In today's guest post, author Beth Barany shares her tips for finding the best ways to market your book.
You may think that marketing your books is a scary prospect, but actually marketing is essential to your career as an author. And if you uncover your style of marketing, then ultimately you will sell more books.
When my first book came out in Spring 2008, Overcome Writer’s Block, I barely marketed it. When my second book came out July 2009, Writer’s Adventure Guide, I did the minimum and quickly focused on other things, like earning a living. I was overwhelmed by all my book marketing options, and chose actions at random. Probably not the most effective.
Then, I attended a lecture by Patrick Swertdfeger, the author of Webify Your Business 2.0, and learned about social networking. He made the tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.com seem like so much fun. I realized something. That marketing my books could be fun, if I did the things I liked. And what I liked was using social networking. These tools capitalized on my strengths: writing, connecting with others, and chatting.
So, I have a question for you. You know you need to get the word out about your books. So, what is fun for you about marketing?
Pick one tool of technique you’re passionate about and take one action on it right now. Today. And everyday. If it’s fun, you’ll stick with it. In addition to sticking with it, you’ll want to track your results. You know the mantra: “What we pay attention to grows”? Today you may have 50 Twitter followers. Next week you may have 60. Yippee! But you won’t be able to see your progress unless you track.
Find what is fun for you, persist at it, track your results, and you will become a super marketer.
Copyright 2010 Beth Barany. Beth works with authors, speakers, coaches and consultants across US, Canada, and Europe, and helps them get their books completed and out into the world. Beth Barany is the author of The Writer's Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book. More at: http://www.bethbarany.com, and her blog, http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog.
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