Book Marketing on a Shoestring

Valuable Tips for Authors – Don’t Miss This

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How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 

Book Marketing on a Shoestring is  available: 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE
on Amazon Kindle for only $3.99.
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OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS:
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PART ONE

Why Book Marketing is Important – and Rewarding.

How Readers Will Find Your Book.

Author/Entrepreneur – Do You Have What it Takes?

Marketing Possibilities Seem to Be Overwhelming!

The Internet is Full of Bogus Stories.

What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Selling?

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PART TWO

Evaluate Your Current Publishing Situation.

Let’s Start With the Basic Tasks.

Get a Professional Author Portrait.

Create Your Avatar.

Use Your E-mail Signature.

Join the Most Effective Social Media Sites.

Join Reader/Writer Communities — Online and in Person.

Start a Website and/or Blog.

Sell Your Books from Your Website/Blog.

Create a Business Card, or Bookmarks.

Outline an “Elevator” Pitch.

Start a Newsletter E-mail List.

Write Blog Articles as a “Guest Blogger”.

Write Prequels for Your Future Novel.

Contribute Content to Article Directories.

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PART THREE

You Never Get a Second Chance …

Write a Compelling Blurb.

Edit, Edit, and Edit Even More!

Increase Readership: Create an Audio Book.

Will Print Copies Sell More Books?

Get an ISBN Number.

Why do you Need a Copyright Registration?

List Your Book Worldwide.

Create Excitement with a Book Cover Poll.

Gather as Many Early Reviews as Possible.

Get Advance Book Reviews from Magazines and Newspapers.

Get Pre-Orders for Your New Book.

How to Deal With the Media and Book Bloggers.

Submit Photos of Your Book Cover.

Sign up on HelpaReporter.com. 

Create a Media Kit.

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PART FOUR

Marketing Steps Within Your Book’s Content. 

Choose the Correct Category/Genre.

Let Your Readers Pay With a Tweet.

Press Releases for a Review—are They Worth the Effort?

Create a Separate BOOK PAGE or AUTHOR PAGE.

Organize Your Book Launch Party.

There are at least 17 Online Book Retailers.

With a Little Help from Your Friends…

Get More Book Reviews.

Cross Promotions and Blog Tours.

Create a Slideshow for Your Book.

The Power of Book Trailers.

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PART FIVE

Book Marketing Strategies

Selling Books and e-Books to Libraries

Offer Your Book to Book Discussion Clubs.

How to Profit from an Award

Get Interviews on Radio and TV Shows.

Improve Visibility for Your Books.

Connect All Your Social Networking Sites.

Read from Your Books at Libraries.

Book Signings at Local Bookstores

Get Your Book Translated Into World Languages.

Sell Your Foreign Rights.

How About a Movie Deal for Your Book?

How Else Can You Leverage Your Manuscript?

Bestseller Tips from Trade Publishers.

Checklist for Your Book Marketing (Timeline)

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Book Marketing on a Shoestring  contains 103 pages, chock full of valuable tips for authors, and will be very affordable priced at US$3.99.  If you are a frequent reader of our blogs, you can already imagine how useful this new ebook will be for your own book marketing!

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Thanks for writing a review after reading it  : )

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How to Create Your Author Platform

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Platform, a buzz word these days… “What’s Your Author’ Platform”?  THE famous question you will be asked by agents and publishers before they even consider to read your query or manuscript. As they spend almost all of their marketing dollars for bestseller authors, publishing houses nowadays expect authors to do their own book marketing. To ensure, the author brings his or her own audience and lots of potential readers and book buyers, agents and publishers want to see lots of followers and friends on Social Media sites and how an author appears on these sites. They want to see a solid number of blog subscribers/web visitors and the authors ability to present themselves to an audience.
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So, What Are the Essentials of a Platform?
In short:, platform is the visibility, the authority of the author, a proven reach, as well as a far reaching audience.

• A Quality Blog / Website with a Large Readership
• Guest blogging to successful websites, blog, magazines, and other media
• Public speaking – the bigger the better, however at least at your local library
• Smart connected social media presences (Google+, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn etc.)
• Forum memberships, starting with Goodreads, Bibliophil, Wattpad …
• Media appearances/interviews online and in print, TV, radio
• and …. more than one book!

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Building an Author Platform
is not something you can do overnight, or in a month. The best time to start working on your platform is long before you start writing your book. Even if your book is excellent, has received great reviews, a marvelous cover – if readers don’t know about it, you are stuck. And if you go with a major publisher and they would receive – within three months from your books’ launch – lots of unsold copies returned by the bookstores, they would never publish anything from you again. That’s why they ask, “how will you market your book” or “what’s your platform.”

