Book Marketing Blogs

Stuff To Do Before Your Book Signing

•    See if you can get a copy of the store’s media list. More than likely the bookstore will send out press releases but it’s important for you to do the same. Not only will you be able to target the same people twice, but the store manager will also know that you are actively involved in promoting your event.

•    Send a confirmation of your signing to the bookstore. It will make you look professional and show the store manager that you are a professional and that you take your book signings very seriously. A sample of the form I use follows this chapter.

•    Start tapping into that media list you’ve been creating and begin contacting local media to promote your event.

•    Post your book signing information on the Author Appearances section of your Web site. Get invitations made up or make them yourself and send everyone on your contact list an invitation to your signing.

•    If you haven’t already done so, get those bookmarks and postcards printed up. Don’t forget to include the ISBN of your book, include a few review blurbs if you have them. Get the cover of your book enlarged to poster size. Then, get it laminated and mounted. I had three of them printed up. I will usually drop one or two off at the store prior to the event so they can set them out and I’ll bring the third one with me that day. Prop a sign up on an easel by the front door where you will be standing and greeting people. If you have the time and the budget, get a set of colorful pens made up with the title of the book and author’s name imprinted on it then when you sign the book, give the reader the pen. It’s another great way to spread the word about your book!

•    Get signs made that say: “Book Signing Today” or “Author Appearance;” both of these will help to draw crowds to your table.

Things To Bring To Your Book Signing

•    Bookmarks – I try to hand these out like crazy. Sometimes I’ll even hand them out with the flyer when people enter the store. I’ve even autographed one or two when people hesitate to buy a book. More often than not, they return at a later time to buy a copy just because I gave them a bookmark.

•    Postcards – bring postcards with your book cover on them. I always say you can never have too many marketing materials.

•    Chocolate – I like to fill an attractive jar with Hershey’s kisses or some other small chocolate. Food attracts people and may even keep them lingering a bit longer.

•    Guest book – I always have people sign in at the event. If they give you their e-mail address, inquire as to whether you can add them to your mailing list. This is a great way to build a “fan club” and continue spreading the word about your book as well as future novels. If you don’t feel comfortable with a guest book, try putting together a free drawing. Tell them they don’t have to be present to win. People hate that; I know I do. I mean who wants to stick around a book signing for four hours? Well, okay, except for the author. You should do what you can to keep a log of people that purchased your book. It’s a great way to build your mailing list and customer base.

•    Make up a small flyer to hand to people who enter the store. They may not even know about your signing but you’ll be sure to tell them. Keep in mind that heavy promotion of your book signing does not just benefit you, it also benefits the store and sends a strong message that you know how to move your books.

•    Your favorite pen.

During Your Signing

•     Don’t sit down unless you have to.

•     Smile, talk and most of all have fun! This is no time to be shy.

•     If no one shows up, remember, that’s okay. It has happened to all of us at one time or another.

•     Get people to enter your contest or sign your guest book.

•     Tell the store manager that you’d like to sign the remaining books before you leave the store and see if they have “Autographed by Author” stickers for them. If they don’t, you might want to think about ordering some from the American Booksellers Association (www.bookWeb.org). You can get these and a variety of other book stickers for $5 a roll. These stickers will really help to move your book.

•     Don’t feel confined to stay just a few hours. Stay as long as there is an interest in the book. Once, I booked a signing for two hours; I ended up staying for five.

What To Do After Your Book Signing

Send a thank you note to the person in charge of coordinating your signing. Don’t send an e-mail. Send a handwritten note. It will go a lot further!

A Few Final Notes on Book Signings

Be cautious of pay periods when scheduling a date for your signing. For example, I will always try to schedule mine around the 15th or 30th of the month. I live in a Navy town and since they never fail to get paid on those dates, it really helps to boost my sales. Also, check to see if the store has a newsletter. If it does, offer to write a short article on your book or discussion topic that will draw more attention to your signing. Keep the article interesting and helpful without giving away everything you plan to share with your guests. Or, if your book is fiction, share an interesting excerpt from it. Sometimes bookstore newsletters are printed by their corporate offices but generally they print them in-house and are always in need of “filler” items.

Also, contact your local TV stations and speak to the producer. Call the day before (if your signing is on Sunday call them on Friday) and let him know you’ve sent a press release regarding your signing (you have, haven’t you?). If they need a 60-second filler, you can offer their viewers some helpful tips on XYZ. Or, if your book is fiction, play up the “local author makes big” angle. Local stations love that. Speaking of media, if you can get yourself booked on a radio show the day before or preferably the morning of your signing, you’ll really help to boost interest. If you get some on-air time, consider giving away a few of your books during the show. And remember to tie your book and event into something topical and relevant!

Check the book section of your local newspaper.  Many times they will announce author events. If they do, you want to make sure yours is included! Be sure to send them a notice of your event at least a month out.

