book marketing on a budget

How to Use Sweepstakes to Market Your Books

Cat-reading


As a former visitor to the Nova Scotia Ice Wine Festival, I am getting newsletters and invitations from several wineries. One of these invitations struck me and ever since I am thinking about converting it into something similar for authors.

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Nova Scotia Ice Wine Festival Sweepstakes – Prize Details

You and nine friends! are invited to experience the ultimate evening of wining and dining on the Perfect Pairings Progressive Dinner and Wine Tour with Go North Tours.  Enjoy private winery tours at three Nova Scotia wineries in the Annapolis Valley.  A three-course meal prepared by a talented chef, perfectly paired with Nova Scotia wines.  Each course will take place at a different winery along the tour.

“First enter your name, email address and then comes this site up:
Congratulations! Your entry was successfully submitted.
Thanks for your entry. Now invite the 9 friends you would like to share your gourmet winery tour with.”

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Why Not Copy this Idea and Create Something Similar? 
Book authors might think that their hard work is done once they completed the manuscript.  But to find readers and customers for your masterpiece is often more complicated than the process of writing one.

There’s a great potential in the fact that people love free stuff and can’t get enough of sweepstakes, giveaways, and contests.  Sweepstakes or an online giveaway, if executed properly, it has the power to:

  • Generate positive buzz around your book
  • Provide you with pre-order sales
  • Increase engagement on your social media pages
  • Help you build and expand your audience
  • Sell more books
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Come up With a Sweepstake Prize that isn’t your Book
Think about an experience or event that can be done in a group of friends, such as in the example above.  In the best case, it should have a reference to the topic of your book.  Most important is that the winner of your sweepstake or giveaway brings as many people as possible to this event!

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Let it Go Viral!
Contact the sweepstake winner: “Congratulations! You won! Now invite five (or more) of your friends for the following event…”  At the same time as she/he invites her/his friends, the winner introduces your book(s) to as many people as possible. 
 Getting more readers for your books is the reason you started the sweepstake in the first place.

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Suggestions HOW this Prize Helps You to Get Your Books Viral

  • Promote your Sweepstake extensively through articles, blog posts, submit it to local media, in your email newsletter, and certainly on social media
  • Announce the winner of this contest at the same platform once it concluded
  • Take or let take images of the prize event and write/post about it – especially on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook
  • Contact each participant of the events and invite them and ask for a review of your book on Goodreads and Amazon. And at the same time announce your next sweepstake.

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Examples of Prizes

Create a theme-based event giveaway that perfectly fits your readers and the genre of your new book:

  • Aviation-related books: Organize a short sight-seeing flight or an introductory session in a flight simulator.
  • Sport-related books: What about a standing-paddle or kayak tour, horse riding, or an introduction into golfing? Or a survival tour in the back-woods?
  • Suspense fiction books: Organize a ghost tour or if you know people in the police force ask for a “forensic introduction” tour or presentation.
  • Cook Books: A group cooking experience with a professional chef or a confectioner would be great. Maybe a guided tour through a herb garden or a wine tasting?
  • If all participants are coming from your own city, you can invite them for a book signing/reading and a wine/cheese party wrapping up your event.
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Well, I could suggest many other events that are book-theme-based.  Just pick each of the topics of your manuscript and find events, courses, and outings your “winners” might like.  And stay in touch with them via email newsletter!  Most important: ask the winner to invite at least five to ten friends to participate in the event in order to get your book viral. 

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111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free

Book-Marketing

 

Reviewed By Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite:

Confused about how to build an author platform? Frustrated with slow marketing progress? Discover how to create a viable online author presence in the informative book:  111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free  – Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success by Doris-Maria Heilmann.

Creating an online presence can be a daunting task for the author.  Promoting yourself and a book can quickly lead to you becoming overwhelmed.  Strategize your writing career by planning how to publish, publicize, and launch your book.

Learn how to get your books in bookstores and libraries, and correctly contact television and radio stations, and blogs.  Develop a solid plan to market your book and watch your sales grow.  Are you ready to elevate your book promotion?

For newcomers and seasoned authors, 111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free delves deeply into the mechanics of taking your writing career to the next level.  With more links and resources, this book can easily become invaluable to the writer.  Although it may be more dense with information, the content is much more detailed.

I liked the author’s tips on how to build online relationships.  As someone who avoids social media, (it has been the bane of my author’s existence) I really appreciated how the author breaks down how to work on social media.
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Short, to the point, succinct.  Finally, I get it!  I am so excited to implement so many of these ideas.  I was also thrilled to read the section on how to pitch to television and radio.  Another superb writer’s resource book from an excellent author!