You might think, this is the publishers job – and you might be right. But not even for famous authors they will do all the blogging or social media part, they only advertise celebrities way more than unknown writers and pay for exposed space in bookstores, or send these authors on book signing tours.
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That’s all Publishers will Do:

• editing, transforming a good manuscript to a great one
• design the book (layout) and its cover
• organize the printing process / e-book formatting
• distribute your book in stores, speciality retailers and online
• carry out all the necessary book keeping with retailers and your royalty payments

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Publishing houses laid off a huge amount of their staff within the last years. Remaining, over-worked publicists are not able to give your book’s marketing the attention it needs.
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“When is it Time to Start Building your Author Platform?”
Alan Rinzler, former editor for some of the “Big Five” explains in detail the Do’s and Don’ts “What writers need to know” and gives detailed examples – a must-read for every author.  He reminds authors: “A cardinal rule of the new author platform is never to actually ask people to buy your book (and my advise: never to motion people to like / follow you on FB or Twitter). Rather promulgate your work by making an enduring connection. Establish an authentic online personality, offer valuable information, analysis, opinion, and inspiring entertainment.”

Jane Friedman, e-media professor and former publisher of Writer’s Digest brought it to the point: “Getting a book published does not equate to readership. You must cultivate a readership every day – and start today. Audience development doesn’t happen overnight, or in six months or a year. It continues for as long as you want to have people read your books.” Read also Kristen Lamb’s blog article “When is it Time to Start Building your Author Platform?” Read the blog post about bestseller author Trey Ratcliff, mentioned in a former article.
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Without having a clear idea of which methods of promoting yourself and your work are really worth the investment of time, you might be tempted to avoid the subject entirely. But in today’s publishing world, neglecting your platform, even before you have a book deal, can be a precarious mistake. The most successful authors are those who have created ways of finding lasting fans – and of reaching out to new ones every day.
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 900 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, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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The Foundation for Your Publishing Success

Platform wikimedia.org

When building a house, no one would start with the walls or the roof.  The first step is in preparing the ground and building the foundation that carries the home. Same with your publishing endeavor, you start from scratch to build a platform.

Platform, a buzz word these days… “What’s Your Author’ Platform”? the famous question you will be asked by agents and publishers before they even consider to read your query or manuscript.

Read the blog post about Bestseller author Trey Ratcliff,  mentioned in a former article

“I am sitting in a nice restaurant in San Francisco with all these executives of a major publishing house. It’s one of these power dinners of lore. We are to discuss the upcoming launch of my book, and I’ll never forget what happened. They asked me, “OK, Trey, what are you going to do to market this book?”  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  My young publishing life flashed in front of my eyes…  I ended up putting together a robust launch campaign. Luckily I already had thousands of people who came to my blog every month, a healthy Twitter following (this is before Google+) and a great network of people to help. I did everything, including….”

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So, what are the essentials of a platform?

• Blog / website with a large readership
• Guest blogging to successful websites, blog, magazines, and other media 
• Public speaking – the bigger the better, however at least at your local library 
• Smart connected social media presences (Google+, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn etc.) 
• Forum memberships, starting with Goodreads, Bibliophil, Wattpad … 
• Media appearances/interviews online and in print, TV, radio
• and …. more than one book!

.
Even if your book is excellent, has received great reviews, a marvelous cover – if readers don’t know about it, you are stuck.

And if you go with a major publisher and they would receive – within three month from your books’ launch – lots of unsold copies returned by the bookstores, they would never publish anything from you again. That’s why they ask, “how will you market your book” or “what’s your platform.”
You might think, this is the publishers job. Not even for very famous authors they will do the blogging or social media part, they only advertise celebrities way more than unknown writers and pay for exposed space in bookstores, or send these authors on book signing tours.
.

Publishers will do:
– editing, transforming a good manuscript to a great one
– design the book (layout) and its cover
– organize the printing process / e-book formatting
– distribute your book in stores, speciality retailers and online
– carry out all the necessary book keeping with retailers and your royalty payments
.

Publishing houses laid off a huge amount of their staff within the last years. Remaining over-worked publicists are not able to give your book’s marketing the attention it needs.
.

Jane Friedman, e-media professor and former publisher of Writer’s Digest brought it to the point: “Getting a book published does not equate to readership. You must cultivate a readership every day – and start today. Audience development doesn’t happen overnight, or in six months or a year. It continues for as long as you want to have people read your books.”
.

Without having a clear idea of which methods of promoting yourself and your work are really worth the investment of time, you might be tempted to avoid the subject entirely. But in today’s publishing world, neglecting your platform, even before you have a book deal, can be a precarious mistake. The most successful authors are those who have created ways of finding lasting fans – and of reaching out to new ones every day.
.

