Marketing – Page 2 – Publetariat

Quick Link: 5 steps To Building A Successful Author Platform Before you Publish: Donna Galanti

November 15, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

When is the best time to start marketing your book and looking for an audience? Before you even start writing it! Head on over to the Self Publishing Advice Center of ALLI and find great ideas for building your author platform or improving the one you got! I am taking notes!

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5 steps To Building A Successful Author Platform Before you Publish: Donna Galanti

This post is part of Frankfurt Book Fair Indie Author Fringe, an online author conference that showcases the best self-publishing advice and education for authors across the world — harnessing the global reach of the Alliance of Independent Authors’ network. Our self-publishing conference features well-known indie authors and advisors, for 24 sessions over 24-hours, in a one-day extravaganza of self-publishing expertise straight to your email inbox.

We hope you enjoy this session. Let us know if you have any questions or input on this self-publishing topic. Visit our Hot Seat and join in the conversation there, or leave your questions and feedback in the comments section below.

Read the full post on Self Publishing Advice Center

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Throwback Thursday! Blogs: 10 reasons authors should have one

November 2, 2017 by Publetariat

Throwback Thursday – sharing some of our great older posts that still are important today!

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Blogs are a few years old in the tech industries, but now they are a must-have for authors who want to get the word out. If you don’t have a blog yet, here’s why you need to get blogging!

1. People can find you and your books on the internet.

Google loves blogs and regular content updates. Blog software allows you to update your blog whenever you like, creating extra pages for your website. These are indexed and over time you can build up a great internet presence so people can find you when searching.

2.Connect with like-minded people.

Being a blogger opens up a new world of networking. You can connect with other authors who blog, or literary agents, publishers and communities all over the world.

3.Two way interaction and feedback.

You can allow comments on your blog so people can connect with you directly by leaving a message. You can also comment on other blogs. This allows an interaction that cannot be achieved by a static website or email.

4.Marketing you as an author.

You can add all sorts of information about yourself at your blog, including photos, videos and examples of your work. You can list your publishing credits, your ebooks, articles, media appearances and anything else you want to use to market yourself as an author.

5.Book promotion.

Have a special page for your book where you can add photos, your book trailer, downloads of chapters and any other information on your book. You can do special blog posts, for example, an interview with you talking about your book, or a giveaway.

6.Online sales channel.

You can use your blog as a place to sell your books and services. If you integrate with a shopping cart or use a service like Smashwords or Clickbank, you can add links for these Buy Now pages.

7.Writing practice.

Blogging is a very dynamic way of writing. Sometimes you will get an idea and want to blog on it immediately. You will do some research, try to write something catchy or useful, and then post it all very quickly. Sometimes you might spend a lot longer on one piece, but generally you write between 500-800 words and get it out there. If you get “bloggers block”, then chances are you are not interested enough in the material to sustain a blog on it, so move on!

8.Blog your book.

You can use your book as the key material for your blog. Take excerpts and use them as posts, and then spin off from those posts into new things. This will get you traffic related to your topic/book subject so make sure you have a sales page that allows people to buy your book.

9.Build an audience.

People can subscribe to your blog through an RSS feed which means you can build a following who read your work. You can build relationships with these people and get direct feedback through comments and seeing how people respond to your posts.

10.Build your platform.

Publishers these days want a “platform” meaning that you have a following, people who will buy your books. If you are self-published, this is even more important as you will need to sell it yourself. Blogging enables you to build this platform in terms of a body of work, an online presence, knowledge of the industry and marketing as well as hopefully some people who are interested in what you have to say.

Quick Link: How to Build a Personal Brand While Staying Authentic to Your Craft

October 26, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

This is the hard part about being an author as opposed to a writer. You have to market yourself. That is hard, a lot of us (me included) have a hard time connecting socially on the web and think of marketing as a dirty word. At The Write Life, Andrea Guevara has some great information on how to help us so that we can reach others while still staying us.

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How to Build a Personal Brand While Staying Authentic to Your Craft

by Andrea Guevara

You’re a writer, a change-maker, someone who influences culture — not a boring old corporate brand. You roll your eyes when it comes time to talk about working on your personal brand.

I get it; It goes against your anarchist, artist nature.

