ready, this might be a fun thing to ask your newsletter subscribers. Get their feedback; readers love getting involved in the process, and it’s a fun way to let them know what you’re up to and to prep them for your new store – which you’ll hopefully open just in time for the upcoming holiday season!

Resources and Free Downloads

Reader Profile Brainstorm

How Can I Sell More Books

Quick Quiz: Discover Why Your Book Isn’t Selling

The post How to Sell Self Published Books Through Your Website appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Will Bloggers Help Me Promote My Self-Published Book? Part 1 (Book Marketing Podcast)

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 16:19:34 GMT

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This post is for every author who has ever asked the question, “Will bloggers help me promote my self published book?”

My answer is always an emphatic YES!

In fact, we think bloggers are so important to an author’s marketing plan that we did a pair of episodes on pitching them. Today’s post is a recap of Episode 9, “Get More Blogger Reviews for Your Book Part 1,” on our Book Marketing Tips & Author Success podcast.

In this episode, we cover how to find bloggers; in Part 2, which we’ll post on the blog next Thursday, we dive into how to pitch them.

We go deep in our discussion about these important influencers, so be sure to download and listen to the shows for all the details, recommendations, and considerations!

Where to Find Them

Well there are blogger directories, or searches you can do on Google such as “romance book bloggers” – but it’s not enough to find them, you have to find the right ones, and that takes some work.

I will tell you it’s not just a point and shoot kind of effort. It’s about the type of blogger, the quality of blogger, and how to reach them – which is pretty complex.

Recently, I’ve been finding that some bloggers want to be contacted via Twitter or another other social platform vs. email, which is where everyone defaults to. And this can get complex when you’re pitching them because it’s super important to look at their review terms and follow them to the letter.

But the more you follow their guidelines, the more likely you will be to get a review.

You also have to consider market segments. So finding, let’s say, a blogger who speaks to a book about a time jump, let’s say, which might be put under sci-fi or fantasy.

Non-fiction writers need to find a robust market to pitch your book to. For example, pitching a book about politics to college students sounds like an awesome idea, until you realize that there aren’t a whole lot of outlets that pair that interest with that target demographic. Maybe college newspapers, but their staffs change all the time.

You want to be careful about getting too narrow in your focus because you won’t find any bloggers to fill that niche.

What to Do With Them

When it comes to pitching bloggers it’s all about relationships. I’m a big fan of following them on social media and commenting on or sharing their posts. This is how you’ll get to know them; virtual networking is important.

Part of the reason to hire a publicity firm like mine is because we have those relationships and a thorough knowledge of the market – in fact, this year marks AME’s 20th anniversary!

But we love DIYers, too! And blogger outreach is one of the ways we answer people who ask us, “How can I promote my self published book?”

Learn more by giving Episode 9 a listen! And come back next week for a recap of Episode 10. Like I always say, “We are dedicated to the dedicated.”

And on that note, while it takes dedication to find and pitch the bloggers who will love and review your book, the work you put in will ultimately pay off in a big way.

You can do this! And if you find you need help, I’m more than happy to talk about ways AME might work with you on a book marketing and promotion campaign.

Good luck!

Resources and Free Downloads

Blog Outreach Tracker

Book Marketing Kickstart Package

How to Market Your Book to the Media

The post Will Bloggers Help Me Promote My Self-Published Book? Part 1 (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Effective Social Media for Your Best Book Marketing Campaign

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 15:00:08 GMT

Reading Time: 6 minutes

I’m going to make a bold statement: the best book marketing campaigns include social media BUT social media doesn’t sell books.

Wait, what? Isn’t that a contradiction? You’d think so but here’s the thing: social media is an important key to exposure, and exposure sells books.

Let me rephrase that: the right kind of social media sells books. Which is why I always say it’s not about being everywhere, but everywhere that matters.

There are a lot of different angles to consider with social media platforms, and you can get deep into which platform is best for your purposes as well as all kinds of analytics that can guide when and where you post. These are all worthy topics for advanced study.

Today we’re going back to basics as we consider the best book marketing campaign for you. Today’s post, in fact, is all about helping you answer a question many authors struggle with: what the heck am I supposed to post?

Authors often hop on social media sites without any idea of the demographic of the platform’s users, with no knowledge of their own reader demographic, and without the faintest idea of what to say – and then they wonder why social media doesn’t seem to be working for them.

That is not the right way to approach social for your best possible book marketing campaign; not only is it wrong, but that approach will cost you a bunch of time and effort that you literally will never get back.

Where Does Your Message Live on Social?

Most of the time, social media frustration stems from authors struggling with the content they feel they should be posting. In response to the feeling that they should be active on social media, they post something that’s not really relevant to their audience, though maybe it’s top of mind.

But the problem actually starts earlier than that because more often than not, authors are on the wrong social media site to begin with.

I’m including a link to a social media quiz you can take, to determine the best site for you (see the Resources section below). And if you take the quiz and you’re sitting here thinking “Well great, I’m on all the wrong social media sites, what do I do now?”

My answer is: close down what you don’t need. If you keep the account, you’ll be tempted to update it, and that’s not a good use of your time. If you keep the account and don’t update it, it looks like you’ve abandoned your own party, and that’s not a good look either.

Creating a Rockin’ Social Media Presence

It’s fair to say that each social media site has its own particular “needs” – LinkedIn, for example, is different than Facebook, which is different from Instagram or Twitter. But regardless of where you’re going to spend your time, you’ll want to make sure to do a little bit of prep work before you start posting.

Authors with the best book marketing campaigns work on identifying the talking points that will work best for them and for their books. To make this easy, I recommend you find three or four tracks you will speak to.

These “tracks” are the conversation funnels you share on social, and the reason I like to limit those tracks is that a narrower course makes it easier for you to figure out what to say and/or share.

Generally what happens is authors hop onto social and share whatever comes to mind, which creates a somewhat erratic presence and, invariably, lowers your engagement. What you’re attempting to do here is set your reader expectations by pre-plotting your pathways and the things you share.

This doesn’t mean that you’re always tied to just four talking points, but to get started and kick this into high gear, you’re better off staying on track.

And, by staying consistent to your messaging and your posting topics and schedule, you’ll build a reader/follower base much more quickly than you would if you just got onto social media in a haphazard way or if you posted too much one day and then nothing at all for a week. Most of what happens on social media falls into one of those two scenarios.

So what does this look like in the best book marketing campaigns? Let’s say you’ve written a diet and health book; your tracks might look like this:

Latest health news
Quick daily health tip
Exciting news about your book
Motivational quote around health/wellness/diet

If you’ve written a fiction book, let’s say a Sci-Fi novel, your tracks might look like this:

Fun science fiction did-you-know
Throwback to old Sci-Fi novels, shows, or films
Exciting news about your book
Book research you’re doing for future books

Some insight into your life: where you write, the playlist you listen to when you write, etc.

Your hobbies and what you love to do besides writing

We worked with an author who set one of her romance novels in a small town, so she shared recipes from the various restaurants and coffee shops she wrote about, and readers really enjoyed this creative twist. She tried to create an immersive experience because she knew that was what her readers really cared about.

So, along those lines you could share cocktail recipes or anything that tethers to the world you’ve created.

Here are some other ideas:

Get your followers’ help in naming a pet in your next book.
Even better, get their help naming a character!
Ask questions to get to know your followers better; people love it when you ask about hobbies or movies they love.
Talk about things you like besides books.
Make yourself unique.
Share things that are specific to your genre – for example, if you wrote a book on vampires, you could create a meme with four famous movie vampires and ask readers to pick their favorite.
Celebrate your favorite comfort food or something else that dials into your topic.

The idea is to find where readers want to engage – meaning posts that will (in the words of Marie Condo) spark joy with your followers. This may take a while.

Start with your three or four discussion tracks but know that you may need to play around a bit and further refine them.

The Best Book Marketing Makes Connections

Readers love getting to know the authors of the books they read and love. Often, authors post on social and then wait for folks to engage with them, and yes, a bit of that approach can be part of your social platform mix.

But also know that the degree to which you are connected to your posts matters, and it matters a lot. If you’re posting and ditching, you won’t get good engagement – ever.

After you post, you need to check back to see if anyone responded; sometimes it just takes one person response, followed by your own, to get the comments rolling.

Humans desire social approval; we love to express ourselves on social media in the hope of getting affirmative feedback. Likes and shares give our brains a surefire dopamine rush.

We also love contributing and having our opinions heard – keep this in mind even if you’re just posting something funny.

For example, I do a lot of “caption this” posts to spark communication. Some of them do really well, garnering upwards of 150 comments, while others only get 20 or so comments. Regardless of how many responses I get, I make sure to acknowledge every single one.

People love it when you take the time to get to know them, when you’re really interested and willing to take the time to connect. Inviting followers to share their hobbies and then responding – or even just giving their content a thumbs up – can go a long way in developing reader relationships.

Another driver of engagement is nostalgia, though you need to know your audience well enough to make it work for you. Someone who grew up in the 1990s won’t necessarily feel nostalgic for the same post as someone who grew up in the 1970s.

People also love humor, especially now. So posting funny things might be one of your tracks. As I said before, you’re going to want to play around with this a bit until you find the right mix.

Branded Images

The best book marketing campaigns use images that are consistent in color, font, and message. You may share a meme that’s not specifically branded to you, which is fine. But the majority of your images should be consistent with your brand as this helps to create a visual recognition; readers see something and say, “Oh that looks like [insert author name]!”

You can create branded images using an online service like Canva. In fact, for AME’s blog images (which get shared on social), we create a series of templates so that we can swap images in and out, but the standard font, spacing, and URL stay the same. Canva is an easy way to quickly create content, too.

Create a Posting Calendar

The best book marketing campaigns rely on planning. Not everything you do has to be planned ahead of time, but keeping up with your social media obligations will be a lot easier – and quicker! – if you create a posting calendar so you know what you’re sharing and when.

Once your plans are in place, you might also spend some time creating images ahead of your posting dates and then scheduling them to post. This allows you to really focus on marketing strategies like book giveaways so you aren’t caught off guard when your chosen date crops up.

Staying the Course

Social media takes time. You’ll try something and succeed, then try something else and fail. This is how you learn what resonates with your audience, and what does not. Before long, you’ll start to see why social media plays such an important role in the best book marketing campaigns. And you might even start to discover some real joy along the way!

Resources and Free Downloads

Canva

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Book Marketing Kickstart Package

QUIZ: How to Market Your Book on Social Media

The post Effective Social Media for Your Best Book Marketing Campaign appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Knowing Your Readers Is Key to Book Marketing for Self Published Authors

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 13:00:41 GMT

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Want to know the key to successful book marketing for self-published authors? A healthy obsession with your readers.

It’s surprising how many authors jump into publishing without knowing who they are writing their books for. If you’re writing fiction, this is particularly important because there are subgenres and tropes that can make or break your book.

I speak with lots of authors who don’t know their genre or who have written for a genre that doesn’t exist.

Let me say this as clearly as I can.

If your book isn’t selling and you’re wondering why, I can tell you without even knowing what your book is about that you probably are marketing to the wrong readers.

