Wednesday, February 3, 2010

7 Ways to Sell More Books at No or Low Cost

Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Your goal is to sell more books – and sell those books without spending a lot of money. Therefore, your number one goal is to make it easy for people to find you and say yes to you:

• Yes to buying your book
• Yes to reviewing your book
• Yes to having you on their radio show

To make it easy for people to find you and say yes to you – you must be where these people are. Where they can "meet" you, like you, and want to help you promote your book.

Here are seven good ways to do this:
1. Join social networking site Twitter.com and use Tweetbeep.com to alert you when people on Twitter talk about book marketing or their books.
If appropriate you can join in the conversation. Thus people on Twitter will start to pay attention to you as a book author.

2. Have a call-to-action book website (call-to-action to buy your book or books).
Share one or more chapters on your site. Let people get hooked enough to buy the book NOW. And, of course, have a BUY THIS BOOK NOW option on every page of the website.

3. Blog about your nonfiction book's topic or a related topic to your novel.
Many elements in a novel can spawn blog posts – from recipes of the book's locale to posts on the construction work your protagonist does to all kinds of things. If you're a novelist, you make up stories. Use your imagination to think of blog posts that connect to your novel. Showcase your writing and make an emotional connection with people who can buy your book.

4. Leave comments on other book authors' blog posts where appropriate to lead readers of similar books back to your own book blog or website.
If you choose wisely where to leave worthwhile comments, you'll be reaching fans of the type of book you've written. This is another way for people to learn about you and then find your online "home" where they can visit you.

5. Join LinkedIn and then search publishing groups and writing groups to join.
Get email notifications of the questions posted in those groups and answer those questions if you can add something of value. Extra tip: Try to be one of the first to answer. If several people answer before you do, your response may be buried too far down for most people to see it. Share your information with others, which will help attract people to you.

6. Consider which of the numerous book sites such as Goodreads.com and Shelfari.com fit your personality and time commitment schedule.
It's better not to spread yourself too thin over so many book sites that you can't be a real presence on any site. Choose one or two book sites and go deep (make connections). Engage in conversation about your book whenever it's appropriate as long as you share about other books too. People want to know what other books you like.

7. Join one or two other online communities whose mission has an affinity with your book.
If you write about a medical condition, join one or two sites focused on that condition. If you write graphic novels, join one or two sites focused on this type of fiction writing. Becoming known in the online community is important, followed by sharing of what you do and how this might interest the community's members.



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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a National Internet Business Examiner at http://budurl.com/internetbusiness as well as a book author, and her company http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com provides internet marketing information with easy-to-implement solutions to promote your brand, book or business.

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