I won’t lie to you – book marketing online takes a lot of hard work. We spent many hours setting up our author platform and preparing for our launch day. We set up a custom landing page on Facebook as well as a customized YouTube background. We also began posting on our blog and recruiting others to share their stories of forgiveness on our blog as well.

Hosting a Free Online Conference to Generate Buzz

We also decided to host a free 4-day Christian conference online to generate buzz, interest and a list of people who might be interested in buying our book on launch day. We secured four speakers whose topics fit well with our target audience and then conducted live audio interviews over the phone using the free service, Freeconferencing.com. We also made these audio interviews available afterwards on our website as an online replay. We had over 350 conference registrants and a great response to the speakers and their topics.

Not only did the conference build momentum for our launch day, but those that attended the conference got to know us better. In marketing, it’s important to build relationships with your customers (in this case, our readers) to gain their trust. You want them to get to the place where they “know, like and trust” you. An audio conference is a great way to build these relationships with your readers.

Book Launch Day

Currently, we give away the MP3 downloads from the conference as well as the PDF transcripts as a bonus for those who purchase our book. On launch day, we also had other Christian authors, musicians and ministries offer bonus gifts. In fact, we gave away a total of 43 prizes worth over $1150 and 19 gifts worth over $100 available on launch day. We decided to offer a grand prize of one Kindle Fire, iPod touch or Nook (winner’s choice).

The Final Result?

We published our book on August 24th and on December 6th, just over 3 months later, our book became a #1 Amazon bestseller in inspirational Christianity for both books and ebooks! Wow…what an amazing journey it has been. And we give all the glory to God.

We are finishing up our four month book marketing plan with a virtual book tour. We thank Cathy for hosting us and allowing us to share about our book marketing strategies. And we pray our book impacts many lives for years to come.

Shelley Hitz is the co-author of Forgiveness Formula: Finding Lasting Freedom in Christ, along with her husband, CJ. Visit their website to find out more about their book and the special gifts they offer with purchase at: www.TheForgivenessFormula.com. Shelley also helps authors get published and market their books at her website www.Self-Publishing-Coach.com.

The author platform is often the heart of a book publicity campaign. It is, essentially, a list of the author’s credentials in areas that pertain to the content of the book. The author platform may be strengthened by career or life experiences, club and association affiliations, education credentials, and testimonials, among others. An author’s platform establishes credibility for his or her book. You may have the best financial self-help book around but without author credentials, the media and your consumer may not take a second look and your book publicity campaign may suffer. You’ve heard us say it before: “You can’t interview a book.” Thus, the author’s platform, or background, must speak for the book in order to help spark awareness.

So, how do you build your author platform? Here are three tips to get you started:

1) Write what you know: While it might seem like an obvious tip, you’d be surprised how many people step outside of their ‘comfort’ zone to write about things their background doesn’t quite support. Even if it’s a novel, the main themes and plotline should definitely be relevant to your area of expertise! For example, are you an educator? Incorporate an education theme or teacher/student bond into your novel. This will allow your publicist to incorporate ‘real life’ information into your book publicity campaign and position you for interview opportunities.

Writing about what you know helps establish your author platform, incorporate your background into the content of the book and, ultimately, allows your book to reinforce your message because a book simply cannot speak for itself!

2) Pitch to your local media: Local media is most receptive to local authors and their books since coverage of either is relevant and ‘newsworthy’ to their audience. Approach your local media with a copy of your book, a tailored cover letter, and a book release. In your cover letter, make sure you stress that you are a local author and give the editor ideas on how they can incorporate your book/you into their outlet. Perhaps they could run an author profiling story on how you came to write the book. Or they may consider mentioning your book in a local highlights section. Remember, media results build upon themselves and soliciting media runs adds strength to your author platform.

3) Join clubs and organizations: By associating yourself with clubs and organizations that pertain to the content of your book, you’re helping to round out the promotional package. Remember, a book publicity campaign is strongly supported by the author’s credentials. Pull out the main themes in your book – yes, even novels! – and research local clubs and organizations in your area that may tie into them. If your publicist has the opportunity to tie your affiliation with the local SPCA into the promotion for your novel about a family’s beloved dog, your author platform will grow – and so will the appeal for your book.

