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!