Let’s go a little deeper into tell-tale signs.

Misunderstood Reader Syndrome

Low sales. If none of your marketing is working, you’re either doing the wrong things, or you’re marketing to the wrong people. Likely, it’s both.

If you don’t know who your reader is, or you aren’t sure, then you probably aren’t doing the things that drive their interest. In either case, you probably feel like you’re spending your marketing dollars and seeing little to no return on that investment.

Bad reviews. If your book is pulling in two- and three-star reviews, you’ve either written a bad book or the book doesn’t appeal to your target reader.

If the editing is bad, readers will often mention it in their reviews; same for the writing. But if the book disappointed readers in some way, and you’re seeing this as a pretty consistent message, it’s very likely that you pitched your book to the wrong target market.

Disinterested bloggers. Bloggers are pretty specific about the kind of books they will and won’t read, and they expect authors to pay attention. Rightfully so!

I’ve had bloggers tell me that if a book is pitched to them as one genre, but it turns out to be in a different genre, they won’t finish it and they certainly won’t review it. If you aren’t getting a lot of love from bloggers, it certainly could be your pitch and your book cover, but there’s also a solid chance that you don’t understand your market.

Now that we’ve identified the symptoms of Misunderstood Reader Syndrome, let’s work on some cures that we can achieve through book marketing for self published authors.

Understand Your Genre and Subgenre

Industry genres are pretty standard, but subsets or subgenres can number in the thousands. The business genre, for example, has about a hundred subsets.

Your first goal is to identify your specific subgenre by researching, studying, and reading in your market.

Keep in mind that pop culture and world events can create genre additions or adjustments. True crime, which is a huge market, has exploded in non-fiction to the point that similar “true crime” type stories have grown in fiction as well.

As we all started working from home, books on virtual work environments started popping up everywhere. The other day, I read a great blog post on covid-influenced books for kids.

Trends change. A good way to know what’s going on your particular market is to subscribe to various industry publications and newsletters, both in print and online. And if your genre has a writers’ association, hie thee hither and join it!

Read Other Books in Your Market

You are not the only person writing books in your market. Get to know your fellow travelers. In order to write for your market, you need to first be a fan, which means reading voraciously and following authors who write in your genre.

As you’re reading other books, keep a notepad handy to track noticeable nuances like book themes, protagonist traits, or (for non-fiction) ideas or information that an author addresses that you hadn’t previously considered.

Being a fan of your own genre is really foundational book marketing for self-published authors: to gain fans, you have to be one.

Spend Time Sleuthing Amazon Reviews

Amazon reviews are a great place to find out what readers like. Make a list of a few books in your market and read their reviews. Then read about the reviewers.

Clicking a reviewer profile gives you a lot of usable information – books they like, yes but also products and items that might be a way to reach them in your work or on social media. For example, if you notice that many reviewers also buy candles, you might create a post highlighting your own favorite fall candle scent.

On the subject of social media, take some time to look around the different platforms What kinds of groups do many of your readers belong to? Facebook groups seem to number in the bajillions, and the other platforms rely more heavily on hashtags.

Regardless of how like-minded folks in your market virtually congregate, you want to show up and participate in a real and authentic way. Remember these are not arenas for direct marketing (in fact, such activities are frowned upon), but they can be a gold mine for market research.

Let’s say you have a book about cleaning green – making and using only non-toxic cleaners — and you happen upon a Facebook group dedicated to all things organic. While there, you find that the group is primarily made up of moms (your primary buyer) who really love fair-trade coffee, Instagram, and buying products from The Grove.

How do you use this information? By upping your Instagram game, for one. But also by paying attention to the product discussion as it can help you weave some thoughtful details into your book that will speak to your readers.

Follow Influencers

Online influencers will also give you some great insight into your reader. Book marketing for self-published authors doesn’t have to be tricky.

Study what influencers share, and you’ll start to see themes in terms of what gets the most likes and shares, as well as what gets the most comments.

During your reader profile research, make a list of the blogs, newsletters, social media channels, and websites that you see referenced most often by influencers, I promise you’ll see a pattern, one that can be extremely helpful in developing your content, both before and after your book is done.

Know Your Tropes/Subgenres

One thing we don’t talk about enough is subgenres and tropes. Tropes are the various themes your book contains, and readers of a certain subgenre both expect and want to see those tropes show up.

For example, in a traditional romance, the formula goes Boy meets Girl; Boy loses Girl; Boy wins Girl back. In a paranormal romance, one of the two people might also be a vampire or werewolf in disguise.

To go back to our earlier non-fiction example, the broad category of business and economics include investing, retirement, money planning, and taxation, among other subtopics.

Paying attention and delivering on tropes and subgenres makes readers happy, and making readers happy should be at the heart of book marketing for self-published authors.

Know-How They Read

Everyone has a preferred method of reading, one that might even change depending on content. I have a friend who reads novels on her eReader and biographies in print.

How your readers consume your book is a big deal because you want to know what to push. Does your reader prefer print books to eBooks or do they prefer audio overall?

Use this information to determine which version of your book to launch first and also which version to push hardest in marketing efforts. For example, lots of genre fiction readers love eBooks, but when it comes to business, many readers prefer print books.

What are the preferences of your market?

While it’s not always easy to find this information — sometimes you have to really dig! –

if you’re connected with publications like Publisher’s Weekly and other online publishing blogs, you’ll be able to discover general themes in your genre.

You can also turn to Pew Research, a tool that is helpful for both book format preference and overall reader profile.

Believe me when I tell you that knowing what drives your readers, and offering it to them, is the easiest way to drive your sales. As we move into the holiday book buying season, think about the work this post encourages as a way you can give your readers a gift they’ll love – and one they’ll be thrilled to share with others.

Resources and Downloads

Publisher’s Lunch

Publisher’s Weekly

Pew Research Center

Reader Profile Brainstorm

Book Lover Review Program

How to Market a Book by Being a Better Fan

The post Knowing Your Readers Is Key to Book Marketing for Self Published Authors appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Seasonal Book Marketing and Promotion: Gift Guides (Book Marketing Podcast)

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 13:00:05 GMT

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice! As we head into the homestretch of 2020, it’s a good time to think about ways to tie book marketing and promotion to gratitude and gifts.

In “Get Your Book into Gift Guides!” – Episode 12 of our Book Marketing Tips & Author Success podcast – we go deep in our discussion about this super fun marketing strategy, so be sure to download and listen to the show for all the details, recommendations, and considerations!

The Allure of a Guide

I love adding Gift Guides to book marketing and promotion plans. Why?

There are so many gift occasions, and so many potential gifts for each of them, that consumers appreciate recommendations from trusted sources; gift guides can carry a lot of weight when it comes to making gift-buying decisions.

While we typically associate gift guides with winter holidays, they are actually published year-round. We’ve seen or used them for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as well as for graduation and teacher appreciation gifts.

For any major gift-centric time of year or occasion, outlets are capitalizing on this need and vying to be a legitimate resource.

Is Your Book a Good Candidate?

Let me say right now that this is not a strategy that is going to work for every book. Gift guides typically aim to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

We encourage authors to get super creative when it comes to pitching themselves. But when it comes to pitching gift guides, you have to seem like a sure thing.

So, for example, if you wrote a book on succeeding as an entrepreneur or starting a small business, yes, the exact right person may love that as a Christmas gift if they’re starting down that path in life, but as a general rule, a book like that doesn’t make sense for a broader market. Unless you dig really deep and happen to find a business publication that’s doing a gift guide!

Be realistic about where – and if – your book fits in and spend your time on opportunities that really make sense to everyone involved. When it comes to book marketing and promotion, you always want to use your resources where they’ll bring the greatest return.

In order to do this, spend some time researching outlets. I always recommend doing a quick Google search for bloggers and online media that have produced gift guides in prior years. And some places, like Buzzfeed, do gift guides all the time.

You can also check out HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to see if anyone is looking for submissions to their guide.

Pitching Guides

Pitching a gift guide is much like approaching a blogger. You need a tightly written pitch and you must follow their guidelines.

In your pitch, make it very clear what your book has to offer to the individual it’s being gifted to and why it’s unique enough to make the list. I also suggest mentioning any accolades that you’ve gotten for the book, too – awards, great reviews, etc.

Sometimes you’ll need to submit a digital or physical copy of your book for consideration. Whoever you’re pitching will likely want to see it in person and feel it in their hands to check out how your product presents itself.

This is a book marketing and promotion strategy that can work for older titles, too. One nice thing about pitching to gift guides is that your book doesn’t necessarily have to be brand new. If you have a book about something that is trending at present, offer it to any takers.

For example, in light of everything going on with COVID, people are really digging into new hobbies and creative interests. I think we’ve all seen #covidcraft during our travels on social media.

If you have an older book that fits this market right now, your title might shine enough to generate interest.

And if all else fails, you can always create your own Gift Guide – we did this for a client a few years ago and had a blast! To hear more of that story, tune in to Episode 12.

Happy October! May your month be filled with successful book marketing and promotion. And if you need some help, take a minute to click on the resources and downloads below.

Resources and Downloads

HARO (Help a Reporter)

Amazon Cheat Sheet

Book Marketing Kickstart Package

How to Market Your Book to the Media

The post Seasonal Book Marketing and Promotion: Gift Guides (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

October Is National What Month? Unique Content Ideas for Authors

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:00:11 GMT

Reading Time: 7 minutes

As they say, pumpkin spice and everything nice! Welcome to our list of October observances and unique content ideas for authors for your monthly author marketing plan.

If you’re committed to making this year one of your most successful yet, we can help. If you haven’t already downloaded our Monthly Book Marketing Planner, grab it at the bottom of this post in our resources section.

Remember, without regular connection to readers, you’re just another book on the shelf. Take the time to make yourself stand out by using our monthly observances and tips to create interesting content with your own unique twist.

This is part of building your brand!

Timely content that uses popular and trending search terms and hashtags is a great way to enhance your visibility and improve SEO in a very simple way.

And what’s really key: content ideas don’t always have to stem from your genre or topic.

When it comes to author marketing and building a brand, ensuring fans and followers have ways to connect with you on a more personal level is as powerful as speaking about your genre and topic.

How to Use My Content Ideas

Below are holidays and just plain wacky and fun October Observances for 2020.

I’ve also included a few content ideas and angles to help spark your creativity!

Not all of these are worth an entire blog post or article, but nearly all of them can be turned into a fun or thought-provoking social media post or blurb in your newsletter – so it’s like getting triple the ideas!

There are always a lot of holidays around food, drink, and cooking, so get ready to share recipes or tag local fave establishments and ask followers to share theirs. The same goes for activities: this is a great chance to take selfies and/or share a bit about yourself outside of being a writer.

These also open up opportunities for you to make recommendations for products – no, not official ads, but again, people love to follow someone who’s a great resource. Think outside the box to come up with ways you can help people out and make their lives easier or more exciting.

Keep in mind: ALL of your posts should encourage your fans and followers to respond, chime in, share their feedback, insight, stories, etc. Don’t forget to work at that angle and let them know you want to hear from them.

