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    Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money
    Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money
    Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money
    Ebook210 pages1 hour

    Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money

    By Doris-Maria Heilmann

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    About this ebook

    During the last seven years, roughly nine million new self-published books have appeared. Almost all are available at online retailers’ websites. In addition, these titles will be offered for many years to come. Most of them are in digital format and will never go “out of print. 

    The “gold rush” seems to be over, and author-publishers have to compete for readers with major publishing houses/media conglomerates, who jumped finally on the e-book bandwagon.
    You may not be a New York Times bestselling author with a publicist—yet. So, if you want to succeed at self-publishing, you’ll want to learn everything you can about professional book layout, publishing, and traditional book marketing methods.

    This author-guide to free (or very low cost) book marketing and professional publishing, provides authors with valuable tips and hands-on instructions how to connect directly with their readers, how to find lots of bloggers and book reviewers, establish a solid platform and strengthen their author brand. 
    Content marketing secrets and the latest social media tips will enable authors to capitalize on their writing competence and to increase their readership tremendously. 
     

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisher111Publishing
    Release dateNov 29, 2017
    ISBN9781988664217
    Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money

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      Book preview

      Book Marketing on a Shoestring - How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money - Doris-Maria Heilmann

      Introduction

      Since 2010 roughly seven million new self-published books have appeared. Almost all are available at online retailers’ websites. In addition, these titles will be offered for many years to come. Most of them are in digital format and will never go out of print. The gold rush seems to be over, and author-publishers have to compete for readers with major publishing houses / media conglomerates, who jumped finally on the e-book bandwagon.

      You may not be a New York Times bestselling author with a publicist—yet. So, if you want to succeed at self-publishing, you’ll want to learn everything you can about professional book layout, publishing, and traditional book marketing methods.

      IMPORTANT: You will find many steps in the publishing process in this book. These tasks are not obvious book marketing tasks, but they are essential for your success as an author. For example: having an appealing book cover, choosing the right genre, placing your book into the worldwide Bowker listing, and writing prequels for your future books.

      One trait for writers is essential: patience. So, don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to build your author brand and improve your book’s ranking. The more you write—not only books, but also magazine / newspaper articles, blog posts, guest blog articles, Google+ posts, and short stories—the more exposure and success you will have. Writing is not only a joy; it is also part of your book marketing and platform. It typically takes FIVE books to start making a living from your work.

      For Whom is this Book Useful?

      You might belong to the group of talented authors who have written a fantastic self-published first novel; but, you just don’t have the sales numbers your book deserves. You realized that selling and marketing is a completely different process than writing and publishing your book. You are not alone. Very few writers have a degree in marketing and business or experience in publishing and selling on- and offline.

      You may have crafted several thrillers, or non-fiction books, and found a publisher who accepted your manuscripts and published the first book (after two long years). The book is available in bookstores, but it isn’t displayed on the bestseller tables at the store’s entrance. You had to search for it in the shelves and found it finally—spine outwards—among lots of competing titles. In addition, the clock is ticking; you found out from your agent that bookstores return all unsold books after a couple of weeks to make space for the next bestseller shipment.

      You could be a writer who, after ten or twenty rejections from all the major publishers, signed up with a publishing company (a vanity publisher). You have already paid $2,000 to bring your book to the market. Unfortunately, you have to promote it yourself, or pay this company another $5,000 for a press release and a possible radio or TV interview. Because your financial resources are somewhat tight, you decide to market your book on your own—at least for now. Magazine and other freelance writers are more successful when their stories are popular with readers and generate lots of comments. An important duty for writers—as it is for authors—is to build a platform and a brand to extend their readership. In turn, this persuades their media customers to order more articles from them. The same is true for professional bloggers, who often run several affiliate programs. In order to get lots of traffic (and clicks) on their blogs, and raise their Alexa and Google Search Engine rankings, they need to promote their writing.

      Dear Reader,

      No Money? No Problem! Success in social media book marketing, using the tools described here, is almost all free. A certain time commitment may be necessary, at least in the beginning, depending on your level of involvement. Yet, the more you use these marketing tools, the faster you can handle them. This means that you will get more visitors and buyers.

      This book’s title promises Marketing Your Book for Free. That’s true for all your activities except for three that you will use to start your platform:

      • Your professional Author Portrait

      • Your Website/Blog Hosting

      • Your Business Card/Bookmarks

      These tools are a (small) necessary expense, unless you are good friends with an excellent portrait photographer, website designer/host, or maybe even a print company. Otherwise expect to pay around $150-$200; however, peanuts when compared to starting a different business. That’s what it is: a publishing business (if you want to sell your books). Otherwise it is a hobby; writing just for the fun of it, not bothering with professional publishing.

      PART ONE

      -50

      Tweet: Book Marketing on a Shoestring: Learn How to Publish and Promote Your Books Professionally http://ctt.ec/U9y7l+

      Why Book Marketing is Important - and Rewarding.

      It doesn’t matter if you plan to write as a hobby or to earn money. You may be only thinking about writing a book, and you have so far crafted merely a first outline. You will still benefit from learning the key marketing steps any author can take to create a platform from which to promote their books. Many of these steps are small; some can be achieved in minutes! Others take longer, or must be implemented as regular tasks. Don’t start with the goal to sell a lot of copies of your first novel; start with the goal to create a relationship with your future readers. At the same time, work on your next title. If readers like your first book, they won’t want to wait two or more years until your next one comes out. They will want to see the sequel soon; otherwise, they will find another author. Remember, they can choose from millions in each genre.

      The e-book market numbers exploded as big publishers went into digital formatting just as independent authors do. Now, major publishers use their backlist inventory to transfer these manuscripts into e-book versions. This means that their bestseller and mid-list books won’t go out of print anymore.

      One after the other of the big trade publisher conglomerates have started selling their books via Amazon. This new trend makes it even more important than it was five or ten years ago to have a large following of loyal readers. As they would say in real estate: It’s a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market! Self-publishing guru, Aaron Shepherd, sums it up: The party is over.

      So, you have written the best book and found the best agent possible. He / she has made the best deal with the best publisher. In that case, you will be surprised to learn about the reality of traditional publishing: publishers do spend little money on advertising, PR and paid placement in bookstores; but, they don’t spend the same amount on all books. In fact, they spend almost all their marketing budget on bestselling authors. On average, publishers shell out less than $2,000 on advertising 90% of their titles (mostly only for their bookstore catalogues). That’s not much exposure to get the word out about your book.

      It all adds up to this fact: no matter how you publish, or plan to publish, it is up to you, the author, to market your book(s). The more you learn about professional book promotion, the easier it will work for you. You will also have more success. In this one, and several upcoming guides to publishing and book marketing, you will learn in detail how to achieve it!

      How Readers Will Find Your Book.

      A Pew Survey shows how people find books, in this order:

      1. Searching on Top 100 Bestseller lists

      2. Shopping for books written by their favorite author

      3. Trustworthy Media Recommendations

      4. Word of mouth, or word of mouse

      5. Book search by genre or keywords

      6. Meeting the author in person (or online)

      7. Deals, discounts or free book campaigns

      New writers might not be able to tap into #1, bestseller lists, but they can foster relationships with their readers. This will help to establish a loyal following of many readers who buy, read, review and recommend their books. A loyal group of supporters will also help to cover #2, #4 and #6: books by a favorite author, word of mouth and in person / online promotion. However, as an author you still need to know where and how to find your target readers as well as how to plan your professional marketing strategies.

      Author-Entrepreneur—Do You Have What it Takes?

      Even as a shy writer you

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