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With 2013 just around the corner, are you thinking of the changes you would like to make in your (writers) live? What are your goals for 2013, besides writing your next book? Where do you want to be in twelve months?
If one of your goals is to have a platform as a writer and successfully market your book(s) then have a look at my suggestions to built a foundation and boost your and your books success. Don’t work harder next year – work smarter!
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1. Start writing a blog TODAY!
You are a writer and creating a 300 to 500 word blog post once or twice a week should be easy for you. This is a very important step for your author platform whether you have a book yet or not. It is your inventory to feed your social media sites. Start before your book comes out so you have already readers waiting for it. Show off your writing skills and write guest blogs for other successful bloggers to even multiply your visibility by linking back to your book sales page or website. Authors need bloggers almost as much as media to help promote their books. Popular bloggers have direct access to your book’s audience. Use your blog to “feed” you social media posts. Create a file to collect snippets from your blog, short sentences under 140 characters. And just copy and paste e.g. into tweets.
2. Use plug-ins to manage your time
Would you like to have SEVEN times! more people read your blog or visit your website? So, how do you get readers to share your posts or website content online? Make it easy for them to share
what you have written with their social networks, so that others can discover your content – and forward it to their followers and friends, and these also forward it to their friends and followers …. You get the idea! Take advantage of the “Share” function on WordPress to ping your blog to all your Social Media sites at one and install Social Media buttons on your website for your readers to spread the word.
Increase your Social Media presence – automatically!
Being on five Social Media sites is the same “work” as being just on one single site! My suggestion is to be on Goodreads, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook (in this order). Plug-ins and ping buttons are not the only helpers in spreading your content. Almost all Social Media and even forums, such as Goodreads are connect-able.
Your blog post can be automatically transferred to Goodreads. But that’s not all: copy the URL of your blog post and paste into your Facebook page, in your Google+ page and on Chime.in just to name a few. It will be transformed automatically into a mini blog including an image of your blog post and a link. All this saves you time, quality time to interact with your followers and friends on Social Media. Don’t use these sites as sales bill boards – it’s about people!
4. Create a fabulous biography / avatar
Written once, it can be used on your books blurb, your Amazon / Goodreads author pages, on all social Media Sites, for pitches to publishers, on guest blogs …. you name it. Keep it related to you as an author or your books. And get a professional, high quality portrait! It is a small investment for many uses and for many years to come.
5. Get help from peers
I mean not only your friends, including social media friends or family members to “LIKE”, “FOLLOW” or “FRIEND you and your books, but also professional help. Attend writers conferences, writing workshops and seminars in the coming year. You will learn, meet new friends and get new inspirations. You learn tips and tricks and you will get follow up and maybe friends for life.
Did you realize that these 5 suggestions for New Years resolutions are basics? No matter if you want to go with one of the big publishing houses or self-publish: Start your platform in a professional manner – for maximum success.
Let me know what your goals are for 2013.
And don’t forget there is help … Yes, it is a long and sometimes lonely path for self-publishers, who start with a single book, till becoming a bestseller author.. Get all the support you need and take advantage of our great offer until December 31, even if you landed a publishing deal. Read more http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Savvy Writers & e-Books online 
How to Communicate With Your (Future) Readers
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Even if most of your readers purchase books or e-books at Amazon or in bookstores – who don’t reveal book buyers names or email addresses – you can still communicate with them through social media and later often directly.
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First listen to your readers / customers
Why listen to what your customers have to say? It’s free feedback from the people who matter most to your book business. If you go shopping and a sales associate doesn’t listen to you, rather bombards you with sales pitches, you get annoyed. Same in online book marketing. Listening and asking questions is an important part. What do your readers want? What are they interest in? Ask them to provide feedback. Are you able to ask or to read between the lines? Google+ FB, Twitter and your blog’s commenters will reveal a wealth of information, keeping an eye on social media channels is a great way for any business to watch for trends.
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Monitor Social Media for your ideal readers
You don’t need any expensive software or services to do so. Twitter and also Google+ offer their own search tools, which allows you to search for any keyword, phrase, handle or hashtag. Facebook will show you anyone who “likes” or mentions your books page or profile in a status update. Same with Goodreads.
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Meet your readers online
After listening to your readers you then are ready to start communicating in real time with messaging systems that they are comfortable with, whether that be Twitter, Facebook or email. If you want to continue to have a relationship, you need to provide from time to time something of value to them. In order to get feedback readers must be able to communicate easily with you. Provide them with several ways to reach you – and also with your name. K.L or V.G. instead of your real (or pen) first name are very odd. How can a reader choose a salutation? Dear K.L. ?
Scan any Twitter or FB streams, and you will see it over and over again: writers asking people to support their book, to share and promote it. Some will even write simply “Buy my book,” over and over again and wonder why nobody does. They are forgetting to add any kind of value for their readers.
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Send valuable content for free
Apart from useful tips and responding to your readers, give them some free content, such as certain chapters of your book or a short, free story. It gets shared, however, it does not mean that you give everything away – but enough to build trust and spread your content to the global online book readers community. When you then publish a new book they will buy it because they know you and love your writing. Write original articles or short stories, repurpose blog posts, send links to helpful articles written by others. Encourage your readers to subscribe to your mailing list and send out an update several times per year.
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Make it interesting
Provide content in a variety of media, not just in plain text. Find out what type of media your audience wants. Your readers are used to images, videos, podcasts, webinars, book trailers, pdf… not only to reading e-books or receiving plain email text.
Website and social media updates: let your customers know when you have improved your website or are launching on social media such as a FB Fan Page, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube or Twitter profile.
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Offer to write guest posts on blogs of your readers.
Don’t forget: It is cheaper to keep a customer (who spreads the word about your book) than it is to find a new one, and the best way to keep them is through regular, quality communication.
Follow and re-tweet other writers in your niche so that when you tweet, they will re-tweet your content to their followers who will have similar interests. FB-marketing can target interests and geography. Remember that social marketing involves passion and if you are passionate and motivated about your book, it will show, and will be shared.
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Find some inspiration at Publetariat’s article about “Reader Centered Book Marketing” too:
It starts with: “Some authors think that readers will appear out of thin air, throwing dollars at them mere seconds after their book is published. Others see book marketing as some sort of unnecessary burden. And yet others appear to have given up altogether, sadly begging for book purchases on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t let that be you!”
If you’re enthusiastic, confident and passionate about your work, you can expect to jazz up readers. Give more than you take – it will come back.
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<><><><><>
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Posted by ebooksinternational on December 14, 2012 in Blogging, Book Sales, Marketing, posting, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks
Tags: blog comments, Google+, Listen to your Readers, provide content in a variety of media, purchase books or e-books at Amazon, Twitter and Goodle+ have search tools