Book Marketing Maven

Welcome Authors & Publishers

On this site you will find a wealth of book marketing tips and resources.

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• Discover how to create a book marketing plan and learn more about blogging.

 I wish you much success with your books!

How Will You Be Promoting Your Book in 2010?

I invite you to take a quick survey and receive a copy of my special report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success. I'd love to find out what type of book promotions you have planned for the upcoming year and share the survey results with you so that you can see what others have planned.

The survey contains just seven questions and takes only a few minutes to complete. You'll also get a chance to win a complimentary copy of one of my Savvy Book Marketer Guide books. Just click this link to take the Book Promotion Strategies survey. Thanks!  

Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea

I'm always delighted to have Kathleen Gage share her expertise in online marketing. In today's guest post, she offers some great tips on building an opt-in subscriber list.

One of the most pressing questions from authors, speakers, coaches and consultants using the Internet to market their products and services is, “How do I build a responsive opt-in subscriber list?”

A very simple way is with a Sig File (signature file). A Sig File is a tagline or short block of text at the end of an e-mail message, article or blog posting. The Sig File can identify the sender and/or provide additional information such as the company name, list of services, and contact information.

However, the most effective use of a Sig File is to have a call to action for an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe is exactly what is sounds like. You are offering visitors to your website, blog or landing page something FREE in exchange for them giving you their name and email address.

How to Make Your Tweets Appear on LinkedIn

Many people use a utility such as at the Twitter Facebook application to make their tweets automatically flow through to their status update on Facebook. Now there's an easy way to flow your tweets to LinkedIn.

Because LinkedIn is a professional network, it may not be appropriate for all of your tweets to appear there. The beauty of this system is that you can selectively decide which tweets go to LinkedIn. Even if you don't want your tweets to flow to LinkedIn, you can create a clickable link to your Twitter account from your LinkedIn profile.

It's easy and just takes a few moments to set up. First, you'll need to sync your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Just check the Twitter box under your Network Updates box on the homepage and then specify the Twitter account that you’d like to sync and/or display on your LinkedIn profile.

Websites for Authors: Contact Information is Essential

As I was doing some research for a client yesterday, I was reminded of how many blogs and websites have no contact information. I understand why owners of personal blogs don't post their contact information, but it's essential for business-oriented sites like blogs and websites for authors.

If you're promoting any type of product or service, people need to be able to reach you, at least by email. Someone may have a question about your book or want to ask you to write an article or speak at an event. Maybe they want to contribute a guest post to your blog or propose some sort of joint venture. Your readers may have helpful suggestions about your site. If no one can contact you, you're missing out on business opportunities.

Blogs and websites for authors should feature contact information prominently on the site. Just beneath your photo is a good spot. You can also include contact information on your site's About page and Media page.

It's never a good idea to put a direct hyperlink to your email address on your site, because that makes it easy for spam bots to harvest your email address and sell it to spammers. One solution is to spell your email address with spaces or alternate symbols in between.

For example:  john -at- yourwebsite.com.

On my websites, I used an encrypted Javascript link from Hivelogic. This service is free and easy to use, but it's not completely foolproof. There are ways to hack Javascript code. For more ideas on protecting your email address online, read Protecting Your Email from Spam by MaAnna Stephenson.

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Blogging for Authors, available in late December, 2009.  Visit this page for a sneak preview and get a 25% off coupon. 

If you found this article helpful, I invite you to share it using the "ShareThis" or "Tweet This"  buttons below.

Book Publicity - Five Tips for Writing a Strong Press Release

Press releases are an important book publicity tool for authors and publishers. I’m delighted to have publicity expert Marsha Friedman share her terrific press release tips in today’s guest post. Although these tips are geared to writing a release to attract talk show hosts, these same principles are applicable to other types of releases.

1. Headline! Headline? HEADLINE!!!

Arguably the most important aspect of your press release, headlines are so vital that there are entire books written and seminars taught on how to construct the most effective ones. Now, don’t let this scare you. Writing a killer headline is definitely a skill that can be developed; all you need is a clear and concise overview of your topic. Write down your show idea and look it over. Now look it over again.

