One of the great features of Amazon is that is has a self-publishing company known as BookSurge. Through BookSurge authors can use features like print-on-demand and get organized with inventory management and distribution assistance. What’s really nice about BookSurge is that it offers scalable options to meet the needs of each author. If you want to be guided through the process step-by-step or if you’re looking for a more self-guided approach, BookSurge is the perfect solution.

Here’s a short breakdown on how the process comes together. The first step an author needs to take is to upload their completed manuscript in a PDF format. Don’t forget to include the cover for your book too. Next, you’ll develop your sales page which will feature price, tax and how royalties will be paid.

After you’ve assembled this first stage you’ll want to actually order one of your books so that you can confirm that everything is in order from the time that you add the book to your shopping cart, submit your credit card information and receive the final product. Once you’re satisfied with the outcome you’re ready to authorize distribution.

Head on over to Amazon to build your book’s page. Upload images and try to include reviews, testimonials and other relevant information that will help drive books sales among consumers. It might be a good idea to research how some well-known author have built their Amazon book pages and then borrow and customize your own ideas.

Although this is one method for getting your book printed and loaded onto Amazon, keep in mind that you have many other options to choose from. Self-publishing is as unique as the author and subject of the book itself. Do some research and find out what will best fit your needs before making a final decision.

Technorati Tags: Book Marketing

For authors, the freemium model is a fantastic way to give loyal fans and readers incentive to become paid members of your online site. This can be accomplished by sharing a white paper, ebook or even a report. Knowing what the difference is among each of these will help you develop content accordingly and make it available to win over interested individuals.

A white paper is a great tool that can be used to sell your services. Typically, a white paper contains quite a bit of copy and a few graphics that are assembled in a persuasive way. The purpose of the white paper is to sell your point of view and usually argue from a specific position. Think of a white paper as written form of opinion that uses facts to support what it is you’re boasting about.

Sometimes, people confuse white papers with reports, but they’re not the same. A report is more along the lines of an article. It’s purpose isn’t to sell, but to convey, or educate. For many writers, a white paper or report won’t be as frequently used as an ebook. Ebooks are electronic versions of a book and they can be written on just about anything you can think of.

Now that we have a better understanding on what these three items are we can use them with the freemium website model. Consider creating a white paper, report or ebook that can be downloaded for free to entice your audience to learn more about your written body of work and you as an author. These free ‘teasers’ can demonstrate your experience, credibility and even highlight your accomplishments. All of these things are contributing factors to who you are as an author and why someone would want to read more of what you’ve written.

Once you’ve hooked your reader, turn them into paying fans and site members by providing them with access to content and material that basic members can’t receive. It’s an exclusive way to say thank you for their support.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Book Marketing, Business, freemium

The best way to get an agent is to start thinking like one. Literary agents get thousands of manuscripts every week. The vast majority are delivered without a request and as a result, many of them are shelved for review sometime later, if at all. Keeping your manuscript out of the dust pile means networking with agents and introducing yourself first so that when they ‘invite’ you to submit your manuscript it’s because they truly want to read it and they’re expecting it.

Networking with agents is much easier today that it was in the past thanks to technology. Find out the names of the agents that you’d like to pursue and connect with them through social media. Support them on Twitter and ‘like’ them on Facebook. Interact with short, brief dialogues, but don’t make them about you or your sales pitch just yet. Once you’ve built some momentum, indicate that you’d enjoy sharing your author’s resume for consideration and review. With a little luck, you’ll have an invite to share more.

If social media networking seem a bit tedious try joining a writer’s group or even attending workshops with other published authors. Connecting with other published authors, and editors, is a good way to build relationships and even request permission to name drop. Agents are much more receptive to people who are in the know with their clients than perfect strangers.

Take the time to investigate how each agent prefers to be approached. Just because a one person enjoys receiving an unbound printed manuscript with a business card stapled to the front doesn’t mean that they all do. Doing your home work shows that you’re professional and that you’re following guideline and protocols that agents have put in place for a reason. This will set you apart from the flood of others who haphazardly submit without a thought. In this business, having a leg up is vital and rising above your competition can be just the ticket that you need to succeed.

Technorati Tags: author, Book Marketing, publishing

1.  Research

Your book cover should appeal to your audience’s interests, reading levels and background. Knowing what they want or what grabs them can help you determine how to present your layout and deliver the message on your cover.

2. Images

Make absolutely certain that you’re using high-quality and high-resolution images in your design. You want your artwork to look clear and crisp regardless of it’s size. If you take shortcuts with your images you can potentially end up with pixelated and fuzzy graphics.

3.  Themes

If you’re an author, chances are that you’ve written more than one book or that you’ll be writing more than one book. For this reason, think about creating a theme in the designs that you build and look at ways to tie the aesthetics of your publications together. Even though your books may be about completely different subjects, your theme can bring a cohesive feel to them that lets readers identify with you as an author of the work.

