The Book Marketing Network

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

What's Your Biggest Challenge with Your Book?

I'd be interested to learn what authors/publishers on this network think their biggest challenges are with their book. I wonder if there's any common, pervasive challenge we all face.

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Looks great! Since you do word game books, you might be interested in my wife's book, BackWords - A Backwards Dictionary for Gamers -

 

http://www.amazon.com/BackWords-backwards-word-list-gamers/dp/09818...

 

Scrabble and crossword puzzle enthusiasts can look up words by the last letter - like finding a three letter word that ends in q.

Hi to all ... I could use some advice. My second book, "Soul Shift - 2012 and Beyond," was published last December, and considering the marketing I've done, it's slowly moving. It's an adventure story, visionary/fantasy fiction, second in a series. The first was "EarthShift." I've been told by several readers that it would be great for young adults, too. I have no clue how one markets to that group. It's a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award and the Montaigne Medal.

 

I'd appreciate any input you might have.

Judith Horky

I have read inside your books with the look inside and you ARE a good writer.When you pick some words to tag for word searches I would be more than happy to tag them and get others to as well to get your book some more visibility

Michael

Theresa, I agree with you, but videos do get picked up by Google and they stay there. So I like videos for that reason.  I also think videos combined with other marketing efforts makes for a more complete marketing package.

 

I have never been a big one for tagging. Reviews are better with Amazon. For more information on the John 3:16 Marketing Network, you can visit our blog at http://john316mg.blogspot.com. For Christian authors, we are filling a niche and go beyond all the other best-seller programs which are expensive. We have the authors already in place to promote good books. The best marketing plan in the world won't save or sell a bad one. 

Book trailers may help some, but I'm taking more of a strategy like I take with writing articles or doing radio: it's not about my book, it's about meeting needs of the intended audience. So I have some videos up giving advice to new graduates about their finances, and in the videos, my book is mentioned. They aren't teasers to get people to buy my books; they're videos with helpful and complete information to help them. If they want more, they are told about my book.

 

I haven't really pursued videos, but have put a couple up from when I got interviewed on TV and let them passively sit there. People comment occasionally, but doubt I've sold a book because of them. A person who I believe has been very effective with pursuing videos is a lady from Alaska who writes about quilting. She explains her videos here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFaXIrwCt9k&feature=related

For helpful videos to work on YouTube, you need to offer a consistent program. One video each week or month and posted to your YouTube Channel. That's how you build up an audience - and more views.

John Kremer

http://www.bestsellerlaunchformula.com

Very correct about consistency with videos.

 

The only thing I'd add is that, since Google's latest update, videos (and YouTube videos especially) are finding it easier to get rankings than before. They've always been great for quick rankings in the search engines, but now they're even better. It's quite possible to get one single video ranked, and use that to funnel traffic to your "money site" (i.e. the place where you're selling books, selling courses, collecting names, whatever your goal is).

 

The key, Steve, is to DO YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH. Find long-tail terms that aren't all that competitive but that still get decent search volume (say 100 searches a day, for example), and do a video around that keyword subject.

 

When you post your video, make sure to call it the keyword. For example, if the keyword I'm going after is "how to save money," I'm going to call my video How to Save Money. Simple, right.

 

Then get a few backlinks to the video with the keyword phrase as the anchor text, and you'd be surprised how quickly you'll see that video ranking on page 1.

 

But the key, again, is effective keyword research. NO ONE-WORD KEYWORDS. Think more focused. Think long-tail. Think one specific subject you can make a video about. You can check out my site below for a free course that includes some video tutorials on that if you're interested.

 

Chris Simeral

http://www.TheAuthorsEdge.com

http://www.facebook.com/TheAuthorsEdge

Sounds reasonable, Chris, from what I know about SEO. I think you're on target. It's easy to forget to apply those principles across the board, not only to videos, but to naming a Facebook Page, or naming your book (titles/subtitles). 

J. Steve Miller
Author of "Sell More Books: Book Marketing and Publishing for Low Profile and Debut Authors"
http://wisdomcreekpress.com/press_kits_sell_more_books.html

My biggest challenge has always been marketing.  I love to write, do so profusely; and there it lies in solitary splendor on my computer, in the desk, behind the couch.  I have self-published several books, but they seem to stop at the portals of popularity.  That's why this site intrigued me so.  I'm open to suggestions.

Be sure to also check out http://www.bookmarket.com for book marketing tips and resources.

John Kremer, author, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

I wrote the book  while recovering from knee surgery.  I wrote it out in spiral binders longhand

Piece of cake. 3 weeks.

Challenge #1 Transcribing the book to computer.  Very time consuming and tedious work. 3 months.

Challenge #2 Editing, correcting and formatting book.  3months.

Challenge #3 Self-publishing Published both hard copies on Amazon.com and Lulu.com.  Published ebook on BarnesandNobles.com

Challenge #4 Promoting the book.  How to stand out from the 14m other books available on line.  This is perhaps the biggest challenge to the self-publisher.  Nice to get some sales after all the work.  This challenge is the most difficult because it takes money.  The first 3 challenges can be done on a shoe-string budget, promoting takes a huge amount of time and some money too.  About the cheapest way is to do a month of Facebook adds with a 14 day free trial.  That is $149.

Challenge #5 Keep looking for a publisher.  Publishers are an elete group of literary snobs who think they are doing you a favor if they condescend to publish a book and make a million on it.  This is a field where it's not about talent, it's about who you know.   Thousands of crap books get published every years,  thousands of great books never get published.   If you do happen to get a hit with an ebook and sell thousands of downloads then the publishers will show some interest.  After you have done all the work.  At that point you are better off publishing yourself.  Buy hard copies from Amazon.com and place them is select book stores.  Get a publisist to schedule book signing events.  Eventually a publisher will pop up wanting to represent you.

Don't buy hard copies from Amazon.com to sell to bookstores. Way too costly.

Use CreateSpace or Lulu or Infinity Publishing or Lightning Source to produce POD copies and have them place the books into Ingram so bookstores can order directly from Ingram.

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