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Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

Audiobooks for Success

Valuable guide book for authors, audiobook publishers, narrators, voice-over artists, and audiobook listeners. Learn how to create, produce, publish, and market your audiobooks.

https://books2read.com/u/bPRRyJ

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W81MN2Z

 

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYDH41S/

 

111 Tips To Make (More) Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing –
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
https://books2read.com/u/bWZMjz

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1988664187

 

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018RA72LY

 

111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018RA72LY/

 

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
https://books2read.com/u/mVZkjr

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CHWX6X2/

 

Book Marketing on a Shoestring:
How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5gdp

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1988664225

 

Hello Friends, visit my Author Page here:

https://books2read.com/ap/n4EYY8/Doris-Maria-Heilmann

7 Best Places to Use for Book Giveaways

Book-Giveaways

 

Promoting your books via giveaways is of great benefit, but equally important is that you can get in touch with new readers and to know who is interested in your books. There is a couple of places for book giveaways.  These are getting massive traffic and are more than worth experimenting with:

GoodReads
To list a giveaway for one of your books on GR, login to your author account and click on one of your titles. Once you’re on that page, look near the upper right-hand corner of the screen to find a link that says ‘List a Giveaway’ and click on that. This should take you to a form asking for all the details about your giveaway, e.g. the books title and ISBN, the start and end dates as well as the number of copies to be given away. Your giveaway will have to be approved by the admin at Goodreads, which usually doesn’t take too long.

The benefit on GoodReads is that they get enormous amounts of traffic and the majority of users who enter to win your book will add it to their ‘to-read’ list, even though only a few of them will win. This way your book gets a lot of exposure. As more friends you have on Goodreads, as more people find your book. Most of the winners post honest reviews after receiving and reading the books. As you will have to provide the print books for the giveaway on Goodreads or to send it directly through Amazon, it means two or three books are enough to send out to winners. Delivering the book to the lucky winners, you will get their email and postal address.

LibraryThing
LibraryThing is the next biggest site in terms of traffic among book reading sites. It is a perfect alternative for authors who only publish eBooks, as they accept both print and digital for their ‘Member Giveaways’ program. You can give away from one digital title to a maximum of 100 copies of your ebooks. It can be a great way to get some book reviews if you are newly published and just starting out.
At the end of the indicated giveaway period, winners will be randomly selected. You will receive a comment on your profile page letting you know who won your book(s). Winners are encouraged to review the books they receive. Don’t forget the benefits of connecting with new followers and readers of your books.

As a publisher, you can now create a profile page for EACH of your imprints on LibraryThing, offering a way to highlight current titles and link visitors back to your website. Supply LibraryThing with a list of the titles that you will be offering to the Early Reviewers. They explain it this way: “We use an intelligent algorithm to find the members most likely to enjoy and create buzz for your titles. These are not just random giveaways. We send you a list of the winning members. You send out the books. Early Reviewers read the books, and then post reviews to LibraryThing. They are encouraged to also cross-post to their blog, Amazon, Goodreads etc.

BookLikes
On the BookLikes website, users can add books to their standard and personal bookshelves, rate and review books, see what their friends are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices. BookLikes is currently available in three different languages: English, German, and Polish, and there are plans to add further languages in the future.

In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to GoodReads. Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that GR does. So you shouldn’t expect similar results if you’ve done a book giveaway there in the past. To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you’re logged in. They will ask for all the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page. Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical. The only real difference is that you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself and they allow eBooks.

Amazon Giveaways
Their giveaways are maybe not as popular and well-known as Goodreads Giveaways among author-publishers. Other enterprises at Amazon seem to use it a lot – mainly to receive favorable reviews of their products. Giveaway contests are an excellent way for authors to drum up some buzz for their book. Especially as Amazon does all the product shipping – which saves you time – but has its drawbacks as you will never know who is the recipient.
Don’t forget: You can include links in your giveaway description to Amazon.com websites – for example to your book or author pages. So, include links in the welcome, win, and lose messages. Links to any Amazon-related website are clickable by participants, opening in a new tab.
FAQ’s can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=11715260011
Giveaways via Amazon are only open to legal residents of the U.S.A, 18 or older. Get here more tips about Amazon’s Giveaways: https://www.savvybookwriters.com/amazon-giveaways-book-promotion-gems/

Your Own Website
It takes a little bit more effort in promoting your giveaway but it will increase traffic to your site and often encourage new readers for your blog and sign-ups for your newsletter too. vIt all means more exposure for your present and future titles.  Your blog or website is a great place, especially if you have thousands of followers and readers or an extensive newsletter e-mail list.  Use the same announcements and promotions as you would for a Goodreads, LibraryThing or BookLikes giveaway.  You certainly can choose the winners yourself.

