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I will start by saying this; books don't sell themselves. I have to admit that I am new to this but I am very resourceful and thrifty, meaning I don't want to spend money on advertising. My book, The Adventures of Blackberry and Whiskers, is doing really well right now for being only released for two weeks. Here are some things I have done that are free and VERY helpful.

1: MySpace. With a network of more than 224 million people, this is by far the best way to begin a campaign. I began with a simple page and I keep it moderatley plain. I target my audience and send friend requests. It was time consuming but within 2 weeks I had a friend base of 680+ people. I then enlist a few "ringers" such as high profile celebrities. Why? Well, even though they dont have the time of day to respond to messages they still have thousands of fans. I post comments to thier pages with a link to my website, www.ferrerbooks.com, and to my profile. I have generated hundreds of responses this way. People that check on the actor / musician will see my profile and say "Wow, I should check this guy out" and they DO!!

So, MySpace has been a huge success for me. See my page and add me as a friend at;

www.myspace.com/reinaldoferrer

2) Set up a website. It does not cost much and with the right tags and key terms, your site will generate some good press. I was shocked but I am getting over 50-75 hits per day. Check it out as it is simple as well.

www.ferrerbooks.com

What I do then is submit it to all major search engines (free) and I use this site in any response or email signature or anything else that stays on the web. This is one of the best tactics.

3) Forums. These are free to join and they are already set up for your target audience. As a children's book writer, I target parenting forums. I am a parent so my existence on the site is genuine. At the same time, I plug my book and talk to all parents. This has been a key component for me thus far.

4) Direct sales. Most people make more money on thier books through direct sales. I pre-order many books at the rate we writers get them for and sell them, personalized for each customer, at the retail price. I now make 5 times the amount on the sale so I have more to give to charity and I make my money back. I give to charity most of the proceeds so this route is great for me and the groups I give to.

5) Schools. My daughter is in first grade so I mentioned the fact that I am published and the teachers loved it. They had me come in and read to the classes and now the books are selling themselves at the school and the proceeds benefit the school so this is a win-win fot hem and I.

6) Perserverance and optimism. Never doubt your product. Once this happens, you are defeating yourself!! If you dont have confidence in your book, you will not do so well. I recently learned that I could sell snow to an eskimo!!! LOL I truly believe that my book is a must have for children of all ages. My energy and enthusiasm is infectious and people enjoy that.


NOTE: Writing the book is only 10% of the work. Most publishers, big or small, don't promote for you. If you think the book will sell itself, than you are either John Grisham or naive. As with any aspect of life, you get out of it what you put into it.

P.S. I will gladly help promote your children's book in exchange for promoting mine. See, networking.... I already have a huge fan base so this is a great opportunity for all of us.

Have a great day and remember to check out my site and MySpace page for some more info.

Ray Ferrer
www.ferrerbooks.com
The Adventures of Blackberry and Whiskers

Views: 32

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Ray,

What an awesome summary! I particularly liked this quote:

"NOTE: Writing the book is only 10% of the work. Most publishers, big or small, don't promote for you. If you think the book will sell itself, than you are either John Grisham or naive."

I'd like to offer another point, call it 7), and present you and the other readers of this forum a great offer.

I'm from a young company called AdaptiveBlue - we make free book widgets that help authors and book groups promote their work across blogs, social networks and the greater web (Seth Godin, the NYT, St Martin's Press, and many other authors and book groups are already using our widgets).

There are a number of C and YA authors/illustrators using our widgets effectively to promote their work around the web.

You can find out more information - and preview some examples - here: http://www.adaptiveblue.com/widgets_books.html

The widgets can contain a single book or an entire list of books and have a number of layout and configuration options so that they fit the look and feel of your site.

Here are the benefits of the widgets:

* allow people to purchase the book from their preferred store. by providing choice you increase the chance of a transaction.

* allow people to save the book to book social networks and bookmarking services, helping to further promote the book around the web

* make it easy to find out more information about the book as well as yourself (the author)

The beautiful thing about the widget is that once it's built and on your site it's SIMPLE for people to grab the widget and display it on their own site (one or two clicks).

We partnered with the CYBILS to bring the widgets to their community. You can read about it here:

http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2008/01/more-sexy-widge.html

And here are a few examples of C & YA authors that are currently using our product:

* http://storms.typepad.com/booklust/
* http://saralewisholmes.blogspot.com/

Being a small company we pride ourselves on exceptional customer service - I'd love to create a book widget for anyone in this community to help promote their efforts online. If you have any question please feel free to ask.

Fraser
AdaptiveBlue Inc
One additional thing to add to this - I've mocked up two example widgets for your book Ray. Check it out at: http://www.adaptiveblue.com/demo/Authors/RayFerrer.html

Make sure you click around and explore all that the widget can offer!
Wonderful tips and great practical advice. Anyone that has ever promoted anything knows that the cost of advertising can be a real obstacle. Every tip you've offered here is non only practical but very cost effective. You're offer of cross promotion is a great idea and well worth considering.
Thank you for your kind words. It is important for EVERYONE to know that a book does not sell itself. If we can, in some way, create friends and promote each other's work, should we think it meets OUR standards, it will only help us, the writer. Everyone has a method that works, or does not work, for them. Why not include others in the successful promotion tactics that each person finds? I get about 15-20 hits a day on my website. It is not much, but out of those 15 or 20 hits I sell 5-10 books (PER DAY)!!. Why not cross-promote with me? Let's be real for a minute; 20 hits a day for an author, unless your Stephen King, is fantastic!! Also, generating up to 50% sales,....that is even better!

Again, thank you for the kind words!

I hope to hear from you soon.

Ray Ferrer
www.ferrerbooks.com
Thanks so much for posting this topic. What wonderful advice!

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