Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber (books to read to be successful .txt) π
Many of the new readers liked Touching the Void so much, they wrote rave reviews on Amazon's site. These "amateur" book reviews, written by real climbers and armchair explorers, resonated deeply with the next wave of shoppers. More sales, more good reviews.
Ten years after the book's launch, Internet-powered word of mouth did something that no team of marketing wizards could do--it landed Touching the Void on the bestseller lists. The story was adapted for an acclaimed docudrama. Simpson, his writing career turbocharged, followed up with four successful adventure books, a novel, and lecture tours.
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Plug Your Book!
Online Book Marketing for Authors
Book Publicity through Social Networking
By Steve Weber
Advance buzz for Plug Your Book!"I don't care if you're writing a computer book, a science fiction novel or the next great self-help guide, you need to get your hands on a copy of Steve Weber's _Plug Your Book! _ ... I highly recommend this one to every author out there."
-- Joe Wikert, executive publisher, John Wiley & Sons Inc., professional/trade division#"An amazingly rich collection of cutting-edge promotional tactics and strategies. Makes most other books about online publicity look sickly."
-- Aaron Shepard, author: Aiming at Amazon#"In-depth information about using Amazon as a marketing platform."
-- Christine McNeil Montano, Amazon Top Reviewer#"...I have launched online campaigns for more than 1,000 books. I've worked with most of America's largest book publishers, helping many of them build online marketing departments. The book you're holding now is the new training manual."
-- Steve O'Keefe, author: Publicity on the Internet#"Practical, pragmatic, low-cost ideas for promoting the heck out of your own book, whether it's fiction, nonfiction, technical, business or anything else."
-- Dave Taylor, author: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Growing Your Business with Google#"The first comprehensive guide to Internet book publicity."
-- Morris Rosenthal, publisher, Foner Books#"A wealth of ideas for making your book stand out, including many techniques for Internet buzz you won't find elsewhere."
-- Jane Corn, Amazon Top Reviewer Also by Steve Weber:The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site
Sell on Amazon: A Guide to Amazon's Marketplace, Seller Central and Fulfillment by Amazon Programs
eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income, Beginner to PowerSeller in 90 Days
Plug Your Book!By Steve Weber
Published by Stephen W. Weber
Printed in the United States of America
Weber Books www.WeberBooks.com
Author: Steve Weber
Editor: Julie Bird
13-digit ISBN: 978-0-9772406-1-6
10-digit ISBN: 0-9772406-1-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006909769
Authorship-- Marketing
Front cover photo: Copyright 2007 JupiterImages Corp.
Back cover photo: Sam Holden Photography
Contents#Introduction#
Taking control of your book sales
One big caveat
How to use this book
Staying current
#Electric word of mouth#
Riding the big river
Amazon's 'long tail'
Getting recommended
Personalized bookstores
The wisdom of crowds
Bubbling to the top
Recommendation effectiveness
#Amazon Bestseller Campaigns#
Making the list
How Bestseller Campaigns work
... and this is success?
Haywired recommendations
Is it worth it?
#Amateur book reviews#
Credibility through peers
Getting more Amazon reviews
Amazon Top Reviewers
Contacting Top Reviewers
Etiquette in approaching reviewers
Finding more Amazon reviewers
More ways to get reviews
Amazon Spotlight Reviews
Negative reviews
Countering malicious reviews
Old-media book reviews
Posting trade reviews on Amazon
Fee-based book reviews
#Building your author Web site#
Getting involved
Your domain
Building blocks of your site
A survey of author Web sites
Your online press kit
Multimedia for books
Podcasting for publicity
Waiting for results
When to launch your site
#Blogging for authors#
What is a blog?
Why blogs are better
Breathing the blogosphere
Connecting with readers
Blog comments: pros and cons
Blog style
Your blog's angle
Raw materials for posts
Your blog's title
Writing your blog posts
Blogging categories
Over the long haul
Selecting your blog publishing tool
Advertising-supported blogs
Blog-to-e-mail service
#Author blog platforms up close#
Business
Humor
Politics
Arts and crafts
Diaries
Romance
Memoir
Mystery
Publishing
Blogs into books
#Blog tours#
Targeting host blogs
Google PageRank
Building your excerpt
Excerpts that sell
Your pitch to bloggers
Your guest appearance
Blog conversation
Archiving your results
Encore appearances
More resources
#Social networking#
MySpace: Not just for kids
Making friends on MySpace
Picking your 'Top 8'
Tips for working MySpace
Your MySpace blog
MySpace groups
Create your own group
Dedicated pages for titles, characters
MySpace books?