Book Bloggers’ Sites
Consider also offering copies of your book to bloggers in your genre whom you follow or found through a Google search, and have them host a giveaway.  Book bloggers often really appreciate being able to do giveaways and this can extend your reach outside of your previous networking!

“The success of your book giveaway depends very much on how you promote this event – and also how you leverage the networking possibilities you gain with new followers and contacts.”

Cat-reading.

Instagram
Last but not least: If you are on Instagram, and you have more than 500 followers, host book giveaways there too, and make it obvious in the image.  Instagram is a fantastic place to host book giveaways.  Make it really known (and promote it elsewhere too)  that the books in the image are up for grabs, for example, include the word “GIVEAWAY” in capital letters and large red font.  Be creative!  Show animals reading and/or laying on books.  Your target audience loves books.  And everyone loves animals.  Books + animals = share-worthy content for an Instagram Book Giveaway.
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Some Giveaway Tips:

  • Enter your first giveaway 4-6 weeks before your book’s launch and then periodically every other month.  Schedule your giveaway at least a week or two in advance.  Prepare posts, tweets, and emails for promotion.
  • Definitely write a blog post about your giveaway.  You can link directly to the giveaway and give your readers information on how to enter it.
  • Write in your email newsletter about the giveaway and add a link to it.
  • If you’re going to try doing giveaway rotations, one or two books may be sufficient.
  • Don’t: start or end your giveaway on a holiday or the days before.
  • National vs. International: Open up your contest internationally, because it will really help to increase the amount of exposure any giveaway gets.
  • Send a thank-you note to everyone who entered, and offer two or three chapters of your book to the not-so-lucky ones, and invite them to join your email newsletter.

More about Book Giveaways can be found: 111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free  https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

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Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
https://books2read.com/u/bWZMjz

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
https://books2read.com/u/mVZkjr

Book Marketing on a Shoestring:
How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5gdp

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5-Star Review for Book Marketing on a Shoestring

 

Reviewed By Alyssa Elmore for Readers’ Favorite:
“Have you written a book, but can’t seem to attract enough readers to buy it?  Do you feel like maybe marketing isn’t for you?  Learn frugal marketing practices for authors in the brilliant self-help book  Marketing On A Shoestring: How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money.
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Book marketing for the author is not a new concept, but it can be one of the most expensive and terrifying endeavors on the author-entrepreneur journey.  Every author must find creative ways to publicize their book, but deciding which option is best for them can be overwhelming.
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Although book marketing can easily become the most expensive and time-consuming aspect of the writer’s career, it is necessary.  Discover why book marketing is important and rewarding, how to join the effective social media sites for your book, how to start a website or blog to create an internet imprint, and how to write a potent elevator pitch that will have agents and editors asking for more.
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Broken down into five parts, this book explores the most vital practices for the author-preneur.  Start your professional career as a writer with all the information you need at your fingertips and enjoy the confidence of a frugal marketer.


 

Book Marketing On A Shoestring is the must-read book for authors new to the world of publishing and publicity.  It doesn’t matter if you are a little shy, a recluse, or an extrovert, this book is bound to help you if you are a writer.

I appreciated how the book includes information on every aspect of the selling process; from purchasing an ISBN, to selling your books to libraries.  The author covered so much in this book; I was duly impressed.  She kindly broke the book down into easily read sections, so as to help ease the reader’s stress and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information and content given.

“This book is very helpful.  I enjoyed reading it; it felt like I had a writer friend with me to brainstorm marketing ideas.  I would highly recommend this book to writers struggling to gain momentum in sales and marketing.”

