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Todays blog post is our monthly newsletter as a teaser for those who did not subscribe it yet. Read more at the end why we post it here. I hope you find useful info for your author-publishing endeavour, and looking forward to your subscription.
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This Newsletters’ Content:
- New Years Resolutions?
- Book Reviewer Contacts
- How to Pay With a Tweet
- How to Find Your Readers?
- Why Print Books are a Must!
- Where Else Can You Sell Your Book?
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New Years Resolutions?
Dreams Don’t Work – Unless YOU Do!
Bestseller Authors who are the most successful understand that publishing is a business. If no one knows about your book, then how can you expect to make sales? Nobody ever made money writing a book – only by selling it!
Building up their audience takes lots of time, so it is surprising, that authors dream of their first book as a potential bestseller, and don’t realize that it takes a long time and hard work to get an audience, one reader at a time – especially if they did not do the ground work to build a huge following at Social Media, in reader forums or in real-life before they start publishing.
Need a little – or a lot of support? Try these free or inexpensive steps:
- Get answers within more than one thousand blog articles at SavvyBookWriters.com/blog (use the search function on the right column of each page, where the keywords are listed).
- Or send us an email if you could not find advice on the blog: 111Publishing at Gmail dot com
- Or sign up for our one-on-one online seminar, customized to your book, your publishing and your book marketing needs: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminars. We do not only consult, but also actively market your book, once all the basics are set up.
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Book Reviewer Contacts
Lots of reviews (no matter if 4 or 5-star or less) are convincing book purchasers that your book must be popular and a great read. As it is with everything in life: people are more inclined to “work for free” if they know someone personally. The same is true for book bloggers and book reviewers. So please follow them on Social Media and Goodreads, subscribe to their blogs, read their former reviews, comment positive on their posts and study their submission guidelines etc. BEFORE you ask them for a book review.
Start your search with these links, or google “Book Blogger + ….. (your novels genre/category)
Over 300 book reviewers throughout all genres: Get them exclusively in our next newsletter: just sign up on one of the two websites we provide at the end of this blog. Should you have already signed up, please verify at the email (we sent you this week) that you want to get the monthly newsletter in the future.
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How to Pay With a Tweet
Having your book for free on Amazon for a couple of days can boost your books ranking enormously. But you have to be in Kindle Select – which means three months of exclusivity for your e-book – a lot of work and headache to take your e-book away from all the other online book retailers. And maybe even some monetary loss.
But how to let as many readers as possible know about your free campaign – and at the same time about your new upcoming book? Make an announcement about your upcoming book Use the help of Social Media and let your free book or other written content go viral via Twitter by re-tweeting to your customers friends and followers. ***Nowadays it’s sometimes more valuable to have people talking about your book than the money you would earn for it.***
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Sell Your Free Book for the Price of a Tweet
It’s a service that lets visitors access to your content without having to “pay” for it by giving up any personal information on a form — all they have to do is share it with their own networks orTwitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Three steps is all it takes to get your book noticed!
- Step 1: create a button and embed it on your website, e-mail or wherever.
- Step 2: users access your content and ‘post’ about it.
- Step 3: your users’ shares are re-tweeted and re-posted by their friends and followers.
Find all the details at http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/pay-with-a-tweet-and-how-it-works/
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How to Find Your Readers?
Create a profile of your typical reader: Do you know their hobbies? Do you know where they usually hangout online or in real life? Do you know if they are male or female, married, single, etc.? If you knew these things, imagine how much simpler your book marketing efforts would be. It’s easier to find someone when you know who you are looking for.
Sure, it requires some research. For example, if you do an Internet search for “Who reads Science Fiction or Fantasy books?” you will get lots of posts and articles on the topic. You can even start by examining their situation and lifestyle: You are a fan of your genre, are you not? Which previously read book did you enjoy most? You get the idea…
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Why Print Books are a Must!
Print books still make up for about 60% of the book market, depending if you look at book sales numbers or revenue per book. The audio-book market is certainly growing too. Libraries order both book forms, however print only in hardcover. How to sell / distribute to libraries is explained in detail in http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/selling-audio-books-and-e-books-to-libraries/
- The majority of book buyers still chooses printed books at the moment (that will change)
- You can give out review copies to newspaper/magazine or book blog reviewers
- To be hosted at local media / TV interviewers who want to show a copy of your book
- To sell your book easier to libraries
- To participate in a Goodreads’ Giveaway –
- To sell your book to those who really don’t want an e-Reader or just love paper books
- If you write non-fiction it is almost a MUST to have it in print
- You have an ISBN number and can get listed with Bowker at WORLDWIDE bookstores
- Physical books are just nicer to give on Christmas – unless you put an e-book on a new e-Reader and wrap it
- To sell more e-books! Yes – because they seem to cost so much less in comparison…
- To list your book in more categories / genres on Amazon: per book type you are allowed to choose two categories / genres. Two print and two digital versions – which increases your books’ visibility and also shows you exactly in which genre you have the most success.
