Sell More Books by Focusing on Your Audience

One of the most important rules of online book promotion -- or any form of promotion for that matter -- is to focus on your audience. Here are three tips for developing a reader-focused online book promotion campaign:

• Develop an audience profile. Knowing who might potentially buy your book and the sites they visit on the web is your key to success. Naturally, this is easier if your book is on a tightly targeted topic. But even if you've written a general interest book or novel, you can still develop some form of profile.
• Once you have that profile, focus your promotional efforts on the sites your audience frequents and the type of content to which they would most likely respond. For example, let's say you wrote a book about skiing. Your audience could potentially visit websites devoted to skiing or to travel areas frequented by skiers. They could also respond favorably to your own site full of skiing advice and short ski-related video clips.
• Remember to focus on the interests of your audience, not your own personal interests. Many authors focus on online promotion techniques that interest them rather than their audience. Cool new technologies like video book trailers, multimedia, and podcasts work great for some books, but not so great for others. Pick the tools and techniques that will make your audience respond.