Also remember: your goal is to encourage engagement – never post flat content; be creative with how you pull others into the conversation and offer ways for them to easily engage.

If you feel a little guilty about the lack of promotion planning you’ve done so far this year, use this list as a productive kick in the rear. Commit to writing some form of content every day and use it on social, for your blog, in your newsletter – get creative! Giving yourself a bar to reach is the first step in upping your game.

Do polls, giveaways, fan art contests: remember to make it about your readers – not about you – and you’re guaranteed to see better engagement.

If you need some additional support on how to translate these ideas to actual content and posts, please consider signing up for email coaching with me and we’ll get personal!

Getting Started with Content Ideas

Adopt a Shelter Dog Month – Time for a selfie with your pound puppernutter or a post highlighting your favorite animal rescue organization. If this is a cause close to your heart, you might even consider donating a portion of the month’s sales and invite followers to let you know that they bought one of your books so that you can personally thank them on behalf of cute dogs.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Think pink. Add a filter to your Facebook profile photo and post about your favorite women who have battled this disease. Invite your followers to add their own stories to your page.

Computer Learning Month

Cookie Month

Domestic Violence Awareness Month – Use your platform to call attention to this issue and provide readers with at least one resource if they or someone they love needs help.

National Book Month – A book a day keeps the boredom away! Here’s a great opportunity to share your favorite books with your followers. Guaranteed to start an ongoing conversation about your choices.

National Diabetes Month

National Graphic Novel Writing Month

National Pizza Month

National Reading Group Month – Share photos of your own reading group – virtual or in-person – or ask followers to post about great books they’ve discussed in their own groups. Ten to one, at least one of your superfans will suggest one of your titles!

National Vegetarian Month

National Popcorn Popping Month

Sarcastic Month – Humor writers rejoice – or don’t. But be sure to share!

Weekly Celebrations – Unique Content Ideas for Authors

Week 1 Get Organized Week

Week 2 Pet Peeve Week – After you honor your best self by getting organized during the first week of October, give in to your devilish nature by hosting a week of Pet Peeves on a social media channel. One per day. They say misery loves company….

Week 3 National Friends of Libraries Week – Consider a post a day on your great library loves: an anecdote about your favorite childhood librarian, a description of the carrel where you spent half your college career, a drawing one of your children made during a library activity, a photo of a stack of library books, a link to a current article about the role libraries play in American life. As a lover of libraries, I could go on… Ask your followers to respond in kind.

Daily Observations for October

October 1

International Coffee Day – show off your favorite mug and ask followers to post photos of theirs. Raffle off a small Starbucks card to those who participate.

National Homemade Cookies Day – recipes! Bonus point for photos of your flour-covered nose.

World Vegetarian Day – recipes! Bonus points for photos where you use the ubiquitous zucchini harvest.

October 2

Name Your Car Day

World Farm Animals Day – who doesn’t want to visit a farm in October to pick some apples, drink some cider, and take selfies with cute animals? Post a few photos with those piglets!

World Smile Day – don’t pass up this chance to share your emoji addiction.

October 3

National Boyfriends Day – Romance writers, create a poll for your readers and ask them to vote for Best Boyfriend in your books. At the end of the day, reveal your own pick.

Techies Day

October 4

National Golf Day

National Frappe Day

October 5

Do Something Nice Day

World Teacher’s Day – Combine these two holidays into one and do something nice for a teacher, then post what you did and encourage others to celebrate with you by following your example.

October 6

Mad Hatter Day – if you loved Alice in Wonderland as a kid – and if you still love it – it’s time to celebrate the endearingly annoying Mad Hatter. He’d probably recommend a tea party. You can decide whether or not to invite your own March Hare and Dormouse.

October 8

American Touch Tag Day – you might want to skip this one this year – unless your version involves using pool noodles to tag other players It.

October 9

Curious Events Day

National Motorcycle Ride Day – show off your beast and the ride that you take to celebrate by posting a few photos and some video of the open road.

October 11

It’s My Party Day

Myths and Legends Day – this one is perfect for all of you SFF writers. Plan out some festivities surrounding your own mythic creations.

October 12

Columbus Day

Indigenous People Day

Cookbook Launch Day

Moment of Frustration Day

October 14

National Dessert Day – celebrate by offering a beloved recipe that is part of your ethnic identity: German chocolate cake, Italian cassata cake, Australian pavlova, German sachertorte…. If baking ain’t your thing, this is a perfect opportunity to highlight a local business that makes the best [fill-in the blank].

Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day

October 16

Bosses Day

Dictionary Day – A perfect opportunity to connect with your fellow word nerds. Ask followers for five favorites – at the end of the day, you’ll all have more interesting vocabularies.

October 17

Sweetest Day – Will you honor the October love holiday with roses and chocolates? You could send them to a lucky reader by doing a one-day contest: each follower to post a quotation above love gets an entry and you pick a winner at the end of the day.

National Pasta Day

Wear Something Gaudy Day

October 18

National Meatloaf Appreciation Day

Newspaper Comic Strip Day

No Beard Day – instead of a cover reveal a face reveal? It might be time to get rid of that pandemic face scruff….

October 19

Evaluate Your Life Day – do it yourself and encourage others to do the same. If you’re a self-help author and have worksheets or tip sheets, offer them as a free resource.

October 20

International Chefs Day

Sukkot – if you’ve built a sukkah, share a few photos of it with your followers, and encourage people to share photos of their own or to ask you questions about the holiday.

October 21

Babbling Day

International Nacho Day – go live on Instagram to demonstrate your mad nacho making skillz.

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day

October 22

National Nut Day – Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t. If you feel like celebrating, be sure to steer clear of those with allergies.

October 23

TV Talk Show Host Day – Ellen? Oprah? Merv Griffin? Phil Donahue? Jimmy Fallon? Jimmy Kimmel? Choose your favorite and go to YouTube to find him or her in action during an iconic moment. Share the video on social and nominate your pick for Best TV Talk Show Host of All Time, then sit back to see what your followers have to say.

October 24

Make a Difference Day – this holiday is about neighbors helping neighbors, so highlight the ways your neighborhood comes together to support and care for its own.

National Bologna Day

United Nations Day

October 25

Mother-In-Law Day

International Artist Day

World Opera Day

World Pasta Day

October 27

Black Cat Day – if you’ve got an inky little whiskered furbaby, give him a little social media love and invite others to do the same.

October 28

Plush Animal Lover’s Day

October 29

Hermit Day

National Frankenstein Day – green face paint. A couple of bolts. Maybe a bad wig. You can do it! But if you’re not a costume kinda human, a passage from Mary Shelley’s classic novel or a clip from Gene Wilder’s Young Frankenstein can also be love letters to the Halloween season.

October 30

National Candy Corn Day

Mischief Night

October 31

Carve a Pumpkin Day

Halloween

Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

The Takeaway

Remember, being an author demands creativity, and it also demands authenticity.

Coming up with unique content ideas as part of your author marketing plan is a great way to take your success seriously, without taking yourself too seriously! And these October observances should really help.

Resources and Free Downloads

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Personalized Coaching

How to Create Video Content for Social Media

Irresistible Bonus Content & Giveaway Ideas for Indie Authors

The post October Is National What Month? Unique Content Ideas for Authors appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Promote a Book 101: Promote Your Brand

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:00:05 GMT

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If you’ve ever wondered what motivates people to buy a book, consider this: consumers don’t buy a book, they buy a brand or, as a friend of mine says, consumers crave a brand. This is true now more than ever. Why? Because people want consistency (think McDonald’s), they want value, and they want to be entertained, enlightened, or educated. A brand, when done properly, can really pull in readers to your site, your message, and your book. Here’s how to do it.

Brands, in their traditional form, are the things we think of like Coke, Kleenex, and Advil. These are big, robust brands that are recognizable both in messaging and packaging. The two key components in effective brand strategy are both of these things. If your message and package are different, or fragmented and not uniform, you will confuse your audience.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Regardless of whether you are fiction or non-fiction, a brand is a brand. Think Nora Roberts or Dan Brown, both of these authors are brands. Their messaging is consistent and their packaging uniform. The audience is told in word, color and image exactly what they are going to get and the “brand” does not disappoint. When creating a brand for yourself, here are a few things you should consider:

Understanding the “look” of the market: there is a look and feel to each market. For some markets it will be a consistency in color, messaging, or packaging, and for others, it’s just a “feeling.” For example, if you’re a thriller writer, websites for thrillers tend to be dark and foreboding. There may not be a consistent message but the feel is the same: scary. Getting to know your market is the #1 thing you should do when you’re thinking of developing your brand.

Identity crisis: who are you? So who are you, really? This isn’t meant to be a psychological exam, but rather an in-depth look at your brand, your market, your current focus, and future goals. There’s a saying that goes: “If you don’t know what road you’re on, any path will do.” The same is true for your brand and your career. Define where you want to go and then build to that message.

Brainstorm your brand: if necessary, get some outside help. Branding doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be thorough. Understanding your brand and your message is important because if you don’t control it, your consumer will. I spoke to an author the other day who had been propelled on her journey by her brother’s suicide. From that, she learned, grew, and is now working to inspire others to overcome some of the most horrific challenges life can throw at you.

Platform building: building a strong brand is also about platform building. Understand that your platform can be a lot of things: the message and consistency of your blog, any book promotion you do, blogs you have a presence on. All of this is important, you want to get known in your market, and you want to lead with a strong and consistent message.

Image by osde8info via Flickr

Consistent marketing materials: by this I mean business cards, letterhead if you have it, bookmarks, folders, etc. Again, don’t scatter your efforts by having a hodgepodge of marketing materials that looks cobbled together. Everything is your resume. This is very true with anything you mail out or any “leave behinds,” like bookmarks, postcards, and business cards.

Delivering on a promise: whatever you promise, you must deliver. In fact, promise less and deliver more. If you have promised the reader a “thrill ride,” don’t give them a soft-peddled story. If your message doesn’t live up to its promise, you’ll lose your reader. Probably forever.

The center of the universe: your website. An author’s website is the single most important piece of your brand. Yes, your book is important, but before a reader gets there they will often find your website first. Make sure it’s brand-focused and professional. Don’t have someone design it who does not understand your market or your work. Make sure your site is professional and follows whatever “theme” you are trying to create.

Building a strong brand is more important than ever. A brand not only shows consistency but it shows you’re serious about what you’re doing; and if you show you’re serious, your readers will take you seriously, too.

The post How to Promote a Book 101: Promote Your Brand appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Market a Self Published Book Without Wasting So Much Time

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 13:00:18 GMT

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Raise your hand if you often feel like you’re wasting your time with your book marketing? If you’re like most authors, I bet your hand is raised above your head and maybe even waving. Marketing a self-published book (or even one from a trade or boutique publisher) isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s often downright confusing.

Generally, the confusion comes when we don’t keep good track of our efforts, or when we try a random bunch of things because those strategies worked for someone else.

So let’s breakdown some strategies that will help save you some book marketing time and also gain you some valuable book sales momentum!