Corinne Liccketto is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Smith Publicity, Inc. Beginning in 1997, Smith Publicity is one of the world’s leading promotional firms, specializing in book publicity. Fueled by a passion for making good things happen for clients, the company has worked with over 900 individuals and companies–from authors and entrepreneurs to publicly-held companies and businesses representing a wide range of industries. The Smith Publicity reach is international with offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. For more information about Smith Publicity, Inc., please visit www.smithpublicity.com.

Want more tips on building your author platform? Sign up for Cathy Stucker’s Selling Books newsletter and get her audio with advice on Building an Effective Author Platform. The newsletter and the audio are FREE!

This reminds me of the old saw: When is the best time to plant a tree?
Answer: 20 years ago.
When is the second best time to plant a tree?
Answer: Today

To be successful, you must have a platform. In fact, the bigger the platform, the greater the success.

In fact, my publisher, John Wiley rejected a fantastic book proposal I had on negotiations. Why? They felt I was an expert on Internet marketing and not on negotiating. If I wanted to write another book on Internet marketing, they were all ears because I have a platform on that topic. But not so for the negotiating topic. C’est la vie.

If you don’t have a big platform, that doesn’t mean you should give up. It means you should start building your platform as you research and write your book.

If you have a big platform, you should continue to build it. No one has a platform that is big enough. No one. Never stop finding ways to build your platform with people who get what you are about.

Mind you, I’m NOT endorsing any “rapid” Twitter building program. It galls me to think that you can pay $75 and get 1,000 followers in minutes. Do you really think any of those people are going to read one word of what you write? If so, let me refer you to this gentleman who has a bridge for sale. That’s a joke. Don’t send the FTC after me. I don’t have any affiliate programs that involve bridges.

One final thought. Dan Kennedy has a unique perspective on this. He says you should find an avalanche of traffic and stand in front of it with a product they need. There’s a lot to be said for that.

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

Want more advice on building an author platform? Sign up for Cathy Stucker’s Selling Books newsletter, and get instant access to the audio program, Build an Effective Author Platform. They’re free! Get the free newsletter and audio at http://SellingBooks.com/newsletter.

Now, for the rest of the story.

Even though she’s gotten on all of these major league shows, she has absolutely nothing to sell. No book. No tapes. No home study course. NOTHING!

Apparently she does the talk show circuit for the fun of it and to boost her ego.

Now for the rest of the REST of the story.

Even though this woman did almost everything wrong, she just signed a $1 million book deal with a major publisher!!!

Was this her original strategy? I don’t think so. If it was, I think it was a pretty stupid strategy. Sure, it paid off, but what if it hadn’t? Sure, she would have gotten the ego boost and fun she wanted, but not a dime in the bank.

She probably could have made several fortunes if she had good products or services to sell. Anyway, now she has a million bucks for her troubles.

Do you see how powerful being in the publicity light can be? This woman became so well known in the media that the “halo effect” swept her into a million dollar deal.

The lesson here? Learn how to use publicity…and have something to sell. If you have one without the other, you’re wasting your time.

Copyright Paul Hartunian. All rights reserved. Do you need more help getting free publicity for your business? Paul Hartunian has all the help you need at: Paul Hartunian’s website and Paul Hartunian’s Million Dollar Publicity Strategies where you’ll find free publicity tips, free articles, free coaching call replays that will make getting free publicity for your business a snap! Plus you’ll find information about Paul’s Million Dollar Publicity System, the whole story of how he sold the Brooklyn Bridge and plenty more. And, for just $7 you can get 3 issues of Paul’s publicity newsletter, 3 of his best strategy reports, personal coaching from Paul and your very own, authentic piece of the world famous Brooklyn Bridge. No need to hunt for top quality information on how to get free publicity. Paul Hartunian has it all for you.

One day, I received a call from a customer. He said “I’m a chiropractor, and I recognize that while chiropractors are good at what they do, they are not good at running their offices. But I have solved that challenge. I have just finished my book titled How to Run Your Chiropractic Office.”