A few years ago after nearly two decades as an entrepreneur, I came back to my love: Writing.

About a year into my time at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, a classmate and I attended an all-day marketing for writers seminar. Somewhere around the second or third presenter, I was totally overwhelmed. I thought the hardest work I’d do as a writer would be the writing. I had no idea just how much the publishing industry had tightened its belt, and how much promotion was now in writer’s hands.

I wanted to create art, not be a one-woman marketing show.

Read the full post on The Write Life!

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Quick Link: How to Sell Thousands of Books When You Don’t Have an Audience

October 13, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Sometimes it feels like a no win situation. People can’t find you because you don’t have any sales but you can’t make sales until people find you. Getting that initial lift is hard for a new author. Thankfully Frank McKinley from Postive Writer has some great basic tips on how to do the best you can to find your initial audience.

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How to Sell Thousands of Books When You Don’t Have an Audience

by Frank McKinley

Do you have a book inside you that needs to be shared with the world?

I know how you feel. You should write it and sell it, even if you don’t have an audience yet…

But I’m an Unknown Author

I started writing books 4 years ago.

It all started with a series of leadership articles I wrote for my client to give to his customers. As he read them, he told me time and again, “You need to make this into a book!”

I said, “You know. That’s a great idea!”

After the third time he told me, I knew he meant it.

Isn’t the Market Saturated?

The last time I checked there are almost 70 million books on Amazon.

That’s enough to make you wonder whether anyone at all will see your book.

Sure, there’s a lot of garbage uploaded to Amazon every day. After you read this, you won’t be one of those authors who set themselves up to fail.

Trust me, there is always room for good books. People are still buying them, reading them, and raving about them.

Are you ready to join the club of bestselling authors?

Get your marketing hat on and let’s get started!

Read the full post on Postive Writer.

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Quick Link: What’s More Important: Author Websites or Social Media?

October 12, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

At Jane Friedman, Jane discusses a subject near and dear to my heart – author websites. This should not be an eithor or subject. Having an author site is like having a home. It lets people know who you are and where you are. It provides a base for social media marketing including Facebook and Twitter. Read on for Jane’s views and let us know if you agree or not.

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What’s More Important: Author Websites or Social Media?

by Jane Friedman

In 2013, I observed a conversation on Twitter where a publisher said they didn’t believe in author websites “for a lot of authors”—that social was a better place for authors to spend time from a marketing perspective.

It bothered me, and I ended up writing a blog post about it, exploring why a publisher might think this—rightly or wrongly.

Since then, I’ve taught countless conference sessions and webinars about author platform development, content strategy, marketing and promotion, and long-term best business practices. Hands down, the No. 1 thing I’m questioned about is social media—by the unpublished writers, advanced writers, and well-established career authors. I don’t mind fielding such questions, but I find social media the most difficult topic to teach effectively, and I’ll have a separate post about that tomorrow.

On the flip side, I rarely field questions about author websites, aside from technical ones about what service to use or other fiddly details related to domains, hosting, and WordPress sites. I believe this happens for a few reasons: Website design and development is a more technical area, plus few authors actively engage on their site with readers. It can be something of a “set it and forget it” thing. Who’s really looking at an author website that much anyway, especially one without a blog or active updates?

Read the full post on Jane Friedman.

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Quick Link: The Relaxed Release

September 18, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I think Elizabeth S. Craig is brilliant and has the right idea when it comes to book releases. Do you agree? What tips do you have for a good title release?

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The Relaxed Release

by Elizabeth S. Craig

I remember how stressed I was whenever I had a book launch for Penguin Random House.

For one thing, the launches were happening pretty regularly, since I was writing two series for them.

But mostly, I was stressed because their expectations were high. Any marketing related emails or calls were more centered on what were my plans for the release and less on what they were doing to promote it. (Let this be a heads-up for anyone thinking of pursuing traditional publishing for marketing support.)

Oh, the publisher’s publicity person did usually do one thing: set me up on a book blogger tour. But who was doing all the work? I was–I was writing the posts, sending them over to the bloggers, and answering comments.

Sometimes they’d send me ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to distribute. Again, the pressure was on me…to figure out whom to send the copies to, mail them (at some cost…these were printed ARCs), and follow up later.

