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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Neil,

Great job! Can you tell us where to sign up on Kindle to offer our books free for a period of time? That's been a great strategy for some authors - offering one book free to hook them on your writing, so that they start purchasing your other books. Looks like a great way to get our books out there!

J. Steve Miller
Sell More Books! Rethinking Book Publicity after the Digital Revolu...

If you go to the bookshelf and look in the details section there is a link to sign up. The free five day promotion is on the same link.

Neil

Hi, I just published my first book, Toxic. It's a young adult Christian fantasy. I'm just beginning at getting all my ducks in a row, and, boy, are there a lot of ducks. Right now I'm working on getting it uploaded as e-books and working on getting accounts and profiles set up. I'm so excited by all the ideas presented here, but it translates into a lot of work! :) But it's exciting, too. If you want to know more, my web page is www.vickivlucas.com but it's one of those ducks I mentioned, and I'm still working on it, so don't judge it too harshly yet!

So, here's my question. I would like to make up some press kits. I am looking into speaking at schools, libraries, and churches. But I was wondering two things. What do you normally put in them? And how do you present them - email, mail it, or hand deliver it?

Thanks again for all your comments and ideas here! This is a great resource!

Hi Vicki,

I hope this helps you with a starting point.  A first book doesn't fill a media kit like a large platform.  But start out with a two-sided folder, put one sheet of your bio with your background, even the info about the church (get a priest or minister to write a recommendation of you) that you go to and your activities in that church since your book is a Christian fantasy.  I put my picture on the top of the bio. Brag about yourself with any awards you've gotten and education. 

Then on another sheet start a One-Sheet for your book: an example of mine:

At the Top I have the picture of the front book cover then under it is:

PRODUCT DETAILS MARKETING

Trade Paperback: 343 pages 

Publisher: Infinity Publishing

Publishing Date: June 2009

Language: English 

ISBN: 0-7414-5415-7 

Product Dimensions: 5.5” x 8.5” x 0.375 

Weight: 0.9 pounds on LiveJournal, MySpace

Price: $18.95

Carton Quantity: 20

Category: Memoir, Substance Abuse

Available through: Infinity Publishing,

Distributors: Baker & Taylor, Ingram

E-Book: September 30, 2010; $9.95

I then have a smaller picture of the same book and under that is the publisher's info:

Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round;

An Alcoholic Family in Crisis

 by Alberta H. Sequeira

Infinity Publishing

1094 New DeHaven Street, Suite 100

West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713

www.infinitypublishing.com

Office phone: 877-289-2665/610-941-9999

Office fax: 610-941-9959


This way, any library directors or managers of bookstores with interest in purchasing your book for their location already has all the info. You can add a "small" synopsis to tease the reader here. You can get the same info for your One-sheet directly from Amazon under your book.  Highlight it, copy and paste in your document under the picture of your book cover.  Get the cover from Amazon also.  Click on it and Save AS..then name it in your picture folder.  When the book is up on Amazon, go to the http://link in Amazon, highlight it, copy and paste it in your document so people have a direct link to it.  Carry it to your website.

Any reviews you have, add them to the folder. If you don't have any, get some from friends or Reviewers.  Here are two sites I highly recommend. : http://readerviews.com/ or http://www.allbooksreviews.bravehost.com/. It's a starting point for you.

Add a page with your Speaking.  Give your event a title.  Example of mine: "The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family" and another one I have is "My Spiritual Changes Within." Create your own.  Descrlibe on that page what the talk will cover. If you're going to charge, list it there (how long?  An hour, two, three?) I heard an active speaker interviwed on Steve Harrison's telephone seminiar say that people take you more seriously if you charge. Another speaker told me, "Charge something! Never do speaking for free." 

Always include your website, email and telephone number, and a business card to the folder; in the business card slot or a "gold" paper clip, don't use a silver one.  Try to sell yourself more than your book.  If you know what you are talking about, it will sell the book.  It maybe fantasy, but look at it closely and pull what topics in life can come from the issues in your book. 

Everytime you talk, add it to your bio.  Once you talk, ask the host to write a letter of recommendation for you.  Supply them with a self-stamped envelope to mail it to you.  Give them a free autographed book. If it's a bookstore, ask them if they will take a few of your books and place them on consignment.