“Sounds good,” I said and I thought to myself: “now here is an author who can look into the mirror and see a refection of his customer. He knows who the customer is, what the customer needs and (most importantly) where the customer is.” Chiropractors are easy to locate because they have to have a license; they are on lists.

Then the doctor went on, “I have a packaging idea I would like to run past you”. I leaned back in my chair and listened. The caller said “once I sell this book to all the chiropractors, I’ll go through the manuscript with search & replace and change the word “chiropractor” to “dentist” and sell the same book to all the dentists. Next, I’ll sell to all the medical doctors. Isn’t that a great plan?”

“No,” I said, “It sounds great but it’s a terrible idea. First off, it will not be all that easy to sell your peers. It will take reviews in your magazines, displays at your conventions, lots of mail and telephone calls. Finally word-of-mouth from one doctor to another will sell the book.

“Do you really want to learn all about dentists: read their magazines, join their associations, and attend their conventions? You don’t have time for that.

“What you should do is publish this book. Then publish the advanced book, then the office forms book and then the little books chiropractors give to their patients. You want to become known as the publisher for the chiropractic industry.” Soon other chiropractors will approach you to publish their books.

New customers have to be bought; existing customers are free. Anyone who has ever been in sales will tell us, it is far easier to sell an additional product to an existing customer than it is to find a new customer. Stay in
one field and keep adding products until you own the territory.

Next: Combine your products in a “Power Pack,” a higher priced package.

Dan Poynter, the Voice of Self-Publishing, has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual. Dan is a past vice-president of the Publishers Marketing Association. For more help on book publishing and promoting, see http://ParaPub.com.

Visibility is one element of the VCP model created by BNI founder Dr Ivan Misner and it is an important first step in business relationship-building. The model shows how you first need to be visible, then, over time as people in your network get to know you, Credibility is achieved. Finally, only when you have that credibility amongst your advocates and prospects will you see Profitability. Misner asserted that every relationship needs to built in that order. So you need to get out to networking events and become active on social media, just to be seen.

But it is not until you achieve credibility that you will get the business. Just think about someone you see a lot at business events or online, but he has not impressed you. In fact, you suspect he doesn’t know a lot about his subject, and it’s embarrassing to watch him making a fool of himself. You know exactly who I’m talking about, don’t you? And you won’t be giving him any business in the near future, will you? That’s because he has not engendered any credibility with you.

The word credibility comes from the Latin and means ‘belief’. If you are believable and trustworthy, people will share their contacts with you. People in your network also have to believe that you can add value. The best way to convince them of that is to be actively writing, publishing and speaking. Good, credible professionals show people what they know and what they think. They provide a lot of substance in the form of detailed ideas, views and examples of where they have added value in the past. They are usually bold and opinionated, since that is what is needed to really get people’s attention. So, if visibility is about being seen, then credibility is about being heard.

Just look at what happened to Steve Glowinkowski, managing director of organisation and leadership development consultancy practice Glowinkowski International. Steve has been consulting with high level clients for over 25 years. He and his team were well-known within a small business community, but relatively unknown outside of that sphere. A year ago, Steve made the decision to do more speaking and writing. As a result, he did some interviews with business publications and started working on his first book. In March 2009, he launched It’s Behaviour, Stupid!: What Really Drives the Behaviour of Your Organisation (£14.99, Ecademy Press). One person who bought the book at the launch was a director at a large organisation Steve had been wanting to talk to for several months. After reading the book, the customer believed the story and believed his organisation could benefit from some consultancy of this nature. Instead of Steve having to chase the customer, the customer rang Steve and they agreed a large contract for consultancy work.

The customer knew about Steve and his firm for several years. So Steve was visible. But it was not until he put his specific ideas and expertise in writing and gave people some read substance that they understood the full value of what he delivered. So many times, we assume people will have conversations with us where we will be able to convince them of our value. But people are busy and they need the proof first. It’s what I call ‘table stakes’. These days, there are a minimum number of credibility (and visibility) building activities without which you will not even be invited to play at the table. They include writing (articles, blogs, good web content and of course good quality books) and speaking (at events of all sizes, networking and video content online). These activities create the space at the table for you, and they ensure that everyone else understands what value you bring to the table.