And finally, send a quick confirmation letter when you do get a book signing. It shows your professionalism and lets the store know you’re serious about this. Here’s a sample of how one should look. Feel free to vary these depending on your book and the store.

Don’t let your book fizzle, call us today for a free consultation!

Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

Turning Authors into Success Stories

http://ame.wpengine.com

Office: 858/560-0121 (in Southern California)

(212) 810-6988 (in New York)

Hotline: 619/808-BOOK

When my first book (The Cliffhanger) was published nearly seven years ago I had high hopes of its success. I mean I am, after all, a PR person so how hard could it be to market fiction? Granted up till that point I hadn’t taken on a lot of fiction, well to be honest I hadn’t taken any fiction. Fiction is tough and everyone knows it. But now I was going to get my chance and what better way to start than on my own book. When The Cliffhanger hit the #1 spot on Amazon it was no accident, it was a creative push that got it to #1 and ironically, the pitch that prompted this Amazon soar had nothing to do with the book. Curious? Then read on.

When I was first pushing The Cliffhanger I did all the things a good fiction author is supposed to do. I sent out review copies, created a stunning press release, scheduled book events. All of these things were great but they didn’t give it the momentum the book really needed to succeed. The book signings were good but a tad boring, the press was interested but not enough to feature me more than once. I knew I needed to do something but let’s face it, when you’re writing romance it’s tough to find a pitch that has the stickiness to it to, well, stick. When you’re taking a fiction book to market you need to have more to hang your star on than a groovy story you need something the media can sink their teeth into, you need grit. That ‘grit’ is the reality piece of your story. The truth is there’s always a thread of reality that weaves through each piece of fiction. Find your reality and own it, if need be craft your pitch around it. So let’s say you wrote a book about a woman overcoming domestic abuse. You’ve done your research, you know the stats, in fact, you might even be considered an expert. Why not then turn a portion of your campaign into turning a domestic violence pitch? The same can be said for just about anything. They key here is to find that grain of reality and see if it’s interesting enough to create a new peg. Once you’ve found your hook, own it. What I mean by this is become the expert on that “hook” and familiarize yourself with ever statistic, every study and every new trend.

When The Cliffhanger was released I soon realized that marketing romantic fiction was only going to take me so far, but marketing the method of printing was more unique. Why? Well, The Cliffhanger was one of the first books in the San Diego area to be published via print-on-demand. Hence, that became my story. Until of course the Presidential race of 2000. Now that was an entirely different story.

No doubt many of you will remember the counts, recounts, chads, and hanging chads, right? Well, one morning I woke up to find our local paper with the following headline: “Cliffhanger” I knew right then that if I couldn’t find a hook to hang my star on that angle, I may as well hang up my marketing hat forever. It was at 3am that I woke up with an idea so stunning, I knew it had to work. I raced out to the office supply store the minute it opened to pick up several packs of clear labels. I got out the postcards I had printed with the book cover on them and stuck on labels with the following slogan:

Getting tired of the Presidential cliffhanger?

Try this one.

The Cliffhanger, a novel.

No politics involved.

I mailed 500 postcards out that day while praying the election wouldn’t get called. I mailed these postcards to everyone in the media I’d ever contacted.  Ever!

Days after my mass-mailing, I was walking through my living room when suddenly I spotted my book cover on the screen. I was stunned. The local TV anchor was saying, “This has got to be the best thing I’ve ever seen. This lady wants you to go buy her book. I say everyone should rush out and buy it.” And everyone did. That afternoon my book shot up to the #1 spot on Amazon where it stayed for three months. It even beat out Harry Potter (which was #4 at that time) yet Harry got the movie. Go figure.

The point is that finding an “anchor” will help you push your campaign. This works for book events too. If you’ve written a crime book why not “theme” your event with DO NOT CROSS Police line tape (if you can get your hands on it) or some other prop. The key is to be unique, carry your theme throughout your marketing and hang your star on unique ways to promote your book.

But the second piece of this, the piece that’s become all the rage recently is the visual aspect of your book. Now I’m not talking about the cover, I’m talking about the movie. Yes, you read right. Your book, a move. Now I’m not talking about a full-blown two hour motion picture. I’m talking about a movie trailer. Most recently several major publishers have started using book trailers to promote the fiction books they publish. Why? Because we are a very visual society and if you’re trying to distill the core of your book into a thirty-second elevator pitch why not distill that same information into a trailer. Studies have shown that book trailers can increase book sales in excess of 30%. This is why most of the major publishers are jumping on the book trailer bandwagon. Still not convinced: Check out this book trailer of Candlewood Lake and see if it doesn’t entice you to buy the book: http://www.redhotinternetpublicity.com/trailers/cwl.html

Now here’s a short list of tricks we’ve used to promote fiction:

•    For a series of detective novels we worked with we told the author that instead of pitching the book, we were going to pitch some of the intriguing unsolved mysteries. He became the unsolved mystery expert and when he did a book event, that’s what he talked about. People were enthralled and it also got him quite a bit of radio too!

