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.
In addition to the percentage savings you receive for ordering in bulk, if you order books (bulk or not) between now and September 30, 2011, you can take advantage of our free shipping promotion (for UPS Ground shipping within the continental U.S.). On a 1500 book order, this special can yield an additional savings of $500+.
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?
Writers are naturally curious about what’s going on around them. That’s a good trait considering that exposure to new things helps increase your brainpower and fuels your writing ability. Likewise, authors want to know what other authors are up to and what’s working for them.
To help satisfy some of your curiosity, we’ve listed a few of the most common questions that new (and seasoned) authors ask:
How do I decide on a price for my book? The best way to figure this out is to research the market. Find books that are similar in content (page count, subject matter, etc.) and review their pricing. Your pricing doesn’t need to be the same, but you should be sure to price your book competitively. In addition to researching other books, you must also consider your experience as an author. If you are unknown, you may want to price your book just a bit lower because buyers are less likely to pay a premium price for an unfamiliar author.
How do I get my book into bookstores? You must have a combination of things – a higher trade discount (40% or more), full returnability, and a strong sales history. Meeting these “requirements” doesn’t guarantee that the bookstore will want your book, but you must have each (at a minimum).
How can I sell more books on Amazon.com? Your listing on Amazon should be pristine, and you should strive to provide as much information about your book as possible. Book reviews also help. If you’re stuck, our CEO’s book, Sell Your Book on Amazon can help.
Do you have your own questions? If so, we’d love to add them to the list. Just drop us a quick comment below, and an Outskirts Press representative we will answer any of your questions live on this post (but for THIS WEEK ONLY). So, lay it on us. What burning questions do you have about the book publishing/marketing process?
If you’d like more one-on-one help, it may be a good idea to speak with one of our book marketing specialists.
Ready to take advantage of your own publishing and marketing team?
When developing your book promotion strategy, it is important to prioritize your activities. The first items on your list should always be the things that will have the greatest impact on your bottom line and require the least effort – especially if you are publishing your book to make money. Writing is about earning a passive income. Thus, the less time you “spend” earning money, the better your return on investment.
Believe it or not – one of the best ways to sell your book is to give it away! That may seem rather strange at first, but allow me to explain…
Most authors look at their book like a baby. It’s beautiful to them, and they are sure that people will want to buy it and read it many times over. That may be very true, but people can’t buy a book if they don’t know it exists. What if they learned about the book from a trusted associate/friend? What if they found a gleaming review for the book online? Wouldn’t they be more likely to purchase your book then? Definitely.
To see what I mean – here’s a review that our CEO, Brent Sampson, received for his book, Sell Your Book on Amazon:
This is only a portion of the review, but can you see how this can help an uneasy book buyer purchase your book? Any book can have a “flowery” description, but an honest review from an unbiased reader speaks volumes.
So, how can I find someone to review my book? That’s a great question – there are many reviewers online. An internet search can help. You can search for terms such as “book blogger”, “book review”, etc. You can also use the Book Blogs Search Engine for topical searches.
Outskirts Press authors who don’t want to do all of the “heavy lifting” themselves can also purchase either of our book review submission services:
March 1 marks the beginning of National Reading and Small Press month. This is the perfect time to revamp your current marketing strategy and try some new things. After all, readers are more inspired to buy books this month. As a self-publishing author, here are the top 10 ways to use this to your advantage:
Come up with a marketing plan for your book. It may be helpful to speak with a professional that can coach you through coming up with a plan and taking action on those items.
Contact your local bookstore to see what their policy is for carrying small press books. You may consider offering your book on consignment.
Contact your local newspaper to remind them that it’s small press month. Write a press release (or have someone write one for you) and send them a copy. Be sure to call them shortly thereafter to make sure they received it.
Contact your local library to suggest they feature small press titles this month, including yours. Make sure to have plenty of free copies to give away.
If you haven’t already done so, buy your own domain name and start a blog. Blogging is a great way to reach new readers and possibly increase the sales of your book.
Schedule a free webinar or teleseminar. Everyone has an area of expertise – what’s yours? Share your gift with the world. This will not only help increase your network, but you will be able to gain notoriety as an industry expert.
Take a Virtual Book Tour. This is a cost-effective way to get yourself in front of your audience without leaving the comfort of your own living room.
Offer freebies for people who buy your book. In your book’s description, you can let your potential reader know what they will get for free if they email you a copy of their receipt. eBooks, whitepapers or other virtual gifts are a great option due to their low cost and ease of delivery.
Overall, the most important thing is to have fun marketing your self-published book! Don’t take things too seriously and make sure you make the best use of your time this upcoming month.
DISCUSSION: Which of these strategies (or others) do you plan to take action on this month?
How can you take advantage of promoting your book to this wide audience?