The fact is that we need to be both seen and heard (contrary to what some of us were told when we were children!). We need visibility first, and then credibility, if we are to create more business for ourselves. So get that windscreen scraped of ice and go networking. If possible, join all of the networks you are invited to, especially online. Then populate your profiles with great content, and keep creating good content to give people a sense of your value. And while you are at the event, make sure you mention your books, articles and blogs so that they can get to know, believe and trust your expertise. The great news is that when you do your job well and become credible, others begin to write and speak about you, which creates a viral effect, so you don’t have to work so hard. And then, one day you can leave the windscreen full of ice because your phone is going to ring, and it will be a perfect customer already convinced they absolutely have to work with you.

The Book Midwife™ has helped over 300 people write and publish their books and twelve of their clients have been Amazon bestsellers. For more information visit www.bookmidwife.com.

1. You need a terrific website that is informative and grabs the viewer’s attention as soon as they click to your page.  A website is one of the first things someone who is interested in you will check out. If they like it they’ll contact you, if not they won’t. 

Your website is the perfect place to post a video of you at a speaking engagement or feature an article you’ve written. One way to insure your website is as good or better than others is to benchmark it against websites of your competitors or practitioners in your same field. It is also important for your website to look professional. In order to achieve a clean, professional look hire a web designer who is familiar with medical marketing to design your website. The days of doing it yourself are over.

2. Patient testimonials are a useful marketing tool and can be easily added to your website. Testimonials can be acquired by asking your patients. Simply ask them questions and videotape their responses. Once you have a few testimonials, edit and compile the videos and upload them to your website and YouTube.

3. Doctors who publish articles get asked to speak. My clients are invited to speak on a regular basis because their articles are discovered online. How? A conference organizer who is looking for a speaker on a particular topic will search the Internet for someone demonstrating that expertise. If you have an article on that topic they can find you. It’s that simple. When writing articles, it is important to understand that you have two main audiences. First, you have patients. Second, you have your peers. Your patients are not going to understand the serious medical lingo that your peers might. One solution to this issue is to develop two different websites; one for patients and one for your fellow doctors. With a peer-friendly website, you can add the more technical articles and information. On your patient-friendly website, you can put things in layman’s terms which patients will understand and appreciate.

4. Position yourself as an expert in your particular medical field. One option is to add the word “expert” after the topic you are expert in. For example, one of my doctor clients is a “propofol expert.” If someone were to search a topic of interest online and add the word “expert” to their search, the experts in that area would show up in the search results. Go ahead try – it. Search on “propofol expert.” You’ll find Dr. Barry Friedberg. By finding your specific expertise and promoting it via articles and press releases, when people need an expert in your field, you will be sure to pop up in their Internet search. You can also get yourself listed as an expert by visiting www.expertclick.com or www.authorsandexperts.com.

5. Writing a book is an excellent way to publicly demonstrate your expertise. The most common approach is to write a book proposal and then find an agent who will present your proposal to a publisher who will publish your work. A different approach is to compile past articles you’ve written and then self-publish your book. Visit www.Book-Marketing-Expert.com for ideas on publishing and promoting your book. Whichever route you choose, your book will show the media that you are serious about the work you do.

6. Now that you have your book written and published, what do you do with it? The answer? Promote it! You can either promote the book yourself or hire a PR firm to get the word out and promote the book for you. The PR firm will create a press kit, which includes a press release, a bio of the author, sample media questions, as well as a fact sheet that covers some of the issues in your book along with excerpts and direct quotes from your book.  You can also sell your book at the end of a speech or require the people who  schedule your speech to buy “X” number of books to give to the participants. For more strategies on book promotion check out www.WestwindCos.com

7. While searching for speaking engagements, be sure to visit these useful websites. First is www.ProfNet.PRnewsWire.com, which sends out media and speaking leads to PR executives and communications representatives at hospitals, associations and universities. A second website to utilize is The National Speakers Association (www.NSASpeaker.org). Another website, www.DoctorsReview.com, has two thousand scheduled meetings readily available on their site. On the DoctorsReview.com page, you can narrow your results by searching for a specialty or travel destination. A final suggestion is to visit www.projectspropublica.org/docdollars to gain an idea of who is paying doctors to speak.