•    For a chick lit book last year the author had one of her recipes (for Orgasmic cookies) come to life when she partnered with a local cookie company. The result? We had people writing us for copies of the book just so they could try this fabulous cookie.

•    And what better place for a romance reading than a romantic winery. If you live near some wineries don’t hesitate to stop by there and ask if they’d like to invite you in for a reading.

•    Have you ever considered partnering with another author who has a similar title? Last year I consulted with two authors who’d written books about Paris, I decided they might want to meet and partner up for events. They did and the result was manifique! Everyone loved the “evening in Paris” they’d created and needless to say they got lots of bookings!

The trick is, with all the fiction out there you have to find a way to be different. Selling the story isn’t always going to sell you a book, but entertaining the reader or selling how the story affects the reader or how it can benefit them will. Find your anchor, hook, or story and you’ve found an audience. Becoming a marketing story-teller isn’t as hard as some people make it out to be and whoever said fiction can’t be marketed just didn’t know how to tell a great story.

Penny C. Sansevieri

The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed

the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to publishing success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com

Copyright @ 2007 Penny C. Sansevieri

So what is this “blog factor”? Well, what a few thought was a novel idea some years ago has now morphed into something no one expected. There are currently nine million blogs out there with 40,000 new ones being added everyday. Some are informative and some are just downright a waste of your time. And while we hear a lot about blogging these days, what is blogging *really*? Blogging in its simplest term is like an online journal but much, much more powerful. Blogs (short for Web log) is a place where surfers can get up to the minute information on a topic or voyeur into someone’s life. Some blogs are nothing more than a daily glimpse into someone’s life, while others are so sophisticated, it’s hard to tell them apart from an online news service.

Why Blogs Matter

Google, the #1 search engine on the net, loves blogs. So much so that if you do it right Google will spider the heck out of your site. What does it mean to “spider”? Well spidering is when Google, or the like, searches your sites content to establish ranking, the more content you have (i.e. fresh content) the more Google will do its magic and push your site up the search engine. Another reason blogs matter is that they are interactive and, if you blog on your books topic, it will help to further your expert status on a particular issue. When we plan “Virtual Tours” for our authors, we include as many blogs as we can into a tour. Why? Because if you can get into a good blog that’s seeing a lot of traffic, you can really start to gain some exposure for your book.

What Would You Talk About?

This is the question we get asked most often. “If I start a blog, what on earth would I talk about?” Well if your book is non-fiction it’s pretty easy to figure out what your topic would be, but if your book is fiction it could get a bit tricky – but not impossible. An author I work with has a series of books starring one character – a private detective. I recommended that he “blog” this character, meaning that the character (not the author) would have the blog. It could be the character’s diary or adventures and stories – a glimpse into the life of a private detective. This would give the reader (and fans of this character) a reason to return to the blog for an update on this ongoing adventure or story. In another instance, I work with an author who wrote a fiction book about right and wrong with a new age/spirituality spin. I advised him to blog on issues related to that – right and wrong in our society and his own personal “spin” on these issues. Some of his blogs might be controversial but that’s okay, you want to create your own “voice,” your own take on a certain issue and if that opinion is controversial, all the better for exposure and for getting people to interact on your blog. Getting readers to respond to your posts is a great way to gain interest and momentum for your blog and (more importantly) getting people to talk about it will grow your blog like nothing else!

How to Start a Blog

Starting a blog is super easy. All you have to do is register at a blog site (like www.blogger.com) and get started. It’s that easy. The blog service will link to your site; you’ll need to ask your Webmaster to add a button to your home page so people can find your blog.

How to Blog Effectively

The best bloggers know that the more you add to your blog, the more traffic you’ll drive there. Some bloggers I know post daily, sometimes even multiple times a day while others post weekly. How much you post will probably depend on how much time you have to dedicate to this, the challenge will be that if you want to keep driving people to your blog, you’ll want fresh content. This doesn’t mean you have to create this all yourself, in fact you can invite people onto your blog and interview them, or you can just post a one paragraph “thought” on your topic. It doesn’t have to be complicated or long, it just has to be fresh. Also be innovative, as we discussed earlier, be different with your blog, have fun with it. It might seem complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, you’ll quickly become a blog expert!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with message boards, blogs, ezines, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://ame.wpengine.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

If you’re looking for a shortcut to get your consumer to buy, it might be through their ear. Auditory response is one of the strongest senses we possess. Have you ever wondered why you can remember the tune of a song (“It’s a small world”) but can’t remember an article you read in the paper just this morning? That’s the power of audio. Sound is invasive, intrusive and irresistible. That’s one reason why I’m always telling authors about the power of speaking engagements: sound sells. Many of us incorporate sound into our marketing plans through radio, but there’s something even more powerful for you to consider and it’s called podcasting.

