The Book Marketing Network

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

Authors Working Together to Sell More Books

"Your life changes when you meet people." - Sterling Valentine

I want to encourage the authors and publishers on this Book Marketing Network to work together to help each other to sell more books. That's the main reason I created this network in the first place.

There are so many ways that you can help each other. For example, I wrote an article on 30 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love - http://www.bookmarket.com/loveawriter.htm. Most of those ways apply not only to your friends but also to authors helping each other.

In addition, you can do joint ventures, Amazon Bestseller Campaigns, blog tours, and more.

Please use this forum right here to list your requests for partners as well as your responses or offers to help other authors.

You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you work together rather than alone.

For example, I'd love to see a fiction writers co-op promotion where each novelist promotes the other members in the co-op on their blog or website or social network. Tweet about each other. Like each others' Facebook page. Do joint blog tours.

Poets can do the same thing. So can business book authors. Spiritual authors. Christian authors. Cookbook authors. Etc.

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I wrote a guest blog for www.savvywriters.wordpress.com on writing a book from love letters. Or, you can get the tips directly from me at my Cozy Book Basics blog on margaretvirany.com

I'd be very interested in doing a guest spot on your blog. Please contact me at rbennett@enablingwords.com.

Authors working together is a great idea, but there must be a better way to increase the amount of books you sell. Why not create a group of authors that reads each others books and posts reviews on the major book selling sites? We know that reviews help in ranking. So it could be worth a try.

True, but those aren't all author to author. Those are all Reader to Author. I understand that going Author to Author for reviews may be a little manipulative, but if it puts you ahead of the pack then what is the problem?

There must be a better way. You would think that some authors would be interested in making a group to help promote each others books, pool resources, etc. Especially since crowd sourcing is so huge these days.

I've been hoping that authors would use this network for pooling resources, helping each other promote their books, doing joint ventures, etc. So far, that's happened some, but not nearly as often or as much as I would like.

I'd thought I'd summarise what seems to work. Be aware though that's there's lots of advice out there and so hitting the right sequence is very difficult.

1. Good website. The TITLE is probably the most key element of the site. Google no longer uses keyword META tags so that has made life difficult. The key messages need to be immediately obvious from one screen shot. Don't hide important stuff hoping the audience will scroll down to it.

2. A blog is essential and finding the time to keep it updated. The rule of thumb is daily, but few folk can find the time to do that. Don't just promote yourself and include some interesting blogs as well.

3. Building links to your blog and your website. Quality links are now really important. That means that getting liks from the BBC (for example) will propel your website to the top of the pile. We could help each other here by linking to each other's pages.

4. Give aways are useful to promote your work. At least that's sort of free especially if you have e books. Beware though - folk want books regardless of their favoured genre so you may not always get a fair review. Kindle offer free books for up to 5 days and there's a host of promotion that goes with it.

5. Amazon tags are useful. Again we could help each other out by tagging each other's books on Amazon. Tags are keywords such as fantasy, historical fiction etc.

6. Getting good quality reviews are essential. This will also help you to get good links. Official blog reviewers are a good starting point.

7. Become established in people's minds. Short stories are a good way of getting you noticed. Having these freely distributed is a way of getting links to your website.

Anyone care to add top this?

David

David, you certainly raise some interesting points. However, I have to comment on the Kindle freebie program, as I feel it does very little for promotion. (At least it did in my case.) I enrolled four of my books in the program for three months, then withdrew when I didn't notice a boost in sales. Two royalty statements recorded more than 4000 giveaways during that three-month period, but did little for subsequent sales. As my publisher explained, customers sign up for the program, load as many freebies as they can onto their Kindles, then drop out. The result? Four thousand people are now carrying around free copies of my novels.  Trades and lendings in this program don't amount to much, either.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about the Kindle program. But I would like to hear from anyone who has had better luck with this.

My best,

Dave Berardelli

 

I have had a boost in sales after I have run the free days on the KDP Select, enough to pay a major bill, so for me, it's been very successful when I consider how much money I made with more traditional methods--not to mention getting my books in the top 15 of all Kindle free books, which is great promotion. I have had over 40,000  books downloaded in the last couple  of months, and while I made no money on the free sold books, those readers now have my books on their Kindle and other devices. I can't think of any better advertising for my soon-to-be-released YA Christian fantasy book, Seventh Dimension, The Door.

Here’s my two cents John. Until the smog of innuendo lifts in their world you’re probably going to see more of the same. What you’ve done so far with “The Book Marketing Network” site is outstanding in itself, but a lot of authors are coming out of the foggy world of self publishing where the experts have educated them to the must do demands of editing, the technical side of must have graphics, the right kind of publisher, need for a proper type of agent, brilliance of POD, the must have New York Best Seller label, and so on. Up to now, they have been looking for stable concrete ideas that are structured in black and white outlines. However, the path ahead is all but clear and uncluttered for the unknown inexperienced writer. Just the opposite is true. They don’t seem to know that nobody wants to read their story for example. Up to now, they assumed somebody would want to read – read their book. Just the other is true. The closest I had my book read was by two reviewers who gave my story a glossy write up. Well, their idea of reading I soon discovered was “speed reading.” The story I put together was made for evening relaxing at bed time with an adventure in mind, but when the reviewers did their read they buzzed right through the pages and missed the whole content. But I digress. The unknowns who have published I believe have hit a barrier of some kind when they come to your site for marketing and are confused by it. You are seeing this. They probably don't know that they will have to look for their readers all on ther own. This by itself is mind boggling. Thanks John for all your efforts and the difference you’ve made for all of us unknowns.

It is still an uphill climb, however no work no results. My new book The Coparazzi, is now on Amazon and Barnes 7 Noble.com

I agree!  I have organized a Free Christian Book Shopping Spree where we will be giving away 17 books worth over $77 this Wed/Thurs.   It creates a buzz and gives exposure to us all!  http://www.christianspeakers.tv/free-christian-book-shopping-spree/

Great example of authors working together. 17 free ebooks. Many now in top 100 free Kindle books, including mine, The Donkey and the King. Last day free, books valued at more than $77.  CHECK IT OUT. http://thebookmarketingnetwork.com/photo/freebooks?context=user

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