Use a Planner

We created a free book marketing planner, and it’s one of the most successful things we’ve ever done. Why? Because once authors get a feel for how planning can help them, planning becomes kind of addictive.

Whether you use our planner or one you already have on hand, taking the time to think through your approach is a critical part of book marketing. I’ll give you some strategies you can plan ahead for a little bit later in this blog post, but the planning itself is also key.

With your trusty planner, you can create a road map so that you don’t wake up every morning and wonder: What should I do today to promote my book?

Be Ridiculously Obsessed with Your Reader

I’m always surprised by how many authors launch books without knowing who they’re marketing those books to. This is a big enough issue that literally a few times a month I speak with authors who aren’t clear on who their readers are.

And it’s one thing to know that your readers are between the ages of 25 and 50, but what drives them, really? That’s where our free Reader Profile can help out.

Being obsessed with your reader means knowing what drives them – and what doesn’t. This knowledge should impact your book marketing choices, book pricing, and cover design.

If you aren’t starting with your reader as the center point of all that you’re doing, then you’re quite literally wasting not only your time on book marketing but probably your money, too.

So how can you get to know your reader better? Well, starting with a reader profile is one way. Another is to read some reviews of books similar to yours to see what readers say they found pivotal, important, or unnecessary in those books.

If you want to take this a step further, click on a reviewer’s profile and see what else they’ve reviewed. You might gather some good information about who they are outside of their reading world – and/or you’ll discover other books they’ve reviewed, which might potentially offer further insights.

Understand Your Genre

Understanding your genre is different than understanding your reader. Each genre requires specific demands of authors, and you want to make sure you meet those standards.

Key into subgenres: every genre has subgenres, regardless of whether the category is fiction or non-fiction. If your book is fiction, particularly genre fiction, you might want to consider the important tropes in your genre and the way they do – or don’t – show up in your work.

Readers have very specific needs and expectations, and understanding the needs and check points of your genre is important. If you’re marketing a self published book that doesn’t key directly into what your reader wants and expects, you’ll wind up with bad reviews and low book sales.

You may be thinking, well, at least I sold a book! I won’t dispute you. But according to Digital Book World, 95% of books are sold word of mouth.

If your reader buys and is then disappointed by your book, guess what? They sure aren’t sharing it with their friends.

Earlier in this post, I talked about the importance of planning. One of the biggest reasons to make this a priority is so that you can keep ahead of strategies you have coming up.

But another important reason to use a planner and plot your strategies is that if and when something works well, you have a record of what you did. You don’t want to keep asking the question of how to market a self published book without writing down some of your answers!

All too often, authors run promotions – or ads or campaigns – and have no record of what they did, specifically, and then they are at a loss when they try to figure out how to recreate whatever worked well.

Not only do planners offer long-term benefits to authors trying to figure out how to market a self published book, but they can also be a fun exercise. Let’s look at some cool things you can plan out!

Limited time discount promotions. Plan out the dates, and if you have a backlist, rotate books in and out of these promotions.
Social media themes. Come up with topics that align with your expertise or interests and post about them on a consistent schedule. Plan theme days and create images so you have them ready.
Social media images. Collect 15-20 images that show off your brand: your workspace, selfies, your dog (or other furry friends), experiences you’ve had, books you love, products you love, etc. Edit them all in one sitting so they have similar filters; bonus points for adding your website URL, social handle, or custom hashtag to each image.
Newsletter ideas. Incorporate your publishing schedule, cover reveals, limited-time discounts, etc. to plan out the bulk of your newsletter content in advance.
Goodreads giveaways. Set these up well in advance to take the pressure off; bonus points if you plan a discount promotion immediately following the giveaway to entice those who didn’t win a book into buying one.
Blogger pitching. Pitch three to five new bloggers a month, but make it easier on yourself by researching and finding 15-20 all at one time.
Reviews reminders. Plan out calls for reviews to everyone in your network. People mean well, but they forget, and reminders are key. Every month you forget to ask for reviews could be a critical blow to your sales conversions on Amazon.

Book marketing doesn’t have to feel like a waste of time. As we’ve seen in the points above, bad book marketing is mainly the result of a lack of focus or an incomplete understanding of what drives your readers and your genre.

Your time and money are precious resources – stop wasting them and start putting them to work with a tightened focus. The more you can zero in, create a plan, and speak to your reader, the faster your book will ascend up the bestseller list.

Good luck!

Resources and Free Downloads

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Reader Profile Brainstorm

How Can I Sell More Books?

12 Things No One Tells You about Self Publishing a Book

The post How to Market a Self Published Book Without Wasting So Much Time appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

5 Quick Ways to Help Your Favorite Authors [INFOGRAPHIC]

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 18:40:09 GMT

Reading Time: < 1 minute

As authors we work really hard, and we do our best to figure out how to market a book effectively, but sometimes it gets hard asking our personal networks to help us out, over and over again.

I have three words for you – DO IT ANYWAY.

People are busy but they mean well, so if you appreciate reminders, assume they do too.

I encourage you to share our infographic below, on your social media or in your newsletter, and ask them to share it as well, because it’s a simply reminder to all the book lovers out there that their actions really do make a big difference in spreading the word!

And if you want to take this to the next level, figure out a great promo to do around all of these things. If a follower or support can show you that they’ve been singing your praises, sharing your posts, recommending your book on social, posting a review on Amazon, posting a rating on Goodreads, reward them with something fun. Maybe it’s a raffle for some Amazon gift cards!

Ramp up your engagement by doing something that benefits both of you and you have a winning combination.

The post 5 Quick Ways to Help Your Favorite Authors [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Get Creative with BookBub to Sell More Self Published Books (Book Marketing Podcast)

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 19:41:52 GMT

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Readers love Bookbub (what’s not to love about free eBooks?), but authors are sometimes stumped about how to use the platform to sell more self-published books.

In this episode, we discuss Bookbub’s business model and why it appeals to readers, then break down the difference between ads and deals before offering some tips on how to best use the site to maximize your book marketing strategies.

We go deep in our discussion about how to creatively use Bookbub to sell more self-published books, so be sure to download and listen to the show for all the details, recommendations, and considerations!

Using Bookbub Ads to Sell More Self Published Books

On Bookbub, ads are completely separate from deals; anyone can run ads anytime they want, whereas deals are hard to get, especially if you’re a new author or you don’t have a very strong platform yet.

Authors looking to run their own ad sets on Bookbub will find a lot of great information in our Master Amazon Video membership. Try different ad approaches based on your book genre and based on popular authors in your genre. Keep these approaches separate to see where you get more engagement.

You’ll also want to test whether a custom image or the template ad Bookbub provides gives you better engagement. The template is really handy, but it’s definitely not the best way to stand out. If you’re looking for more flash and flare, you might try an online platform like Book Brush, which is easy to use and creates ads perfectly sized for Bookbub.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on Bookbub to sell more self-published books. You can get a lot of focused engagement for as little as $10, and that’s a great starting price point if you’re new to the platform and just testing the waters to see what seems to resonate with readers.

Consider adding Bookbub ads to your regular marketing efforts as a way to support your other work. Sales are made through multiple impressions, and Bookbub ads can be an effective part of your answer to the question of how to sell more self-published books.

Bookbub Networking Opportunities

Don’t overlook the networking opportunities Bookbub offers! Create a strong author profile and make sure that you add your picture and a bio. If your profile is up-to-date and available, you can take advantage of author sign up suggestions, profile recommendations, and recommended author emails. All of these are free services and can help you to sell more self-published books.

Like Goodreads, Bookbub is a reader-centric platform, and like Amazon, it offers an author follow button. But unlike both Goodreads and Amazon, there’s less noise on Bookbub, so it’s easier to gain the attention of visitors.

You can easily build your followers by doing a few quick reviews/recommendations on your profile. And you can share your profile on social media, too!

So how can you use Bookbub to sell more self-published books? Start with these tips, give the podcast a listen, and then get ready for some creative play on the Bookbub platform. You may find that it offers just what you’ve been looking for.

Happy selling!

Resources and Free Downloads

Master Amazon & Sell More Books

How Can I Sell More Books?

Five No Brainer Networking Tips to Sell More Books

The post How to Get Creative with BookBub to Sell More Self Published Books (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Promote a Book with Creative Collaboration

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 19:48:06 GMT

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Are you wondering how to promote a book in a new and exciting way? One thing I know for sure, collaborative marketing is the way of the future.

When it comes to selling books, 95% are sold through word-of-mouth. Readers trust people they follow or subscribe to, so a mention or shoutout could go a long way to hitting that word-of-mouth goal.

Working alongside and in collaboration with other authors is a creative way to up your marketing game to the next level. You may not have anyone to collaborate with yet, but hopefully this post will motivate you to network with similar authors and join forces.

Let’s dive in to how to promote a book with creative collaboration!

Setting the Stage

Years ago, I started doing multi-author book events. One reason I’ve always liked these lineups is because having multiple authors on an event pulls in a bigger crowd. Why?

Well, if each author promotes the event to their followers, it’s a way to quadruple each single effort to draw more readers. Does it work? You bet.

Of all of the author events I’ve ever done, those with multiple authors pulled in the largest numbers. The idea behind this marketing strategy is that other/similar authors can draw readers you otherwise may not have access to.

Think about other authors you know in the same or a similar genre to yours. Maybe you’ve met them at events, followed them on social, or been to a book event they’ve hosted.

Your goal is to focus on connecting with one or two other authors who might be interested in collaborating on a promotion. And creative collaboration doesn’t have to stop at book events, though that’s certainly a great first step.

There are so many fun answers to the question of to how to promote a book with creative collaboration. Below you’ll find some of my favorites.

Promotional Swaps

Using this strategy, you and another author agree to share each other’s promotions or pricing specials in your newsletters or on social media. With a promotional swap, you can gain more visibility for your specially priced eBook, for example.

You might even share mailing lists if you’re both comfortable with that exchange. Keep in mind that someone sharing your book promotion lends more credibility – because their followers trust them as much as yours trust you.

Combined Social Media Efforts

You might wonder sometimes if social media is worth all the effort; what if you could share the burden with another author — or with a few of your peers?

In this strategy, all of you join forces to answer the question of how to promote a book!

If you can round up three or more authors who are willing to join in on a Facebook Group, you can create a great place to share the effort of posting while promoting your books and pulling in new readers.

Keep in mind that this will require that you perhaps create a posting schedule so you’re all on the same page. You might agree to divide the days for posting; for example, one author takes Monday, someone else takes Tuesday, etc.

It’s a fun idea if you can find other authors interested in taking this on with you. Much like the author events I mentioned earlier, you double or quadruple your efforts to pull people onto the page and into your message.

Books or Anthologies

Sometimes the answer to how to promote a book comes in the form of: another book!

I’ve participated in anthologies with some success. Each author writes a chapter and all of you push it to your mailing lists.

When planned correctly, collaborative books are great. It’s a tried and true idea as long as the book keeps a solid focus on the market. When the assembled authors are all writing for different audiences, it never works.