If you’ve always dreamed of having your own radio show, your dream is about to become a reality. It seems only yesterday we were telling you about the power of blogging, but today we’re looking at something equally, if not more, powerful. In its simplest term, podcasting is an audio blog and it’s another exceptionally powerful way to spread the word about your book and message. Several years ago when Internet Radio came on the scene authors were vying for airwaves on the Net. But while Internet radio is still going strong, it’s also very expensive. Most shows cost upwards of $800 a month, plus show hosts need to obtain their own program sponsors. Podcasting, on the other hand, is a fraction of the cost. Here’s how it works.

Podcasting, just like blogs, sits on the internet but instead of sitting in a written file, it’s saved in an MP3 format that can be transferred to any mobile music device like an iPod. A podcast can also be subscribed to through RSS or syndication feeds. If this seems complicated, it’s not, the entire process will take you about an hour to set up, if that, and once you do, you’re off and running.

Most podcasts require an external mic on your computer, but I’ve started using a system through Audio Acrobat (http://bookmkr.audioacrobat.com/) that will allow you to call into a pre-assigned number and record your podcast from anywhere: your office, your car or while on a trip! Then the audio file is saved into the system and sent via their publication tools out to a variety of “feeds,” which in essence sends the audio blog out onto the internet. Now you might wonder how someone will find you and your podcast. Well, you might be surprised. While your first recording might go unnoticed, your second and third will not. Here are some tips for getting the right podcast for you and then getting the world to beat a path to your audio blog door! Topic: First, you want to find a niche and ideally one that ties into your book or message. While topics on religion and gambling are two of the hottest podcasts right now, if your topic doesn’t tie into these it’s best to stay away from them. Go online to iTunes, iPodder.org, or Podcast.net and see who’s talking about your topic and what they’re saying, then plan to be different!

Structure: So how will your podcast be structured and how much time should you plan to spend on a podcast? Truthfully, I’d recommend only 10 to 15 minutes. Unless your podcast is truly compelling or in an interview type format, listeners don’t usually have the attention span to listen longer. Don’t force people to listen to long-winded audios, cut right to the chase, share your information in tip-like, informative nuggets and you’ll find listeners subscribing to your podcast like crazy!

Make a plan: If you decide to do this, try mapping out a few podcasts in advance and plan to offer your information on a daily or, at the very least, a weekly basis.

Setting up your podcast page: When you utilize Audio Acrobat for your podcast, you’ll be able to include a link to your web site. Remember the idea behind the podcast is promotion, so the URL you send them to should reflect this. Ideally you won’t want to send them to your home page but rather a page just for your podcasts. You can include a listing of prior “shows” as well as a way for them to sign up for future updates, your newsletter or perhaps a link to your book or store.

Chicklets and other geek terms: So what’s a “chicklet?” Well, it’s that little orange square that has the letters XML on it. You will click on that to subscribe to a feed. If you obtained your podcast through Audio Acrobat, these chicklets are created for you and you can just cut and paste the HTML into your web site or have your web designer do it for you. I copied the HTML language into my blog and let visitors subscribe that way. If you use another podcasting service, they should supply you with the language to create this on your own.

Syndicating your podcast: So if you’re going to do a radio show you’ll want listeners, right? Now I mentioned that if you use a service like Audio Acrobat the system will send the feeds for you to about 16 services, which is great, but there’s still more work you can do. First, you should consider getting a syndication link on Feedburner.com. This way people can copy your link into their feed reader (we’ll cover this in a bit) and get updated every time you add a new podcast. You can access this feed service at: Feedblitz (www.feedblitz.com).

Feed readers: If you’ve spent *any* time on the Net you’ve no doubt seen those little XML chicklets we mentioned earlier. When you click on them it takes you to a page of confusing text, but it’s the link that you want to copy and paste into your feedreader. When we talk about syndicating a blog, this is what we mean. The reader you have really doesn’t matter and there are quite a few to choose from, if you Google “Feed Readers,” you’ll pull a bunch of them up for you to try. I use SharpReader (www.sharpreader.com) and love it.

Podcasting, besides being a great promotional tool, is a terrific way for you to verbalize the passion you have for your topic. Go an inch wide and a mile deep with your message, offer helpful advice or spout your opinion. Be creative or controversial or a little of both. The bottom line is this: podcasting is not only fun but it’s a great way to spread the message about you and your book. Use it correctly and you’ll see even more readers beating a path to your door.

Need a podcast recommendation?

Powerful Book Promotion Made Easy: You can either subscribe to it on our blog at AME Blog (http://ame.wpengine.com/ameblog/) or check us out on iTunes: Powerful Book Promotion Made Easy.