 

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Now in Print Too: Book Marketing on a Shoestring

Publishing-Guide

Only Five-Star Reviews so Far for the eBook Version

Book Marketing on a Shoestring is available on Amazon worldwide.  Now, we created a PRINT version of this popular and helpful publishing and book promotion guide.  We also REVISED both versions to the latest changes in publishing, social media and promotional tools.  Authors and publishers will find literally hundreds of useful tips and links to help them on their way to the bestseller lists.
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No Money? No Problem!
Success as an author, especially when creating your platform in social media and establishing your brand, using the tools described here, is almost free.  It’s all about where to find readers, book bloggers, reviewers and how to connect with them.
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A book marketing checklist in the last chapter will provide you with a useful timeline. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the book marketing possibilities.  You don’t have to do it all in a week, a month, or even a year.  These are single steps you can take, one by one, to build your audience.
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You Never Get a Second Chance for a Good First Impression!
The goal of this book is to show you the professional, yet inexpensive way of publishing a book and how to build your readership, no matter if you self-publish or sell your manuscript to a traditional publisher.
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PART ONE
Explains why book marketing is important – and rewarding and how readers will find your book among millions of others.  You will also learn about the difference between marketing and selling through ads.
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PART TWO
In this chapter, you will evaluate your current publishing and book marketing situation. You will learn, in chronological order, the basics to start your author platform, find out which social media accounts are effective, and how to present your book and yourself professionally.
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PART THREE
Here you will learn the important steps in a professional book production.  Let’s assume your manuscript is finished, has been read by other writers and beta readers, and is on the way to the editor.  What is your next step in book marketing?  And where else can you sell your book?
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PART FOUR
In this chapter, you will get tips for “passive marketing”; book layout tips; your author pages; and other places you can sell your book besides the major online retailers.  Find a timeline checklist for your book launch event.
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PART FIVE
Here, you will learn about advanced marketing strategies and how you can leverage your manuscript in markets other than e-book or paperback, and even in foreign markets. A comprehensive checklist for your book marketing gives you a valuable tool for years (and books) to come!
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Going These Steps is a Long-term Investment! 
They won’t initiate an immediate spike in book sales.  Rather, they will improve the number of your readers and the exposure of your books. Remember: all of your writing is an asset that can keep making you money for decades to come!
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A certain time commitment may be necessary, at least in the beginning, depending on your level of involvement.  Yet, you will learn how to connect reader communities and social media accounts and the more you use these marketing tools, the faster you can handle them.  Which means that you will get more visitors and buyers.
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You may not be a New York Times bestselling author with a publicist–yet.  So, if you want to succeed at self-publishing, you will want to learn everything you can about professional book layout, publishing, and traditional book marketing methods.  You will find many steps in the publishing process in this book.  These tasks are not obvious “book marketing” tasks, but they are essential for your success as an author.
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For Whom is this Book Useful?
Self-Publishers and authors who work with traditional publishers alike will profit from this book marketing and publishing guide.  Get inspirations and encouragement from someone who has 35+ years of experience in print and e-book publishing, book marketing, in online writing and also magazine publishing.

ISBN: 978-1988664224

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More Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
https://books2read.com/u/bWZMjz

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer=
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
https://books2read.com/u/mVZkjr

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Where to Find Free Book Promotion Sites

 

Promotion-Links


Self-publishing authors don’t have the marketing networks that trade publishers can rely on since decades to promote their upcoming titles. What’s the solution for indie authors to market their books?  Important tools to find readers and getting reviews on the way to self-publishing success are book promo sites.

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Lots of Resources
There are plenty of writer platforms sites for free and discounted books, forums, websites of book bloggers and book reviewers, and giveaway sites:

https://kindlepreneur.com/list-sites-promote-free-amazon-books/

http://www.digitalpubbing.com/7-strategies-and-94-tools-to-help-indie-authors-find-readers-and-reviewers/

46 Top Websites to Promote Your Book for FREE

https://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2014/08/list-of-online-reviewers-who-accept.html

https://snickslist.com/huge-list-of-book-promotion-sites-for-authors/

https://www.bookworks.com/2015/10/great-sites-that-offer-indie-book-reviews/

https://angiesdiary.com/featured/top-10-free-book-promotion-sites/

https://www.booktalk.org/

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FREE (e)-book listings:

http://www.kindlemojo.com

http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.ca/

http://blog.booksontheknob.org/

http://addictedtoebooks.com/submission

http://www.bookandreader.com/forums/

http://www.bookgrouponline.com/forum

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums

http://forums.onlinebookclub.org

http://www.bookandreader.com

http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/forum

http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum

http://www.online-literature.com/forums

http://www.ebookstage.com/authorAreaPage.xhtml
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Get help from countless sites who offer book reviews, cover reveals, author profiles and interviews, posts and sponsors giveaways and contests. It will support the hardest task faced by self-published authors: promoting their books.
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If you haven’t yet been very successful in generating reviews (and publicity at the same time) from readers, find more than 1,200 web links to book reviewers.  Many of these book lovers are promoting positively reviewed titles not only on their own website, but also on Amazon, Goodreads, and other outlets.  Get the valuable ebook and print version (worldwide available) here:

111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links 

https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

 

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Success for Self-Publishing Authors?

