In my previous article, I mentioned that self-publishing requires creativity, effort and innovation in order to tell your story. Simply putting pen to paper is not enough – the final product should be personable as well as professional.
Ironic, isn’t it?
So most of us can write a memoir easily – one that can impress upon everyone that can relate to our story. But don’t forget – a self-publishing book should be as professional as a book from a publishing house.
Why does it matter? Simply put – readers have standards! No one would like to buy a book with an unprofessional cover, or a book with a poorly formatted interior. When you use a self-publishing company, you don’t have to worry about these “issues”. Why not? Here are the top reasons:
You don’t have to design your books yourself. We have designed and produced thousands of books, and you can benefit from this experience.
We provide you with necessary guidance to make sure your end product is unique and fits requirements.
You don’t have to worry about publishing and dealing with different agents for each task. We can do it all for you.
We make self-publishing affordable with different packages.
You can find your own voice. Instead of traditional publishing houses that want you to produce information that works for them, we suggest you to publish what works for you.
Self-publishing companies can provide a decisive edge to your final product.
Have you set a resolution to publish your own book in 2012? Let’s talk…
The majority of us spend large portions of our life working for someone – whether that is in a big office or a coffee shop. There are others who are stay-at-home parents and part-time workers who contribute to cultivating strong family values while maintaining financial stability.
Both of these sets of people, and all those that have not been mentioned, are entrepreneurs.
What are my dreams? What are my ambitions?
I will tell you why.
Ask children what they want to do when they grow up. Some want to be firemen, some want to be a princess, and some want to be in the army.
All of us have dreams, ambitions, and a unique life story. All of us have a tale to tell, a tale that allows a reader or a listener to experience our life through our words. All of us have this inherent, self-motivated, entrepreneurial attitude that allows us to connect with others and tell them our story; and people pay attention, not because it is ours, but it is different than their story.
Self-publishing is very similar.
The books that we pen are rooted in experiences – physical, emotional, and spiritual. By telling our story (everything we write is a story), we are giving courage to the entrepreneur within us. This entrepreneur always existed somewhere deep down in our psyche but couldn’t get out due to time restraints, financial commitments or family issues.
Self-publishing is the lifting of the final veil of our life experiment.
Whatever we have been through comes out on paper, and it is there for everyone to see. In this, self-publishers are no different than entrepreneurs, who risk everything to innovate and tell their story. The only difference, perhaps, is that most innovators start early; and most self-publishers finish late.
Have you ever seen the movie Field of Dreams? Do you remember the infamous line, “If you build it, they will come”? True enough, the field was built and “they” came.
Marketing a book is a bit different, though. Publishing a book is not enough to make the theoretical “them” appear. You need to market your book, and this means more than just telling your family and friends about it. You want to market it to the people who are already waiting to read your book – which (oddly enough) is usually not your family and friends.
Believe it or not, there is a group of people all across the country (or even the globe) who are already interested in what you’ve written about. The thing is – you haven’t found them yet. They can’t find you, because they aren’t aware that you or your book are “out there”. You have the upper hand. You know they exist. So, how do you find them and get them to buy your book? You have to start with creating a book marketing plan that sells. Here are a few tips to get started:
Figure out who they are. Your book was written for a unique audience. No book, no matter how well-written, should be read by “everyone”. Find out who can benefit from your book. That’s your target audience/market.
Find out what makes them buy. Do they buy for status? Do they buy for entertainment? Do they buy out of sheer need? Pinpoint what makes them “tick”. That’s your hot button.
Figure out how your book meets your target audience’s needs. Do you solve a problem for them? Do you entertain them? This is your marketing message.
Get the word out about your book. Everything counts, as long as it is a medium that’s relevant to your potential reader. If your target market consists of the more spiritual folks among us, you may consider advertising in a magazine that caters to spiritual enthusiasts. This is your marketing medium/method.
Every author should go through a thought process that involves at least the four steps outlined above. This is a very basic beginning to a book marketing plan.
Don’t want to “go it alone”? You shouldn’t have to. A Personal Marketing Assistant can help you develop or redefine your book marketing plan.
Have you published your book yet? Your audience is waiting…
The holidays are an exciting time for self-publishing authors. Customers are looking for books to add to their shopping lists, and there is a lot of money being spent all around.
How can you take advantage of promoting your book to this wide audience?
Run an ad in a publication that book readers subscribe to. To help subsidize the cost, you may consider advertising with other authors.
Go on tour. Face-to-face tours are great, but if you can’t afford the expense of (or don’t have the time for) a national book tour, a virtual book tour works just as well.
Think outside the box. Earlier this year, I discussed using Groupon or other local deal sites to sell more copies of your book. This is a great way to partner with local bookstores and there is no upfront cost to you. This can mean more foot traffic for the store and more book sales for you.