Wishing you Podcasting and Publishing success!

We’ve got a couple of exciting new podcasting programs just for you! For more information on these programs send us an email to: Email us! (mailto:info@amarketingexpert.com) and ask about how you can become an Internet radio star!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success”. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Copyright @ 2006 Penny C. Sansevieri

Did you know that 98% of journalists go online daily? (Source: white paper released by Expansion Plus Inc.  www.expansionplus.com). Here’s the breakdown of what they’re doing while they’re on the ‘Net:

92% article research

81% searching online for stories and information related to piece they’re currently working on

76% to find new sources and/or experts

73% to find press releases

If you’re crafting a press release to fax or email to the media – stop! This is a colossal waste of your time. Why? Because the old way of doing press releases no longer works. Press releases, the old way, are useless. And here’s another tidbit: by posting your release online you can circumvent: gatekeepers, spam filters, or your press release disappearing in the glut of emails a reporter or producer gets each day.

A recent study indicated that over 70% of Americans get their news content online so not only are reporters online, but consumers are, too. This has made online press releases very attractive to media professionals and authors. A few years ago you could almost guarantee a media person would call you if you posted your release in an online newsroom like Prweb.com. It was simple and free and a posting generally took you no longer than five to ten minutes. It was time well spent. But as the flood of press releases hit these online venues, the ratio of posting vs. media attention changed, and the deluge of releases only served to clutter these portals until finally a paid service was offered.

Many thought this was the salvation of the online press release posting and for a while, it was. Now, however, this has changed yet again. The low cost of posting to these sites makes it fairly reasonable for anyone to get a listing and consequently, the clutter continues. But much like the clutter of sites on the ‘Net, the solution to this is very simple: press release optimization. What is “optimization”? Let me explain.

When your press release resides online, whether it’s through a service like Prweb or you’ve just put the release in the media room on your site, you need to treat this release just like you treat a web site and optimize it using keywords and techniques that are “web friendly”. At AME we’ve developed an entire system for optimizing releases with our Resident SEO (search engine optimization) guru, Susan Gilbert. Susan cites an example that she used to gain her a mention in a major news source: “Here’s an example from a new web site I created:

The domain name was registered on Feb. 3 and the site was completed on Feb. 10. I created a press release (which had an official date of Feb. 15, 2007 ) and submitted it to several online press release agencies. My site was indexed in Google within a week, and was considered the ‘authority’ on the topic in Google by March 15. On April 2 I was contacted by a journalist who found my press release online. She was researching my topic for inclusion in Home Style magazine. Home Style is published both offline and online by Contentthatworks.com. Content That Works has licensing agreements with more than 200 newspapers in the United States and Canada. Combined, these newspapers reach more than 12 million households. My website and interview will be featured in May’s issue.”

The trick here are the keywords, which are often misunderstood: “The biggest mistake a novice can make,” offers Gilbert, “is thinking that your keyword is the root word of your subject matter. The competition for all root words (i.e. romance novel, scrapbooking, etc.) will never achieve ranking. Keyword research is an art that takes a long time to learn and takes keyword research tools that can be costly. Additionally, keyword research changes based on the newest algorithms and search engine advances.” Much like a web site designer, or someone who writes your press release, don’t trust your keyword searches to just anyone. Make sure they are tuned into the ‘Net and aren’t just offering standard or “root” keywords.

Once you have your keywords defined, you’ll want to use these in the headline and the first 50 words of your release. The next piece of this is the length of your press release. Generally, online releases should be no more than 600 words in length and have at least one (preferably two) hyperlinks back to your web site. The keywords can also be used as anchor text for these links, too. Again, a good keyword person should come back with two or three relevant search terms that your target audience is likely to use for a news search.

By optimizing your release you’ll not only get onto the radar screen of your desired media and consumer targets, but you’ll also get some valuable incoming links, and search engines love those! Anytime your story gets picked up by web sites (and in particular news web sites), it creates an inbound link which helps with your site ranking.

And finally, if you’re still not sure this is the route for you to take, consider this: Yahoo! News outranks CNN and the BBC, meaning that Yahoo has more news readers than either of these two giants. So if you’re planning a campaign, or still knee deep in an ongoing one, consider optimizing your press release, it might give you the boost you need, and who knows, maybe even get you noticed by that elusive media target.

If you’d like more information on press release optimization, please contact us at: info@amarketingexpert.com.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with message boards, blogs, ezines, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://ame.wpengine.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Copyright ã 2007 Penny C. Sansevieri

It’s no secret that the ‘Net keeps changing all the time; what is a secret to many is how to make the most of the ‘Net and sell some books. When it comes down to it, that’s the #1 focus of publishers and authors alike. The ‘Net has become the place to go for book sales, but it’s more than just having your book listed on Amazon.com or your own website, it’s about getting people to know about it. With millions of websites coming online every month, that task is getting tougher and tougher each day.

