Book Selling Blogs
Book Selling Blogs
Do Authors Need a Blog? Selling Books by Blogging
Every author must decide for him or herself, but first, it's important to understand what a blog is and how to use it effectively.
A blog is a shortened version of the term "web log." It's basically a journal or diary that is online for the public to read. Businesses use blogs to share information about their products, new items in their markets, and other information relevant to their industry. Blogging is similar for authors who want to connect with readers, books being the product and readers being the customers who want the product-at least they should after reading your blog.
Blogging is an excellent marketing strategy for authors because it's a way for them to tell their stories, to talk about their books, to share information, items of common interest to readers, and ultimately, to get people to buy their books. Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, most authors are telling a story, and a blog is just another way to tell a story-the story about you the author-in a more personal way that will get readers to like you and want to hear more of what you have to say.
Having a blog does not mean just posting whatever and whenever. As an author, you want to have a strategy for your blog posts. Ultimately, your goal is to sell your books to your potential readers. Make sure your posts reflect that strategy. If you're writing romance novels, it doesn't make sense to post about your gardening interests-unless you can tie those into your book-for example, if your heroine's name is Cecilia and she is a gardener in your book, then you could be creative and present Cecilia's gardening tips.
Following are some key tips to make your blog effective so it will engage your readers:
- Have an attention grabbing headline.
- Keep the content relatively short-just a few paragraphs-a chapter a day from your book may be too long, so spread it out over a few posts-remember people online have short attention spans.
- Post selections from your books.
- Write about why you wrote your book-tell the background story.
- Give sneak peeks of future books or ideas you're working on.
- Review products of interest to your readers-if you write historical fiction, review other historical novels or historical films. If you write about nature, the outdoors, activities like rock-climbing, then write reviews of nature hiking trails, the best kayaking places, or the newest in climbing equipment.
- Share information about your industry or genre-a lot of readers want to be writers, so talk about writing, publishing, and book marketing-be helpful to everyone who asks for help (within reason).
- Offer viewpoints that may be a little controversial.
- Ask your readers for their opinions on what you post. Solicit comments from them. Asking for feedback tells your readers that you want to know what they have to say, and that you're interested in understanding your customers. Respond to the comments people write. Remember, many people view authors as celebrities. They will be pleased that you took the time to write them back. The more comments you get, the more people will want to leave comments. Don't worry about negative comments-you can control what comments appear on your site, but a little controversy can also help.
- Ask your readers what topics they would like you to post about. Ask them for ideas for future books, or put up a piece of writing and ask for feedback.
- Link to other sites and exchange links. Find authors who write on similar topics or in similar genres. Interview them, or review each other's books. Links will help your search engine optimization and you'll have more links back to your site to attract readers.
- Advertise your blog. Just putting up a blog on your website won't get people to your blog. Advertise it through your email lists. Be involved in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter where you can promote your blog.
- Avoid trying to sell directly. No one likes a pushy salesperson. Share information and make people curious about your thoughts, opinions, and writing. People like to do business with people they know and like. As they get to know and like you, they'll become more curious to buy your book.
- Go beyond the written word. Include photographs in your blog to attract people who are more visual. You can also include audio and video to your blog. Take turns playing with or switching up different types of blog posts.
- Automate your blog so everything you post goes to your social networking sites. Ping.fm is one good site that allows you to cross-post.
- Be listed on blog directories so people looking for information or the topics you're writing about can find you.
- Follow other authors and people in the publishing industry's blogs and post comments on those blogs-your website will be included so people will follow you back to your website.
- Post on average three or more blogs a week so you always have new content and readers stay interested.
Blogging can be a fun and fulfilling way to promote your books, to have conversations with readers, to try out ideas for future books, and to learn a great deal about how to market your books to attract readers. Ultimately, you won't know if blogging is effective for you unless you try it.
Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.
About the Author
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Tips to Effectively Pre-sell Your Books
When is the best time to sell your book? The idea of pre-selling books is definitely a clever move, especially for self-published authors. Although pre-selling will also involve money, there are a lot of ways to promote your book in advance even on a shoestring budget. Pre-selling books is a marketing strategy that's a must.
While you wait for your books to be printed, it is ideal to maximize time for marketing and promotion. Other authors have sustained the anticipation of their readers by maintaining author websites, blogs, online journals and the like. They pre-sell by keeping their blogs or websites updated with the latest information and details about their upcoming book. This actually works since readers can conveniently keep track. It is always advisable to give a full month or two to market your book before it is printed. Keep the waiting part as productive as possible.
For your marketing to be successful, you will need to seriously consider how to effectively pre-sell your books. How do you persuade readers to purchase your book even before when it's out in the market? How do we make books sell even prior to its launch date?
The art of pre-selling involves getting the public interested even before a product is out. An example of this is Apple's iPad. Even before the product was out, the public was already anticipating and the list of reservations was already quite long. How did Apple do the iPad hype? It's simple. Apple has done extensive pre-marketing and promotional campaigns for iPad. From product reviews, forums, blogs, to viral websites, they totally covered all pre-selling online venues. They made the public start talking about their product before it even came out.
Here are tips for effective pre-selling:
1. Eye-Catching Print Materials. These materials can be bookmarks, flyers, posters, stickers, and tarpaulins. The production of these materials need not be expensive. If you have the designing skills then you can make your own promotional art and print them at your nearest printing press. It is also advisable for your promotional materials to be consistent with colors and fonts. Make sure that your content will be able to attract and stir interest for readers. Enumerate venues where they can read more details about your book. (i.e. websites, social networking sites, etc.)
2. Utilize Your Website for Pre-Marketing and Promotion. Since it's your website, you can freely post advance information about your upcoming book. Moreover, you can conduct online contests in line with your upcoming book. Contests and other activities generate attention and interest for the public. You can promote and pre-sell your book while gaining high traffic for your website.
3. Offer A Special Pre-Sale Price. Customers love discounts. If you have already decided on your book's price, you can offer a special pre-sale price to customers who will purchase your book prior to its release. You can offer special rate discounts to your first 100 customers for example.
4. Blog About Your Upcoming Book. Frequently post entries about your book on your blog. Cover any kind of topic that can keep current potential customers interested and to keep attract new ones. Write helpful articles. Remember that attention is gained when you share helpful information. Read other blog sites. It's also equally important for you to learn from others. When you do read other blog sites, remember to post a comment of appreciation or a courteous opinion. Don't forget to post a link to your author website or blog page when you leave comments.
5. Trigger Book Reviews from the National and International Media. Posting a press release about your book online or sending it to reputable media targets via fax increases the chances of a critical review on the substantial merits of your book, and a critical praise will bring you national—even international—acclaim.
About the Author
BookWhirl.com offers you a strategic and efficient way to get your books featured through Media Release Distribution. This kind of campaign involves sending out informative and concise news articles known as press releases and are sent out to various media outlets for your Book Publicity.