4.  Typography

The choice of font that you incorporate into your cover can play a major role in giving the reader a tease about its contents. Use a script font to show off a feminine theme or an angled serif to create an Asian feel. The rule here is don’t flood the cover with too many different fonts and keep it legible. You don’t want people de-cyphering what your cover says.

5.  Feedback

Instead of coming up with just one great design, try to develop a group of three or four. Once you’ve got them laid out you can share them with others to get honest opinions about what they prefer and why. Although friends and family might seem like an obvious choice try hitting up strangers and conducting your own poll. It’s a great way to learn about what works and what doesn’t.

Technorati Tags: author, Book Marketing, book sales

Let’s take a look at printing. Print-on-demand (POD) is a process where authors are able to upload a print-ready file to a POD publisher and when an order arrives for your book, the book is printed on the spot and delivered to your customer. Much cheaper than batch printing which include inventory storage and shipping costs. Another plus to POD publishing is that you’re not limited to just one. Use a group to determine the most affordable for you.

POD publishing transfers easily to large online retailers like Amazon.com and BN.com. As an author you can create your own page on these sites and as orders are requested you can have them fulfilled via your POD group. The general public will never know the difference and it gives writers a tremendous amount of control over the production of their books. Furthermore, you can also sell and promote through ClickBank, Kindle and on iPhone’s Smashwords – all are excellent tools and purchase points to boost your sales.

There’s been a lot said about promoting your book, but with web 2.0 the empowerment for authors continues. Instead of traditional book-signings and tours, writers can engage readers through podcasts, blogs, Google Book Search and social media. No matter how you slice it, promoting your book using various online tools and resources is a sure fire way to boost sales and build awareness about what you’ve written. That equates to exposure and more revenue for you.

In a nutshell, think of web 2.0 as a term that describes how writers can become more self-sufficient. Being able to do things on your own shouldn’t be viewed as a burden, but as a way to guide readers to your book and keep them engaged beyond the writing.

Technorati Tags: author, book marketing plan, book publicity

Build a Website

If hearing this reminds you of a broken record then that’s a good thing. Times have changed and it’s crucial that you have build an online home to for your ebook to reside in. Once you’ve got your site up and running, make sure that there’s either a dedicated page or subdomain exclusively for your ebook. Give readers plenty of details, features, benefits and testimonials that highlight your ebook’s contents.

Advertising

The internet makes advertising affordable and customizable for any budget. You don’t need a Superbowl-sized pocketbook to get the word out. Sign-up for a Google AdWords account and explore some of the price models and options available. The nice thing about a pay per click campaign is that you only pay for the visitors who actually click through your ad link and visit your site. Compared to traditional advertising (i.e. newspaper ads, TV spots, etc.), this is a more cost-effective way to drive traffic and create awareness about your ebook.

Connect with ClickBank

Click bank is a fantastic resource that makes it very easy for authors and writers to sell and promote their ebooks. They are connected to more than 10,000 publishers and have 100,000 active affiliates that are ready to co-promote what you’ve written. There is a small fee involved to establish an account, but it quickly pays for itself with the rapid sales of your ebook. Visit ClickBank for specific details on how to get started.

Article Marketing

Create articles that are closely related to what your ebook is about and upload and publish them to  article directories like Ezinearticles, Buzzle and Suite101. For each article that you write and publish you have an opportunity to create a short byline that can be used to promote yourself as an expert and you can include a link within the article’s contents to bring traffic to your ebook’s sale page on your website.

There are so many ways to promote your ebook. Use traditional marketing strategies and customize them to fit your needs and work in an online capacity.

Technorati Tags: book promotion, ebook, marketing

1.  Research Your Consumers

You need to know what people are buying, where they’re buying and how they’re buying. Selling what people want is what will get them to purchase. Hit the web and look at historical trends for books in your niche. Look for commonalities among them like simple plot line, memorable characters or outstanding publicity blitzes. Use what you learn and apply it to your own plan.

2.  Make It Easy to Distribute

Even though you’re an author who’s created something tangible that you can touch, hold and keep, most of the world is electronic based. This means you’ll need to come to your audience and make your book searchable, portable and shareable. Do this well and your book has the potential of becoming a viral phenomenon.

3.  Create a Sense of Urgency

As your gathering and researching for your marketing plan, consider creative ways to make your book a stand out from others. There’s quite a bit of competition so start getting clever about how you’ll sell your product. Think about promoting a limited quantity available or only allowing people to purchase if they buy two at the same time. There are many unique ways to get consumers excited and compel them to act.

4.  Set A Budget

Once you get your creative juices flowing you may find yourself with an arsenal of great marketing  ideas and strategies for your plan. Unfortunately, they’ll all probably come with a price tag. Decide what you can afford to do and what you can’t and get realistic about costs. Your book needs a website, but anyone who’s offering to build you one for less than $500 highly questionable. This is an instance where you get what you pay for.