It seems like only yesterday we were telling you that reciprocal linking was *the* way to go to get traffic. What is reciprocal linking? Well, it’s where you give a link on your site to someone else and they give one to you. This tactic may have worked in 2006 but it’s no longer a good idea. Why? Because search engines are now looking at high quality one-way (inbound) links. Says Susan Gilbert, AME’s SEO expert: ” Google has declared 2007 as the year of the incoming link – high quality, one-way links. Now more than ever, it is important to create a long term site building presence that focuses on the community aspect of the World Wide Web.”

A backlink is a link which directs others towards your site. They are sometimes referred to as inbound links. These are links that go from another website to your website. But it’s more than just that, it’s also about having backlinks that matter. If you haven’t done a vanity search on yourself in a while try this: Google your name and see what sites come up (when you Google your name use the “+” sign between your first and last name for a more accurate search). Now take a quick peek at the list of sites and see how they rank according to Google, are they on the 20th page of a Google search or are they on the 1st or 2nd page? These are all indicators of high quality, high traffic sites. Now look at the sites that are in your topic/market. Ideally, you want every site linking to you to be your market. That’s the definition of a high quality, high traffic site.

The number of backlinks that your site has is an indication of how popular or important it is according to the major search engines. Backlinks are important for SEO, because search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, will give more credit to those sites with a good number of quality backlinks. They will then consider these sites more relevant than others in the results pages of a search query.

Most search engines will want websites to have a level playing field, and so will more often than not look for natural links that have been built slowly over time. Link farms or companies that promise hundreds of backlinks will do nothing but get your site delisted by the search engines. Once this happens, it could take months, and even years to get it back online. (Delisting means that the site no longer comes up in search engines).

Although it can be fairly easy to manipulate the links on a web page in order to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from another site. This is why these feature so highly in a search engine’s algorithm.

According to research we’ve done, there are a number of ways in which you can get additional backlinks to your website.

1. Reciprocal Linking.

This is where you link to another site that provides the same service or product as you and they in turn have a link to your site on theirs. While very popular in the past, this exchange of links is not as valuable as one-way links.

2. Site Submissions.

Submit links for your site to directories which allow free submissions, or if you can afford it, some paid directories. There are many sites which offer a service where you can submit your site’s details to numerous websites. Plus, if you want, you can always create your own directory of similar websites.

3. Blogging.

This has now become an integral part of the Internet, and is one of the most effective ways of linking.

You either have the choice of placing a few words or comments on to someone else’s blog, or you may want to link to them from your own blog. However, with so many people creating blogs and wanting to link to each other’s blogs, this can be extremely time- consuming.

4. Articles.

This is another way of getting great backlinks. It’s vital that any articles you write are on the subject, informative and thorough in relation to your site.

Quality articles published on article sites are a great way of getting even more backlinks to your site.

Always include a resource box at the end, as this will include that all important backlink to your site. This resource box should also include a short biography regarding you and your site.

5. Social Bookmarking.

This is a way to record your favorite sites online at the various social bookmarking sites, and that way the search engine spiders pick up your bookmarks and follow these backlinks to your websites.

6. Creating Feeder Sites.

Adding a MySpace or Squidoo page with links back to your website is extremely beneficial and expands your online presence at the same time.

The above are just a few ways that you can get backlinks to your website to help it rank more highly in the search engines and attract more traffic. Using these techniques you should see an increase in the volume of traffic arriving at your website.

The important thing is to take action today. Things are getting more and more competitive, with thousands of websites coming online every day. If you want to succeed online (and everyone needs to be online), you’ll want to get started now.

Increasing ranking and traffic are going to be our continued focus in the months and weeks to come. As offline markets become more populated and less accessible, the Internet is the place to go to sell your book.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with message boards, blogs, ezines, and relevant sites to push an authors message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://ame.wpengine.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

While I always try and encourage new book purchases, as it turns out the sluggish economy has forced a lot of readers to dig out and dust off their library cards. In fact librarians tell us that there is often a line-up for newly released titles from readers hungry to get their hands on them without putting out the money for a purchase. It’s nice to see people returning to libraries, but if you want some options check out some of the “read and return” sites that are popping up online:

Paperbackswap.com – with more than 1 million books up for trade with other members the choices are endless. Mailing fees are paid for by the sender. You can log on and list your own books.

BookMooch – similar to Paperbackswap only international. Also with BookMooch you can donate points to literacy campaigns and charities.

BookSwim.com – describes itself as the Netflix of books. From their web site: BookSwim is the first online book rental library service lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and now college textbooks Netflix®-style directly to your house, without the need to purchase! We stock all the latest bestsellers, new releases, and classics with free shipping both ways! Read your books as long as you want – no late fees! Even choose to purchase and keep the books you love!