Spend less time promoting – and more time writing.
Most writers are not marketing specialists by trade, so if you need help and assistance in building a platform, read all our former blog posts or book us for a while  (it’s just $98 for 3 months) to get all the individual support for your book and the knowledge, necessary to continue on your own.  We studied for years e-publishing and book marketing, so that YOU don’t have to.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 700 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, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.  Feel free to re-blog on your own WordPress blog

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS      = 111Publishing @ Google+

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

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Pingates

Related articles

• The Seven (Deadly) Sins to Avoid When Marketing Your Book (barefootbasics.com)
• Drive Successful Content Marketing with a 3-Part Media Plan (contentmarketinginstitute.com)

 

Grants and Awards for Writers – Get the Money! Apply!

How to Apply for Funding:
Among the country’s largest grant makers, in average one proposal in three is typically funded. Study the requirements carefully, ask for copies of grant proposals they have previously funded. Some samples can even be found on their websites or other resources available online. Write your proposal in a positive manner and language and proof-read it carefully. Explain how your project can benefit others. For more tips on how to apply for funding stay tuned for the next blog, click on follow at the top of this site and receive a notification when a new blog post appears.

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Creative Capital – Warhol Foundation
The next application will open in April 2013. The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants issued directly to individual authors. The first program of its kind, it was founded in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture. Arts Writers Grant applications will be accepted in the five following project types: Article, Blog, Book, New and Alternative Media, and Short-Form Writing. For more information on Grant Programs and Guidelines join the email list.
http://artswriters.org/application.html

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California Writers Award
The California Writers Exchange contest introduces emerging writers from California to the New York literary community and provides them a network for professional advancement. Every third year, writers in California are invited to submit manuscripts. Judges review the entries and select a winning poet and fiction writer. Winners are flown to New York City for an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to meet with literary agents, editors, publishers, and writers, and to give a public reading. Includes $500 stipend.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://www.pw.org/about-us/california_writers_exchange_award

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Louisiana Cultural Grants
The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation Economic Opportunity Fund (EOF) is designed to increase the entrepreneurial capacity and economic health of cultural economy producers. These funds are targeted to unique opportunities to earn income that are not a part of the applicant’s regular work or programming. Louisiana’s cultural economy is defined as the people, enterprises, and communities that transform cultural skills, knowledge, and ideas into economically productive goods, services, and places. It includes: visual arts and crafts, performing arts, film, digital media, music, culinary arts, design, traditional culture bearers, entertainment, LITERARY ARTS and humanities, architecture and historic preservation.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://culturaleconomy.org/

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Quick Funds – Idaho
Open to emerging and established artists who have attained a certain level of proficiency as represented by work samples, the grants provide timely assistance for projects, activities, or travel to seminars, workshops, and conferences. Quick Projects requests can be for up to $1,500 with a cash match of 1:3 (example: request $1,500, match $500). Individuals in all disciplines may apply for a project or activity, with a maximum request of $1,500. Professional Development requests can be for up to $750 with a cash match of 1:1.
http://www.arts.idaho.gov/grants/indquick.aspx

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Helen McCloy MWA Scholarship
The Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for Mystery Writing seeks to nurture talent in mystery writing—in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. The scholarship ($500) shall be used to offset tuition and fees for writing workshops, writing seminars, or university/college-level writing programs taking place in the U.S. in summer, fall or winter of 2013 or early spring 2014. Applicants must select a specific writing classes, workshops, seminars to which scholarship funds would be applied.
Deadline: February 28, 2013
http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=AwardsPrograms-McCloy

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Funding for workshops by Poets & Writers
To support as many literary events as possible, we generally grant no more than $1,500 to organizations in New York State and California, and $500 to organizations in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C., during the course of our fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). Decisions on maximum grant amounts are based on the availability of funds and are made at the discretion of Poets & Writers. Grants for readings or spoken word performances range from $50 to $350. Grants for workshops range from $100 to $200 per session. We encourage organizations to match our payments to writers, but this requirement may be waived if there are extenuating circumstances. We make grants for writers’ fee payments only. Grant checks are payable to the writer and sent to the sponsor, which is responsible for delivering them to the author. We do not fund administrative costs, publicity, transportation, or other expenses related to producing events.
http://www.pw.org/content/funding_readingsworkshops

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Sustainable Arts Foundation
Our program focuses on awards to individual artists and writers with families. Specifically, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. We welcome applicants from anywhere, but will give some preference to residents of the San Francisco Bay area. Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award: $6,000. There will be multiple winners for each award. Additionally, we will be awarding a number of smaller $1,000 Promise Awards to those applicants whose work may not qualify for the main awards, but nonetheless demonstrates both skill and potential. The foundation offers awards in two major categories: visual arts and writing. We encourage writers working in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to apply.
Deadline September 1, 2012.
http://www.sustainableartsfoundation.org/apply

