A useful resource for building your fan base and marketing your books and ebooks is to create a presence on popular sites for readers. There are several to choose from such as Goodreads.com, LibraryThing.com and Shelfari.com. These sites allow you to get your book in front of more readers, get reviews, conduct research, join groups, create groups, and expand your author … [Read more...]
How I Sold $600K With One E-Book
NOTE FROM CATHY: I loved this article from Robert Middleton, and wanted to share it with you. He offers several good lessons, especially for those of you who are building businesses based on your knowledge and expertise.The four lessons he offers are excellent, but there is something else he only hints at: If you are building a consulting or speaking business, your book can … [Read more...]
Using URL Titles for Promotion of a Website
When I created my Essays on the Craft of Dramatic Writing! website in the late 90's (the title a reflection on what I'd learned from Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing), my main and only impulse about urls was that they be short. So, for example, my essay on the movie Lethal Weapon was wdetect.htm. Short and sweet, but it had no link to the actual title of the … [Read more...]
What Really Works in Online Marketing
A colleague recently said to me, “No one has found the winning formula for successful online direct marketing yet.” I disagree. A number of companies know exactly what works and are making small fortunes with it. The primary concept is that online marketing works best when you e-mail to people who already know you. Therefore, successful online marketers build their … [Read more...]
Authors – Have You Tried This Little Known Online Marketing Book Strategy?
If you already have self published books, chances are you’re looking for effective online marketing book strategies to help sell your book. You’ve spent hours brainstorming, writing, editing and publishing your book. Now what? Now it’s time to let people know that your book exists. Even if you have a great book, it doesn’t matter if no one knows about it. So, how can you … [Read more...]
Get People to Read Your Emails
Authors and publishers know that to get their press releases read by the media they need a catchy or alluring subject line for the email carrying that press release. So how do you craft the perfect headline or subject line that makes others want to read the rest of what you wrote? Follow these 15 steps. It needs to be short, especially a subject line for an email, so use … [Read more...]
Creating and Maintaining Your Online Author Image
Once authors publish their books, they become public people. They are subject to having people do online searches about them and their books. Authors need to be proactive, therefore, about creating and sustaining a positive online image. Once you become an author, you are, in the eyes of others if not your own, a celebrity. Even if the paparazzi aren’t chasing after you, … [Read more...]
About the Author: Writing Your Author Biography
Many readers are humanistic, meaning they are curious and they are people-persons who want to know something about the author before they read a book. People buy books from people they like—or at least think they would like—based on what they know about the author from his or her biography. Creating an effective “About the Author” page is a way to let people virtually meet and … [Read more...]
Fight Email Tyranny
On Sunday evening while browsing our local Santa Cruz bookstore I came across a wonderful book: The Tyranny of E-mail by John Freeman. Freeman spends the first six chapters of the book making a powerful case for one rather sobering insight: We are all hopelessly addicted to email. It has taken over our lives and we have virtually no strategies to manage it. The good … [Read more...]
8 Ways Nonfiction Authors Can Use Google Alerts
One of my favorite free services is Google Alerts, an internet monitoring service that sends e-mail notification when keywords or phrases you identify appear online. This service is a goldmine for authors because it allows you to track mentions of your work, competition, and more. Here are some Google Alerts you should be sure to create: 1. Author Name – Track your name so … [Read more...]