If you can IMAGINE it, you can create it” said Napoleon Hill.  “Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes”  And Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) said:  “People who do not have goals work for people who have goals.”

 

Free-Book-Marketing

Here is the Secret for Writers:
One single step every day and in three months you will have a great author platform, and you will have established your author brand.  111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free makes it really easy for you. Just follow the small steps in this guide book, written by an experienced publisher and marketing specialist.  If you follow these steps, you WILL become a successful author.
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The Only Guide Book that Authors will Ever Need.
It might not be that easy to become a truly successful self-published author, when you have to learn everything from scratch.  But there is help: Get a cornucopia of detailed instructions and tips for your book marketing.  Both, publishing novices and experienced authors will find these information immense valuable and helpful.
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Includes Almost 600 Direct Links.
Readers of our latest book will be provided with over 111 tips, (and almost 600 links) on how to successfully promote their books for free – in an “organic” way.  Successful publishing cannot only be done through content writing, networking, but through many other small, savvy steps during the writing, publishing and book-layout process – which are described in detail.
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Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success.
This author guide to free (or very low cost) book marketing and professional publishing, provides authors with valuable tips and hands-on instructions how to connect directly with their readers, how to find lots of bloggers and reviewers, establish a solid platform and strengthen their author brand.
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Content marketing secrets and the latest social media networking tips will enable authors to capitalize on their writing, their competence and to increase their readership tremendously.
111 detailed-explained tips, and hundreds of links will help every self-publisher to find and implement numerous “passive” book marketing steps – in detail explained throughout this how-to-manual, leading the way to publishing success. Here are the chapters:

MORE WRITING = CONTENT BOOK MARKETING
HOW TO CREATE YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM
BOOK REVIEWS – AND HOW TO GET THEM 
NETWORKING:
SOCIAL MEDIA and OFFLINE MARKETING
“PASSIVE”BOOK MARKETING
MORE BOOK MARKETING POSSIBILITIES
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Long-term Investment:
Using these steps will turn out to a long-term time investment.  They won’t initiate an immediate spike in book sales; rather, they will improve the amount of your readers and the exposure of your books.  Remember: all of your writing is an asset that can keep making you money for decades to come!

A certain time-commitment will be necessary, at least in the beginning, depending on your level of your involvement.  Yet, you will learn how to connect with reader communities, book bloggers, reviewers and social media followers and the more you use these marketing tools, the faster you can handle them.  Which means that your fan and reader base increases.  Some of these tasks are not obvious “book marketing” tasks, but they are essential for your success as an author.
.
For Whom is this Book Useful?
Self-Publishers and authors who work with traditional publishers alike will profit from this book marketing and publishing guide. Get inspirations and encouragement from someone who has 35+ years of experience in print and e-book publishing, book marketing, online writing and magazine publishing.

… and WHERE can you get this useful author guide book?
https://www.amazon.com/Tips-Market-Your-Book-Free-ebook/dp/B018RA72LY/

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How Authors Find an Audience

Audience

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Authors don’t need a finished manuscript – they need an audience first!  Alone in 2015,
more than 500,000 new English-language books have been published.
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If you are an author with a 90,000 word manuscript ready to roll – just hold your horses – see how much work you have to do to find just ten people who are willing to buy your book.
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Make Sure Your Book Has Readers Before You Publish.
If you can’t build a small audience, how can you expect to build a large audience?  In order to survive the crowded space, some publishers are enhancing their efforts to help with their books’ discovery.  Quality content has always been the top priority of successful publishers.  However, with growing sales through online retailers, a book’s discoverability has become nearly as important.

Work hard to make sure your story and the writing is the best it can be, let several beta readers go through the manuscript, have it professionally edited.  Create an outstanding cover image.  And in the meantime: put your novel on hold and focus on short stories,  blog articles or even a short free e-book as a teaser and network on social media.

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Promote Your Future Book Through Short Stories.
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books.
Short stories or prequels can be the backstories for the longer book to come or standalone narratives that add to a reader’s knowledge of the characters or scene.
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Create Buzz and Momentum.
Have fun to create several backstories for the longer book to come.  Don’t see prequels as a marketing gig, they are valuable parts of your author platform and brand.  Don’t forget: Promotion of your book must start long before you finish your manuscript if you don’t want to lose sales and success!

