Archive for Publicity
Find Raving Fans and Enticing Blurbs
The Power of Blurbs
The word “blurbs” is marketing speak for quotes from people about your book. Most “How to Get Published” books that I’ve read mention getting great blurbs as a sort of “Duh” and quickly move on to the next point. But I think that top-notch blurbs are critical and there’s an art to acquiring them. They’re particularly critical for those of us who don’t have great platforms, since they allow us to leverage the platforms of others.
Convince Me You Can Market and Sell Your Book
Actor Johnny Depp once said in an interview that beyond learning his part, he tries to add “that little something extra.” You can see that in his films. Captain Jack Sparrow was outrageous!
Let me suggest that, in order to get your manuscript noticed, you need to “add that little something extra.”
How One Author Sold 150,000+ Copies of His Book
Yesterday, I started reading Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval, a former publicity director of several publishing houses. She emphasizes that even if you have a traditional publisher with a marketing department, authors must market their books if they expect them to sell.
She begins by sharing the story of James Barron, who wrote a “funny and informative” book for expectant fathers. At the time of Deval’s writing, Barron had 185,000 copies in print. How did he do it? A couple of things stood out to me:
Getting Great Amazon Reviews for your Books
No author can ignore the incredible potential of Amazon sales. And one of the greatest things we can do to get more Amazon sales is to get more Amazon reviews.
Why? Because most of us take the reviews seriously. If I’m looking for book on, say, book marketing, and have to decide between two books, published the same year, with all things equal except that one has fifty reviews and the other two reviews, guess which one I tend to buy (if the reviews are decent, of course)? I assume that more are reading the book with more reviews. The less reviewed book seems like more of a risk.
Be a Frugal, Cheapskate Book Marketer
The Tools for Finding Your Market
Somewhere out there, your topic of expertise is being discussed in newsletters, e-zines, magazines, newspapers, radio shows and TV shows. Scads of people, hungry for new information on your topic, eagerly tune into these publications/broadcasts to learn more about your topic.
On Finding Magazines, Newsletters and E-Zines That Might Review Your Book
How can authors and publishers trace down the appropriate magazines, newsletters, e-zines, etc. that are eager to spread the word about your books? If you want the comprehensive resource, go to Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. It contains close to 1/4 millions resources, categorized by subject so that you can find everything from an e-letter specializing in fish bait to a newsletter dedicated to people in wheelchairs.
Wild-Wild West of Book Marketing
Sixteen years ago, when Tyndale House published my first book, my big concerns included,
“Will bookstores order and continue to carry my books?” After all, bookstores can carry only a small portion of this year’s new books, and a much, much smaller portion of books published in the past (the backlist).
“Will my book go out of print after the first printing?”
Enhancing Your Amazon Presence and Other Publicity Tips
Imagine that the largest bookstore chain has promised to carry your book. Now, imagine that the owner tells you that you can make changes in the way your book is displayed? What if you could convince the management to
show the front rather than the spine
place it in a special display rather than competing with other books on a long rack
bring up near the front of the store rather than leaving it on the back row.
The Priority of Getting Book Reviews
Solomon said, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth.” People believe what others say about my book more than what I say about my book. Thus, in order to “let another praise” my book, I’ve got to get it into the hands of potential praisers – preferably lots of them. According to book marketing guru John Kremer:
