Tag: Amazon

Jodee Speaks, Uncategorized

Top 5 Reasons for Self Publishing in October

Has publishing your book been on your to-do list for months, or even years? Does your book always get pushed to the end of your to-do list because you are overwhelmed with work and home responsibilities? Are you one of those people who always finds a reason to wait? Well, wait no more. October is the perfect time to take the leap into self publishing. Here are five reasons why.

1) Complete Your 2012 News Year’s Resolution

When the clock struck 12 on January 1, 2012, did you vow to publish a book this year? Now that it is October, are you feeling guilty for not fulfilling that resolution? Well, if you start the self publishing process in October, your book will be complete by the end of the year. A high quality self-published book typically takes 6-15 weeks to complete. If you start now, your book will be done by the end of 2012.

2) Get a Head Start on Your 2013 Resolution

So maybe publishing wasn’t one of your resolutions this year, but you want it to be one of your resolutions next year. Why not get a head start and start the self publishing process now? This way, you can show off your new book in 2013 instead of rushing to publish before the year is over.

3) It’s A Great Time for Spooky Reads

Do you write horror or thrillers? Do you want to write a children’s book about Halloween? October is a great month to work on these projects. The cool air and pumpkin lattes at your favorite coffee shop can set the tone for a fall book and help motivate you to complete great Halloween stories.

4) Avoid the Holiday Chaos

November through January are the busiest months for most people. You are scrambling around to shop for gifts, bake goodies and attend holiday parties. If you start the self publishing process in October, you can begin before you become consumed by twinkling lights and sugar cookies.

5) Free Amazon Extreme

Amazon Extreme is a marketing package (worth over $300) available through Outskirts Press. It helps self-publishing authors sell more books by taking advantage of the various options available through Amazon. For authors who start the self publishing process in October, the package is FREE! Yes, free. Click here to learn more.

So what are you waiting for? Make October the month you made your dreams come true.

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.
Book Reviews

Getting book reviews for a self-published book

If your self-published book is available for sale at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (BN.com), and other sites, you want to be sure your online listings have book reviews. You can always be sure your book has at least 1 review by asking someone you know to review for your book. Who knows? They may even do it!

Once you have one review, your job is to solicit others. Obviously, if you’ve given some of your books away to friends or families, you should ask them to write a review in exchange for the book. As you continue to give them away, suggest to your customers that it would be helpful to you if they took the time to write an honest online review. People like to help people, but usually only do so if you ask.

BONUS: Once you have reviews, you can use them in quotes for further promotion. For example:

“Best Book Ever!” — Amazon.com review.

Your book detail page on Amazon and Barnes & Noble have links for writing reviews of your book. If you haven’t done that yet, do it right away.

Remember, in order to write a review for a book on Amazon, each reviewer must have an Amazon account with which they have purchased something. This is how Amazon verifies the identity of the reviewer. They don’t need to buy your book, per se, they just need to buy something, anything, from Amazon. But it is nice if they DO buy your book, so suggest that to your friends first.

Contacting Amazon reviewers is also a great place to start, and here’s where you can find them: http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers

 

Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks

Should authors thank reviewers for reviewing their book?

What do you do when you receive a good review for your book?  Do you thank the reviewer?

Authors often ask me if this is something they should do.  Most reviewers don’t write reviews for anything in return, so they wouldn’t be surprised by not receiving anything in return.  However, if you really appreciated their review and want to take them by surprise, thank them.

I recently reviewed Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal.  Just like the other 40 or so books I have reviewed on Amazon, I didn’t expect any thank you or acknowledgement from the author.  But to my surprise, a few days later, I received this message on my Facebook account:

Was I surprised?  Absolutely!  The personal thank you from the author made me feel a connection with him.  I’m glad I read the book and I’m glad I wrote a review.  If Satyal publishes another book someday, you can be sure I will read and review it!  That is the power of connecting with your readers.