You can also take the collection approach by bundling together one book from each author in the collaboration. We see this for fiction titles a lot, but it works well for non-fiction, too.

When you get the finished product, you’ll once again divide and conquer the promotion, which really helps to pull in more readers. And whether you’ve contributed a book or a chapter, this is a fantastic way for new readers to get to know you.

I recommend waiting until you have a few titles out before you endeavor to produce something like this. Why?

Because if you’re bringing in new readers, you ideally want to have a library of two or three other books that they may want to buy. Introducing new readers to you without having a backlist defeats the purpose of this effort to tackle how to promote your books.

Giveaways

Unlike many promotions that pull readers to a paid opportunity, giveaways ask only for a reader’s time or information. They’re a great way to approach the question of how to promote a book. Let’s look at an example.

Last year I met an author at a conference who had invited authors she knew to participate in a goodie bag giveaway. She asked for one book from each of them.

She wound up with 25 books (a mix of print and eBooks) as well as t-shirts, bookmarks, and other cool swag. She put together a fun giveaway event for the tote bag and asked each author to share it with their newsletter list and social media followers.

The result was that they each pulled in new followers and newsletter sign ups, they all saw a spike in book sales, and one very happy winner of the tote shared her prize on social media, tagging all of them, which landed each of them a lot of social media love.

Multi-author giveaways can be anything from a tote crammed with all sorts of goodies to a whole bunch of virtual products. Whatever your approach, putting something like this together with a few other authors is a really fun way to build new readers and promote your book.

Social Media Takeovers

This is another awesome promo idea, one that could easily be folded into an eBook pricing promotion or a new book launch! The idea here is that you take over someone else’s social media for a day.

On the chosen day, you’ll start in the morning by posting a short video announcing what you’re doing and inviting questions. Doing this gives your collaborator’s followers some context and lets them post questions on the video string.

You don’t have to do a video, but it’s helpful. If you choose to forego that piece you should coordinate a first post that gives context to the takeover and explains what you have planned for the day.

How you promote your book during the social media takeover is up to you, but I suggest that you get creative with what you post – remember that you have a limited time with your borrowed audience, so make the time count!

Book Event – Live or Virtual

Back in March of 2020 my team and I planned a virtual event on how to promote books. We called it Book Marketing During a Pandemic, and we had four national bestselling authors on the video event. It was a huge success: we had over 500 people register!

Doing multi-author book events is always a fun idea. And if you can’t get onto a bookstore calendar, or if you’re collaborating with authors all over the country or the world, a virtual event is a terrific way to share your knowledge and pull in new readers!

The idea behind collaborative marketing is simple: work smarter not harder. Tapping into other reader networks and sharing your readers with other authors is a fabulous way to build momentum and interest and sell some books!

Good luck with these efficient and effective book marketing and promotion strategies!

RESOURCES AND FREE DOWNLOADS

How Can I Sell More Books?

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

How to Market a Book with a Virtual Event

QUIZ: How to Market Your Book on Social Media

The post How to Promote a Book with Creative Collaboration appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Powering Up Your Email Book Marketing and Promotion

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 13:00:02 GMT

Reading Time: 7 minutes

You’ve probably heard the term “email marketing” a lot because it’s a powerful tool for book marketing and promotion.

Consider this: in 2019, 3.9 billion people used email, and by 2023 this figure will grow to 4.3 billion (Oberlo 2020).

And while we all complain about getting too much email, according to Statista, 49% of consumers said they would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis.

In fact, according to a study the Data and Marketing Association did in 2019, for every $1 you invest in email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42.

Convinced it’s time to ramp up your email game for book marketing and promotion?

Done correctly, email marketing can really help to enhance your exposure and also grow the relationship you have with your readers. Yes, lots of authors use it, but very few use it correctly.

So let’s dig into how to power up your email list for successful book marketing and promotion. Don’t have an email list or newsletter? Then hopefully this post will inspire you to consider tackling both.

First let’s put to rest an obvious push-back that I hear a lot from authors: I have nothing to talk about. Or, I’m not interesting; no one wants to hear from me.

The truth is, if someone has signed up for your email list, they absolutely do want to hear from you. And also, what you learned in Kindergarten remains true: everyone is interesting in some way. It’s up to you to find that interesting nugget to share in your book marketing and promotion.

Setting Up Your Newsletter

Deciding to have a newsletter list is the first step. Next, you’ll need to find a provider to help you create and distribute it.

We use Sendinblue, but there are lots of other options; Constant Contact is another we’ve used. We moved from MailChimp because their tiered pricing was too high for our purposes, but it might be a provider that works for you.

You want to use a newsletter service because it will manage unsubscribes, bounces, and new sign ups. Years ago, when I first started our newsletter, I did so without a service, and believe me when I tell you that it was a hassle managing the sign ups, unsubscribes, bounces, etc. It’s worth the few dollars to have a service manage all of that activity for you.

Determining What to Write About

Start out by choosing three to five topics that you can speak to in your book marketing and promotion newsletter. Be consistent in what you share because ideally, you’ll have sections in your newsletter, and the more uniform you can be with this, the more likely your reader will open your book marketing and promotion emails.

The point is, make sure you can speak about these main topics all the time. One should be an update from your writing world: what you’re up to, what challenges you’ve faced, etc.

Keep the content short. In fact, Constant Contact did some research and found that 20 lines of text or 200 words is a perfect length for great audience engagement.

But you should also consider your audience and what’s “average” for your market. Sign up for a few newsletters from authors you admire and get a sense of how long their newsletters are and what they’re sharing in their book marketing and promotion.

One thing I like to do is A/B testing, meaning testing various newsletter lengths and maybe even testing different subject lines. To do this, send one, longer newsletter to half of your subscribers and a shorter one to your other half. You can do the same thing with subject lines to see what sparks an open. It’s pretty quick and easy, actually!

How Often to Send a Newsletter

The most important part of the timing of your newsletter – in terms of how often you send it – is consistency. Whatever you do, do it on a regular basis.

Most consumers who sign up for newsletters want stuff regularly, in fact 49% of consumers want regular communication, but whether that “regular” is monthly, bimonthly, or weekly is entirely up to you.

One final note on how many times to email your list: there are several studies that show that brands that send a newsletter two times a month double their open rates and increase sales.

Maybe twice monthly seems daunting right now, and that’s fine. You can work up to that. But whatever you do, do it consistently.

In terms of when to send your newsletter? The best days are Tuesday or Thursday, followed by Wednesday.

The best times? According to Coschedule, 10am is the best time, followed by 8pm (lots of people reading email in bed). Another popular time is 2pm (people looking for a break from work) or 6am for those early-risers checking email first thing.

But the final decision will depend on the readership of your book marketing and promotion newsletter; every target audience is different. Play with sending your newsletter on different dates and times, and then look at the open rate. The backend stats these newsletter services give you will tell you a lot about your readership!

Getting People to Read to the End

Here’s a pretty cool way to get folks to read your entire newsletter: put in a giveaway at the end. Give a $5 Amazon gift card to one reader, or to three of them – whatever you can afford.

To do this, pick random names from your existing list and pop them into a giveaway section at the end of your book marketing and promotion newsletter. That way, at the very least, readers have to scroll through your newsletter to see if they won.

Then, make winning easy. Ask the winners to reply to the newsletter email. I suggest putting a time limit on responses – let’s say you give them four to seven days to claim their prize, otherwise it goes back into the prize pot for the next newsletter.

This is a fun and pretty inexpensive way to encourage readers to read all the way through to the end!

You don’t have to give a prize, per se, but it’s never a bad idea to put something at the end of a book marketing and promotion email that will keep readers engaged. Save your most interesting item for last.

Most newsletter providers will give you stats on open rates and various clicks newsletter subscribers make. At some point, you’ll get a good idea about what folks like and what gets no clicks at all.

Your Email Subject Line

If you’ve gotten any newsletters recently (and haven’t we all?), you probably know from experience that the catchiest subject lines get your attention. In fact, 35% of email recipients open emails based solely on the subject line – while 69% report email as spam based on subject lines (Convince and Convert).

Coming up with fun, funny, interesting, useful subject lines is one of the keys to getting readers to open up your book marketing and promotion newsletter.

Let’s look at some ideas:

Personalization is a great way to get more opens; for example: “Penny you’re not going to believe this!” If you don’t have the names of everyone on your list (some folks don’t always fill this out on your intake form), you can replace the blank names with “friends” or “reader.”
Creating a sense of urgency works; for example, a special deal that expires the next day or in a few hours. According to MailChimp, time-sensitive words in the subject line have the highest impact on open rates; urgent, breaking, important, and alert all work well.
Using other creative words (again this according to MailChimp) like amazing, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, and blissful all work well. All of these have lots of possibilities for fiction and non-fiction authors. For example, “Check out this jaw-dropping cover!” If you need more creative words, there’s a cool link in the resource section to help you get started!
Emojis, when warranted, are great enhancements to a subject line and can be fun and funny. I wouldn’t use them all the time, but they could be fun to incorporate now and then in a book marketing and promotion email!

Determining Your Reader Magnet

People are protective of their email addresses, so what will you give new readers to get theirs? When you sign up for newsletters these days, there’s usually some sort of “magnet” or “ethical bribe” to get folks to give up their email address.

Sometimes it’s a discount towards a future purchase, while other times it’s something free – like a first book in your series, a novella, a tip sheet, or a white paper. The list goes on.

You could even do a monthly “sign up to enter” giveaway. What you give is up to you: you could offer a small Amazon gift card or let the winner pick one of your books. The point is, if you’re going to build your mailing list, it’s helpful to have some kind of an incentive to get folks to sign up for book marketing and promotion emails.

Get Creative and Build Your Response Rate

We all want readers to respond to our book marketing and promotions newsletters, right? Otherwise, why bother!?

So here’s an interesting fact you may not have known. Each interaction you have with a newsletter tells whatever email system you’re on that this sender is “ok,” and in the future the system will show you pretty much anything from that sender.

What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re eager to grow your reader engagement and your newsletter list, you should create content for your newsletter that requires just a simple response.

For example: the first five readers to respond to this newsletter get a prize. Make it easy. Just a simple reply. But for every reply you get, you need to respond because that’s the trigger that the email systems look for.

And even if this isn’t related to a prize, anytime someone responds to your book marketing and promotion newsletter, make sure to write back. Every. Single. Time.

In terms of “actions” you want your readers to take, one or two is sufficient. And whatever you invite them to do, make it simple. Even better: invite them to respond to you directly.

Start with a Foundation and Then Build

Newsletter building takes time, so you want to get a head start for successful book marketing and promotion.

You may not have a book out yet, and you may be thinking: this isn’t something I need to do right now. I would challenge that by encouraging you to start as early as you can. You can take a few steps now that will pay off later: add a sign up form to your website and include a reader magnet.

When you’re ready to begin your email book marketing and promotion, you may want to send one newsletter a month to kick things off. Remember the tips I’ve offered and use the Resources and Free Downloads below to guide you on your way to awesome results.