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Where Else Can You Sell Your Book?
Sell your books, e-books and audio-books not only through Amazon, but as well on Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo websites, to have your “eggs in more than one basket”. And don’t forget the potentially huge potential market for hardcover books, selling them to libraries all over the country! However, there are way more online retailers for e-books and books than just Apple, Sony, Diesel, Kobo or Barnes & Noble. Oh, yes, and even Google sells e-books, but they pay authors and publishers a lousy royalty. I don’t know anyone, selling books through Google.
Get a complete list:http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/15-more-online-retailers-to-sell-your-book/
***You should even sell your books through your own website, which gives you more than 90% revenue – compared to 70% at Amazon.***
And you get paid before your customers downloads your books. Unlike with all online book retailers, you don’t have to wait until you receive a statement several months after your book was sold. The money for your books is right away in your account. How to set up your website with a secure pay- and download system is explained in a former article. http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/why-sell-your-books-from-your-own-website/
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Have a wonderful rest of the week, month, year … and look forward to the next newsletter in three to four weeks – if you sign up (or verify your existing subscription) in the meantime.
Cheers, Doris
http://111Publishing.com (Subscribe to our mailing list = left side of the page)
http://SavvyBookWriters.com (Subscribe to our mailing list = left side of the page)
Dear readers of this blog – and especially to the subscribers of our monthly newsletter: You might be wondering why today’s blog article is in fact our January newsletter: We decided to post it in SavvyBookWriters to make sure you don’t miss it, as we need to verify every subscriber with a double-sign-in (even those who signed-in already). This is due to the very stringent Canadian privacy regulations CASL which effect newsletters worldwide. Thanks in advance for your understanding.
SPAM – Can it Get any Worse?
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Yesterday, when I opened my emails, I could not believe what I read. I made a copy for this blog (see below) before I moved the message into the spam folder. I was mad that someone had used our own contact form / submission form to send unsolicited sales ads.
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There are some unwritten (and written – even by spam law backed) rules that you, as a writer, should adhere to:
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So my question is: Would you order a book (if interested in the topic) if your comment form of your website is abused, like this:
Copy of the Spam Email
A form has been submitted on January 25, 2015, via: https://www.savvybookwriters.com
Contact Form
by ….
___ Engaged couple, who met on ……, parody the online dating experience in their new book …………..
•Our main character has been sentenced to online dating rehab after being arrested for her sexcapades in a public fountain.
•She devilishly gets her three best friends to join …… and the online dating exploits begin.
•Weekly …….. meetings replete with dating addicts stories add dimension to the antics.
•Sunday brunch and the girls’ close-knit friendship bring sincerity to the craziness that develops during their search for ultimate happiness.
…. has published three prior books, but writing this book with his fiance was a true joy for the young couple in love. They both have way too much online dating experience to draw from and are currently in the process of writing the second book in this series. The story is set in …. where they had many a …. date, including their own first date (six hours long and a parking ticket later) after having met on….. He is the CFO ….. She is an Investments and Certified Financial Planner at ……..
Available on ….. in paperback and kindle format. Available on ….. in version.
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Learn from this Writers Error
… and don’t abuse other peoples blogs to send out spam. Author Traci Lawrence just sent me her thoughts, which I will include into the next book marketing title: “Writers do need to market their books by connecting and networking with potential readers; that’s the only way they will sell their books. However, there is a difference between promotion and sales. The promotion / marketing of your book is the ongoing drive to keep your book in the public eye by whatever means. On the other hand, the selling of your book involves direct requests to buy it. Aggressive (hard) selling is a real turn off for your audience, as it is in any industry.”
“The process of networking (meeting your future readers online or in person) should be fun for both sides. The interaction should not consist solely of continual “Buy my book!” requests. If your readers like you and your writing, they will buy it anyway. This is especially true if they have had a chance to “sample” your work. (For instance, readers can sample your work through blog posts and social media posts.) In this case, you’re not selling anything directly; you are giving people a taste of your work–for free. This generates buzz. People will talk about you on Social Media, and they will link to your site from their blog.”
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There are so many possibilities to subtly promote your books, as outlined in this blog article: https://www.savvybookwriters.com/worst-fault-when-promoting-your-book-to-readers/
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If You Get Too Many Spam Emails from Your Contact Form
Report Spam
Forward unwanted or deceptive messages to:
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