Make sure you have plenty of promotional materials to distribute at holiday events and send out to friends and family. Greeting cards, postcards, and business cards are the most popular among authors. These are inexpensive ways to promote your book to the people you already know.
What other ways can self-publishing authors capitalize on the holiday season? Let us know in the comments below.
Are you ready to publish your book for the holiday season?
Outskirts Press is an industry leader in providing post-publication support, products, and services to its growing family of self-published authors.
Due to popular demand, we are now reporting the Top 5 Book Marketing Options each month (as opposed to the Top 10). This way, you’ll have a small list of recommended options and be able to better prioritize your book marketing efforts.
The top-ranking options are determined by how many self-published authors sign up for them. Many of these products and services are even available to authors who did not publish with Outskirts Press. Visit our Marketing Solutions page to view the growing list of available book marketing options.
These are the marketing products and services determined to be most popular by our authors for August 2011 — listed below in alphabetical order:
Amazon Extreme Package This is a package deal that lets you save 25% on three amazing marketing tactics centered around Amazon: The Amazon Kindle Edition, Search Inside the Book, and the Keyword Search Submission Service. Plus a free copy of the Amazon best selling book, Sell Your Book on Amazon.
Amazon Kindle Edition The Amazon Kindle is a revolutionary wireless reading device that allows its owners to instantly download books and newspapers. This is the new way that people are buying books. However, only books that have been submitted to the Amazon Kindle via the required process and in the required format are available for Kindle readers to purchase and enjoy.
Amazon Search Inside the Book This service allows your potential buyer to browse your book online just as they would in a “traditional” bookstore. This alleviates a lot of the the anxiety associated with purchasing books online.
Custom Press ReleaseHave our professional press release writer compose an original, unique press release for your book, submitted to you for your review/approval, and then distributed to our news wire service on your behalf.
Outskirts Press authors who are interested in any of these options can find further details and ordering information by clicking on the name (or image) of the option above. Information about either of these solutions can be found on the Marketing Options page of your Publishing Center. Authors who published elsewhere can visit our Marketing Solutions page to get more information about any of the marketing options available to order.
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Is it time to get published and start receiving book marketing services like this?
Outskirts Press, the fastest growing self-publishing and book marketing company, announced today the availability to all authors of their exclusive Book Blast Package, a book promotion Tour de Force that combines their five most popular book marketing services at a twenty-five percent savings.
“Thank you and your staff for developing this vital marketing tool for your authors. As Writing as a Small Business stresses, a web presence is vital and the wave of the future for marketing and selling books. You all proved it.” said Nash Black, author of Writing as a Small Business.
Here are five steps to successfully launching your book:
Send your press release to industry contacts. Follow up with phone calls as appropriate.
Create a sixty second (or less) video trailer for your book and distribute it through online social networks.
Find book reviewers who are committed to providing quality and honest reviews for self-published titles. Submit your book to at least ten of them.
Hire a book marketing consultant to help you with the tasks you may not be feel comfortable working on yourself (i.e. developing a marketing plan, setting up book signings, etc.).
Previously, all of these services had to be ordered separately, but now all of them can be purchased together in a cost-effective package that “makes sense” of book marketing for self-publishing authors.
“With one easy order, any author can now save money and get the promotion of his or her book off to an explosive start,” said Outskirts Press Manager of Author Support, Elise Connors.
The Outskirts Press Book Blast Package is now available for all authors through the self-publisher’s web site www.outskirtspress.com/p/bookblast
We recognize authors choose print on demand services because they don’t want to worry with storing an inventory of books, etc. Because of this, we offer our authors a low, below-wholesale author price on quantities of just 5 at a time. With our various self-publishing packages, we handle the distribution for you – which means, no need to have a garage full of books.
There are some authors, however, who like to sell their own books through various direct sales channels (i.e. their own website, face-to-face selling, etc.). We created a special bulk order program that can help these authors save up to 50% off their already-discounted author copy base price.
Here’s a chart that illustrates the savings available to authors in each ordering threshold:
To take advantage of these discounts, enter an order for the appropriate quantity in your Publishing Center and read the additional information that pops-up on your screen. This information includes details about how to place your order, alternate production schedules, and turnaround times for these drastically discounted books.
Are you ready to order your books and save up to 50% off the regular author price?
Building a recognizable brand is an important part of any author’s overall book marketing strategy. One of the ways you can do this is to offer your knowledge through a well-known resource. What if you could connect with a reporter and be sourced in an article publishing in a nationwide magazine or newspaper? Wouldn’t you agree that’s a great form of publicity?
