Author: selfpublishingadvisor

Book Promotion

Using Amazon’s BXGY to Promote your Self Published Book

Imagine seeing your self-published book listed next to Harry Potter, the Da Vinci Code, or Clive Cussler’s latest horror novel.

Pairing two novels together for a combined discount is what Amazon.com calls their BXGY plan (which stands for “Buy Title X, Get Title Y”). The idea behind the promotion is simple: Find a book that is very highly ranked on Amazon.com (Title X) and match the theme or potential audience of that book with yours.

Then, contact Amazon and participate in their BXGY marketing program. For an entire month, your title (Title Y) will be paired with an Amazon best selling title (Title X) of your choice.

To contact Amazon and arrange your Co-Op advertising campaign (which runs for 1 month and costs between $750-$1000 billed directly by Amazon) click on this link to Amazon.com’s CO-OP webpage. http://www.amazon.com/coop

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Uncategorized

More Pricing information for the self-publishing author

We recently discussed the importance of book pricing in self-publishing. Let’s now take a closer look at trade discount. What is it and what should you know about it?

Trade discount is the percentage of your retail price that you offer to the publishing trade for distributing your book to retailers. The “publishing trade” consists of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Instead, everyone involved with your book after the publisher all the way to the reader falls into the “publishing trade” circle, and they all take a piece of the trade discount.

Obviously, the larger the trade discount, the more money there is to split up among the parties involved. Standard trade discounts have ranged from 50% – 70%.

Most publishing companies do not offer any information about their trade discounting policies up-front, nor do they give the author any say in the matter. Ask your publisher. And make sure you to keep 100% of your profits.

Depending on your distribution goals, look for the flexibility to establish a trade discount from 0% – 55%. A 55% trade discount will generally result in an industry standard 40% retail margin, which is what a typical book retailer seeks when considering whether or not to order a book. So in addition to availability on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble’s, and Borders websites, among other online sales channels, your book can be published at the retail margin that bookstores and chains are looking for.

Have fun and keep writing!

Karl Schroeder

Book Promotion

Creating a “So you’d like to…” Guide for your Self Published Book

If you are promoting your self-published book, hopefully by now you have created a few “listmania” lists. If you were poking around your Amazon “Profile” page, you may have also seen the “So you’d like to….” guide section.

Writing a “So you’d like to…” guide is nearly as easy as creating a listmania list and will probably yield even better results, simply because the number of guides on Amazon is less than the number of lists. Why? Because guides are more work to create. But not for you! You’ve already written a book, and you can turn excerpts of your book into guides.

In fact, you can basically cut and paste a selected section from your published book and create a guide out of it. Just follow the steps on Amazon.com by clicking on the “Create a So you’d like to… guide” link in the “So You’d Like to” section of your profile page.

To get there, sign in to your Amazon.com account from http://amazon.com/connect then click on your personalized “Store” tab the top, and then click on “Your Profile” from tab menu.  If you have not set up an Amazon Connect account yet, you can read more about doing this here: Using Listmania to Promote your Self-Published Book

Again, like with the “listmania” lists, the real power of the guide is adding OTHER books that will spark people’s interest in reading your guide.

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Book Reviews

More on Getting your Self Published Book Reviewed

It’s no secret that getting great book reviews posted on Amazon is something you want to accomplish. But how do you do that?

You need a network of people willing to read your book and write a positive review. This requires a mailing list.

Fortunately, self-publishing advocate Dan Poynter already has such a network, and you can take advantage of it completely free. It’s called his Marketplace Newsletter, and you can post a “Review Request” in his newsletter, which is sent out to thousands and thousands of people.

IF YOU WANT YOUR BOOK REVIEWED on Amazon.com, B&N.com, etc, you must be willing to send a book and promotional materials (review-book package) to readers of Publishing Poynters Marketplace who contact you.

Send your request and description to DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.

Draft your request so that Dan does not have to edit it. Make it SHORT (100 words max), no italics or bold type. Describe the book in a few words; do not send a lengthy review of it. Lengthy submissions will be returned for rewriting or ruthlessly cut.  Put “Review Wanted” in the subject line.

Reviewers only need enough information to see if they have expertise and an interest in your category. Supply full contact information including your email address so interested readers can contact you for a free review copy.  Be responsive to those indicating an interest in reviewing your book by sending them a copy and a sales sheet.

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Choosing a Publisher

4 Myths about Self-Publishing

There can be a lot of confusion about self publishing and print-on-demand. As you decide the best publishing path for you, I would like to clarify some misconceptions you may have heard.

 

1. MYTH: Whoever owns the ISBN owns the book.

FACT: This use to be true. Nowadays, not as much so. Most POD publishers assign an ISBN they own, and they do this for the authors’ convenience; in any case authors should ALWAYS keep all the rights to their book.

 

2. MYTH: Independent self-publishing is different from publishing with a POD publisher because the publisher owns the ISBN. 

FACT: It is true that the ISBN identifies the publisher of record. Look for a publisher that allows authors to supply their own ISBN at some level.

 

3.MYTH: New York publishers promote and market all their books.

FACT: New York publishers usually devote the lion’s share of their marketing budget to the top 1% (Harry Potter, for example) of the books they publish. The other books published during that season are victims of the sliced marketing budget. Most authors don’t get any support from their traditional publisher at all.

 

4.MYTH: Printing a book with an off-set printer is the same as publishing it.

FACT: Printing a book is one facet of publication. Before a book can be printed, it needs to be designed. Then it needs to be printed. Then it needs wholesale distribution through Ingram and availability online with retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Then it needs fulfillment of orders and invoicing.

 

Printing a book with an off-set printer accomplishes one of those steps. Publishing a book with a turn-key, custom self-publisher accomplishes all of them.  Some authors choose to do both; an on-demand edition complements an off-set print-run very nicely.

 

I hope you found this helpful.  Keep writing!

 

Sincerely,

Karl Schroeder