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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I went with Infinity Publishing.

Hi,

  CreateSpace, Amazon's publishing arm, is okay, too. You can make some money on what they publish for you! Good luck.

Jeanette,

Go to pred-ed.com.  Go to Publishers and key their name in. They tell you everything to be aware of.

You will always make more money on an ebook, which you can do for free than you will with POD.  As Keith said in an earlier post focus on ebooks and not so much the POD. 

I used Author House and will probably use them with my next print book.  However it will be for the purposes of generating a book only, no marketing. I will be using the cheapest packet they offer.

Trafford like lots of the big players will print anything. It would seem up to $7000 they don’t even edit the content. So look at it another way. Does their name on the book shelves mean anything? Do you go into your local book shop and find loads of their books next to the big boys, with the $1000 package ‘Gold seal’ on it? If it’s yes, spend the money.

If it’s no, then prepare to have lots of books dusting up in your garage. After all some writers see that as prestige!

You could even take the ultimate... The ‘Kirkus Review’ for $12000, :) except where’s the marketing bit? :(

Mind you if you’ve 24,000 friends who’s going to take pity on you, you may get your money back?

Thanks to all who responded to my query about Trafford.  Keith, your comments were quite specific but you didin't say that you actually published with them and whether they did all they said they'd do.  I went through all the promises with Outskirts Press and their pricey publicity packages (which I did't buy).  I don't want to repeat that with another POD publisher.  I'm not convinced Trafford is the way to go, but they seem to price their books more reasonably and their royalty structure is more favorable to the author.  As far as seeing their books on the shelves of my local book shop, I wouldn't expect to see any POD books on the shelves of any book shop.  Book stores won't stock them because they can't return them.  I do my greatest sales on Kindle. AS for my paperback, I give talks and book signings locally and sell books then.  Word of mouth has also brought buyers to me.  I may look into CreateSpace also.   When you self-publish, no matter with whom, you will be doing promotion, promotion, promotion.

Never, ever, buy a publicity or marketing package from a print-on-demand publisher. They know nothing about marketing or publicity. Their packages are generally way too expensive for the results they produce.

Avoid their advertising packages. Avoid their Internet marketing packages. Avoid their publicity packages.

I'd be happy to change my advice if any authors out there can give me their bottom-line sales results from such packages. And convince me that those bottom-line sales results pay for the packages they bought.

hey john

 

have you ever heard of authorbuzz.com?

 

it was set up by JA Konrith back in 2005 i think....

 

its pretty expensive... $1800 for the complete package, but it looks pretty good

 

anyone have any experience with this??

Good advice, John. Most POD publishing companies, at least the one I used, do a great job publishing, but not so much in the marketing arena.  

Good call, John. I hear so many companies saying, "We'll get your press release out to 5,000 media professionals...." But the bottom lines are,

1 - "do any of those media professionals actually read what you send them?"

2 - "of the last 100 authors who used your service, how many of them sold any books and how many recooped the fee?"

I never see those kind of stats. Instead, I see the testimonies of a few who got some sales or some interviews as a result. No doubt, some will benefit, but if it's one out of 100 or one out of 1,000, we're just throwing away our money. 

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

  I read what you all write, and it's true about POD's claiming to do marketing for you but not doing quite what they claim. My original outlay of $1000 for book publishing has never been recouped with the profits I've earned online. Again, I agree that it's all about figuring what publicity works for your books and pursuing it. I've thought through some offers to publicize from a POD publisher I used, some worked, some didn't. The best here in NJ seems to be marketing your books by yourself. I have not had trouble getting my POD's into local bookstores as I write NJ fiction and bookstores are happy to sell it for 50/50 or 60/40.

 Here's a kick. I sell antiques and publicize my books. My books sell better than my antiques.  Oh, well.

Alice,

 

So you write fiction that's set in New Jersey? If so, I think that's a great strategy, since local sales channels are often more eager to sell it, since it has potential local interest. Do you sell locally in places other than local bookstores? I've seen authors having success selling in locally owned restaurants, novelty shops, etc.

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