8. In order to be a successful speaker, I recommend presentation and media training. A good friend of mine, Jess Todtfeld, was Bill O’Reilly’s producer at Fox for many years, and also worked at NBC, ABC, and CBS. Jess’s website www.successinmedia.com offers media training in both New York and Los Angeles. On his site, you can also find advice on how to pitch to the media and how to create an effective speaking presentation. Media training will help you improve your speaking skills as you will learn to speak succinctly.

9. Another way to gain speaking arrangements is to reach out to the media directly. The Harrison Guide to Top National Media and Interview Shows is an effective way to gain access to the media. For example, each of the top shows from Good Morning America to Dateline list the dozens of producers’ contact information. Another resource is called Media Atlas; they offer an online database you can access. It is easy to go online through these options and hone in on a specific audience and get in touch with the media associated with them. Once you’ve identified a member of the media that covers your topic, send them a pitch letter and a press release.

10. Finally, there are free online services you can utilize to publicize yourself and your book. CraigsList www.craigslist.org is a great place to post a number of press releases and it does, in fact, work to your advantage. Depending upon your topic, people do search for all types of things on CraigsList. Two other websites are www.PRAvenue.com and www.PR-Inside.com where you can also post releases along with photos and video at no charge. All three of these free websites are fine options for your press release to gain circulation online.

One more thing. Keep your Curriculum Vitae (CV) up to date with education, affiliations and articles as you may be asked to email it to a prospective customer on the spot. Furthermore have new headshots taken so your photos look like you and not your high school yearbook.

If you follow these steps you’ll be well on your way to obtaining more speaking engagements. For a more detailed strategy with tips and articles on these subjects visit http://www.WestWindCos.com.

Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm. Lorenz works with doctors, lawyers, inventors, authors, start-ups and entrepreneurs. As a seasoned publicist he is often called upon in the early stages of a company’s existence to get them “on the radar.” His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC Nightly News, ESPN, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, NPR, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few. To learn more about Westwind Communications visit www.WestwindCos.Com or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist

In addition to making your first book profitable for you and your publisher, you have another objective: to establish yourself in the marketplace with maximum impact. If you have a choice of which book to write first, choose the one that will have the greatest impact from a literary or commercial point of view or, ideally, both.

One day in the not-too-distant future, you will take stock of what you have accomplished, and you will be amazed to see how something as fragile and abstract as an idea was the Big Bang of an expanding universe of books, products, and services that you are proud of and that force you to keep enlarging your goals.

GUERRILLA TACTIC

Start an idea file. Check it while you are deciding which book to write next. Your idea file will grow in value throughout your career, both to yourself and to other writers.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman‘s Author101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

With just a little initial effort, every post on your blog can travel to multiple places where your readers congregate, leaving you more time to write.  The secret to this is to harness your RSS feed to syndicate your blog.  RSS stands for different things depending on who you ask, but I remember it as Really Simple Syndication.

That orange button with the white wavy lines on it you see on most blogs is the RSS feed.  You click it and are able to sign up to receive the blog posts in a reader, or by email, or both, depending on the way it is configured.  You can essentially “sign-up” several places to receive and display your blog posts so they reach more people than your blog alone will.

The top five sites for authors to interact with fans seem, from requests for help I receive, to be the author pages on GoodReads.com and Amazon.com, the Kindle blog publishing program, Facebook, and Twitter.

If you have a book with an ISBN number on the cover (usually the back cover), you are eligible to request an author page from GoodReads.com.  The people there are avid readers who are looking for new books to read.  They enjoy interacting with their favorite authors and reading excerpts, blog posts, and other things posted there by them.  You can also give away copies of your book through GoodReads.com and most of the time, the winners will post a review when they are finished reading the book.

