Tag Archives: Book

HOW TO SELL YOUR BOOK

This is from a rant that Rachel Thompson posted on Facebook and let me re-publish. Rachel is a BestSelling author and Social Media Consultant at www.RachelintheOC.com  and www.BadRedHeadMedia.com.

Rachel ThompsonI’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ONE thing will not sell your books. It’s a combo of:

1.  A spectacular book (professionally edited, formatted, designed, and proofed).
2.  Reviews. (minimum of 25 within the first few weeks.)
3.  Beta or ARC readers before you release.
4.  An optimized website (professional graphics, social media icons, keywording, HTML, CSS for faster loading, etc…all to increase your SEO). Look it up.
5.  An active blog. (once weekly minimum).
Social Media6.  Interactive social media. (not spammy) At minimum Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ (important for your Google ranking), following readers, book bloggers, book reviewers, and book clubs.
7.  Groups. (important to establish connections with peers).
eBooks8.  An eBook version (duh). I don’t care if you hate eBooks. What do your readers want?
9.  A virtual blog tour. It won’t necessarily sell books, but it DOES increase visibility, SEO, reviews, connections with readers and bloggers, and Google Ranking.
10.  Google AdWords. (get advice on how to do it correctly, study and research, or pay someone to do it for you).
11.  Book clubs.
Book Signing12.  Book signings.
13.  Swag. (bookmarks, pens, postcards, etc)
14.  Guest blog. Guest blog. Guest blog. (and not only about your book and how wonderful your toenails are).
15.  Interviews.
16.  Give back, for fuck’s sake. Stop talking about yourself all the damn time.

Bitch and moan that you’ve done EVERYTHING (bet you haven’t), and still haven’t sold any books. I don’t believe you. Sorry.

When you’ve done ALL of the above in great detail, and I mean everything with a concentrated effort and still haven’t sold any books, then guess what? Maybe you need to rewrite your book, or write another.

Sell BooksIt typically takes FIVE books to start making a living on your work. FIVE. (Says who? Almost every writer who is making a living on their books —Steena Holmes, Bette Lee Crosby, Ryne Pearson, Liz Schulte, Hugh Howey, and on it goes).

So stop with the whining about how Amazon sucks or blah blah doesn’t work (nothing is magical), pull up your big girl and big boy pants, and spend that effort writing your next blog post, book, or tweet. Or yell at me for bitching at you. I don’t care.

I’ll be writing my next book TOUGH LOVE FOR WHINY WRITERS. ha.

_____________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Rachel Thompson for posting this excellent, no bullshit advice on Facebook which allowed me to steal and shamelessly plagiarize it so all writers can benefit. I later felt guilty and turned myself in to beg for permission. Not only did Rachel forgive me, we’ve become friends and I often beak-off on her sites.

Rachel is a BestSelling author and a Social Media Consultant based in California. You can find Rachel at:

www.RachelintheOC.com

www.BadRedHeadMedia.com

@RachelintheOC

@BadRedHeadMedia

HOW TO MARKET A BOOK

Who is Joanna Penn and what does she know about marketing books?

Joanna PennI’ve never met Joanna in person, but I consider her a good friend. An internet friend. A modern day version of the old Penn-Pal, only without stamps.

Joanna is the reason I can brag about being an Amazon Top 10 BestSelling writer. I wrote a good book, which is job #1 for all authors, but it was Joanna who taught me how to market it. And without good marketing, my good book would never have made the good list.

Creative PennJoanna is the London, England, based creator of www.TheCreativePenn.com; consistently rated a Top 10 internet site for writers. For five years she’s led the pack in giving back her hard-earned knowledge to the international writing community and she’s got one hell of a loyal following.

How To Market Book #!Joanna is also one hell of a good thriller writer and I’m honored to work with her as a technical resource and Beta-Reader, but what I really want to brag about is her new release… How To Market A Book.

So what is ‘Marketing’ – Really?

Joanna says “Marketing is about sharing what you love with people who truly value hearing about it.”

So how do you go about doing that?

Well, How To Market A Book covers an extensive range of marketing principles, strategies, and tactics:

Part 1: Marketing Principles

Handshake WorldIncludes myths, how to balance your time, ‘co-opetition’, and generosity.

Part 2: Prerequisites for Success

Understand yourself and your target market, professional editing and cover design, your book page on the retailer websites, pricing, and the use of free.

Part 3: No Platform Needed – Short-term Marketing

Book ReviewsHow to get book reviews, paid advertising, using traditional media and tips for TV, radio, and press releases.

Part 4: The Author Platform – Long-term Marketing

What ‘platform’ is and why it’s a good thing, author branding, your  website, list-building and email marketing, content marketing and blogging, audio and podcasting, video and book trailers, social networking, professional speaking, and becoming an author-entrepreneur.

Part 5: Launching Your Book

Book LaunchHow launching has changed with the digital revolution; soft launches, launch spikes, post launch and relaunch, as well as lessons learned from some major book launches.

There are some short-term tactics for those who want to kick up immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer.

Joanna SpeakingJoanna goes beyond selling books. The methods in this guide will take you from being an author into professional speaking, making money from other products, and creating opportunities that you can’t even imagine yet.

How To Market A Book is just that – a How-To on what works… and what doesn’t…  in social media, presentations, audio & podcasts, brand-building, and on-line relationship building. She tells you exactly what algorithms, keywords, metadata, and SEOs are, and she has a particularly juicy part ‘Meat, Hook & Format – What Really Baits a Reader’.

Joanna GunI’m a big Joanna Penn fan and I love bragging about the effect she’s had on me. Her on-line mentoring and personal generosity helped my debut novel open in the Top 10 on Amazon and I’ve steadily built my blogsite and social media contacts based on her teachings.

How To Market Book #!It’s working for me. It’ll work for you. I can’t say enough about the benefits you’ll get from How To Market A Book.

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Market-Book-ebook/dp/B00DO9HJF8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1373040391&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+market+a+book+joanna+penn

Think about marketing the next time you pick up a Penn.