Once I went on a book tour in NC with a group of other cozy authors. We had someone help us set up events: signings, panels, etc. I think that was a pretty successful effort, but I did find it very stressful.

Read the full post on Elizabeth S. Craig.

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Quick Link: Six Smart Ways Indie Authors Can Collaborate When Marketing

September 5, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

We are all in this together as author and writers, so this post from Angela Ackerman at Writer’s Helping Writers hits the spot with how we can help each other with the hardest task of all. Marketing.

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Six Smart Ways Indie Authors Can Collaborate When Marketing

by Angela Ackerman

The control and freedom indie authors have can be a big asset when it comes to marketing. The problem is time. Shouldering the weight of writing, editing, researching, publishing, marketing, and promoting alone can be exhausting, especially knowing our industry is growing more crowded and competitive by the day.

There’s a silver lining here, though: Indies are business people (let’s face it, you have to be to make it in our world) who know the value of collaboration. After all, working together means spreading out the marketing load, sharing audiences, and leveraging everyone’s platform and connections.

Finding other authors to collaborate with might take some time, but it’s worth it. Look for authors who 1) write books very similar to your own 2) have a good work ethic 3) believe in give and take, and 4) have a platform and the trust of their readers (influence).

Built your crew? Awesome! Here’s six ways to collaborate.

Swap Valuable Links

Read the full post on Writer’s Helping Writers

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Quick Link: How To Get Book Reviews As An Unknown Author

August 29, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

The hardest thing is for a new author to get recognized. There are so many titles out there and other authors trying to get recognized as as well. With a limited number of resources, how do you get started in gathering publicity and reviews? At The Creative Penn, Joanna Penn helps you out with steps you can take.

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How To Get Book Reviews As An Unknown Author

by Joanna Penn

A few months ago, I started a new pen-name and have kept it secret in order to avoid ‘pollution’ of the also-boughts. But it has been SO hard because I have basically started from scratch – with no email list, no street team, no reviews, no platform, no social media.

The pen-name is slowly gathering steam, but it reminds me how hard it is starting out and getting those first reviews can be one of the hardest things.

In today’s article, Jason B. Ladd, author of Book Review Banzai gives some tips on getting reviews as an unknown author.

As an unknown author, getting Amazon reviews for your book is crucial to unlocking its full potential. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.

False Assumptions

You might think that downloads lead to Amazon reviews.

They don’t.

You might not know if Amazon has restrictions on reviews.

They do.

You might think reviews will eventually start rolling in with enough time and word of mouth.

They won’t.

It’s easy to get discouraged. You might think it’s impossible for an unknown author publishing their first book to get any traction with Amazon reviews.

It isn’t.

Read the full post on The Creative Penn

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Quick Link: Audiobooks are the Fastest Growing Book Market: How to Get Your Book Recorded

August 9, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Audiobooks are growing in sales and are very popular. You can also use them as part of an up-sell or deal for your customer. Check out the article from Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris that interviews someone who actually voices audiobooks for a behind-the-scenes look!

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Audiobooks are the Fastest Growing Book Market: How to Get Your Book Recorded

An Interview with Audible Narrator C. S. Perryess

Audiobooks are hot. Especially for adult fiction.

People like to listen to audiobooks on their phones.
New audio platforms like Amazon Echo and Alexa and Google home make listening to audiobooks convenient and fun.
Millennials like audiobooks.
There are lots of options for getting them: the library, iTunes, Audible, Google Play.

The Alliance of Independent authors (Alli) says all indies should branch into audiobooks.

But how does an indie author afford the initial expense of hiring a narrator?

One answer: go through the “royalty share” program at Audible, the audiobooks wing of Amazon.

Today I’m talking to the narrator of my audiobooks, C. S. Perryess, who records for Audible (aka ACX.)

Read the full post on Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris

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Quick Link: Audiobooks: What You Should Know

July 17, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Audiobooks are a hot and growing market. Definitely worth looking into for your title. Romance University‘s contributor Veronica Scott runs down what you need to know if you are thinking of going audio.

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Audiobooks: What You Should Know – by Veronica Scott

RU Contributor Veronica Scott discusses factors you should consider if you’re thinking about creating audiobooks.