What is your key message? Is your show idea newsworthy? Are there any well-known people that you can tie into your topic? Do you have any impressive statistics that are relevant? Is there anything controversial that ties directly into your subject? The answers to these questions will help you develop a headline which is ready for increased attention by producers and hosts.

Your headline must communicate the topic of the show instantly in an eye-catching way. It should not be longer than 1 sentence and will act as THE sound bite on your topic. Now that’s a lot of weight to put on a single sentence!

Use Social Follow to Attract Followers on Your Social Networks

These days, it’s vital to make it easy to for people to find you on social networks and to encourage them to connect with you there.

I’ve recently added a new button my website, using a service called Social Follow. In the upper right corner of this site, look for the button with the icons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and RSS feeds. I also repeated this button father down the right column, beneath my photo.

In addition to these major social networks, you can add icons for numerous other services including Blogger, WordPress, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Flickr, Squidoo, Hub Pages, MySpace, Ning, Shelfari, and more.

You can create multiple buttons for different sites within the same Social Follow account, and you can also set up a Profile on the Social Follow site.

To get started, register at Social Follow and follow the steps to create your button. For step-by-step instructions on how to create your Social Follow button and profile, see this free tutorial from Just the FAQs. If you're a TypePad user like me, you can copy the button code into a Notes TypeList and place it in your sidebar.

Before you begin, you will need to already have an account on the social services that you wish to include on your button, and you’ll also need to know your personal URL for each of your social sites. Usually, you can find the URL by looking at the URL in your browser when you are on your profile page for your favorite social sites. For example, my URL on Twitter is http://twitter.com/BookMarketer.

Give Social Follow a try and watch your followers and contacts increase!

Other Social Markteing Articles

The Golden Rules of Social Networking

Social networking is a terrific way to make contacts and develop relationships. Here are some tips for putting the social into social networking:

• Be selective about which networks you join and who you invite as a friend. Only invite people who appear to share common interests with you.

• Send a personalized friend request, introducing yourself and stating why you want to befriend the other person.

• Get involved in the community. Remember that you need to give more than you get. Offer helpful comments and links, compliment others, share a bit of personal information about yourself, and be a friend.

• Don't be overly promotional. It's okay to promote your products and services on occasion, but don't make that your main focus. Be careful of appearing too promotional. Sending out an announcement of your book launch is fine; sending frequent promotional messages about your book is not.

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing.

Other Social Marketing Articles

Learn How to Boost Your Profits with Amazon Associates

Every author who has a book for sale on Amazon.com should be enrolled in the Amazon Associates affiliate program. In the November issue of The Savvy Book Marketer Newsletter, you'll learn how to earn revenue from the Amazon Associates program, even if you don’t have a book on Amazon. Other topics in this issue include:

• Thanksgiving Special - Save 25% on Savvy Book Marketer Products

• Free Book Marketing Resources

• Creating a Successful Author Blog

• Social Networking for Authors - Audio Program Now Available

Book Publicity - Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy

In today’s guest post, veteran author and book marketing consultant Shel Horowitz shares a great tip for writing book publicity copy that grabs attention. I just love the example he uses to illustrate his point.

If you've studied some of the big-name direct marketers, you may have heard of a "customer funnel" or "product funnel." That's *not* what this column is about, so don't skip it because you think you already know. (If you don't know, I explain in the last paragraph.)

The benefit funnel is different, and as far as I know, I'm the only one using that term (though I didn't invent the concept, which has been around for at least 100 years). It's the idea that that you put yourself in your prospect's mind, and keep asking the things your prospect would ask, until you have an answer so compelling that you just have to make the sale.

What would they ask? * "So what?" * "Why should I care?" * "What's in it for me?" Let's take a real-life example: my very favorite press release I wrote for a client (which is featured in my book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, incidentally).

Enhance Your Blog and Ezine with Guest Posts

Although I write most of the posts on this blog, we are fortunate to have other experts share their knowledge on a range of topics. Guest posts are win-win for everyone. Readers get valuable tips and insight from a variety of experts, guest posters build their expert status and get links to their websites, and bloggers get additional content for their sites. Guest posts are often used in ezines as well.

