Book Promotion

Quick Tips for Authors of Self Published Poetry Books

April is Poetry month. 

If you are the author of a self-published poetry book, here are five quick tips for you this month:

1.  Get your book reviewed: Reader Views accepts Poetry books for review. Don’t forget to forward your review to us to post with our weekly Self-Published Book Review.

2.  Enter your book in an award contest: Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards – hurry, the deadline is coming up!

3. Get interviewed in a Podcast: Writer’s in the Sky offers Podcast interviews with some of their publicity packages

4. Promote your book on Twitter: Follow us @SPAdvice and comment on our posts.  This will help generate more traffic to your Twitter page and your website (which should feature your book).

5. Set up book signing events: Read our blog post for more information about how to do that.

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

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self-Published Book Review of the Week: Queen Vernita’s Visitors

9781598007145_cov.inddQueen Vernita’s Visitors

by Dawn Menge

Queen Vernita invites twelve wonderful friends to visit with her during each month of the year. Queen Vernita and her friends enjoy fun activities throughout the Oceaneers Kingdom. Parents and teachers will love teaching the monthly calendar, days of the weeks and seasons through the storytelling adventures of Queen Vernita and her friends.

This self-published book was recently reviewed by Reader Views:

This book is about Queen Vernita and her visitors who come to visit every month of the year. Children will learn about the months, days of the week, and the seasons. This is a fun book to read. I really like the beautiful pictures. My favorite visitor was Tyler Ann because she was the only girl who came to visit. She also came on my favorite month, December! They wrapped gifts, sang Christmas carols, baked cookies and went to see the Christmas lights. They seemed to have a fun time. “Queen Vernita’s Visitors” by Dawn Menge is a good book to teach younger children about
the days of the week and months.

For more information or to order the book, visit the author’s webpage: www.outskirtspress.com/DawnMenge

Book Promotion

Recollections of WWII for Self-Published Authors

If your self-published book is about WWII, here is a site you will want to check out:

www.recollectionsofwwii.blogspot.com

The Recollections of WWII blog was created to bring attention to the hundreds of memoirs about WWII that have been printed in the last 60 years, which never make it to the shelves of the big bookshops.

To suggest your book, contact Recollections of WWII

Book Promotion

Radio Interviews for Self-Published Authors

Have you tried to set up radio interviews to promote your self-published book? Keep in mind the more niche the radio station, the more likely you are to secure an on-air review, especially if the radio station’s niche matches the category of your book!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were an easy way to get a list of ALL the radio stations in your state? One that included the station’s frequency, call letters, address, website, and main listening subject matter/format?

Guess what? It’s just that simple. The link below will take you to Radio Locator. Scan the available stations in your area for formats that match your book’s subject matter and then give them a call, or pitch the producer via email or fax or mail. The bottom line is, get your book into their hands and let them know YOU are a published expert that their audience would value hearing about.

Here’s the link:
http://www.radio-locator.com/

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

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Tips on Annotation for the Self-Publishing Author

Last week we discussed the book marketing value of professional cover scribing. Annotation provides an avenue to use that externally to enhance that marketing online.

ANNOTATION is used by Ingram during the distribution process. When the book is listed on Amazon or Barnes & Noble’s website, it’s the annotation that fills the PRODUCT DESCRIPTION/OVERVIEW section.   The ANNOTATION is also restricted in length, although very often can be substantially longer than the Back Cover Copy.  Ideally, the ANNOTATION should be as long and as detailed as possible, perhaps requiring multiple headings to separate elements of the ANNOTATION.  The total character count, including spaces, should be as close to 4000 as possible without exceeding it.   It’s okay to include the author biography again in the ANNOTATION, provided a separate heading (Like “About the Author”) separates the content. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have the capability of understanding basic HTML formatting tags, so judicious use of several tags can help an ANNOTATION really stand out.  Two specific tags that should be used are the <b>BOLD</b> tags and the <em>italics</em> tags, both of which can help draw a reader’s attention to specific words and phrases within the ANNOTATION. Bullet point and numbered lists are good here, too.

Whew. Have fun. Keep writing.

– Karl Schroeder