Promoting Your Book - A No BS Guide For Authors and Small Publishers

Blog Post Summary - The second part of my series of results from surveying people who spent the money to advertise in RTIR. Longer and more complete opinions than part 1

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My experience with RITR was good - I ran an ad for three months and ended up having approx 12 radio interviews. I am considering running more but my issue is time more than anything. I am a VP of Marketing and Communications at a major east coast firm and it simply takes the bulk of my time. I recommend them highly but realize that a certain % of your interviews will be with small stations or “internet talk radio”, which have small audiences. The experience gained was worth it for me as I now feel much more comfortable with the entire process.

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Over all I thought it was a good investment - there are a lot of people out there wanting your money to promote your book and RTIR was one that I actually got a lot of publicity through. Not sure if it broke even on profits through book sales but certainly got me a lot of radio interviews and even a local TV

That said, I got a much better response to some adverts than others. So my one bit of advice to you is not to let them push you in to an angle that you just don’t like or don’t resonate with and if you get say, a 4 month package, ask to have a new advert put in each month rather than having them run the same one over and over.

Also you will probably end up being told that Steve Harrisons Publicity summit is a great idea too. I went on it (spent a bundle) and got absolutely nothing for it so my advice on that one is to steer clear. It’s just not worth the price they charge.

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The answer is not Yes or No…the answer is: “it depends”. As a marketing and PR consultant to publishers and authors I can say that it has definitely been worth it in the past when we have represented big names like Ripley’s Believe it or Not! We had a great response with those ads. With our current ad, I would say the results are very modest in comparison.

If you do go ahead, make sure to utilize the assistance of their writers (they incude that service for free when you book an ad to help with the wording) - they know what tends to get attention and even though at times I felt their approach was a bit too “cheesy” - they know what works and what doesn’t.

More responses soon - sorry I have been off this blog for awhile. Been busy getting my speaking program going. All for now.

Mark

I am currently the Vice President of the Northern California Publishers and Authors association.  At our monthly meeting this weekend, the subject of traffic and websites came up.  I spent a couple of minutes answering the question but realized there must be a need for a more comprehensive answer.

I have seen this list (or variations of it) over the last few months.   It has some standard stuff but should be useful for other authors looking to promote and market their books through their websites

I have no idea who originated it or I would give them credit.  Que sera sera …

1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.

2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.

3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.

4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.

5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.

6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.

7. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.

8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.

9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.

10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.

11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.

12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.

13. Use PPC search engine advertising.

14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.

15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.

16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.

17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.

18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.

19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.

20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.

21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.

22. Create a software program and give it away for free.

23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.

24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.

25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.

26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.

27. Start a page on social networking sites such as www.facebook.com.

28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com

29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.

30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.

31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.

32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.

33. Purchase ads on other sites.

34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.

35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.

36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.

37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.

38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.

39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.

40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.

41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.

42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.

43. Do something controversial.

44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.

45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com.

46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).

47. Get referrals from similar but non-competing sites.

48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it so others can pass it around for you.

49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.  Soon.

50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.

Blog Post Summary - there are plenty of online free press release sites to send out a blurb on your book. Time consuming but seems to be worth it.

First off: PROMOTING YOUR BOOK IS A PAIN IN THE BUTT.

Seriously, this takes a lot of time. OK, rant is complete.

My latest thing was sending out press releases on the launch of The Wealth Manifesto. Couple of things on Press Releases (you can learn more about how to write them elsewhere):

1. Write them as if what you are putting in the PR is going to be used verbatim by someone else in talking about you or your book. This actually happens online of course where what you write is posted in it’s entirety. In more traditional media (i.e., print), your copy may be lifted exactly to fill out someone else’s review of your book. Which is great if you do a good job in the first place
2. Make it somewhat “newsworthy.” Just an announcement is OK; an announcement about a book that has to do with current events, controversy of some kind or other things that are more than you just promoting your book (which you are of course doing) is better

My press release can be seen on my main site here.

These are the Free online press release sites I have tried so far. It takes awhile to wade through as most of them you have to register to enter an item for broadcast. Save yourself some time and

a) make a list of the URLs and the username and password that you used to sign up

b) have a master file that has the i) title ii) summary (often limited to 200 characters or less) iii) body of the release and iv) contact/for further information summary.

you will have to cut and paste this same info over and over again so having it handy will make things go faster once you get moving.