Since June is Audiobook Month, I thought I should devote my post to that topic. First, some relevant statistics from a December 8, 2016 post on the Goodereader.com website: “Over the course of the past three years the highest growing segment of publishing are audiobooks. The global audiobook industry is currently evaluated at $3.5 billion dollars and the United States is currently the largest singular market with $1.8 billion dollars in audio sales in 2016 and this was a 31% increase from 2015. The Audio Publishers of America has stated that every year for the past three years 36,000 audiobooks were issued.”

Read the full post on Romance University

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Quick Link: Inexpensive Promoting

July 11, 2017July 11, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

It’s summertime! That means lots of events and chances to promote your book! Check out the excellent post from Elizabeth Spann Craig that has some fantastic tips on how to publicize your story without breaking the bank.

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Inexpensive Promoting

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Anyone familiar with this blog knows that I’m not a fan of old-fashioned promoting. I think I’ve sold a lot more books by using better book metadata and following best-practices for SEO on my book pages on my website.

But sometimes…you’ve got to promote the old-fashioned way. In my case, it’s usually by request. My audiobook producer is big into old-fashioned promo: going out into bookstores for events, doing book tie-ins, and that type of thing. He’s really, really good at it. In the past, he’s asked me for free printed copies of my books to tie-in with the audio versions for giveaways at all kinds of special events. I’ve sent them over to him…just very happy that I wasn’t doing the promo legwork myself.

It’s expensive, though. Even getting the author copies from CreateSpace. There’s the buying of the books, and then the shipping of the books. If you’re talking a fair number of books or doing something regularly, it does add up.

This time I told my producer that I’d like to do something a little different (and basically free on my end). I used Canva to design bookmarks especially for my audiobooks and then added an Instafreebie code to provide a free ebook. Realizing a lot of other writers might be going to summer events, I thought I’d share what I did. (And I used to be a VistaPrint customer…nothing wrong with that, except this particular project required immediacy. I couldn’t wait).

Read the full post on Elizabeth Spann Craig

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Quick Link: 6 Ways You Are Destroying Your Chances of Finding Readers

July 10, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Getting readers who hopefully love your story is the whole reason behind publishing your stories. Make sure you are not doing any of these six mistakes from Laurence O’Bryan at Books Go Social!

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6 Ways You Are Destroying Your Chances of Finding Readers

by Laurence O’Bryan

You’re a writer. You want to find readers. Traditional publishers are paying less and less, and they are taking fewer books these days.

So you decide to self-publish. You think it’s enough to put your book on the internet, that people should buy it, that you’ve done your job.

But have you destroyed your chances of your book finding readers, because of basic mistakes?

Sure, readers are still looking for high-quality stories and help from non fiction books, but these days they use the characteristics of how a book is presented as tells, indicators of the quality of storytelling and writing within.

If you can’t pay attention to these basic tells, they assume it’s unlikely you paid attention to the quality of the writing. And often they are right.

Are you destroying your chances of finding readers with these basic mistakes?

Read the full post on Books Go Social

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Quick Link: 15 Book Publicity Commandments

June 22, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

At the Book-Baby Blog (say that 10 times fast!) Carolyn Howard-Johnson gives us 15 must follow commandments for publicity. What do you think? Did she nail them or are there others you would add?

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15 Book Publicity Commandments

by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

16. Thou Shalt Not Annoy Others

If you can’t really afford to spend a lot on a book publicity campaign, carve out some time to do it yourself and apply these 15 commandments.

If you read the newspapers or watch TV, you know that advertising sells. But even those big guys who do all the advertising aren’t sure what works best when it comes to advertising.

A huge retailer once said that advertising works, we just don’t know how, why, or where it works best. Publicity is advertising’s less mysterious cousin. It is the more reliable relative because it is judged on its merit alone and carries the cachet of an editor’s approval. It also is surrounded by the ever-magic word “free.”

Book publicity and marketing are easily identified as kin. They often walk hand-in-hand and yet they can be incompatible. The editors of good media outlets will not allow the advertising department to influence them. Still, in an effort to be completely impartial, they reserve the right to use advertiser’s stories editorially if they deem them newsworthy. That is why it is helpful to use advertising as a vehicle that plays to the audience you would like to see standing before your cash register or clicking to buy your book online.