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Competition is Growing by the Day…
Do what you as a writer likes most: WRITE!  Not only 90.000-word-manuscripts, but also short stories and blog articles.
Without even the bare minimum of an audience (or even good friends) your book won’t get picked up, and certainly won’t sell.

It’s not only “writers write” but also “author audiences”.  Wise words:  “If you want book sales, buy books.  If you want book reviews, write reviews for all of the books you read.  If you want people to like your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter, like your readers’ and friends’ Facebook pages and follow them on Twitter.”

Sean Blanda:  “Call it the ‘anti-marketing’ plan: by building genuine connections with readers we can dramatically improve the chances of success.”
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Who Offers the Best Value for Your Dollars?

promotion-service-reviews

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Fantastic Tool for Authors: Promotion Service Reviews.
Ever wondered where to advertise your KDP free days or any other book promotion?  John Doppler from SelfPublishingAdvice compared mailing lists, readership numbers, and the cost for e-book discovery services: “Free and discounted e-books can be a powerful tool for increasing sales, but only if readers know about the deal.  We have gathered the data on eight popular services so you can compare pricing, audience, and features to find the right platform for promoting your free and discounted books.”
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The mailing lists of ebook discovery services can (not necessarily always will) place free or discounted books (or those at regular prices) in front of thousands of interested readers, potential book purchasers and reviewers.

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How to Use this Tool:
First, choose your category and sub-category and click on the price button (free and up to $2.99 and over).  You will be provided with a list of the services from best to worst value, determined by the cost to reach 1,000 subscribers (CPM).  The higher on the list an option is, the better its value.
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For example in the thriller category “Fussy Librarian” offers the best value at only $0.17 to reach 1,000 subscribers, while BookBub is at the lowest ranking with $0.69 to reach 1,000 readers.

Here is a random example from the category Mystery, sub genre Thriller for books $2.99 and over:

Free Books
$0.99 Books
$1.99 Books
$2.99 Books (and over)
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Service Category Reach Cost CPM (cost to reach 1.000 subscribers)
Fussy Librarian Thrillers 96,109 $ 16.00 $ 0.17
Bargain Booksy Thriller 124,200 $ 50.00 $ 0.40
BookGorilla Thrillers   185,500 $ 100.00 $ 0.54
BookBub Thrillers 2,760,000 $ 1,900.00 $ 0.69

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Conclusion by SelfPublishingAdvice:
“Books priced at $2.99 and over, the clear champion is The Fussy Librarian.  Fussy Librarian has a smaller membership, but their correspondingly lower fees do not vary with the price of the book.  Fussy Librarian has approximately 121,000 subscribers.  Authors can promote their book to a second genre list at half price!  With superior CPM for higher-priced books and the best CPM across nearly every fiction category, Fussy Librarian presents an outstanding value for a surprisingly low price.”

Bargain Booksy ranks moderately well in fiction genres, particularly in the higher price brackets.  However, Bargain Booksy really shines in nonfiction categories, where it sits at the top of most rankings.

Freebooksy does not fare quite as well as its sister site, generally resting in the lower half of its genres.  The popular categories of Mystery, Cozy Mystery, and Thrillers are a notable exception.
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Affiliate Programs:
Almost all these services are affiliated with online book retailers and receive a tiny percentage (around 4 per cent) of each book sale, unless it is free. If you are an affiliate yourself, the percentage will go to the book promoter, not to your account. But this is a negligible detail, just wanted to let you know.
The only service who is not disclosing their affiliate connection is BookBub.  In their very detailed privacy page, they disclose: “We may share some or all of your personal information in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets….”
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SelfPublishingAdvice Provided a Great Free Service.
Thanks to John Doppler, who analyzed the strength and weakness of each promotion service in this review, lists the requirements (mostly at least ten! book reviews, better than 4-Stars), the most popular categories, and lots of other important information, such as the return on investment (ROI), including the websites of the promo services.
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Don’t miss to bookmark this terrific resource and work with the information, provided by John Doppler.

