Book Marketing Advice and Tips

Smith Publicity: Marketing for Self-Publishers

I don’t have any direct experience with Smith Publicity, but it’s nice to see this as part of their manifesto:

Over the last ten years, self-publishing has evolved from what was stigmatized as amateurish endeavor to an increasingly accepted and exciting form of publishing. The industry has enjoyed a revolution of popularity and gained credibility via front-page articles about self published books in publications such as the New York Times and mentions in TIME magazine.

Today, self-publishing is all about providing opportunities to authors whose self published books who otherwise might never have their book see the light of

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2019-02-03T09:03:45+02:00July 14th, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: , |

The Duality of “New” Media for Writers

For nine years I worked for an online publicity firm for authors. The company was one of the first, if not the first, dedicated solely to online publicity. When I joined them, in 2000, none of the major publishing houses had online publicity departments. Some of them didn’t yet have company email or Web sites.  It sounds archaic, by today’s standards. Publishing, as an industry, had not yet seen the potential for online book marketing, or the migration that media was making to the Internet.

What a difference a decade makes. By the time I resigned in 2009, we were […]

2020-02-21T03:57:39+02:00June 30th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: |

Tim Ferriss teaches book promotion secrets – for $7000.

Although Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Work Week, 4 Hour Body) isn’t self published, his success is due entirely to his own promotion and marketing tactics. Pretty much single handedly he’s created a book promotion campaign strategy that is keeping both his books high on the best-seller lists, for years. A couple days ago he announced that he’s going to hold a private conference with only 200 people, and share the secrets he’s developed to launch a bestseller and keep it selling. And you can join – for $7000. Yes, it’s too pricey for most self-published authors; but it is […]

2011-04-15T19:50:30+02:00April 15th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog, News|Tags: , |

5 creative book marketing and promotion tips with fiverr.com

Two nights ago I became addicted to the website www.fiverr.com. If you haven’t heard of fiverr, it’s a website that allows people to offer to do a variety of things for five bucks. There are hundreds of different kinds of things people are willing to do – and at $5 per job, many of them are fantastic bargains. Here are a few of the more interesting things I’ve found and am testing in my book promotion and marketing:

1) Improve your PR-rank. If you have a blog or website, it’s important to have a lot of high quality links […]

2011-04-15T19:48:05+02:00April 15th, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: , , |

How to use a book trailer to promote your book – and where to get a cheap one made.

Book trailers have become a staple in the publishing industry. Unfortunately they can costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars (for only 1 minute of video!). Do you really need a book trailer to promote your book? Where can you find high quality, low cost video production? What do you do with a book trailer once you’ve got one? Here are some tips.

1) Making the trailer. There are two ways to go. One is high quality, professionalism. Like a movie trailer from WB. These can be pretty expensive but stand out from the majority of book trailers (which are […]

2011-04-03T10:01:49+02:00April 3rd, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: , |

How to get your book reviewed – by avoiding book reviewers.

To have a chance at selling your book on amazon or online, you need reviews. Lots of them. And if you’re like me, you hate pushing all your friends and family to review your work (is it really fair to ask them?) and leave comments. So most authors do this:

1) Search online for book reviews, indie book reviewers, self-published book reviews, how to get book reviews, etc.

2) Email or contact those reviewers asking them to take a look at their books and comment.

Here’s why that doesn’t work. First of all – those few sites that offer […]

Blogads for book sales? Where and how to advertise your self-published book.

For the past few months I’ve been trying just about everything to get people to read and comment on my indie non-fiction. I’m giving it away for free on my website. I sent out massive email campaigns to related bloggers, basically begging them to take a look at get the free copy. Response has been good – but limited. As of right now I’ve got only a handful of amazon comments and the book is ranked well over the 1,000,000 mark on amazon. But I’m still optimistic, even excited, because I’m learning a lot about what works and what doesn’t, […]

2017-03-24T09:22:57+02:00April 1st, 2011|Categories: Resources|Tags: , |

Can Giving Away a Free Ebook Help Sell More Books?

free ebook Ice Cracker IIWhen I e-published my first novel, a high fantasy adventure called The Emperor’s Edge, I spent the first couple weeks posting about it everywhere. Message boards, Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc. etc. I even contemplated getting a custom CafePress t-shirt that I could wear at the gym (the natural place where high fantasy lovers hang out, of course). My efforts weren’t totally in vein, and I did sell a few copies this way, but I realized this was a tough way to make a dollar.

I decided to try a couple new tactics: advertising (which I’ve blogged about here before[…]

2020-02-21T03:57:49+02:00March 31st, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: |
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