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newARTS Wiscounsin
newARTS can act as a fiscal receiver for Brown County-based arts initiatives. Most independent artists and small or new arts organizations lack the important 501(c)(3) tax status that makes public grants and private donations legal and desirable. newARTS welcomes applications from either short-term but impactful projects as well as new initiatives seeking their own non-profit status, as a way to support the creation of new projects, until there are financial and structural plans in place for the initiatives to sustain their own non-profit status.
http://www.newartscouncil.org/FiscalReceivership.html

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National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships
Through Literature Fellowships to published creative writers and translators of exceptional talent in the areas of prose and poetry, the Arts Endowment advances its goal of encouraging and supporting artistic creativity and preserving our diverse cultural heritage. Creative Writing Fellowships enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Grants are for $25,000. Deadline in March. The last awards were for poetry. The next will be for prose (fiction or creative nonfiction). Translation Projects enable recipients to translate work from other languages into English. Grants are for $12,500 or $25,000, depending upon the artistic excellence and merit of the project. Deadline is January.
http://arts.endow.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 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.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr or StumbleUpon – or other social networking sites of your choice) – other writers might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.

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What, How and When to Feed Your Tweet

 

The important point with Twitter is to choose your passion, the topic you want to talk about and also to have a brand. You certainly can send the occasional tweet about something completely different, but for the most part stick to your brand.

There is so much relevant content you can use on a daily basis:

• Re-tweet news in your field on the Internet
• Set up and use Google alerts (http://google.com/alerts)
• Articles from your website
• Your own blog posts
• Any guest posts on your blog

How often should you tweet?
Unless you have millions of followers, the chances that a lot of people will see all your tweets and click on links are very small. The number of followers and the tweeting frequency should match. As no one is 24/7 on Twitter, you might have to send your posts two or three times a day, maybe in the morning, around noon time and early evening – if you have already a healthy following in the thousands.  As more followers you have (ten thousands!) and the more you want to build a brand, the more you should tweet – however limit it to not more than once the same tweet per hour.

Tools to automate tweets & save time
Automate your tweets so that you don’t have to sit in front of the computer all day long. There are three tools you can use: Twitterfeed, TwitterAdder and Twaitter. They are slightly different and they serve different purposes.

Twitterfeed 
Twitterfeed.com feeds your blog to Twitter, Facebook etc.  A YouTube video shows you step by step how to start Twitter feeds, however there are approx. twenty more videos to watch on YouTube.

TwitterAdder
TweetAdder.com will help you – for a fee. However they offer you up to 250 tweets and 250 followers for free – plus when you watch this tutorial  (Promo code: DISCOUNT20) you will receive 20% off Tweetadder 3.0. You name a Twitter account, and it will find all the followers of that person. It will then (over time) automatically follow these people for you, on the basis that a lot will follow back – if you have made your Twitter personal info interesting enough – and if you twitter interestingly enough.

Twaitter / Gremln
Twaitter.com – now Gremln is a free product that allows you to schedule your own tweets (up to 20 an hour) on a single or recurring basis. The process is very easy.  You will also find Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn integration, detailed analytics, customizable dashboards, stunning reports, multi-user management, and a whole lot more.

Link your blog to Twitterfeed, Twaitter (Gremln) or TwitterAdder
Every time your blog – or website for that matter – has something new it will get sent to Twitter. The other two options, Twaitter and TwitterAdder are where you should put all your best blog posts. When you’ve built up thirty or fifty blog posts, you will have a handful of favorites that you would like to recommend others to read. Post the links in Twaitter or TwitterAdder and schedule them (recurring).

Take these steps:

• Decide what your brand is on social media sites
• Set up automated tweets based on your sources
• Keep a blog and feed the posts automatically to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn etc.
• Select your best blog posts to auto-tweet
• Monitor and change as necessary

Monitor your traffic
With the increased flow of tweets you will get more replies from people. Be prepared to answer them!  You’re also going to have to carefully monitor the traffic that’s flowing to your blog. This is the only way to understand which of your tweets are working and which are not.

Using the analytics on your blog you can see how many hits you are getting. What time of day do you not get any visitors? When do you get peak traffic? Re-arrange tweets to try and even things out a little. Then try new things. Maybe a few video blogs on YouTube, or a series of special blog posts that you can link to again and again. Over time, you can get others to discover you and getting them to re-tweet your posts.

Building your brand on Twitter – or any other social media site doesn’t work overnight. It takes time and as earlier you start as better for you as an author. You will want to have a big following BEFORE your book is finished in order to have a great start when launching your work.

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