That’s what you find on HARO (Help AReporter Out) - opportunities to make media industry contacts. When you subscribe to HARO, you are sent several email digests throughout the day. In each digest, you can find several media leads in a wide variety of categories. An email address is also listed so that you can follow up with any lead in your field of expertise. Once you email the reporter, it’s up to them to follow up with you if interested.
Reporters are waiting to connect with you!
Self-publishing authors stand a lot to gain from subscribing to HARO’s email digests. A few ways this can help you build your brand (and ultimately sell more books) are:
You can establish yourself as an industry expert. People like experts. People learn from experts. People believe what experts say. Imagine the credibility that stems from being sourced in an article read by others who closely follow your field and would be interested in your book.
You can widen your “reach”. Your reach is the number of people that actually know about or have seen you or your book. The more people that are familiar with you and your work, the greater the likelihood of higher sales performance.
You can mention your book in the article (if allowed). Some writers allow you to mention your book in their article. This sweetens the deal and can really help drive more readers to your books because they know exactly what they’re looking for.
The above list is not exhaustive. Self-publishing authors have seen a great deal of success from such efforts – especially if they enlist the help of a book marketing coach.
What do you think? Have you ever landed an interview or any other publicity using HARO? Has it been an effective tool to aid in selling more books?
Are you ready to take advantage of other opportunities available for self-publishing authors?
Video allows you to connect with the emotions of a reader. Static text on a page can only go so far. That’s where video comes into play. It allows you to pull at your potential reader’s heartstrings – if used correctly.
Your video can make them hand you their heart on a silver platter.
Some authors miss out on this opportunity to connect with their audience because they aren’t familiar with how video marketing works. There are many ways you can use video to market your book. Some of the most popular options are book teasers and book trailers. However, you can also start a YouTube channel where you connect with your readers on a more personal level or even share excerpts from your book.
The first step is deciding how you will create the video. You have a few options here – using video creation software or using a webcam/video camera. While a webcam video allows you to talk “face to face” with your audience and people enjoy personal connection, video creation software that uses slides with images and text can be just as effective for reaching the end goal — selling more copies of your book.
After you’ve decide how to make the video, you have to decide what the focus of the video will be. Do you want it to be a trailer that gives the audience little hints on what the book will be about? Do you want to read and reflect on a few excerpts from your book? Do you want to discuss a topic that’s relevant to your readers?
They're paying attention - but for how long?
Once you begin creating your content, you must remember to keep it short. The longer a video takes to get to the point, the less interested your reader will be. Believe it or not, research suggests that the average attention span of an adult is 7 seconds! That means if you don’t do something to grab their attention in the first 7 seconds, they are not very likely to continue watching.
How do you grab them in the first 7 seconds? Say something unusual (but interesting)! Give them something familiar! Tell a joke! Certainly there are other ways to catch them before they move on to something else, but these are just a few of the most common.
If you aren’t comfortable using either video creation method (or just want someone else to do the work for you), there are many companies that will create these for you – including Outskirts Press. Each service provider offers varying degrees of production quality – with some offering a less expensive “slide show” option and others offering film-quality trailers with actors/actresses, props, etc.
Here is an example of a book video trailer solutions for a self-publishing authors that we also distributed to a wide variety of social and video networking sites.
It’s easy. Regardless of whether you are self publishing with Outskirts Press or not, you can conveniently and securely order the book video trailer by clicking the big green button. We handle everything!
What’s a perfect book synopsis? Well, there’s no such thing. Every book has its own unique selling points that must be featured in the book synopsis if you plan to connect with your reader.
There are, however, a few key things that should be included in each synopsis for the best possible results. Any time someone makes a decision to buy something, they want to know what’s in it for them (commonly called WIIFM in the sales world). Your synopsis should answer that question.
Certainly you should be sure that your synopsis includes information about your book. While writing it, though, make sure that it isn’t stuffed with information about your book and nothing about what the reader will get from it.
Here are a few example WIIFM statements from a few of the most popular genres (any title mentions are not intentional – these titles were all made up while writing this post):
Fiction/Children’s:Bobo and the Bunny will teach your children about teamwork in a delightfully entertaining way.
Self-Help:Overcoming a Severe Eating Disorder reveals practical solutions to overcoming both overeating and issues such as bulimia and anorexia.
Business & Economics: Bootstrapping Your Business helps cash-strapped business owners learn how to stay afloat in a troubled economy.
Fiction/General: In The Wind Blows East, you follow Jesse on her journey to find love in all the wrong places.
After you provide a decent WIIFM statement (ideally at the beginning of your synopsis), you must go into the Who (who is your main character), What (what are they doing), When (when does the story take place), Where (where does the story take place), and Why (why is the character doing what they are doing). If you follow that “rule of thumb”, you will most likely be able to come up with a good synopsis for your book.
Have you already written the “perfect” book synopsis and all ready to start self-publishing your own book?