Advertising can be an entrée to the decision-makers. A contact in the advertising department may be willing to put a news release on the desk of one of his editors, maybe even encourage her to look at it. They can make no promises, but it does sometimes work. If you’re going to try this route, choose a “little pond” – a bookish brochure, an “arty” weekly, or a literary site – so the dollars you spend get noticed.

Read the full post on Book-Baby Blog

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Quick Link: Building an Author Platform with Ginger Monette

June 19, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

You did it! You finally finished your book, it is edited and ready to go. Now what? Ginger Monette from Romance University has some great tips on the next steps.

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Building an Author Platform with Ginger Monette

by Ginger Monette

Welcome Ginger Monette who is here to show us how to build an author platform and send your book off with a bang!

our manuscript is in the hands of your editor, and you’ve got the big release day circled on your calendar.

What now?

Should you start advertising? Tweeting?

It’s little early to alert the media, but there are a host of pre-launch foundations new authors need to put into place before they release their baby to the world. Let’s get right to the checklist.

-Create a new email address to use exclusively for your author correspondence. It will keep your writing correspondence separate from your emails from Aunt Sue and Old Navy and allow you to see at a glance any unopened correspondence and emails needing immediate attention.

–Create an email signature line and maybe a “one-liner” that describes in a nutshell what you write. Begin using it so your friends and associates will know you’re an author. Mine is:

Read the full post on Romance University

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Quick Link: Author Platform Building: How to Create a Valuable Email List For Your Book

June 12, 2017 by Publetariat

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

An email list is one of your best marketing tools. Just think about it, people actually signed up for your email because they are interested in you! At Writer’s Digest, guest poster Gabriela Pereira gives some great tips on how to start your email list. Personally, I love MailChimp and have used it for many clients but they are all good. Also, adding one more tip to Gabriela’s list – you need to reassure people somehow that you will not sell or abuse their email. Unless you plan on abusing that privilege, in which case you are an awful person.

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Author Platform Building: How to Create a Valuable Email List For Your Book

By Gabriela Pereira

If I could point to one external factor that has had the biggest positive impact on my career as an author, it would be my email list—and I’m far from alone. Most writers today know they should probably have an email list, but misinformation and confusion abound about what exactly that list should entail, why it’s so crucial and, of course, what to do with it.

This is a guest post by Gabriela Pereira—author, speaker, and self-proclaimed word nerd—whose new book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community shows you how to recreate the Master of Fine Arts experience without going back to school. As the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, Gabriela’s mission is to empower writers to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth. She earned her MFA in creative writing from The New School and teaches at national conferences, local workshops, and online. She also hosts the podcast DIY MFA Radio, where she interviews best-selling authors and book industry insiders about the art and business of writing.

Why You Need an Email List

The Internet is always changing. From Facebook to Foursquare, Pinterest to Periscope, it sometimes seems as if a new social media platform pops up every minute. Who can keep up? The beauty of email is that it’s evergreen. While websites, forums and social networks might come and go, email has solidified its place in how we communicate.

Email is a direct line between you and your readers. There’s no “middleman” to get in the way. In a digital world where social networks change their algorithms, sites get hacked and servers crash, direct communication is invaluable. You can export that list and take it with you wherever you go. As long as you build that list correctly, it’s yours and no one can take it away from you.

Read the full post on Writer’s Digest

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How to Build a Personal Brand While Staying Authentic to Your Craft

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How to Sell Thousands of Books When You Don’t Have an Audience

But I’m an Unknown Author

Isn’t the Market Saturated?

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What’s More Important: Author Websites or Social Media?

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The Relaxed Release

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Six Smart Ways Indie Authors Can Collaborate When Marketing

Built your crew? Awesome! Here’s six ways to collaborate.

Swap Valuable Links

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How To Get Book Reviews As An Unknown Author

False Assumptions

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Audiobooks are the Fastest Growing Book Market: How to Get Your Book Recorded

An Interview with Audible Narrator C. S. Perryess

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Audiobooks: What You Should Know – by Veronica Scott

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Inexpensive Promoting

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Building an Author Platform with Ginger Monette

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Author Platform Building: How to Create a Valuable Email List For Your Book

Why You Need an Email List

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