Resources and Free Downloads

Book Marketing Kick-Start Package

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

How to Market Your Book: A New Author’s Guide

Why Your Book Marketing Plan Should Include a Newsletter

801+ Power Words That Pack a Punch and Convert Like Crazy

Oberlo: Ten Email Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2020

Statista Consumer Email Preference Study

DMA: Data and Marketing Association

How Long Should Your E-Newsletter Be?

The post Powering Up Your Email Book Marketing and Promotion appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Quick Quiz: Discover Why Your Book Isn’t Selling

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 13:01:59 GMT

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I get so many authors coming to me totally perplexed as to why their book isn’t selling, and I completely understand why, because in today’s market there’s really a lot you have to be doing, consistently, to ensure you’re always getting in front of new potential buyers and catering to current readers.

It is a lot and you are not alone!

So I created this quiz as a way to test whether or not you’re hitting a lot of the book marketing strategies and platform enhancements I know are key to to an author’s success.

Test your book marketing savvy and get helpful tips with this quick quiz via @Bookgal! #bookmarketing #authorpromotion
Click To Tweet

It’s only 12 questions, asking for simple yes or no answers, with a lot of useful tips, straightforward explanations and even easy fixes to the most common pitfalls authors face when it comes to converting shoppers into buyers, and readers, and long-term fans.

And when you’re done, no matter what your results are, don’t hesitate to reach out and discover how I can help you get to that next level – professional book marketing help sounds like a big commitment because it is – to supporting all the effort you’ve put in to date and establishing (or solidifying) the groundwork needed to reach your goals.

Resources and Free Downloads

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Personalized Coaching

The post Quick Quiz: Discover Why Your Book Isn’t Selling appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

September is National What Month? Unique Content Ideas for Authors

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 20:03:35 GMT

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Welcome to our list of September observances and content ideas for your monthly author marketing plan!

If you’re committed to making this year one of your most successful yet – we can help you do that.

If you haven’t downloaded our Monthly Book Marketing Planner yet you can grab that at the bottom of this piece in our resources section. We’ve updated it for 2020 with even more prompts and tips to make life easier!

Remember, without regular connections to readers, you’re just another book on the shelf (literal or virtual) they have no vested interest in…so take the time to make yourself stand out by using our monthly observances and tips to create interesting content with your own unique twist.

This is part of building your brand!

Another great reason to bookmark this author marketing resource full of unique content ideas? Timely content that uses popular and trending search terms and hashtags, is a great way to enhance your visibility and improve SEO in a very simple way.

And what’s really key: content ideas don’t always have to stem from your genre or topic.

When it comes to author marketing and building a brand, ensuring fans and followers have ways to connect with you on a more personal level is equally as powerful as ensuring you also make time to really speak to your genre and topic.

How to Use My Content Ideas

Below are holidays and just plain wacky and fun September Observances for 2020.

I’ve also included a few content ideas and angles to help spark your creativity!

Remember, not all these are worth an entire blog post or article, but nearly all of them can be turned into a fun or thought-provoking social media post or blurb in your newsletter – so it’s like getting triple the ideas!

There are always a lot of holidays around food, drink and cooking, so get ready to share recipes or tag local fave establishments and ask followers to share theirs. Same goes for activities, this is a great chance to take selfies, share a bit about yourself outside of being a writer.

These also open up opportunities for you to make recommendations for products, no, not official ads, but again, people love to follow someone who’s a great resource, so think outside the box when it comes to figuring out ways you can help people out and make their lives easier or more exciting.

Keep in mind: ALL your posts should encourage your fans and followers to respond, chime in, share their feedback, insight, stories, etc. so don’t forget to work in that angle to let them know you want to hear from them.

I mention it as part of my recommendations occasionally, but please know that encouraging engagement is always the goal – never post “flat” content, always get creative with how you can pull others into the conversation, and easily.

And if you’re feeling a little guilty about the lack of promotion planning you’ve done so far this year, use this list as a productive kick in the rear, commit to writing some form of content every day, use it on social, for your blog, in your newsletter – get creative – but giving yourself a bar to reach is the first step in upping your game.

Do polls, giveaways, fan art contests, remember to make it about your readers – not about you – and you’re guaranteed to see better engagement.

If you need some additional support on how to translate these ideas to actual content and posts, please consider signing up for email coaching with me and we’ll get personal!

Monthly Observances for September:

Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month – I vote you shamelessly ask for ratings and reviews on sites like Goodreads and Amazon, let your fans know that’s one of the best ways to “be kind” to you during the month of September!

Classical Music Month

Fall Hat Month

Hispanic Heritage Month

Honey Month

Library Card Sign Up Month – The ALA has created a super cool press kit and resources page with images, fun facts, etc. that you can use to help promote this!

Little League Month

National Courtesy Month

National Piano Month

Self-Improvement Month – If you’ve written a book in this genre then hopefully you’ve had promotions planned for awhile, but if not, you can hustle! Plan a series of tips on social or on your blog, create a useful quiz, discount your book for a bit, run ads on Bookbub, the list goes on.

National Sewing Month

Weekly Observances for September:

Week 3 – National Indoor Plant Week
Week 4 – Banned Books Week

Daily Observances for September:

September 4

Newspaper Carrier Day – Are you still a fan of reading a print newspaper? If so, shout it from the rooftops, you’re a rare breed in modern society, and consider giving your delivery person a special treat, even a $5 Amazon gift card is super generous, or if there’s a chance they might fit your reader demographic, a signed copy of your book!

September 5

Be Late for Something Day – What are you always late for? Or are you that person that’s never late for anything? It sounds simple and silly, but sharing things like this really humanizes you to your audience and gives them aspects of your personality to really connect with. These connections create loyal fans and readers who recommend you to others.

Cheese Pizza Day

National Tailgating Day

World Beard Day – Any romance authors out there with a handsome, bearded leading man should have fun with this day. Maybe it’s a cool “behind the curtain” look at your inspiration, images of what famous leading man would play your character in a movie, get creative.

September 6

Fight Procrastination Day

Read a Book Day – Have fun with this, make some book recommendations, share your fave reads lately, ask fans and followers to do the same.

September 8

International Literacy Day – There’s so much you can do on this day, from fun and free giveaways, a donation of books to a nonprofit, sharing some of your local library’s content on social, be a part of the movement in a meaningful way.

National Ampersand Day – Come on writing geeks – find a fun way to honor the ampersand!

September 10

Swap Ideas Day – What a fun inspiration to ramp up your networking! Act fast and see if you and a fellow author or professional in your network can swap blog content, a promo on social media, get creative and find a mutually beneficial way to expand both of your networks.

September 13

Defy Superstition Day

National Pet Memorial Day

Positive Thinking Day – This is a fantastic opportunity to share something meaningful with fans and followers.

Uncle Sam Day

September 16

American Legion Day

Collect Rocks Day

National PlayDoh Day

Working Parents Day

September 18

National Cheeseburger Day

Read an eBook Day – This is a great reason to plan a special eBook promotion! If you can schedule a limited time discount to include September 18 that would be fabulous. Or run a fast and furious newsletter sign up promo, where everyone who signs up within 48 hours gets a free eBook, or a free eBook to gift to a friend if they’ve already read all your work.

September 19

International Red Panda Bear Day

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

National Dance Day

September 20

Dear Diary Day – What a fun concept, share a “dear diary” moment that speaks to your personality, have fun with this, don’t take it too seriously, sometimes we just need a little inspiration to get more creative with our social content. Don’t waste this chance!

National Pepperoni Pizza Day

National Punch Day

National Women’s Friendship Day – This is a great topic for your social, or a great inspiration to share more about a character friendship featured in one of your stories.

Penny’s Birthday – The team couldn’t resist! Happy birthday Penny!

Wife Appreciation Day

September 21

International Peace Day

World Gratitude Day – What a fabulous “get to know me” topic for social media.

September 22

Autumn Equinox

Elephant Appreciation Day

Hobbit Day

Women in Business Day – If you’re a woman who’s had some notable success on your author journey share a bit about how you got there and things you’ve learned along the way. This could be a great blog or newsletter piece.

September 23

Dogs in Politics Day

September 25

National Comic Book Day

Native American Day

September 28

Ask a Stupid Question Day – This could be a fun Q&A opportunity for you and fans.

National Good Neighbor Day – Spread positivity and share what you’ve done and encourage others to get out and make their neighborhoods a better place.

September 29

Confucius Day – Try your luck. Get a Fortune Cookie! Create a fun game on social media using a free site like http://www.myfortunecookie.co.uk/ and ask fans to share their fortunes.

The Takeaway

Remember, being an author demands creativity, and it also demands authenticity.

Coming up with unique content ideas as part of your author marketing plan is a great way to take your success seriously, without taking yourself too seriously! And these September observances should really help.

Have plans for a fun take on any of these ideas? Share below in the comments!

Resources and Free Downloads

Monthly Book Marketing Planner

Personalized Coaching

How to Create Video Content for Social Media

Irresistible Bonus and Giveaway Ideas for Authors

The post September is National What Month? Unique Content Ideas for Authors appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Facebook Profile, Facebook Page or a Group – Which One Do You Need? (Book Marketing Podcast)

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 13:00:20 GMT

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This is our first listener inspired book marketing podcast!

We know most of you probably have a real love-hate relationship with social media and we get asked this a lot, about whether to have a fan page, a personal profile, or a group.

But wait! We covered so much more in our podcast episode on this topic so be sure to download and listen to the show for all the details, recommendations and considerations!

Understanding the Different Options

The biggest difference is that profiles are designed for individuals, for quite literally, social networking. Pages are designed for professionals, businesses, groups, organizations, etc. because they’re set up to communicate information that is typically important to a consumer, including reviews. Facebook groups can be started by anyone, and these are a great option if you’re pulling together a lot of like-minded individuals with a shared goal or interest.

Understanding Good Content

Your content should always be about engagement. So no matter what kind of account you feel makes the most sense for how you want to use Facebook, and how you want it to represent your brand, what matters most is that you’re giving people interesting, fun, engaging content.

No matter which option you think will work best for you, you’re still a brand if you’re using social media to support your book marketing.

Be Unique, Authentic, and Be a Business

So while you want to be authentic and interesting and unique, if your goal is to build your followers and sell books, you also have to remember that as an author you’re also a business, so you do need to hold yourself to a certain level of professionalism and stay “on brand” with whatever genre you write in or where your area of expertise lies.

Figure out what you want your Facebook account to say about you, consider how big you want to grow your following one day, if you feel you won’t be able to keep up with the content demands then maybe a Group is more your style, where you can really plan out specific online activities, events, promotions, etc. and make those the focus, versus what you post every single day.

Resources and Free Downloads

How to Get Noticed on Twitter as an Indie Author

How to Use Pinterest to Market Your Book

What Social Media Platform is Right for You?

The post Facebook Profile, Facebook Page or a Group – Which One Do You Need? (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Sell Self Published Books by Pitching Yourself as a Guest Blogger

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 20:22:42 GMT

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If you’ve been marketing your book for a while, you may feel like you’re running low on opportunities to get the word out there and need some new ideas on how to sell self published books.

Here’s a great one: guest blogging.