5.  Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

Whether this is your first book or your fifth, it doesn’t hurt to connect with a successful peer and ask them for advice and insight. People love to teach and share with others. Send an email or pick up the phone and ask others what made their marketing plans a success. Use what you learn to focus your own book marketing plan.

Technorati Tags: book business. small business, book marketing plan, Business, marketing plan

Let’s say that you’ve just written a publication roasting coffee beans. Your SEO efforts would include specific words, like roasting, coffee and book, so that your video would be more likely to appear in Google’s search results. In addition, there are many other SEO steps that you can take to promote your book’s video.

1.  Title

Start with a catchy keyword title. Remember that catchy is different from obscure so try to avoid getting overly creative. Keep it simple and use keywords that can be directly associated with your book, subject matter and general content.

2.  Video Transcript

YouTube is evolving and this is a good thing. Word on the street is that it will begin to use voice recognition to capture audio which will then be made searchable. This will bolster the likelihood of your book video appearing in related searches. This technology is coming down the pipeline so prepare for it now by creating a keyword focused transcript to accompany your video trailer.

3.  Meta Data

Meta data is a fancy term of descriptive keywords, or tags, that are used to find your video book trailer. There are many free online tools available that can help you discover popular and relevant keywords that you can use in your meta data. Use single words, two-word phrases, even three-word phrases. A word of caution on meta data – try to limit your meta data collection to around 16 to 18 word, otherwise you’ll appear to ‘spammy’.

4.  Sharing

Put all your hard SEO work to good use and share your book trailer video on other video sites. Beyond YouTube, there are countless other video sites and uploading to each one can be time consuming. Try using a video distribution service like TubeMogul to get your SEO video out to the masses.

5.  Syndicate

Publicize your video by using RSS feeds like Blinkx. Send the URL link to your video and you’re done. Millions of people will now have instant access to your book trailer.

Technorati Tags: author, search engine, SEO, Video

Understanding the transformation can provide you with some insight on how to take your own video trailer to the masses successfully. First off, the video wasn’t exorbitantly long, just more than four minutes. Although most video attention spans rank at one to two minutes, Socialnomics has a fast paced format that keeps the visuals coming quickly and creatively.

The content is condensed into eye-raising statistics that leave viewers feeling surprised and mesmerized at the same time. Each fact relates back to the book and a specific social media reference. Regardless of whether you’re a social media novice or a guru, the content that Socialnomics shares is exceptional. Plus, it’s set to a trend Fat Boy Slim song that creates a sense of urgency and movement.

So how does this factor into going viral and what can you do to tap into its power? Truth be known, most people want to be entertained. There’s a time and place for being conservative, but if you want to grab someone and shake them into a response, you’re more likely to get it done with something amusing.

Think about compiling tidbits and pieces in a unique way so that viewers will want to discover more. If that seems challenging, consider adding a bit of controversy by taking an opposing view point through your video. Anything clever is sure to get noticed and that’s what can bring you epic numbers of viewers.

Once you’ve accomplished what you want with your video, don’t rest on your laurels. Take a cue from Qualmann. Instead of deciding ‘mission accomplished’, he has created a reloaded version of the video to continue driving and building its momentum. Guess what? It’s working. Once you’re satisfied with your own video trailer, test it out and don’t be afraid to make adjustments and release fresh versions. There’s no right or wrong way.

Use Qualmann’s video as inspiration to craft your own and see where it will take you. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Technorati Tags: Book Marketing, book publicity, SEO, Social Media, social media marketing, Video, video book trailer, viral video

The first step in developing a marketing strategy is to decide what you want your promotional efforts to accomplish. Do you want to sell more books in Texas? Are you interested in increasing your audience base to include auto-biography fans? Create a detailed list of what your short-term and long-term objectives are and they will become the foundation that your marketing plan is built upon.

Your marketing plan will include in-depth details such as budget, sales forecasting, strengths and weaknesses and market data such as, market growth rate, consumer trends and competitive information. The combination of all marketing plan components will provide you with a working document that can be used to focus your efforts and measure their outcomes. This is important because it illustrates success and failures and allows for fine tuning your plan if needed.

You can’t have a marketing plan without a strategy and a strategy without a plan is worthless. They both are needed in order for your marketing efforts to work effectively. Think of these two pieces like a pair of legs – they’re both required if you want your marketing to stand on its own.

The nice thing about a marketing strategy and plan is that they aren’t set in stone. If you’re headed down a path that doesn’t seem to be producing the outcomes that you had hoped to achieve all you have to do is sit down and re-focus. Because these are working documents, they’ll grow as you grow.

Technorati Tags: Book Marketing, book marketing plan, book promotion, strategy