What marketing tasks must you accomplish as the author?

Because of the changing nature of the publishing world and the revolution in electronic book purchasing, your book must be known throughout the digital world. This is where the author must work hard for success.

Viral marketing ideas:

Viral marketing is any way that your words, books, articles, video trailers and blogs continue to spread positive information on their own, accelerating electronically through the Internet. It sounds difficult. In reality, it is simple and free. Your investment is only time.

Contact newspapers, magazines and blogs to solicit articles about you and reviews for your book. Reach out to local bookstores to arrange signings. Seek opportunities to sell books through local organizations. Institutional sales often include repeat sales, such as with schools, encyclopedias and libraries.

One of the fastest ways to solicit sales is via media. Positive reviews sell books, so contact regional and international newspapers, journals, tv stations, radio, libraries, schools, magazines and book clubs. When you encounter interest, send them a review copy.

Use effective KEY WORDS, enabling search engines to help readers find your book. Test your key words often for accuracy. Modify them as necessary.
Identify local people, places and organizations relevant to your book or your potential readers. Contact them and ask if you can give a presentation or obtain a review.

E-mail marketing is inexpensive and fast. Your sales pitch must grab the reader’s interest swiftly. Construct a cover page that is informative, has embedded links to your book landing pages, trailers and retailers.

Website marketing:

Anyone can create a free landing page for his or her book. Visit Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, WordPress, BlogSpot, LinkedIn, Instagram, Wix.com, Goodreads, and Facebook; begin building your site.

Blogs:

Blog about anything of interest to you, or any particular expertise you have acquired. Use sidebar widgets and hyperlinks.

Comment on other people’s blogs and social media platforms. It vastly increases your book’s visibility. When you comment online, you have an opportunity to offer a useful contribution and you can sign your name with “Author of…” underneath.

Use Google for marketing opportunities:

Use a feature called “Google Alerts” to generate leads Simply go here, where you can program Google to troll the Internet for every item relevant to your book, or to you as an author. You’ll also be able to measure the value of e-marketing.

Similarly, you can comment on articles in magazines and newspapers via their Internet versions.

Write and publish articles:

Anyone can write articles and have them published on the Internet. What is your expertise? What’s your book about? Tie them together and write articles. Try TRCB, Blogger and LinkedIn. Join relevant groups. Note that hyperlinks are vastly superior to typing in lengthy Internet addresses.

Social networking:

Join as many social networking sites as possible. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, You Tube, WeChat, Tumblr, Skype, Snap Chat, Google+, Pinterest, Telegram, Reddit, Instagram, Goodreads, etc. Make your book known. Be sure to create a Facebook fan page.

Amazon:

Amazon is not only a place to sell your book. Amazon’s “filedby” includes an author biography where you can post relevant information. Each content section has forums. You will instantly have the potential to reach thousands of readers.

Conclusion:

The world of book marketing is undergoing considerable change. People who formerly purchased at bookstores now buy on the Internet, which is filled with websites, blogs and social networking locations that can be used to attract the public to your book.

The author can solicit reviews, articles and sales by creating several attractive and concise web pages and by implementing an effective e-mail marketing campaign, right from their own computer – and it is cost free.

Marketing your book successfully is time consuming and frustrating. Remember that in fiction, the quality of your author platform means everything. Implement your own marketing plan with websites, blogs, a Facebook fan page, regular Twitter posts and e-mail. The harder your effort, the larger your royalty checks will be. For additional information, see Book Marketing 101.