How to Create Excitement Regarding Your New Book:

Once your book is finished and is in your editors hands to be “fine-tuned” you can use the time to prepare for your book launch and to improve even more your marketing efforts:

• Transfer your book cover-photo to Pinterest.com and Flickr.com and other free-photo pages with a link to your website.
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• Create a short book trailer for YouTube, using images, words or even scenes from your book*
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• Write about your upcoming book launch and post small bits and pieces
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• Get Marketing help at Fiverr.com
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• Ask your friends to “Thumbs up” & “Listmania” your book on Amazon
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• Announce your new book to the Independent Authors Forum
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• Let your followers on Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media know about the books “birth”.
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• Create as many free Author Pages as possible, on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, Wattpad etc.
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• Join even more forums, such as Kindle Forum or the AbsoluteWrite Forum
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• Set up e-Book Launches:

An e-book launch is when you get several (at least 10 – 15) website owners together to promote YOUR e-book all on the same day to their lists by sending out an email or write an article on their blog. The idea of a book launch is to turn the publication of the book into an event.

The key is to find the right joint-venture partners who can get your ebook in front of a lot of targeted traffic, readers who are interested in the kind of book you are selling. Each of your partners gives a bonus that buyers can get when they purchase, which allows your partners to collect names and emails and build their lists with buyers who are more valuable to them than prospects.

*Find more ideas in the brand new e-book: ***** 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer ***** featuring valuable tips and links to video tutorials, free music downloads and free images, available on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO

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Hyper Smash

 

Why Are You on Social Media? To Give or Take?

Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Chime.In, Tumblr, Reddit, Squidoo, LinkedIn… 

I network with lots of people online, and the ones that keep me coming back consistently offer something interesting, something helpful, and an overall positive, fun tone. Your own “brand” or reputation as we said in the good old days, is something that must be lovingly built, one post at a time and then carefully maintained. Its value is priceless.

There is a huge selection of social media sites to spend time online. If you want to keep your readers engaged with you, nurture your relationships with them through what you choose to share online, and respond to them.  Consider how your actions reflect on your author status in regards to your work. Make valuable contributions and allow yourself to shine by putting your work and your reputation always in the best light.

What doesn’t work?
Talking at people and not with them, and making it all about you.  Being repetitive and only shouting about where people can buy your books, your latest review, your book blurbs, etc., over and over again.  People will just tune you out if that’s all you offer.  Why should they return if you sing the same old tune time after time? Keep it fresh and develop your online personality into something that would keep you coming back if the tables were turned.

Be generous and engage with people
It actually shouldn’t be all about you.  I know a lot of authors who see every online post as a golden opportunity to sell a book.  However, people like those who help them and who give of themselves freely.  We all rely on others to various degrees. Therefore, use your online presence to benefit more than just yourself.  Pay it forward.  Not only does it feel really good, but it will foster loyalty and warmth.  Pass along the word about books you like or want to read, interesting authors, news items or tips that you think will help others, and a variety of other items that add value in different ways.

You will also find others much more willing to help you and get the word out about your work if you are generous and help them, too.  Do a good turn for someone else and always acknowledge how others have helped you. Show gratitude, and reciprocate good deeds.  Have a generous spirit and people will gravitate towards you.

As an author, you write for yourself, but also to entertain and move other people in some way.  Before every post consider, what’s in it for them?   Your writing success depends on more than simple sales.  Engage and intrigue and people will happily come back.
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Hyper Smash

 

How Authors Can Promote Their Books During the “KDP Select” months?

You can do a lot of things to promote your book while it is for three months locked in the KDP Select program:

• have an email PR action,
• send out press releases
• create a book trailer
• try to get as many reviews as possible
• be active in forums – work on your platform
• listing it on each and every website that promotes free books,
• extensively announce the free days and the lending in Amazon’s Prime program through Twitter, Google+, Chime.in, Pinterest, LinkedIn…
• If you haven’t already, list it for free at Bowker, get an ISBN number, improve your authors’ website and have friends and customers help to spruce up your success on Amazon – and most important of all:  write your next book !

Here are some tips how you can boost your book sales:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/amazon-marketing
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/important-expose-your-book-to-the-world
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/your-e-book-on-flickr
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/9-ways-to-support-your-favorite-author
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/how-to-create-your-book-trailer-2/
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/how-to-promote-your-book-for-free/
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/how-can-you-maximize-your-success-on-amazon/

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Hyper Smash

 

The Benefit of Creating a Contest

Title  Photo Contest:  Years ago when I published a magazine in Europe, I launched a photo contest to find the best image for a magazine cover.

I was overwhelmed with contributions and the happy winner of the first prize received a round-trip transatlantic flight ticket.

At Pinterest.com you can post photos that showcase places you write about, events your book has covered, or people you describe in your book.

Each Pin allows for a description and a link to the original story. Therefore, you can quickly connect an audience with your book’s story and future plans for other books, all via photo Pin.

And certainly a publisher, self-publisher or author could post book covers, images from inside the book(s) and create a contest around it. If the book is not yet published and you even don’t have a cover decided – why not post several cover versions and let the visitors at Pinterest.com choose the most liked? Or a video contest, inviting users to create a new trailer for your book?  To give them an idea about your book, make a link to your blog or website for more information, so they get an idea about the content and at the same time get interested in your work.

Beside Pinterest, you should also post your contest on Google+, Chime.in, Tumblr or on Facebook, have a link on Twitter, and post it on every social media site, you are involved with. If you have friends who are on other sites, they can post it for you there too.  Facebook’s encourages it even on their website: “Contests for Fan Pages enables companies & agencies to easily create & launch branded contests within minutes on Facebook Fan Pages. The following contest formats are available: photo contests, video contests, design contests, logo contests, essay-based contests.”