What is guest blogging? Well, it’s an opportunity to share your ideas, your expertise, and your book on a website that (ideally) is getting a lot of traffic.

Sound good?

This may sound even better: you can secure guest blogging opportunities almost anywhere – even from places like Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, and other impressively large websites. If you’ve written fiction and wonder if this applies to you – it does!

Ready to put your best book marketing foot forward and learn more about how to sell your self published book? Let’s dig into some of the benefits of guest blogging!

Great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO – or Search Engine Optimization – is the goal of many businesses and authors. The better your SEO, the more favorably Google will rank you in search.

Guest blogging for a high traffic site is a fantastic way to both build your SEO and to get some high traffic and/or high quality links to your website.

You Can Sell Your Self Published Books Faster

You’ll shorten the sales cycle of your book – or whatever you’re selling – if a blog post shows up on an already trusted website.

Every website has a following, and those followers are already pre-sold on almost anything the website owner puts up on the site.

That’s one reason that bloggers are so careful about who they let guest post. They are protective of their reputations and know that you guest posting on their website is, indirectly, a recommendation of you and your book.

Whenever I do guest blogging, I always see a big spike in sales. Every. Single. Time.

It’s Great for Networking

Yes, a guest post is great for networking with the blogger, but it’s also a great opportunity to network with their visitors. A post allows those readers to get to know you, and in addition to buying your book, they might sign up for your newsletter and many will certainly start following you on social media.

I’ve even gotten speaking engagements out of guest blogging!

You can see how all of these interactions can benefit an author trying to figure out how to sell a self published book.

You Get Instant Exposure to Lots of Targeted Traffic

I’ve mentioned that guest blogging is good for SEO, but it’s a great traffic driver, too. Getting traffic from the link in your bio is gold for gaining more visibility in Google and driving new, focused traffic to your site.

It’s a Great Opportunity to Gather Social Media Shares

Another big benefit is all the social media love you’ll get from guest blogging. Not just from the blogger, but also from the followers who share nearly everything the blogger puts out.

I always grow my social media following after I’ve written a guest blog!

Figuring Out What to Pitch

Finding topics to pitch is as important as finding the right places to pitch yourself to. So, figure out what you’d like to write about.

You may say, “Well of course I’m writing about my book.” Sure. But getting granular on the content you’re going to submit will really help you get to a “yes” much quicker when you’re pitching.

Even if you’re a fiction author, knowing the specifics topics you want to address will help you to find the right sites to target.

Be clear on the benefits of your submission – so how will this benefit the blogger? – because you’ll want to address this in your pitch, too.

Think of it as a collaboration: you want to sell your self published book. What might the blogger want and what can you offer in terms of content?

Finding the Right Sites to Pitch

Not every website in your genre is going to accept guest blog posts, so you’ll want check the site first. Some of the bigger sites, like those I previously mentioned, will have submission guidelines right on their website, while for others you may have to email for more information.

There’s also a quick way you can search this. Just head on over to Google and type in one of the following:

Your keyword + “guest post” or your keyword word + “contributing writer/author” – you can try variations of this. Some sites may list it as “this guest post by,” in which case your search will be your keyword + “this guest post by.”

That search query will turn up a lot of places for you to pitch to, and you’ll be able to really start building your list of potential outlets!

You can also search by specific rock stars in your genre. So, for example if there’s someone who is at the top of their field, try [insert name] + “guest post” – which will turn up every guest post that person has done!

This is another great way to find some solid opportunities.

Pitching Topic Ideas

Before you even start pitching for a guest post, be careful to consider what’s already been posted on the site. And you could even mention this in your pitch.

For example: “I read the great post on [insert topic], and I’d love to write a piece on [insert topic], which will be a nice compliment post.”

Typically, if I’m pitching ideas, I’m also prepared to send a short one-paragraph outline with the pitch – keep it short and to the point and remember to add 2-3 benefits for readers. The blogger will want to see this, too.

Guest blogging is just one answer to the question of how to sell a self published book. I recommend it because It’s a really fantastic way to get some great exposure and to build some industry influence, too.

It’s a great way to sell books and to get some high-quality backlinks to your site, adding to your SEO in the process!

Resources and Free Downloads

Book Marketing Kickstart Package

Blog Outreach Tracker

How to Market a Self Published Book When You’re Living the Quarantined Life

Sell More Books with These 10 Guest Blogging Tips

The post How to Sell Self Published Books by Pitching Yourself as a Guest Blogger appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

How to Get Noticed on Twitter as an Indie Author

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:40:18 GMT

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Indie authors ask me all the time, how they can get noticed on Twitter, because just like LinkedIn and Facebook or Instagram, when an author connects with the “right” people, or key influencers, it makes a huge difference.

But on Twitter, this can be an even more focused effort and sometimes the connection is even easier than on the other platforms.

Why? Because Twitter is a direct link. If you want to associate yourself with a Tweet, you can instantly like it and the person will know. If you share their Tweet, they’ll know it, too.

As you’re exposed to their followers, the amount of your followers will begin to climb, along with your network for book promotion.

Even these basic actions start opening the door to a great connection for next level book promotion.

How to Get Noticed on Twitter by Finding the Right People

Before you can start connecting, you first have to find the right people to connect with.

On Twitter searching for specialized targets is pretty easy.

And if you’re looking for someone specific, you can simply type their name in the search box at the top of your Twitter home screen and then scroll through the results.

To refine your search, use the features on the left side of the search results.

If you’re just looking for people who share the same interests or other indie authors who write in your genre Twitter will make recommendations as you start to follow certain people and topics.

Once you start following a lot of people, these constant updates can become overwhelming.

If you have a significant number of people you’re following, I recommend dividing them into Twitter lists, and I’ve linked to that option in the Resources section below.

I use these lists for a variety of purposes.

Some lists I keep only for a while, and others I keep much longer.

For example, let’s say you’re going to an event and want to add the speakers to a list so you can learn a bit about them before meeting them in person. You can create a Twitter list for this, and the program will send you Tweets from these speakers (which you can retweet or reply to). The same is true for folks you want to follow in the industry, like other providers, authors, or business people you admire. The uses for lists are endless.

How to Get Noticed on Twitter by Improving Engagement

Engagement on any social media site (but especially on Twitter) is really no different than engaging in person at a networking event.

If you’re showing up at an organized event, you’re not likely to just walk into a room and yell: “Hey, can everyone here buy my book?”

Which is why it’s confounds me when I catch indie authors doing this online and in social media.

Relationships, even virtual ones, take time to build and they often start with you giving more than you get. At least initially.

But if you’re looking to build a tribe of influencers and to network, consider these tips to build your followers, and your engagement, in record time:

Follow your influencers: This kind of goes without saying, but often I find that folks do forget this. Everyone loves followers, even the influencer in your market. So first and foremost, follow them. Next…
Share their content: Before you ask for a review, an endorsement for your book – or whatever, be a sharer of their content. And don’t do it willy nilly, I mean share content thoughtfully. You could even add a comment to the content you’re sharing, which I highly encourage you to do. Be selective with what you share, so make sure it’s interesting to your followers and dials into the message that best aligns with what your book or product is about.
Comment on their content: Along with content you share, you can also comment on things that you see in their Twitter feed. A quick, thoughtful, short comment can go a long way to introducing yourself.
Like their content: Liking is another great way to spread the content love, without necessarily spreading the content. Often, if I see something I like I will both “like” and share it. You can also like a piece of content and not necessarily share it, especially if it’s off topic. An example of this might be when I sometimes share personal stuff in my Twitter feed. So a picture of my dog being awesome. If you’re trying to network with me, you may not want to share that, but you could give it a like.
Follow them on their blog & comment there, too: If you are really wanting to network with someone, consider another funnel besides Twitter. If they don’t blog, or don’t blog often, you could follow them on Facebook or Instagram and post comments there, but more than likely your target does have a blog and is probably on there regularly. Trust me if you post a comment regurly on their blog and share their content on Twitter, they will remember you and it’s a great way to build a virtual relationship.
Don’t DM them: DM = Direct Messaging, and I will tell you that I ignore 99% of these. Why? Because I feel like if someone really wants to network with me, they’ll make the effort to find my email address. DMs, in general, aren’t a great idea. In fact if you have one that thanks your new followers I’d get rid of it. I think they’re annoying and canned. Take a personal route, you’ll be glad you did.
Engage with Speakers Before Events: One really cool way to use Twitter is to engage with folks heavily right before you go to see them speak. I often do this for several speakers with whom I’m trying to connect, and I’ll ramp up the engagement as the event nears. Often they’ll tweet out that they’ll be at such-and-such event and I’ll comment back, tell them I’m excited, too. If done properly, you can easily tee up a meeting, or even a quick “hi” at the end of their talk.

I’ve written entire articles on getting more engagement on Twitter, but the bottom line is this: if you dial into your topic, network on Twitter, comment on others’ Tweets, share them, and include hashtags in your posts, you’ll build your followers. Period.

Becoming numbers-focused forces us to develop more relevant content.

And, while numbers don’t always tell the whole story, they never lie.

I once mentored a business owner who loved Twitter, but wasn’t sure where to go with it. We researched her audience, determined what their needs were, and then pushed a timely, interesting, and helpful message.

Now, a year later, she’s gone from just five to sixty-eight thousand followers on Twitter.

How to Get Noticed on Twitter by Being Genuine

A lot of times I see authors who only begin to engage with folks when they want something – which is typically a review. And while most influencers get this and aren’t necessarily offended by it, it’s always nice to engage with them on an ongoing basis even before you pitch them.

What does this mean?

Well, start with five influencers you absolutely love and read what they tweet/blog about and then share/comment on those tweets/blogs.

That simple act can get you more exposure than you realize. Just sharing their content in a thoughtful way tells your influencer that you’re engaged with them, you are reading their tweets/blog, and you’re paying attention.

I can almost guarantee if you do this, when your turn comes, they’ll be paying attention, too.

How to Get Noticed on Twitter by Getting Personal

I did a test a couple of years back where I took an unknown author in a super cluttered genre (romance) and I set up an email account for her that I could manage.

I went through a list of 100 bloggers appropriate to her topic and pitched them –one at a time – with her pitch. Not only did I personalize each email, but I also took a moment to note things I had learned by reading their blog.

In one instance, one of the bloggers had just gotten a dog and named it Library and I commented on how cute I thought that name was (and jealous I hadn’t thought of it when I named my dog!). This level of personalization got her 80 out of 100 blogger requests. Yes, I said 80. This for an unknown author with no history, and little or no social media footprint.

The same principles apply to connecting with influencers on Twitter.

In an age of “point and shoot” it’s often the little touches that separate out what gets noticed. And, although this takes a bit of effort, the results can be fabulous.

So much like DMing and other automated things you can do – skip the automation and go for personalized, personal outreach. You’ll make better headway if you don’t treat your influencers like a number.

At the end of the day, Twitter is a great tool for expanding your network as an indie author if your people are using the site. Follow some my guidelines and I think you’ll be astounded at the positive effect on your longterm book promotion efforts.