Guest posts can take the form of how-to articles or interviews, and you can even post audio or video clips from the guest. Fiction authors can interview other authors in their genre.

Where can you find experts or authors to contribute to your blog or ezine? Seek out others in your field or genre through your social networks and your own contact list. Send guest post invitations to the owners and guest posters of the blogs, ezines and print newsletters that you enjoy reading. Use search engines to find other blogs and ezines in your field.

Successful Author Blogs

I’m working on a presentation about creating successful author blogs, and I’m looking for terrific examples to include. What are the best author blogs you have seen, and why are they so effective?  Please share your favorites in the comment area below. It’s okay to list your own blog, as long as you explain what makes it effective. Thanks!

Turn Your Facebook Profile into a Friend Magnet in 7 Easy Steps

Recently author Janice Curran invited me to participate in a Featured Friend discussion on Facebook. For several hours I had a lively conversation on Janice's Facebook wall with a number of her friends, discussing the best ways to use Twitter for book promotion. In today's guest post, Janice offers tips on how you can create similar events on your own Facebook profile.

More and more writers—both the pros and the aspiring—are turning to social networking services such as Facebook to promote their brands. But if "everybody’s doing it," how do you stand out?

One way is to utilize the service in a manner that’s different from the norm. The manner I use is "Featured Friends."

When you look at your Facebook friend list, what do you see? A collection of names? Or do you see, as I do, a wide range of people with a wide range of expertise—people from whom others can learn?

I built my Facebook Featured Friends program around that concept. Once a month, I host what, in essence, is a live mini blog right on my Facebook wall. The Facebook friend featured posts a quick tip on a topic relevant to writing. Then, for a time-limited period following, my guest replies to comments posted by my Facebook friends.

Facebook Restricts the Use of Contests

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about using contests to attract fans to Facebook pages. On November 4, Facebook issued guidelines that impose strict restrictions on the use of contests, making them effectively impractical for individuals and small businesses. Mari Smith has written a good article explaining the guidelines.

Think about other ways to offer value to people who visit your Facebook fan page or group, while still adhering to the Facebook guidelines. For example, you can set these pages up as information portals, offering valuable tips and links. Also, consider offering downloads of a free ebook or a sample chapter from your book.

Twitter contests are still a good promotional tool for authors and publishers. So far, it appears that Twitter has placed no restrictions on contest promotions, so long as their anti-spam rules are not violated. See the Twitter rules for more details.

Other Social Marketing Articles

Blog Ideas for Fiction Authors

In today's guest post, I'm delighted to have marketing expert Cathy Stucker share her creative blogging ideas for fiction authors.

You have heard that you should have a blog, but you may have no idea what you should blog about. Do your readers want to know what you had for lunch (probably not) or your opinions on some political issue (even less likely)? Although your blog does not always have to be about you and your books, here are some ideas that can keep you writing great blog posts and selling more books.

Your Events

Let your friends and fans know what you are doing and where they can meet you in person. Do posts about:

• Upcoming Events - When and where will you be reading from your latest book? How can they attend your book launch party or order autographed copies of the book?

• What Happened at Your Last Event - After the event, tell what happened. Was there a big crowd? Include pictures of you reading from your book, autographing books for fans, and everyone having a great time.

Book Marketing Experts Share Their Top Tips

We are fortunate to have a number of book marketing experts share their valuable tips through guest posts on Book Marketing Maven. Here are some recent posts, in case you missed them:

Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own by Joanna Penn

BlogTalkRadio Offers Books Authors the Opportunity to Host Their Own Shows by Phyllis Zimbler Miller     

Promoting Your Book on LinkedIn: Dos and Donts by Patrice-Anne Rutledge

How to Market Children's Books in Schools by Melissa Williams

Best Ways to Approach Radio and TV Talk Shows by Karen Melamed

Thank you Joanna, Phyllis, Patrice, Melissa and Karen for sharing your expertise!