Did you start seriously marketing your book yet? Or is the honeymoon over with book sales on your new book? Either way, you might be interested in my Money Magnet Book Marketing list of tips. I’ve had various levels of success with each tip in 2011. I get asked all the time; how did you get started doing what you do. I’ve found most people really want to know how they can create a success (with what you do) in their own life. I’m cool with that. One of my greatest hopes with my blog is that someone can learn from my ideas and create their own success, whether it’s a book, website or product. In fact, if any of my Write to Win post/products in 2011 have helped you get started, rush to the finish line or just plain keep moving, leave me a message in the comment box on Write to Win or Facebook at http://facebook.com/earma.brown Here are those top ten money magnet ways to market your book or writing:
1 Create a website. I must say, creating a website to help get the word out about my first book was one of the best decisions I made for the success of my books. My first book was targeted toward a tiny, tiny niche market. So, I had no grand hopes of it doing anything special. I would have been happy if one or two people found it. But to my surprise, people began finding my little book website on a regular basis.
2. Develop a blog. I love blogs. Why? Because I get to be myself and express what I want. Well, within reason I can say what I want. I’m not saying to create a blog just to vent. Theme your blog with your book’s topic. Or you might consider expanding your topic in your blog. For example, the Write to Win website starting with general writing as a topic. Then as my book and product line expanded, I expanded the site and converted to a blog platform. So far, on the blog platform my book sales increased 25% and it created a stronger connection with my audience.
3. Utilize video marketing campaign. Don’t be afraid of the word campaign. Simply create a plan to implement video marketing in your book marketing. I just read Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off by Jim Cockrum for the second time. He advices to create 24 videos to jump in the video marketing revolution. I’m working on my twenty-four videos. Also, if you’re feeling ambitious consider creating a cover story video for your book. I have a couple of how-to video tutorials planned in 2012 for creating your first book trailer.
4. Compile a social media campaign. Again, write a social media plan to stay focused. I recommend Hootsuite.com to organize your social media campaigns. I use it monthly to schedule my tweets on Twitter, Facebook posts, LinkedIn and even my Ning posts are all pre-scheduled. I suspect I would not get much done, if I were on social media every time my post appeared. For like you and most busy professionals, I have to stay extremely focused to get done what I need to get done. Even so, don’t completely discount your impromptu visits. I do my fair share of going online to browse, pay social visits, connect with friends and clients.
5. Go on a blog tour. Most of my author friends say a blog tour is a waste of time for non-fiction books unless you hire someone/company to give it the attention it deserves. If you’re a non-fiction author and you’ve had a different experience with blog tours, please message me and let me know. Even with the discouraging comments, I still went on a couple of blog tours. Though, I didn’t see impressive results, I still gained exposure and saw a temporary boost in book sales. So, I’m planning a few more in 2012. I’ll blog about it as we progress.
6. Buy an ezine ad. As with most things, to make money you need to invest money. I encourage you to put ezine ads into your total marketing plan. You can start small and build from there. I usually try to time my ezine ads to release around the expected slump times. Using a little forethought and planning has taken me through many seasons considered a slump season with barely a dip in sales.
7. Use article marketing. I love article and content marketing! It has been one of the biggest business booster for me since I started online in 2002. Even though the rules have changed a bit, I still recommend article marketing to all aspiring authors and writerpreneurs. Yes, you are reading this article/blog post because I have an on-going article marketing campaign in place.
7. Build an email list. For that first book, I started doing what I teach people to do on their book websites. I put up an email form and started building a list. Now, that particular list has over 5,000 people that want to hear from me on this subject. Of course, each new book I release on this topic I first let the audience on my list know about it. I make sales and since they are a pretty responsive group, I usually get testimonies to post in the book or on the website.
9. Implement email marketing. After building your list of people that don’t mind hearing from you on your book’s topic, keep in touch with your audience. Make it regular, consider preparing updates, articles and post at least once a week. Most successful authors and writerpreneurs send out two to three times a week. Consider periodically polling your readers to see how often they want to hear from you.
10. Create a Facebook fan page. Even if you have a personal Facebook account, consider creating a fan page for your author’s name and/or your book. You might be surprised at who wants to keep up with your work. This can be especially effective if you have written or aspiring to write several books. Then you can specifically post about your other marketing campaigns of interest to your readers. I usually post anything to do with my brand and books to my Earma Brown fan page.
If you don’t include these money magnet book marketing tips in your Book Marketing plan, you could be this time next year with the same discouraging level of sales. Don’t wait join the Information Revolution today; use any of the above marketing ideas to explode your book sales to a new level. Discover the promotion techniques it takes to have an abundance of book sale customers every month.
Send for (3) FREE iWIN bookmarks (including 10 Money Magnet Ways to Market Your Book – Book Mark)
© Earma Brown, 17 year author, web developer, indie publisher
ebk: Easy Book Marketing for New Authors helps service business owners, professionals and writers who want to write and market their best book now! Visit http://bookmarketinghelp.com for more book writing and marketing tips.