Uploading videos
MySpace best practices
Other places on MySpace
More social-networking sites
#Tag οΏ½ You're it!#
Personal book tagging
Amazon tags
Amazon Media Library
LibraryThing
Tag-based marketing
Problems with tags
#Advanced Amazon tools#
Buy X, Get Y
Weaknesses of BXGY
Free paired placement
Single New Product e-mails
Amazon Connect
Listmania
Publicize your book
So You'd Like to . . . guides
Search Inside the Book
Statistically Improbable Phrases
Writing book reviews
ProductWikis (Amapedia)
Customer discussions
BookSurge
Your Amazon profile
Amazon friends
Interesting people
Fine-tuning book recommendations
Pricing and discounting strategies
#Social search#
del.icio.us
Smart crowds
Vertical search
Amazon Search Suggestions
Digg
#Google, Amazon, digital content#
Google Book Search
Accidental book discovery
Instant Online Access
Ad-Supported Access
Google Print on Demand
Amazon Upgrade
Amazon's Mobipocket
Amazon digital audio
Amazon Pages
#Book promotion with e-books#
Amazon Shorts
Client acquisition
Selling e-books on your site
#Syndicating your content#
Article banks
How duplicate content backfires
Really Simple Syndication
BlogBurst
Traditional media interviews
Press releases
Protecting your content
#Beyond the blogosphere#
BookCrossing
Usenet, Google groups
Yahoo, AOL Groups
Getting buzz on eBay
#Revenue from your Web site#
Amazon Associates program
Barnes & Noble
CommissionJunction
eBay
Google AdSense, other advertising
#Pay-per-click advertising#
Google AdWords
Yahoo Search Marketing
#Power tools#
Amazon Sales Rank
TitleZ
Affiliate partnerships
Analyzing your traffic
Linking strategy
Search engine optimization
Keyword density
Length of your lease
Publishers Portal
Privacy policies
Web site cardinal sins
#Selling on Amazon, beyond#
Print on demand
Amazon Advantage
Amazon Marketplace
Catalog accuracy
Handling sales on your site
Google Checkout
#Other major online retailers#
Barnes & Noble
BookSense
#Ethics of online marketing#
Shill reviews
Spam
#Recommended reading#
IntroductionNo matter what kind of book you have, its success depends on two things: It must tell a good story, and you must find an audience for it. Easier said than done, but you might take a page from master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
As legend has it, schoolchildren in Andersen's 19th-century Danish town played hooky from school just to hear him spin his tales. Each time he felt like telling another one, Andersen signaled his desire by flying his kite. When the kite rose, word spread quickly, and the crowd gathered.
Can it be that simple in today's world? Can the modern author build an audience solely through community word of mouth?
Yes, you can, and you don't even need to leave your backyard. Today's authors can launch their kites to potentially huge audiences by participating in Internet communities. The big difference is, your online community isn't limited to your neighborhood--it can span the globe if you invest in some string.
More than ever, authors and readers are networking, even collaborating on books as peers. With simple Internet tools, determined writers--even beginners working on obscure projects--can find their audience. Using online communities, authors can bond with readers intimately, inspiring deep loyalty.
Internet social networking has handed authors their most powerful tool since the invention of paper. In the Networked Age, the stock of gatekeepers is going down, and the power of authors and readers is soaring.
Word of mouth is the only thing that can make a book really successful. And this has always been the challenge: How can the author break through? Until recently, it usually required "pull"--connections with powerful allies in the publishing food chain. Today, creative writers can connect with readers directly. The only requirements are a link to the Internet and the will to plug in.
This year, 150,000 authors will finish their masterpiece, but most of them will be horribly disappointed with their sales--only about one-third of new titles sell more than 100 copies. Most books fail in the marketplace simply because they never had a chance: Nobody ever heard about them.
Traditional marketing and advertising is less effective than ever; people aren't paying attention to it. But _free _ advertising is alive and well. The catch is, you can't manufacture free advertising; you must get it the old-fashioned way--by earning it.
Now for the first time, authors and readers can ignite word of mouth using online communities to spread the word about good books. Anyone with the skills to write an e-mail can publicize their book worldwide, effectively and economically.
Internet publicity isn't the only way to promote your book, but it's a great way to start--it can open doors you never dreamed of. The real value of online publicity is that it endures, and spawns more publicity, the kind that can't be bought. More than ever, journalists and producers of radio and television programs use the Internet to find expert commentators and new story ideas.
One big caveatNot every song is a hit, and not every ballplayer makes it to the Hall of Fame. Likewise, an online campaign won't make a bad book successful.
On the Internet, word of mouth is amplified and accelerated. Thanks to online communities, it's getting easier to sell good books, but it's getting harder to sell mediocre ones. Word gets around. For the strategies in this book to work, your book needs to be strong, because your best competitors are online, too.
Internet word of mouth depends on an educated consumer. You're asking the reader to help promote your book, and this requires a _very good _ book, according to your audience. _Bad _ word of mouth will hurt your sales. Online marketing only helps a bad book fail faster.
How to use this bookThe beginning sections of this book explain the basics of online book promotion, techniques that provide the most bang for your effort. As we proceed, some of the methods will be more complicated, requiring more skill and resources. Perhaps not everything discussed here will be practical for your book.
Your job is to select which promotional techniques might work best with your audience, and then use them aggressively and tirelessly. Online publicity works particularly well with nonfiction, but can be applied to fiction, too. The more techniques you try, the better your chances of success. A single strategy won't work, but a combined effort will produce results, and the effect will be cumulative.
Many author Web sites are mentioned in this book. Take time to view these sites, instead of skimming ahead. Consider what you like and don't like about what other authors have done, and apply the best ideas to your own efforts.
This book is not a quick-fix plan; there is no such thing as overnight success. It might require a year or more of steady work to see appreciable results. If that seems like a gamble and lots of work, it is. But I assure you, it's nothing compared with what it took to write your book.
Read through this entire book once. Then read it again, selecting and prioritizing what you'll tackle first. Mark on a calendar when you'll start each phase of your plan. Then get to it. Evaluate your progress after three months. Determine what's been successful, and redouble your efforts there. Then try something new.
Your freedom to use all the techniques described here might depend on how your book was published. Self-published authors who own the ISBN and online rights for their book can promote it however they please. Trade-published authors should confer with their publisher's marketing department and get approval for their plans.
One more bit of housekeeping: Just in case anyone is curious, I have no personal
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