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Don’t Forget these 3 Basics Book Promotion Tools

Book-Promotion-Tools

Why do authors often not even use the free “tools” they have at hand to promote their books?  I don’t want to bash book marketing skills of authors here – the opposite, I want to help you to succeed.  And remind you to use the basic free tools you have at hand to promote your work.
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As you know from my books and thousands of articles I wrote during the last couple of years, I am recommending either free “111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free” or very inexpensive “Book Marketing on a Shoestring” ways of book marketing.
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What do I Mean With Free / Low-Cost Tools?
How much did you pay for a link to your Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, or  Barnes & Noble, or other online retailer book sales page? Uploading your book at these online retail websites is totally free and they do not charge you for providing a link, nor do they charge authors for storing books and offering the titles for sale.  Only when a customer purchases and downloads a book they subtract their commission.  Did you know that trade publishers have to pay for prominent shelf spaces at bookstore chains to display their NYT Bestsellers?

You as an author who sell through Amazon (or other online retailers) receive even a free author page which you can fill with images of all your book titles, and with up to seven other photos, with articles about yourself and your books, with book trailers, events, a link to your Twitter page …

How much did you pay for your book cover?  Ten dollar, one-hundred or five-hundred dollar?  An attractive cover is essential to sell your book, no matter if print or digital.  Once purchased, you have dozens – if not hundreds – of marketing possibilities, to use your book’s cover.

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Let’s see how you can use these “Free Tools”:

1. Links to Sales and Author Page
You might remember that I wrote a blog post last year about this (arrogant) author.  She was a participant of one of my book marketing seminars, and a first-time book author.  I offered her generously to post and tweet about her title for free – before the book’s launch to ten-thousand of our followers and blog readers. I asked her to send me all the book’s information (blurb, title, links, etc.).  Months later I received a one-sentence email from her: “My book … is now available on Amazon, please look it up”.  I was appalled and almost furious.  You can imagine that I did not “look it up”, instead I deleted this email and all online ties / following on social media, etc. with this rookie writer.  What did she think? Other writers pay hundreds of dollars for book promotion – and she is not even giving a link to her sales page?

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2. Links to Your Website / Blog and Your Sales Page.

Your First Step: Shorten Your Online Retail Links.  No one wants to see or use this link:  http://www.amazon.com/Tips-Market-Your-Book-Free-ebook/dp/B018RA72LY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1452818012&sr=1-1&keywords=111+tips+on+how+to+market+your+book+for+free
Shorten it to this link (everything after /ref is not necessary):
http://www.amazon.com/Tips-Market-Your-Book-Free-ebook/dp/B018RA72LY
Or even shorter, using Bit.ly: http://amzn.to/1QQDEgc
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International Book Sales Link
A smart software developer created a program that lets you send out one link, and no matter where your readers are, they come to their own country’s Amazon website.  It works great.  Try it out with our own Amazon sales link.  Just sign in with the developer’s site: http://www.booklinker.net/.  There are more companies currently offering a similar service: SmartURL  and Georiot.
And even if you are not distributing your books with D2D, you can use their free book linker:
Books2read.com links to Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, B&N Nook, Google Play, ScribD, 24Symbols, Thalia, Inktera, Smashwords, Baja Libros, Playster, Blio, Bookmate, Browns Books for Students, Casa del Libro, Family Christian, Hive, Buch.de, BOL.de, DriveThruFiction, Indigo, Angus & Robertson, Bücher.de, FNAC, Hugendubel, Libris, Livraria Cultura, Mondadori, Rakuten, WHSmith, BOL.com, Eason, eBook.de, Gandhi.mx, LaFeltrinelli, Overdrive etc.
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Link your Google+ Page to Your own Website.
Get more recommendations for your site in Google search and grow your audience on Google+.
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Comment on Other Blogs.
Take the time to find bloggers who write about topics similar to those you write about. When they have something good to say or you can add something to what they have written, leave a comment on their blog.  Each time you do so, you leave behind a link to yourself, your website, or your blog.  If people who read your comment find what you have written interesting, they will click on the link to find out more about you.  They may then decide to become regular blog readers or subscribers, newsletter subscribers, or book buyers.
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Signature Link in all Emails.
Every day you send out dozens of emails to friends, business colleagues, your doctor, lawyer or accountant, or to potential readers or editors … Email signatures (a.k.a. sig lines) are powerful, low-cost, high-return marketing tools (a virtual business card or ad) for writers.  But very few authors use this free way of getting the emails recipient’s attention to their books.

