Writer’s Guide to Marketing

By Frances Caballo

You’ve published your book (or made it available as an e-book), signed up for Facebook and Twitter, and you have a website.

Ah. At last you can do a few readings, ask your Redwood Writers colleagues to buy a copy, and relax. Right? 

Wrong! 

You need a blog. Search engines love websites that continually add new content and blogs are an easy way to achieve that objective. 

How often should you blog? Some people blog daily while others blog once a month. If you can blog twice a week, that would be best.  

If you can only blog once a month that’s okay. Just start one and keep it going. And don’t forget to use this platform to promote your book. 

How to Use Your Blog to Promote Your Book 

Here are a few topics that you can use when your brain clouds over and you can’t come up with a new post. 

·       Discuss how you researched the background for your book. Which libraries or resources were most helpful? What did you learn from the experience?

·       Assume the voice of one of your characters and have them talk about the book.

·       Create a vlog (a video blog) now and then and interview some of your readers.

·       Write a blog for an upcoming book reading/signing or write a post about something humorous or marvelous that occurred at your last reading.

·       Talk about the setting in your book.

·       Feature an excerpt and explain why you like it (aside from the fact that you wrote it!).

·       Write about your rejection letters.

·       Prepare a post about your marketing challenges.

·       Explain why you wrote this book.

·       Is your book topical? Tell people why you chose to write it now.

·       Is your book for young adults? Explain why you targeted that audience.

·       Are you thrilled with the jacket cover? Tell your readers how you found your designer and how you worked together. 

I could continue but by now I’m certain you have your own ideas so please share them here so we can learn from each other. Thanks!

 ©Frances Caballo 2011 – This post cannot be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

A Writer’s Guide to Marketing

Michael Martine is the mastermind behind Remarkablogger, which he describes as “No-Bullshit Blogging for Bitchin’ Businesses.” It's immediately obvious that he has found his blogging voice – a unique one that rises to the top of search engines out there on the Internet. 

This guy has personality and he really knows his stuff.  

He wrote a 65-page e-book titled How to Write an E-Book That Doesn't Suck. This is a great little book for bloggers to pick up because it will show you how to plan your blogs ahead of time and then compile them into a "how-to" e-book.

Do you cringe at the thought of writing pitches to sell your book? Michael sums up his advice with this comment: “Nowhere … does it say, ‘Sound like an overhyped snake oil salesman and bleed yellow highlighter all over your text.’” 

In other words, don't push your book. If it’s a “how-to” book, promote it as containing solutions to the buyer's problems or questions. 

Remarkablogger’s Suggestions for Writing Successful Sales Copy   

Whether you’ve written a novel, poetry, memoir, or a how-to tome, here are some pithy insights that make sense and work.

·       Determine who your audience is, learn about your audience, and then tailor the tone, wording and formatting to their needs. 

·       Write short sentences and paragraphs – just like you do in your blogs.

·       Use bullets and subheadings. People love these because they enable readers to breeze through a book and quickly find the nuggets of information they’re searching.

·       Be personable and friendly.

·       If you give anyone advance copies of your book to review, ask them to post a comment supporting your book.

·       Create a website just for your book.

·       Use social media to promote your book.

·       Don't forget to ask people to order the book.

·       Use your blog to promote your book.

An important message that he reiterates is: Don't try to sell your book. Instead, identify the value of what you've written, describe the book in terms of meeting a need the buyer has (want to relax with a good thriller tonight?), and help the buyer to feel comfortable about the purchase.  

Create A Book Cover that Rocks 

Of course, great covers also help to sell books. He has some great suggestions on how to create "a killer e-book cover, ninja-style." 

·       Get a good piece of stock art from iStockPhoto or a similar site. Personally, I prefer to use Google Images because all of the photos are free.

·       Use Picasa or PowerPoint to etch text over the photo. (I’ve tried it and it’s easy to do!)

·       Save your book eCover as a JPEG file.

·       Insert the picture you created on your document cover page and adjust the text wrapping settings to "underneath" so the page margins won't interfere with the cover you just designed.

·       Resize the picture as necessary.

 If those instructions seem burdensome, go to MyeCoverMaker.com and for $3.95 you can make a one-time purchase of an eCover download. You can also subscribe at $9/month for unlimited use of this application. 

In a nutshell, that’s how you get your e-book out there in the marketplace. I’d love to hear your comments!