Amazon.com also allows authors who have a book that is available through them to have an author’s page.  The advantage of this is that most people are looking to buy something to read when they encounter your page.  The content you leave there can further prime them to buy your book.

Many people have put their backlist on Kindle and other eReaders.  It is also possible to put your blog onto Kindle.  Readers pay a nominal subscription fee each month to get every post as you write it.  Since they are using their Kindle to read your words, they may become interested enough to purchase your eBooks as well.

Establishing a fan page on Facebook has become more important than ever as studies show many young adults and twenty somethings use it to the exclusion of other sites.  It can, however, seem like a huge time sink to some of us.  You can feed your blog postings onto the wall of your fan page and interact with your fans over the comments to what you have written.  Having the blog feed there also keeps your page from looking abandoned.

Finally, Twitter is used to communicate and market by an ever increasing crowd.  In 140 characters or less, you can put out the title and a teaser for each blog post to draw people to your website.  There, they can read the entire post and hopefully be exposed to your entire catalog of books.

To feed your blog to Facebook and Twitter, it is easiest to use a program such as Twitterfeed.com.  This automatically picks up the information and posts it for you.  You can have it check as often as every 30 minutes for new posts and transfer them where you direct.

Technology has made the author’s job at once easier and harder.  Use your RSS feed to expand your platform while leaving you time to write.

Don’t misunderstand. It was still just as thrilling to see my books in print, published by one of the world’s biggest publishing houses, but what I had learned over the course of the first three books was that, beyond putting my books on bookstores’ shelves (which is, of course, very important), if I wanted readers to buy the books, telling them the books were there was going to be my own responsibility.

I also learned that despite putting a great deal of time, money, and energy into travel and promotion, which generated decent sales, it didn’t guarantee a new contract. This situation is not unique to me. Unless you are a Michael Connelly or Janet Evanovich, a publisher’s resources are unlikely to be thrown behind promoting your book. It’s going to be up to you.

So, what are some really effective ways of promoting, and what are not? Everyone seems to agree that these days, unless you’re in the neighborhood and already have a following, book signings are not the best way to go. I’ve traveled across country on my own dime (well, fifty cents when adjusted for inflation), sitting up all night on a plane, only to arrive at a bookstore to find that no one has told store personnel that I was scheduled for a signing that day. And hearing, “No, we don’t have any of your books,” is not an anomaly limited to me. I hear the same thing from author after author (so always carry some books with you!).

What’s really important in your promotion these days is to create a platform, or a brand. In my case, I’m a forensic handwriting analyst, so for me, that’s a ready-made platform. Book sales are much greater when I give talks about handwriting analysis and how my character, Claudia Rose, uses it to understand the people she deals with in the books, rather than just setting up a table in a store and expecting shoppers to come over with armloads of books for me to sign (if only!).

I’ve given loads of talks at libraries (some paid, some free), and while those audiences really enjoy the information, they tend not to buy books, they borrow from the library. Still, library sales are very important, so even though it would be much nicer for me if they would buy, it’s fine.

Having established your platform/brand, a Facebook page is The Thing. This can be separate from your personal page, and is a good place to tell your “friends” about your upcoming books and activities. Whether I’ve been invited to speak at a book club, library, a business group, or a university, I post about it on my Facebook wall. Afterwards, I post photos of the event. Readers “Like” these items and post comments, which helps spread the word about my books. I also tweet (@sheila_lowe) my events or articles that I write, as well as other types of informational articles—no one wants a bunch of tweets that are totally self-promoting.

Another good promotional tool is appearing on a panel at conventions in your particular genre. However, with travel costs rising, you may want to stick to conventions close to your geographical area. It’s easy enough to find them. Remember, Google is your friend.

Writing articles and blog posts is excellent free advertising, too, and if you are an expert in your field, you can even get paid for some of those articles.

Bottom line, you can’t just write the book and sit back, waiting for it to fly off the shelves or into someone’s Kindle. When you get the copy of your first book in your excited little hands, you must generate the same excitement in your readers, and the first step in doing that is to let them know your book is out there.

Sheila Lowe is a forensic handwriting analyst and mystery novelist.
www.sheilalowe.com and www.claudiaroseseries.com