Forget what you know about media and marketing, the rules have just changed. Here’s the truth: the internet has changed the way we market in more ways than you could have ever imagined. So much so in fact that marketing to media might not be the best way to get the word out about your book. Now I’m not saying to *never* market to the media, just switch your focus to your real target: the consumer.

Direct to consumer marketing is a hot phrase many marketing people like to throw out. It implies direct access, ease of marketing, and a quicker sale. But accomplishing one or all of these things isn’t as easy as it seems. These days, consumers don’t want to be sold something, they want to hear about it, they buy buzz and they generally buy this buzz from people they trust.

When we you start to look at directing your campaign to market to the consumer, everything about your marketing strategy will change. First, you’ll start to become more aware of topics and keywords that affect your reader/buyer. By doing this you’ll be able to zero in on messages, sites, blogs, and hot topics that you can start commenting, blogging, or writing on.

The media is so inundated with pitches that most of them are just white noise. Also, when a media person needs someone to comment on a story they’re more likely to go after someone who is an “authority” on the subject, than someone who has sent them dozens of press releases. Writing a press release does not make you an authority, your connection to your target community does. That’s why a campaign that is less media focused and more consumer focused will end up driving more media to your book.

I have always talked about becoming an authority, about becoming an expert. This is the same thing only you’re being more aggressive about it, you’re actually marketing to that consumer instead of just adding the label “expert” to your bio.

The new age of media is upon us, it’s not longer an issue of when to pitch, who to pitch, and what days of the week are best, it’s a matter of positioning yourself to be irresistible in the eyes of the media by making yourself the “go to” person in your market.

1)    Write and issue news releases often, but make them newsworthy. While press released to the media may get ignored, they have a bigger chance of getting noticed by your customer. Writing direct-to-consumer press releases is a way of “speaking” to your customer through a series of announcements, advice, or trends. When you do this, hone in on keywords that make a difference to them. Don’t toss out high-brow, technical terms that are meant to impress unless your market actually speaks that language. Send a release out via the internet in sites like PRnewswire.com once a month and then, keep them archived in the newsroom of your web site.

2)    Forget high profile media targets, go after plugged-in bloggers, high traffic relative-content-rich web sites: while it would be great to have Oprah call, the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim. Focus instead on where you can make a difference and make the sale. Focus on your cuistomer. Where do they go when they’re online and who do they listen to. Those are the people you should be targeting with your story. When you find these folks, offer them tips, helpful advice, story excerpts, whatever is most appropriate for your market/topic.

3)    Comment on blog stories the media writes: this is a fantastic way to network with media people. Have you visited a media blog lately? You haven’t? Well, start adding them to your list. Just like I recommend commenting on industry blogs (see bullet #4) you’ll also want to keep an eye out for media who writes on your topic and also has a presence on the Internet. Did you know that the media will notice someone who’s an active commenter on their blog before they notice a news release?

4)    Comment on industry blogs: same ideas as #3 but now you’re focused on blogs that matter to your reader/consumer. Go after them and start commenting on what they’re blogging about. This is a great way to network and introduce yourself to folks who may be part of the “big mouth” market in your industry. (the term “big mouth” is reserved for bloggers who have a lot of clout within a particular arena). Also, while you’re at it, get your own blog. If you’re going to network with bloggers, become one of them.

5)    Content drives action: getting a content rich web site is a must. There’s no two ways about it. I don’t care what you’ve written or what market you’ve written to. It’s all about content, content, content. Having a resource section on your site, putting a blog up there. Be helpful till it hurts. Put up lots of useful, relevant content and the world will beat a path to your door.

6)    Never sell your book to your consumer: the biggest mistake authors make both on and offline is that they sell their book. No one cares that you wrote a book, they only care about what the book can do for them. Sell the benefits, sell what your book can do for your reader but never, ever, ever sell your book.

7)    It’s not about you: remember as you’re developing your direct-to-consumer campaign that it’s not about you, it’s about your market, it’s about your reader. Knowing what matters to them will help you circumvent a lot of marketing snafu’s and directions that take you nowhere. Keep in mind the things that matter to your reader and what their hot buttons are. If you can become a channel to direct their issues, challenges, or questions to you and your web site, the media will stand up and take notice.

8)    Many goals lead to confusion: what’s the goal for your web site? I mean, seriously, what’s the one goal you have for your site? You mean you don’t have just one? Well if you don’t you should. Having one singular focus will help sharpen your message to your reader. Pick one thing you want your home page to accomplish and build on that. Too many messages will only confuse your reader and send them off to your competitor’s web site.

Selling a book, product, or business has become less about getting into your favorite newspaper, magazine, or TV show and more about making yourself so irresistible that the media comes to you. Build credibility in your market and consumers will buzz, when consumers buzz the media will surely follow.