Make sure you don’t let your contest drag on too long, maximum 4 weeks. Offer a real great first prize and some for the 2nd and 3rd winner.  Allow the contest participants to vote to choose the winner, which keeps the audience interacting with one another and engaged long after each person has submitted their entry.  Use Google+, Facebook, Chime.in, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter to promote the winner.

 

How an Unfinished Books Hits # 1

Do authors have to be social?  No, but it helps tremendously!
“I have never had a single ad for any of my novels, had a movie made or been given a big budget push by a publisher. Usually, they just throw my book out to reviewers and hope it floats.

Some authors are realizing that the social aspect of their work can be a powerful engine:  Earlier this year, author John Green — who writes fiction for young adults — showed that it is possible to hit number one on the bestseller list with a book that hasn’t even been published yet.

He was able to do this in part because he had already spent the past couple of years building up a following on Twitter (where he has over 1,000,000 followers) and on YouTube, where he posts clips of himself reading from his books. The simple mention of a sequel to a book was enough to push it to the top of the bestseller list.”

Read the whole article:  Do authors have to be social?  No, but it helps tremendously!
on a post from January 6 at http://gigaom.com

Read also this amazing story of a bestseller author:
Tweeting from a La-Z-Boy, An Unfinished Book Hits No. 1 .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450604576418161912396814.html

 

 

Social Media – Which One Do You Like Best?

Jeff Bullas wrote in the foreword for his brilliant infographic:
“Social media is spreading knowledge globally at the speed of a “Tweet” and provides us all with tools that can enable us to follow our dreams, if only we can capture and heighten that curiosity for knowledge that drives humans to succeed.”

From Jeff’s post on social media networks:

Google+
Google+ now both a personal and business social network after launching Google+ brand “pages” on November 7, 2011. Google plus enhanced the visual aspect of social networks by making its images significantly larger (think book titles!) than the photos on Facebook.

Pinterest
This social network is a place to organise and share online images that you find interesting or inspiring and continues to reinforce the trending growth of an increasingly visual social web. Pinterest has grown 4,000% in the last 6 months, with more than 4 million unique users.

Tumblr
Tumblr is a multimedia rich microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their short form blog. It is about ease of use.
•900% growth in the last 12 months
•90 million users compared to only 10 million a year ago

Slideshare
Slideshare is the “YouTube of  Presentations” and allows you to upload PowerPoint into globally accessed slideshow and again is a highly visual social  media platform.
•It is one of the top 150 websites in the world
•60 million visitors a month
•Has 500% more traffic from business owners than any other professional website
•3 billion slide views per month

Facebook
Facebook is a “must have” to keep tabs on, as its 800 million plus users means it is the defacto social network platform of choice for nearly one in two of the world’s web users.  Its ecosystem with easy to install “apps” and burgeoning commerce and marketing power continue to attract business and marketers. Essentially you market on facebook first and then consider other platforms.

Twitter
Its simplicity and immediacy as an open texting service on steroids continue to keep it  top of mind in popular digital culture. Its embedding in the new Apple iOS5 mobile operating system  has stimulated growth and increased sign-ups by 300%.

See his superb post here:
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/01/03/6-social-media-networks-to-watch-in-2012-plus-infographics/

 

 

 

Try this: Chime.In

UberMedia CEO Bill Gross has launched his new content-based social network, Chime.in. The serial entrepreneur said in an interview with gigaom.com that he is an avid user of all other social media services.  But existing social networks have two problems: relevance and monetization. What he has created is a new interest-based network that doesn’t compete with existing social networks, and where partizipants can monetize.

“Gross: The fundamental unit of conversation in this new network is called a “chime,” and it is 250 characters and an image (or more) plus links and polls. You can also tag it with interests or topics.  We want to focus more on niches of interest.

We also have an API that allows developers to extend the range of things that can be included in a chime, so you can run an auction inside a chime — you can actually do e-commerce right within the platform, so if you have two tickets for the game you can sell them right there. We are opening up those abilities to developers, which I think will be a big driver of monetization.

You can see what we call a “chime-line”, which you can sort by time or by the number of “likes” or the number of comments. That way, the good stuff rises to the top. You can also follow people — but instead of just following everything, you can do what we call a “selective follow,” and choose just the topics you want to follow in their stream.

I think the only way we are going to have good communities is if someone puts work into them — and the only way someone is going to do that is either because it’s a labor of love or because there is an economic incentive. So we are trying to help give them that. And if people create great communities then that will draw people to the network.

We allow anyone — individuals, celebrities, brands — to create a rich-media page and monetize that themselves. If someone wants to sell ads on their page, 100 percent of the revenue from those ad sales goes to him or her. If she/he wants us to sell the ads for her/him, then it’s a 50-percent revenue share “  – unlike all the other social media where the site cashes 100%, and then cashes again when the enterprise is sold for millions…

Have a look at interests in http://Chime.in
such as book writing, photography, e-books, self-publishing, Book Design & Layout etc. among hundreds of others.

 

 

Chime.In: The New Social Network That Pays You To Post

Chime.In Logo

 

While Facebook has earned billions of dollars selling ads next to the content uploaded by their 800 million members, users haven’t seen a dime from their posts. It’s an arrangement that extends across many of the web’s largest social networking sites – and one serial entrepreneur, Bill Gross, plans to change that.

Share with Chime.in and Chime.in will share with you. The site, which allows individuals to post photos, links, videos and text in two thousand character “chimes,” will give users 50 percent of the revenue it earns from selling advertising on their profile pages.

Read the whole story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/chimein-social-network_n_1016634.html?view=print&comm_ref=false