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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On my way :)

John, I would like to start using my new email alberta.seqeuira@gmail.com and blog site www.albertasequeira.org as my old ones are changing soon. How do I get them to you besides this way?

John, it would help if I gave you my correct email alberya.sequeira@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Alberta Sequeira

I'm not sure I can edit your page. I'll see if I can.

Have you not found a way to edit your details yourself?

See my next note.

John

To edit your website URL is easy. Go to your profile on this network, and click on the Edit button at the top right of your Profile Information box. Edit. And save.

You can also edit your email on your profile. The line will look something like this:

Email address: johnkremer@bookmarket.com  Change

John

 

Thank you, John.

I checked out his page also Lance. I like apocalypse stories (as long as there isn't a million zombies) because there always seems to be a different view from each person about what the end of the world will be like. Will we all be annihilated? Or are we going to be living in some blasted out wasteland hiding from killer robots? Everyone has their own ideas which makes apocalypse stories fun to read. :)

I was noticing the whole Twitter advertising thing. I've got to say, I haven't found that it works for me yet. I do try to see what my followers are up to and also the people I'm following, but mostly it seems like they are doing a lot of advertising. I don't know how I could build friendships that way. Facebook is pretty much the place where I get to listen to people complain about their lack of a love life which isn't really something I wanted to know lol. How can I make friends on either of these sites?

I have to admit to feeling a bit frustrated at this point. I'm just not sure how to get any further exposure for my site or my ebook. I've tried all the suggestions I've gotten so far (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and starting a blog/website) and nothing really seems to be working.  Even low sales would be better than no sales. :) Well enough of my grousing lol. Does anyone have any suggestions for things I can try?

I hear you on twitter. They have started a new analytics thing that I opted in to and the number of people that actually click on my links is usually 0 and occasionally 1. yeah. Which means they certainly aren't buying any books. Plus 99% of my 1,000 followers are *drum roll* fellow authors who aren't looking to buy, only to sell. the secret is to try to find the readers who want to buy and get them as your followers, but I'll be damned if I can figure out where they are or how to get them.

In the end what we end up with is a salesman convention where all we are doing is *maybe* selling to our fellow salesmen instead of selling to buyers. but where are the buyers? Not that salesmen can't also be buyers, but it comes down to promotional things. For instance salesman buys an awesome product. they may tell people "This product is awesome" - but they aren't going to devote any real time to saying it because what little time they do have has to be spent selling their products. So even if they promote their fellows, their eye is still going to be on selling their stuff. But a buyer doesn't need to sell their own stuff - so all their promo time can be spent saying "wow! check this out!" 

It's the same with the facebook author page. I have either fellow authors, people I already know, or people who are already fans and so follow it for that reason. I am not picking up new fans on it either. 

There are blog tours and blog promotions, but those only work if the blog you're posting on has readers (aka buyers) reading it who then might pick up your book - for instance I am doing a blog tour and one of the stops i am making specifically said "don't post about vampires" because they were afraid their readers would be offended. well then why in the world am I wasting the time posting there? if the blog readers are offended by vampires they aren't going to buy my book- but it is a lady I know and so I could not find a way to say that to her without hurting her feelings. Especially since she was so excited about it all...

In the end, what we need is a place where readers hang out, not authors, and then to tap that, but I honestly don't know any that aren't already over run by authors already.

"In the end what we end up with is a salesman convention where all we are doing is *maybe* selling to our fellow salesmen instead of selling to buyers."

You know what? You are exactly right! I never thought of it that way, but it's true. Maybe the reason we are not getting the kind of sales response that we are hoping for is because we're not targeting the correct group. I agree that other authors could also be buyers but you are correct when you say we need more buyers.

I haven't tried blog tours yet and I'm not sure I want to do them anyway. Most of my time is already taken up with work and family. I'll have to give it some thought and decide if it's worth the extra effort.

"Where are the buyers?"

This is another excellent question and you know what? I'm going to see if I can find some! I'll let you know what I find :)

My fingers are crossed and looking forward to what you find :D

I have no idea if the blog tour I am doing now has led to any sales. Frankly I think that Tricia touting the book to her friends has done more than the tour has, but I don't *know* for sure. If you decide to do one and hire someone I know a couple of people not to use... ;)

lol thanks Joleene, I'll keep that in mind!

Ok, here is what I've got so far. First, I looked for the most popular sites, but that was no good because it was all social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. So then I looked for the most viral sites and this came up:

http://www.cheezburger.com/

I go here when I want a good laugh. My thinking is going along these lines; what if I took a funny picture and put the link to my website right on the picture? People remember funny advertising.

Think about all the silly commercials you've seen on TV. How many do you remember? I remember one for a car insurance where the baby suddenly speaks up and says "Does it bother anyone else that the MIME is talking?" lol My husband and I love that commercial. It doesn't mean that we'll buy the product, but we do remember it. So maybe we can give that a try.

Then there was this site:

http://www.zergnet.com/info

I'm not sure how helpful it will be, but it is free which is the magic number for me right now lol. You put their widget on your site and they'll promote your site. It's not a writer's group, so there is a possibility of getting more readers. On the other hand it apparently promotes other websites so it may just be the sales convention thing all over again. I'm not sure on this one. I'll let you make up your own mind on this.

And finally, I found this one:

Readers Respond

I found this interesting because you are getting direct feedback from actual readers. They give out links to the sites they visit the most. My thinking on this is that it might be worth the time to visit the sites these readers like and see if it's possible to put up the links that we want the readers to see.

I plan to do some more research tomorrow. Hopefully what I've found so far will help us all get a little further down the road. :D

@Elizabeth. Ha! Marilyn and I just went on that cheeseburger site and watched the ping pong cat :-)

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