The Book Marketing Network

For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

I'd like to start a new forum where people can talk about what's working for you right now in marketing your book.

I think this will help other authors to prioritize their activities if they can find out what's working for other people. This would be especially valuable to new authors.

I've share the hottest tool that I'm using right now. And that's Twitter. As you will note on the main page of this Book Marketing Network website, both my http://www.bookmarket.com website and this network have been rising in Alexa ranks (and visits) because of my use of Twitter.

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Judging from the evidence - my book appeals to no one. Regardless of that, I enjoyed writing Dark Resurrection, and that is what matters; I have written two sequels to it as well.

I know how you feel, Frederick. It can be very discouraging! But here's the thing: It's not like people are perusing your book listing on Amazon and passing it over. They're not seeing it at all. It's likely not showing at all for them to reject.

For a low- or non-ranked book on Amazon, someone has to specifically look for it to find it, or they're not going to see it. This means that a crappy book that has some sales and in turn a decent ranking will generate more sales than a good book--an excellent book!--simply because Amazon shoppers are seeing it when they browse.

The key, then, is this: How do you boost your book's sales ranking so that it will become more visible on Amazon and in turn generate more sales? How do you achieve that critical mass?

Thanks for the reply. 

Problem is, there were no sales to boost. Dark Resurrection was on amazon for two years and never sold one copy, except to a man named Tomas Braun, who loved it and gave me 5 stars. After a troll posted a fraudulent and pejorative review this week(he neither bought nor did he read my screed) I pulled it from amazon and deleted my membership - they refused to remove the fake review. I will never deal with amazon again for anything, for the rest of my life, and I highly recommend that others avoid them as well.

As for my book - I'll probably just forget about it, as it and writing is a complete waste of my time. Pardon the usage, but fuck it.

The problem is, the more books we sell, the higher the book goes up in rank. I called and found my book was so far behind on Amazon's site with tags that it was no wonder no one sees it. It is moving, but not as fast or as many as authors want to get noticed. 

You can call your local bookstores to do a signing, the newspaper for a write-up or the radio shows in your area for an interview on your book. They all like to find people to interview and it is all free. Get reviews and post them on your site. There will always be some sort of investment money wise to push the book.

I have a book A Healing Heart that was re-published under A Spiritual Renewal to get away from the old publisher. The book was selling, not huge, and since the new name, it has not sold one book on Amazon with the old one still listed under my name. The same book, and mention that on Amazon, and it sits.  Crazy!

I try to write a lot about my books on my website. Do you have one? If so, put some teasers up with chapters from the book on your site or post them on others. Put the direct link from Amazon up. Pick the best chapters that show emotions and drama because those pull readers into your book. Tell your followers that you will start showing chapters of your book each week. Don't put the whole thing. Pick enough paragraphs that pull them in wanting more.

I have gone from looking for publishers to Create Space and self-publishing my own books. It cost $5.00 a book to buy my own with shipping and sells for $10.00. I learned how to do this in 4 months, almost going crazy, and have now self-published handbooks from my two three-hour workshops; one is "How to Self-Publish Your Own Book with Create Space and the other, "Bring Your Manuscript to Publication." 

Marketing and Promoting is the hardest job for authors. If you don't know who to contact, how to get Press Releases out, if you don't contact the media, you sit. 

There is usually "something" from everyone's books, even fictional, that you can give talks on to relate to life. Read it over coldly and see. I had a friend write about high school kids knowing a terrorists (fictional) and gives talks to kids in school. She pulled topics like harassment and bullying and the kids and teachers love it. She gives the teachers 7 topic and they pick three for her to talk to the students with. She has sold over 4,000 books.

The sad part is, if we are not lucky to be in the right place, with the right person, at the right time to get known, we have to struggle to get known.

"A Poor Author" is someone who is happy with just book signing while "A Rich Author" is someone who says, 'What else can I do?"

So after hearing Steve Harrison say that, I have become a Motivational Speaker on Alcohol Abuse, a director, producer and co-host to a cable TV show, co-founder of Authors Without Borders, teach classes on my two handbooks and Alcoholism at UMass University in Boston and Dartmouth, Continuing Education Classes, push for interviews, write blogs for the CapeCodTimes and CauseHub for teenagers on Alcoholism, and anything else I can do. I just wrote to the site John mentioned to see what it will cost to translate my book into another language.

Sounds impressive? Well, I am still not making money. Books are "creeping" along since 2006. Many locations want my talks and services for "free", and I keep plugging away hoping to get noticed someday.

It may sound like hard work and a struggle but that is the author's life. Unless again, you fall into the right location with the right person and it does happen to some. 

Hi John,

I've generated a brazilian portuguese version of my ebook, and put it available also at Amazon Brazil. Sales already started to appear!
We have done this translation of our ebook "121st Division Warfares" with a very professional service recommended by some friends of us. They are very serious, professional and responsive. Moreover, the cost is very low. You can check.

Contact them through this website http://servicotraducao.com.
On the menu, just click over "ebooktranslation" and fill out the small form.

Good Luck!

Hi John,

Thank you for this site. I sent in my word count for a quote. Anything to get my topic of Alcoholism out. 

Alberta

I got a reply back to $1,340 for my book. Not bad. Something to keep in mind if I get that much to spend.

Help work for me, E.G. Manetti and The Book Marketing Network. Stop by and share a few words of encouragement as a fellow author and member of this site prepares for her book signing event this weekend.

http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/what-i-am-reading-12

I would like someone to explain to me what #hashtags are. Can you use it in a sample message for me to understand. I post a lot about alcohol abuse after losing a husband and daughter from the disease.  

Hashtags are just words with the pound or number sign (#) in front of them.  They are typically used to identify a subject or topic.  For instance, let's say I tweet the following message:

"#Kindle Unlimited payout will be $3 next month.  #author #indie #KDP #ebook"

Everything with a # sign before it is something that could be considered the subject, topic or related to my message.

Thank you, Kevin. That helped me.

For more about hashtags as well as 150 #hashtags that book authors often use, read this article: http://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/41-social-media-hashtags-for-bo... (with 153 hashtages book authors use).

By the way, Kevin Hardman did a great job of explaining hashtags and giving an example in his reply as well.

John Kremer

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