Resources and Free Downloads

How to Use Twitter Lists

7 Book Marketing Mistakes Authors Make

Free Monthly Book Marketing Planner

The post How to Get Noticed on Twitter as an Indie Author appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Seven Book Marketing Mistakes Authors Make

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 18:17:26 GMT

Reading Time: 7 minutes

You might think this article is going to solely focus on book marketing mistakes, but more specifically I’m going to dig into author branding – because the wrong branding will get you in front of the wrong readers – and it’s really hard to recover once you go down the wrong path.

Because if that happens, guess what? You won’t sell any books.

When you’re in a grocery store, or any shop that offers a variety of different products, you’ve probably noticed that similar or related products are always grouped together.

If you enter Home Depot in need of a wrench and ask a friendly worker where they’re located, you’d be confused and probably frustrated if, after following his directions, you found yourself surrounded by paint brushes.

The same principle is true for books.

More often than not, if a book isn’t selling, it’s probably because of the author branding.

And I’m not talking about a bad cover, though there’s that – I mean putting a wrench next to paint products: it just doesn’t fit.

And if you put your wrench in the paint aisle, only a few lost souls are going to find it.

Not Connecting with the Right Audience

The majority of authors struggle to gain traction because of preventable book marketing mistakes.

And a big one is targeting the wrong reader market. You can’t please everyone, nor should you try to!

Identifying and zeroing in on the right reader market is crucial: without this focus you’ll never gain traction for your book – and all of your marketing efforts will go to waste.

And let me also say, as someone who has done marketing and publicity for 20 years, you can’t hire a marketing firm to correct this mistake.

It starts with the content of the book itself, which is why I’ve said that in order to succeed as an author, you must be relentlessly obsessed with your reader market.

So how do you know if you aren’t connected to the right audience?

Well, sometimes it’ll show up in reviews, with readers saying I expected more of this or that.

Other times it shows up in blogger requests. For example, if you think you’ve written an erotic romance, but it’s really just a sexy contemporary romance, you’ll do yourself a disservice by pitching the wrong bloggers – and sometimes they’ll tell you.

If your book is failing to gain traction, misidentifying your target audience could be the biggest book marketing mistake you’re making.

If you suspect this might be the case, hiring an editor or publishing professional to give you an assessment of your book can help you to refocus your efforts on the correct market genre.

Not Investing Smartly in Your Success

This isn’t a pitch to hire a book marketing services company, but rather encouragement to invest in your success in smart ways.

There are no shortcuts up the bestseller list!

I realize there are a lot of free tools out there to help with website design, editing, book cover design, etc. But unless you’re an expert in all of those areas, I wouldn’t recommend venturing into those territories.

This doesn’t mean that you have to spend $5000 on a new website – you can certainly do websites for less than that – but you should invest in the things that will help drive book sales, like a good cover and a good content and copy edit.

All of these elements will become a part of your author brand.

In fact, everything is your brand, whether you want it to be or not.

The good news is, you can always evolve your brand!

If you launched a book and it could use a cover revamp, that’s pretty easy to do. If the editing wasn’t up to par, then get it to an editor and so on. But be willing to make the investment in yourself and your work – only then will the work reward you in return.

When it comes to publishing, “Go big or go home“ doesn’t necessarily refer to the amount you invest, but rather how smart you are about your investment, and avoiding the key book marketing mistake of not planning well.

Not Realizing This Is a Business

If you read a lot of my stuff, you no doubt know that this is something I say a lot: publishing a book is a business, and as such, you should treat it like a business.

If you aren’t ready to tackle this – or aren’t sure how to – there are a lot of people who can help you: solid, good professionals who you can consult to better understand what the business of books means for you.

For example, as a business owner, you would never think about launching a substandard product, so why are you releasing a book that hasn’t been thoroughly vetted? Or a book that doesn’t have a market (which we’ll get into in a minute)?

Authors (even first-time authors) who treat publishing a book like a business have a better chance at success; this doesn’t mean that their books will be huge hits right out of the gate, but treating your book like a business is a necessary building block of successful publishing.

Not Using Messaging That Draws in Buyers

I get that there’s a lot to do when it comes to putting out a book.

I often hear from authors that writing was the easy part, and to some degree, it is.

But messaging – from your book description on Amazon, to the words on your website – is important and all of yours should “sound” like you.

Your language choices and tone should be consistent – and this means on your social media, too.

To avoid this sale-crushing book marketing mistake look at everything you’re putting out into the world about you and your book and do a self-check to make sure it is thoughtful and consistent with your brand.

Details really do matter.

The small things are what readers notice – even down to the spacing on your Amazon book page. And it’s a real thing because if your book page has typos in it – even if your book is perfectly edited – it gives the reader a sloppy impression of your efforts and may lead your potential reader to conclude that your book may be sloppy, too.

Not Understanding of Your Reader Market

Another super common book marketing mistake I see authors face is the result of having limited or no understanding of their reader market.

And not understanding your reader market can manifest itself in a lot of ways.

Having a book that doesn’t quite “fit” in one particular genre will be, more often than not, a challenge.

Genre-straddling is something I see often, and trust me when I say, it never works.

You need one main genre. Yes, you can have sub-genres. But your book should belong in one main genre.

There are certain elements that readers who read that genre expect (fiction authors refer to these as tropes). By understanding your reader market, and by being a fan of the genre you’re writing in, you’ll know the elements that need to be in there – and then include them to make happy and satisfied readers!

If you’ve already headed down the wrong path – there’s a solution.

In some cases, just moving your book to the correct genre is all you need to do.

In other cases, it requires a bit more of a change in the “look” of the book (book cover) or a more thorough edit or rewrite.

Putting time and effort into making these changes will not be wasted, and in the process of doing so, you’ll also clarify your brand. Win-win.

Not Being Wildly Obsessed with Your Reader

We spend a lot of time obsessed with the latest, greatest thing – like Amazon ads (which I admittedly love) or Instagram stories, or whatever else pops up on our radar screen.

But few authors actually spend time cultivating their reader relationships, and that’s another one of the hugely avoidable book marketing mistakes.

Your author-reader relationship will benefit you in multiple ways; nourishing it is absolutely worth the (relatively small) time investment it requires.

For example, do you have a mailing list? When readers write to you, do you write them back, thank them for their note, and invite them onto your mailing list? Is that the last interaction you have with your readers? If so, there’s still a lot more you can do.

Engaging with readers, inviting them into your writing world, communicating with them and building relationships – this combination of actions is one of the best uses of your valuable marketing time.

We’re all a fan of something, right?

How would you feel if an author you adore reached out to you to thank you for reading their book? Pretty special right?

Now it’s time to do the same thing for your readers!

And once you’ve done that, to find creative ways to include them in your writing world.

Not Making Sure You Are Different

Sometimes it feels like we all just want to blend in, right?

Modeling big, successful authors in your own work is great – but how are you different?

If you’re just another James Patterson why would a reader take a chance on you, rather than go with what they know?

Sometimes figuring out how your work is different takes time.

And sometimes the difference is more in author persona, how you show up in the author-world, than work.

But cultivate and amplify what distinguishes you from the crowd. Our minds pick up differences, we remember and hold onto them.

If you look like any other author out there in your genre, readers will gravitate to whoever is at the top of that Amazon recommendations list.

Different may also be in how your books deliver on their promise.

If you’ve written non-fiction, you might have a freebie in each book as a ‘thank you’ to your readers. That makes you different.

If you’ve written fiction, there are loads of ways to differentiate yourself. For example, you could have a lead character obsessed with making fun cocktails for her friends and then guess what? This “fun cocktail” angle could be a cool thing to do on your blog, too.

Each element that makes you or your books unique is an important factor in distinguishing yourself from the pack – and also great for branding you in a way that makes you unforgettable.

Book marketing doesn’t have to be hard – and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune – but it should be thoughtful and reader-focused. It should also carry with it that “feel” of who you are and your imprint, as it were, on your books.

No amount of money you invest will matter if you don’t have your publishing ducks in a happily quacking row – or your paintbrush and wrench in the right aisles!

Resources and Free Downloads

Are Blog Tours One of the Best Book Marketing Strategies?

Exciting Updates for How to Sell Self-Published Books with Amazon

The Best Book Marketing Tips for Getting Discovered and Making the Sale

The post Seven Book Marketing Mistakes Authors Make appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..

Are Blog Tours One of the Best Book Marketing Strategies? (Book Marketing Podcast)

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 13:00:18 GMT

Reading Time: 2 minutes

There are book tour companies, so firms that “tour” a book on a particular schedule and then there are firms that pitch your book to bloggers, typically as part of a multi-faceted approach, but which one of these is included in our list of the best book marketing strategies?

Some tips for what works and what doesn’t are listed below – but keep in mind this is just a taste of what we covered on the podcast – so be sure to listen to the full episode for all our tips!

How AME Approaches Blog Tours

We actually approach this with a couple different strategies. We pitch bloggers directly, and then we have another strategy where readers go and participate in conversations on book blogs to recommend our authors and/or their books. We don’t do a calendar with a pre-set schedule of content.

Is there a benefit to having tour dates?

We think readers are too savvy for that anymore. Typically the biggest problem we see with calendar-led blog tours is that they’re really contrived and while yes, content is dedicated to the book, it’s usually not an actual recommendation or honest review. So it’s like a creative ad, and we don’t often list display ads as one of the best book marketing options for the majority of authors.

Why Typical Blog Tours Don’t Work

A lot of blogs that participate in what most people think of as blog tours are in existence just for that purpose, for featuring pre-determined content or features about a book. So yes, you get content out there, but whether or not these blogs are followed by a lot of real readers looking for recommendations really comes into question.

The book bloggers that are really dedicated to reading and reviewing books are going to be a lot harder to reach and get a yes from, but it’s usually very much worth your while.

What We Know Does Work

So you want book exposure because the more impressions a book has, the more books you’ll sell – in theory – but it needs to be the right kind of exposure which is why if you’re pitching bloggers it’s good to follow some standard rules.

A blogger that has specific review query guidelines, that’s a good sign!

This is someone who takes their role seriously, and likely because they have a following they want to continue to cater to and impress with good, honest content.

You want to get a yes from bloggers who have boundaries and rules – that’s the goal.

The Takeaway for Blog Tours

You can spend the bulk of your marketing investment on a traditional blog tour because the numbers sound impressive – wow my book will be featured on 20 blogs!

But does it end there? Are these blogs being followed by real readers? Are the blog owners real thought leaders or do they just have a pretty site to make money?

We’ve talked about this before, throwing money at something to avoid doing the real work and the real research rarely works out well, and the best book marketing strategies really do take some clever planning and prep – but they pay off.

Remember, check out our book marketing podcast to get all the tips and recommendations we covered for this topic!

Resources and Free Downloads

Check out the Best Book Marketing Podcast out there right now!

How to Get More Media Exposure for Your Book

How to Market a Book to Holiday Gift Guides

The post Are Blog Tours One of the Best Book Marketing Strategies? (Book Marketing Podcast) appeared first on Author Marketing Experts, Inc..