DISCUSSION: Do you typically thank readers for reviewing your book?  If so, how do you do it?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the Director of Author Support for Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks

5 Ways to Increase Book Sales by Giving Away the First Chapter

I love Amazon!  I frequently search for books on Amazon.  I pay attention to what Amazon recommends for me.  I have a Kindle and often check Amazon’s list of “Top 100 Free” Kindle Ebooks.  As a reader, the choices for “what to read next” are endless.  My “to read” list is never under 25 books.  Readers have so many choices these days, so, as an author, how do you convince readers to choose your book to read next?

One idea is to give away the first chapter of your book.  Everyone likes getting something for free, right?  The first chapter will give the reader a taste of the book and will entice them to want to read more.  There are a few ways you can get your first chapter into the hands (or onto the screens) of your potential readers:

  1. Add a message in your email signature asking your contacts to let you know if they would like to receive a copy of the first chapter of your book.  For those who reply, send them a PDF copy of the first chapter and let them know where to buy the hardcopy if they like it and want to read more.
  2. Put an ad in your local newspaper with a short (1-2 sentence) synopsis of your book, inviting potential readers to email you for a PDF copy of the first chapter for free.  When you email the file to these contacts, let them know where to buy the hardcopy if they like it and want to read more.
  3. Similarly, put an ad on Craigslist (in the “free” section) with a short synopsis of your book, inviting potential readers to contact you for a free PDF copy of the first chapter.  And – you guessed it! – when you send it to them, let them know where to buy the hardcopy if they like it and want to read more.
  4. First Chapter Plus publishes and distributes a monthly e-catalog, which includes the first chapters of print and digital books, and mp3 clips of audio books to over 35,000 opt-in subscribers.  This listing will include the necessary details for where potential readers can find and purchase a copy of your book.
  5. If you’re a blogger, publish the first chapter of your book in a blog post or link to a PDF file where your readers can open the first chapter and read it.  Be sure to let readers know where to buy the book once they’ve read the first chapter and want more.  Author Ian Lurie actually allows his viewers to read the entire contents of his book, Conversation Marketing, online.  See how he does this here: http://www.conversationmarketing.com/internet-marketing-book/

DISCUSSION: What are some other ways that you might distribute the first chapter of your book to potential readers?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the Director of Author Support for Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Book Promotion, Kelly Speaks

Using Amazon Tags to Promote Your Book

Today’s post is by book marketing industry expert, Kelly Schuknecht.

A Tag on Amazon is a keyword or category label that customers can add. Tags can help customers find similar items on Amazon.  For example, adding Tags to the listing for your book on Amazon can help customers find your book when they are searching the Tags for similar books.

You can find the Tag section within a listing on Amazon towards the bottom of the page.  Here’s an example of the Tags associated with the book 33 Million People in the Room:

As a customer, you can click the existing Tags and add your own Tags, up to 15 per item.  As you can see, customers have Tagged this book as “facebook,” “internet marketing,” “social media marketing,” “twitter,” and several other things.  The first Tag, “facebook,” shows that this book has been Tagged “facebook” by 46 customers on Amazon.

After reading this book, a customer might be interested in reading more books about Facebook.  Clicking on the “facebook” Tag will open up a new page of all products that have been Tagged “facebook” (currently 585 products).

On the left side the customer can narrow the search results by other popular Tags.  For example, if the customer wanted to read more about marketing on Facebook, they could select “internet marketing” and narrow the results to 101 products.  The results might give the customer a few ideas of books they might want to read, such as:

#1 – Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue by Jim F. Kukral

#5 – Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media by Liana Evans

# 11 – Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) by C.C. Chapman

As an author, make sure your book is Tagged on Amazon with a number of keywords that will help potential readers locate your book. Look at the Tags for similar books to be sure you are using the same Tags, when appropriate.

Post a comment below and tell me about the Tags you’ve added for your book.

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the Director of Author Support for Outskirts Press.  In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog at http://kellyschuknecht.com.