Gmail makes it real easy to create an email signature.  Email signatures can be added under “settings” in your email service. At Gmail it is the small tool icon on the upper right part of the your email page. Click on it to come to the “settings” page and scroll down to Signature: (appended at the end of all outgoing messages). When you click on the link underneath, that says “Learn More” you will find tips and samples for email signatures, and how you can create signatures for the Gmail app for Android, the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad, and mobile web browsers.
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Use http:about.me.  
Your email signature should answer who you are, what you do, and how you can be contacted. In times when people are overloaded with information, use an email signature that is minimal and does not require much space. When using About.me, you can place all your information, including an image, in one single link. You will be surprised what a great and attractive tool it will be. Best of all: You can link your blog to About.me and always show your latest posts to visitors.
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Link when Guest Blogging or Writing for a Magazine / Newspaper. 
To write for other blogs or websites, including LinkedIn, has lots of benefits, from building authority to generating backlinks to your book sales site.  Include a link or two to a post on your own blog / website or to your online sales page.  The anchor text of the links should have a search engine friendly keyword.  Never write: click here.  Always use specific keywords from your own articles.

Link to Your Amazon Author / Sales Page.
Most Important is: Create a Perfect Amazon Author Page. It takes a long time until your own website will have the amount of visitors, compared to your Amazon Author Pages (provided you send out the link to it wherever there is a possibility). See an example of a great author page at Fiza Pathan’s Amazon presence.
Be the “face” of your books and create an author page for each Amazon “country” – your Amazon.com author page is NOT transferred to Amazon.de, Amazon.fr or Amazon.ca, for example.

  • Add a professional author photo & biography
  • Add all your books
  • Add videos (e.g. trailers for your books)
  • Add up to seven additional photos, e.g. you writing your books or scenes from your book
  • Add images or graphics from your book’s content
  • Add a biography – make sure to update it frequently
  • List events, such as book readings or book launches
  • Add your Twitter address so people can see your latest Tweet and easily follow you
  • Set up the “Search Inside/Look Inside” feature
  • Add an RSS feed, linking to your blog – a great way to get your blog in front of new people and encourage them to follow you
  • View and edit the list of books you have written – the Amazon system doesn’t always get it right. If you have written more than one book, it will link your titles together, and allow your readers to find all of your work.
  • Edit your product description and “about the author” section, and add any professional reviews you have had to editorial reviews.
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3. Cover Images
Your book cover is valuable in marketing terms. A stunning book cover is one of the best marketing tools for any writer! Use it generously – even before your book’s launch. We are a visual culture; naturally, it influences our book-buying habits. It’s a fact that buyers for the chain stores, for example, will order more copies of a book they find visually appealing, so their opinion counts.
Social media is an increasingly important discovery tool for all forms of entertainment. This is where authors should show off their book’s cover:

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Vine
  • Flickr
  • YouTube
  • Google+
  • Goodreads
  • Twitter … you name it.

Start a cover poll, long before your book’s launch, and get input from your readers. Try several color versions or a monochrome version.
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The next step is a cover reveal, a couple of weeks before launch, and even before you start your pre-order period at Amazon or iBooks.
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Embed links to your Instagram or Flickr site in photos you use on blogs, share it on social media sites such as Twitter, Google+, FB, or Tumblr. Doing this draws visitors from third-party sites to your photo pages. Pinterest, for example, created a feature that allows sharing from Flickr, automatically showing proper credit and a link back to the original photographer.
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Tagging and grouping photos: You can use up to 75 tags to describe your photo of the book cover, way more than on Amazon or any other page for that matter. 75 tags are a lot of possibilities to let people know about your book! Don’t forget to add notes, including a link to explain your photo, mentioning your book.
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Flickr is not the only site where you can show images of your book and its topics.  Find a list of the best photo sharing sites on Social Times or on Wikipedia where you can even find the number of registered members and their Alexa Web Ranking.
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Create a slideshow about your book on Slideshare.com and use your cover photo several times in a variety of displays.
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Join KindleBoards, Wattpad, Shelfari, LibraryThing, Bibliophile, Book Buzzr and dozens of other reader communities where you can show the cover of your book.
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Create or join Google+ communities, network with readers and writers, post your blog articles or – in rare cases – blandly promote your book, showing the cover prominently at the timeline. ONLY on a few of the communities allow this, others don’t accept it. Read their terms before joining.
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Last but not least:  Send your book’s cover image to all your readers, friends, followers, to your family and even to your local newspaper – always along with a link to your sales page or your author website.  It does not cost you a dime.  But chances are, that they buy your book for themselves or a friend, or recommend it, along with an image and a sales link that you provided. 

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