1888PressRelease.com – requires registration

24-7 Press Release – requires registration

ClickPress.com – requires registration

eCommWire.com – requires registration; my press release was actually turned down from this site. This is what I got in the email: Denial Reason: Ecommwire is a press release service for ecommerce-related articles

Express-Press-Release.com – no reg

Free-News-Release.com – not working

Free-Press-Release.com – requires registration

Free-Press-Release-Center.info – have to register before you can even see where to submit. When I did a search on my press release/book title today, this was the first site (I had submitted to) that showed up.

More sites and results when I get around to the others on my list. I am going to spread them out a little bit to keep the “news” current.

OK …. I think I am done with this exercise. My efforts to get anything out of the amazon.com top reviewers has been a bust.

I have gone through the Top 100, sent out approximately 30 emails (+ or -) and have thus far received exactly 1 reply (mentioned in another post on this subject).

Several possible reasons for this that you may want to consider if you are going to try it.

1. A good portion of the reviewers are just not appropriate for a personal growth/self-help non-fiction book. Easily 50-60% are either music, DVD or fiction only reviewers.
2. Of the remaining NF reviewers, many of them specialize: cookbooks, Jewish affairs, economics, tech, etc.
3. They are just not interested in my book. I dont think this is personal or specific to my book (It’s a good book … but of course I think that!). I think I saw maybe 3 or 4 similar books reviewed in all of th browsing that I did through the completed reviews. Not an exhaustive search but a few pages deep for anyone that was promising.

If you do this, search for reviewers that have done reviews for similar books, make sure and include your email address if you use the Invite to be an Amazon Friend method (mentioned in pt. 1) and let them know where they can find more info on your book to decide if they want you to send a copy.

Most everyone has seen the “Bestseller Campaigns” that have been waged by authors famous and otherwise. There is more to this but this is the basic idea:

You get all of your friends and/or business relations to email out a promo message to everyone on their mailing lists. You of course do the same. Often this is set up such that each person participating includes some kind of offer that will drive the recipient to their site to receive the bonus(es).

The scale of this is nice because everybody who participates in the offer gets visibility with everyone on everyone’s mailing list. The real objective is of course to get everyone to buy the book that is the focus of the campaign to be able to get the freebies (and the book). Some people send these out to MILLIONS of people (John Kremer says not to bother if you dont have 500,000 names).

The prospects are usually driven to amazon.com so the author can say they are an Amazon.com bestseller; sometimes it goes to the author’s website.

Whatever. I’m not doing that. I have a few friends that will send a message out to their list. They have pretty good sized lists (nearly 100K names in one case) so some I should get some decent sales results.

I personally have 7 DIFFERENT lists totaling about 3,500 or so names. I have not been doing this very long and these lists are different in the sense that not all of these people have opted into my mailing list

I’ll talk about why I have these and what I going to do in the next posting time. It’s Friday night and time for the NBA playoffs.

Later….

This idea is going nowhere fast.

First of all, fully half of the amazon.com top reviewers I have looked at review either only DVD/movies (most often) or CD/audio reviews. No audio books that I have spotted thus far.

I have probably sent out 15 messages, either through emails when they offer that up on their profile page or through the “Invite as an amazon Friend” option which is the backdoor approach that Steve Weber mentioned in his book Plug Your Book! Some of the Top Reviewers even have this turned off.

I am up through reviewer 50 with the 15 message sent out (all the other reviewers were specific to movies, audio, fiction, cookbooks, etc that were not even close to appropriate for The Wealth Manifesto).

I have received thus far exactly ONE (yes, that’s 1) reply. A very nice email from Joanna Daneman who told me my book sounded great but that since she was in the asset management business (i.e, financial advisor type), she may not be able to review my book as it had some element of making money and investing.

The SEC is pretty nasty about their regs with these people. I sent it to her anyway … since she was the only one who asked.

I might try to skip down to rank 160 or so … maybe these people will be a little more real.

Ciao for now

1) Buy John Kremer’s “1001 Ways To Market Your Books” (that’s 1001)
2) Get signed up for John Kremer’s newsletter that adds to what is in the book with newer (usually) online-based things to market your book (up to a 1002)
3) Read this blog to follow someone who is REALLY wading through all the recommendations, hype and crap and find out what is really working. (there, 1003 ways!)

Seriously, Kremer is probably the best authority out there. I get his newsletter and go through it each week (or whenever he sends it) and DO WHATEVER IS IN THERE that day (if at all possible) in terms of marketing actions for The Wealth Manifesto….where it applies and I agree with it.

Today he mentioned the new social networking service that Google is doing (http://www.google.com/friendconnect.). Google is always doing cool stuff - they are going to take over the online world (in a benign, Do No Evil way of course). I’m signed up.