When you walk into a store these days, it seems the choices overwhelm you. There seem to be nine different kinds of everything. How to you pick the right one? How do you know which one is the best choice for you? Regardless of what you’re getting, whether it’s a new Blackberry or the choice of cereal. The options seem endless. Options are great, we certainly want to know that we don’t have to stick with one brand or item if we don’t want to but in the web world, too many choices can be a bad thing. The reality is this, the average author has at least a half a dozen links on their home page. A new reader landing on this site is wondering where to go first, out of frustration they may not go anywhere, become confused and leave. Haven’t you ever done this? Thinking to yourself “oh, I’ll be back when I have time” but you never are. So how can you avoid this? Well, a couple of things. First off, this is why a sign up for a free newsletter or mailing list is so important. Also, that ethical bribe I am always referring to (give them something to get something). There’s also the idea of sending folks to a “free stuff” page. We have that on the AME site. But guess what? The free stuff page won’t give you your free stuff unless you give us your email address. So why is an email address so important? Because studies show that less than 14% of surfers actually buy the first time they land on a site (frankly I think that number should be much lower). If you’re going to get them back, you’ll need to be able to market to them again.

Giving your web visitors too many options can be a fatal flaw in your marketing. Go to your home page right now and count the links you have. When I’ve done this in a class setting authors are often surprised how many different places they are trying to send people. Limiting choices can increase your conversion and in the end, isn’t that what you want your web site to do?

With all the talk about the immediacy of a story, and the unbelievable speed that news pieces make it onto TV and radio, we often forget that for most media, lead times are crucial. Lead times can vary from a day to six months depending on the media you’re pitching. Generally women’s magazines have the longest lead times, sometimes as much as four to six months. If you want to find out what magazine lead times are, call their advertising department and get a copy of their media kit. This will not only tell you when advertising deadlines are (signaling what your submission cut-off) but it will also show you what stories to pitch when. Generally magazines will try and coordinate advertising to coincide with their themes so if you have a story about the benefits of yoga, you might want to dig through the advertising calendar and see if they’re planning to address it in a future issue.

Once you define your publicity targets and get an idea of what to pitch when, you’ll want to open up a calendar and start circling dates that will matter to your story. Get creative with this! Often dates are overlooked because they may seem too small (like peanut butter and jelly day) but everyone’s competing for the biggies: Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc. so why not add some off-beat holidays to your pitching calendar and see what happens? If you’re looking for every holiday under the sun (including international ones) try downloading the Calgoo calendar (www.calgoo.com) this is a free program used to sync Outlook with your Google calendar but an additional benefit of it is that it comes loaded with every imaginable holiday. A great tool to start your planning session!

Once you define holidays/seasons/events you want to pitch your story to, you’ll also want to be cognoscente of the appropriate seasons and what the media is looking for. Here’s a brief outline of all four seasons as well as suggested targets/pitches. Keep in mind that breaking news stories and global events may slant these times considerably but barring that, the seasonal angles tend to remain fairly consistent.

January – March

The first season of the year is pretty quiet. The holidays are over and much of the media is looking ahead and looking to summer with getting fit and weight loss stories, as well as New Year’s resolutions, getting organized and of course –the looming tax season. This is a very “anything goes” time of year so if you weren’t able to sell fluff pieces during the holidays, you might want to try and repitch them now.

April – June

With major companies releasing their first quarter earnings (and hogging all the news space) this could be a tough time to get in. As April 15th looms out there you’ll see a lot of stories addressing taxes, saving on taxes, and everything financial but once that date comes and goes the media will start looking ahead to summer stories and “spring fever” pieces.

July – September

With summer in full swing we’ll see a lot of lighter business stories, celebrity stories, trend pieces, and back to school. This is a fantastic time to pitch since many pr firms and media folk are on vacation. They still need stories but have less people pitching and less folks to field those pitches so if you can get your story in and it needs very little work you could be a shoe-in to get some coverage.

October – December

Many pr people think that this is the heaviest time of the year but I tend to disagree. I think that the media is hungry for anything related to the holidays, end of  year perspective, getting your life in order, New Year’s resolutions (yet again) as well as next year predictions stories, etc. You’ll also see a lot of best and worst of for the prior year. Relationship experts now is your time to shine! With all the family gatherings there’s a big call for getting along, making family relationships better/stronger as well as navigating the busy holiday season and still keeping your sanity.

Keep in mind that while we’ve only addressed media, these rules apply to online media as well as events you might do. It’s much easier to get someone interested in something they’re already interested in and by coordinating your efforts, you’ll have a much strong and focused campaign. Planning  your media for the upcoming year is one of the best things you can do before you the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. It’ll not only keep your campaign fresh but also tightly focused. With a plan in place you’ll be ready to hit the ground running after January 1!

Wishing you a super-successful New Year!