I’m a casual browser of book marketing and promotion sites. I also deal with a lot of authors asking about book promotion companies and services. In general, I say to steer clear. Paying someone else to market your book is a losing gamble, and you’ll very rarely make even a fraction of your money back.
I’ve been slow to adopt to social media. I’m only finally getting used to and starting to enjoy Twitter, mostly because I have an iPhone now and the user interface is more intuitive. People follow me and I follow them back; because I operate in self-publishing circles, that means I have a ton of authors
Most authors don’t know enough about business. While some savvy non-fiction authors succeed through grit, willpower and constant bullhorning, the majority of authors are making a mess of their book marketing and promotion, using decade-old techniques and advice, which will move few books off shelves and even worse, can be detrimental to...
Recently a lot of people have been telling me I’m an excellent entrepreneur. It’s not a compliment. They usually say it when they’re disagreeing with my advice. I work with artists and authors, and I tell them what they need to do to be more successful, to sell more books or paintings, to gain more
One of the most powerful ways to promote your book is to offer it for free for a limited time. Why? You need to remove all resistance separating your book from your readers – including a price tag. Not forever, but enough to get a ton of downloads and some thoughtful reviews, which will help
I just read a post from Chris G. about his success with blogging and online business, where he says it’s mostly a matter of relationships, not specific technologies, tricks, etc. Then I got an email from an author who’s on the lookout for new ways to market books. Perhaps the combination of the two may
When I finished my first book, I set up a contest and giveaway to entice book reviews. Then I created an email list of about 1000 blogs I thought might be interested, and emailed them all about it. I asked them to pass on the good news to their readers. I later found out that
As an Indie Author, I’ve been following video marketing expert Mike Koenigs for a few years now. Today I was watching a video for his new product, “Author Marketing Expert Machines.” I’m not an affiliate, so don’t worry I won’t be pressuring you to buy anything, but the good news is that Mike’s free...
Book sales may seem like a mysterious void of uncertainty, but the truth is most authors fail for very predictable reasons. Luckily, if you’re doing these things wrong, they’re (mostly) easy to fix. 1) You have no reviews. Are you driving people to buy from an amazon page with no reviews on it? Good luck
I just saw an interesting sales letter for a program that generates a cheesy social media chatroom box. The idea is actually pretty awesome, and I’ve seen these around: instead of a big colorful ad that says “LOOK!!! CHEAP!!! AWESOME!!!” the ad seems to “reveal” a private conversation about some secret, insider...
Recently I read John Locke’s kindle book, “How I sold 1 million ebooks in 5 months.” It’s well worth reading so you should check it out. Locke reveals exactly what his title promises. A few of my favorite tips are below: 1) You need to have more than one book. A complex marketing strategy to
I put out my self published non-fiction research book about a year ago. I did almost everything wrong. I’m starting to come to grips with what I should have done, which I’ve arranged in the following 3-step plan for those who can benefit from my mistakes. 1) Distribution. The book has to be OUT