I'll check your webiste out.  Mine is www.albertasequeira.com.  Check my bio and media section out.  I started out five years ago like you.  Get ideas from mine.

Good luck!  Keep us in touch on how you do. Any questions, ask.  No question is stupid.

 I went to your website.............GREAT! very colorful.  I don't think you need help on the website.  Good luck on the Press Kit.

 

Great tips Alberta!

I teach a three hour workshop titled "Bring Your Manuscript to Publication" and I talk about media kits. 

I hope the Information helps everyone.  When I went to my first workshop on "Getting Published" and he talked about the media kits, I wondered how I was going to have something to send.  I look at my own bio and still get shocked at how much I have done to add to my bio and build my platform.

Steven Harrison had a speaker and he talked about the difference with a poor and rich author.  A poor author is happy to just book sign and get their books into bookstores.  Remember we have to get them off the shelf!

The rich author says, "Now, what else can I do?  What other talents do I have?"  So, I took a year to write a three hour workshop after a director of a library asked me to so they could present how an author starts out to get known. 

I looked at my first book A Healing Heart; A Spiritual Renewal and thought of how I could get talks out of it; like I told Vicki to do.  It's about my relationship with my father, a One Star Brigadier General in the Army and my spiritual change with miracles after his death that took me to Medjugorje in Bosnia where six visionaries are having apparitions every day since 1981.

So, I put together "My Spiritual Change Within" which are presented to Christian locations and women's organizations.  Since it's about my dad, I can talk at VA Centers or any military location.

My second and third are about losing my husband and daughter from alcohol abuse and we all know that substance abuse topics can be presented anywhere since it's a worldwide problem. I've been to halfway homes, alcoholic rehabilitation centers, libraries, women's organizations and businesses. I talk on "The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family."

I don't mean to make my emails so long, but I want to show how almost ANY book has  topics that can be pulled out and made into talks.  Just study them.

I have an author friend who wrote a fantasy on teenage tourists and she took out topics like harassment, bullying, and presents them to schools.  The students and teacher love it.  She's been all over.  She has sold over 4,000 books herself.  The school buys the books and she comes in to talk.  So look at your work and you may have more topics hidden that you can present at other locations than you realize.  

Same with you, Steve.  I think you're doing financial books.  You'd be surprised if you call on school and see if you can present them to high school and college kids. A good way to teach them to save for their future. 

 

 

 

I think the financial area would do great in high schools! There are a lot of fun things you could do with that. Mine is fantasy, but it also is comparing magic with God (what is the difference, which is right, etc), so there is a lot I can pull from that.

Thanks you so much, Alberta, for your great advice and kind words. I have it copied down and am beginning my work on it. What a wonderful resource this page is! Thanks so much, and I'll be visiting your web site often!

Thanks for your great sharing, Alberta. Such sharing is why I created The Book Marketing Network. Much appreciated.

It's wonderful having a book marketing family like this.  THANK YOU!

Okay, so here's another question. I've read a lot on this forum about giveaways and giving free items at book signings. Of course I have the usual bookmarks, but I have a signing coming up, and I want to do something cool, especially since this is for teens.

What giveaways and free items have worked best for you at book signings or for contests?

Vicki, tell us a short synopsis of your book.  It will help with gifts.

A shortened version of the back of the bookmark is...

Toxic is filled with things like death and dark magic, sword fights and flying horses, violence and huge evil monsters, and there is absolutely no hope that life will turn out okay at the end. If you do choose to read this book, prepare yourself. This is not a story for the faint of heart. Your beliefs are guaranteed to be challenged. The monsters will never give up until they catch you, the magic is too strong to fight, and the sickness in the water is impossible to cure.

Kai, Taryn, and Lizzy have to purify the toxic water of Eltiria before anyone else dies. If they don’t, life as they know it will cease to exist. Their search to locate the source of the poison and to find their faith while battling to see the truth in a world of chaos and destruction begins now!


On my webpage, you'll see fire and I title a lot of things 'Fiction on Fire'...comparing culture to fire. I really want to reach the teen guys in this (leaning more to cool rather than cute). I thought a book of matches, but my husband says I can't give that to teenage guys! :)

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