He has a blurb in there about Ladies Home Journal and why you may want to work with them (not my demographic for this go around). I’m not interested.

The rest of today’s newletter is promoting other people’s products and programs. I dont begrudge John his affiliate commissions but today’s letter is a little thin on new and unique advice.

You decide what works for you … it is worth reading for sure

More on my ongoing and daily march to market The Wealth Manifesto….today, we try a few online catalogs.

I am finding that a variety of places that will take a submission for possible review will also allow you to input information into an online catalog that they produce (or sell or whatever). This is separate from whatever may happen with the review and sometimes, there is no reviewing that is done.

These are the 2 that I found today:

CHOICE Reviews Online - Choice magazine is an essential collection development resource for academic libraries. We publish nearly 7,000 reviews annually, spanning all academic disciplines. Written by teaching faculty and academic librarians, Choice reviews are generally the first professional postpublication comments on new scholarly works. (Note: This magazine is somehow associated with the ALA.)

Submission guidelines can be found here:

The 2008 Buying Guide can be found here (this is where they let you enter all kinds of info about current and upcoming products). Since this is managed through Survey Monkey (more on this site at another time), you may want to go back to the the previous link to get the current link to the Buyers Guide. This is what the link is is today (5-13-08):

The other place I found was The New Age Retailer. This is obviously only applicable if your book is oriented towards that demographic in some way (link):

This page lets you put in a brief blurb on any new release. It’s sort of like free advertising since they have a pretty large readership (10000 store owners

Premise: Radio interviews are a good way to drum up book sales, promote yourself and your other products and services.

The Radio & Television Interview Report is a ~70 page brochure of ads from authors and others that is subscribed to by radio and television show producers. It is recommended by many people (Kremer and Poynter for example) and was used by Robert Kiyosaki to help launch Rich Dad Poor Dad and Canfield and Hansen when they were getting the word out about Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Problem is, it’s expensive. Maybe not in the BIG world of advertising but in the small world of my budget, $1000 or more is a lot. So, what I did was email to everyone who was listed in the issue of RTIR that was sent to me as a part of the promo package. I asked everyone if they thought it was worth doing. The issue was from last November so they have had plenty of time to have an opinion if the investment was worth it.

Almost half of the people responded within 24 hours (an amazing % actually). And guess what? I got so many good ideas from the responses I received …. it overshadowed my original objectives. I was even offered a slot on a couple of internet radio shows hosted by the folks I sent inquires to. (This goes into the category of things that I come up with on my own that I will call a Great New Idea.)

As far as the verdict on using RTIR, it was shaded to the positive although some people thought it was a complete waste of money. I would take that with a grain of salt as some of the books and ideas that are promoted in RTIR are crap (it seems that the magazine will not turn down money from people who have a lousy product, although they will work with you to put your ad together).

More on this later if I actually go ahead and do this to promote The Wealth Manifesto.

There are a lot of different ways to get book reviews. For my book The Wealth Manifesto, I have tried several different routes to date. I’ll talk about one of them here and others in subsequent postings.

Pre-Publication Reviews - These are the big industry book review places that can, if you happen to get a review, provide you with a lot of coverage and a bit of cache … just for the fact that you were reviewed. You have to send in galleys (or in some cases, a finished book in lieu of galleys) three, four or more months before the publication date or they wont even look at your book - if it’s already published, it goes straight in the trash can from what I have read.

The Big Dogs in this category are typically considered to be Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Review, Library Journal, ALA Booklist, Quality Books Inc., Foreward Magazine, New York Times Book Review and the Los Angeles Times Book Review (this list is largely from Dan Poynters industry standard The Self-Publishing Manual).

I didn’t send copies to Kirkus Review or the New York Times Book Review as their online guidelines specifically say “No Self-Help” which my book could be classified as.

For all the others, I sent review copies in 14 weeks before my pub date. I have made follow up inquiries via email to all of them. To date, I received an email reply from Library Journal saying ’sorry, The Wealth Manifesto was not selected. I also received a form letter from Quality Books Inc.s letting me know that “unfortunately, they must decline to stock the title.” I have been ignored completely by everyone else.

Mind you, my book is not some fringe fiction monument to my ego or cookbook or hamster recipes. I have a decent book: good title, good cover, timely useful info that appeals to several broad demographics.

Bottom line: if you are self-publishing or are a very small press, I would skip this whole process entirely and put your energy and money into other review possibilities (such as was mentioned in the amazon.com Top Reviewers post and other methods I will cover in subsequent post).