Self Published Author | Category | Marketing & Publicity

Book Metadata Translation: The Incredible Impact of This One Step on International Book Sales

by Ulatus
Bowker | Tue May 28, 2019

Metadata

As a publisher or an author looking to build an international audience for your books, metadata plays an incredibly important role in making your publications discoverable. Imagine you have a book catering to a fairly niche genre – say non-fiction space colonization. When entered as metadata, you expect it to help your book rank uniformly, internationally. But sales refuse to pick up. As it turns out, your book is not easily discoverable by key search engines in that market – say Baidu in China – because it promotes Chinese language metadata over English metadata. Potential readers may well have an appetite for this subject and are even selecting other titles similar to yours. Your book’s missed out because they just can’t find it.

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Who Says Rhyme Doesn’t Pay?

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue May 21, 2019

Many poets believe selling their poetry is as hard as, well, selling poetry. But if you look beyond the bookstore you can find many sales opportunities. The information below provides ideas and examples of potential segments that could be lucrative for you. This information is meant to get you started, to give poets some hope that their craft can be profitable.

Target Readers

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The Equation for Book Marketing Success

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue May 14, 2019

When authors are told they must actively market their books, many say, “I don’t like to promote. I only want to write.” However, when a book is published the author becomes a salesperson running a business. It is an abrupt, and in many cases unwanted transition that is usually not handled well. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I created a formula to help people make the transition from author to marketer. It is not a scientific, qualitative equation, but a quantitative method that is adaptable to any author’s personality and genre.

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Get Your Words' Worth

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue May 7, 2019

Two concepts determine your relative success in answering questions during a television or radio performance: preparation and flexibility. In most cases you will not know the questions you will be asked during the interview. But if you understand your topic and know beforehand what you want to get across to the audience, you will be able to perform more successfully.

What makes a good guest for the show does not always make a good show for the guest. If all you do is answer the interviewer's questions informatively (whether or not they lead to meeting your goals), the host will think you are a great interviewee and perhaps ask you to return. But there is no future in being a professional guest if it doesn’t serve your purpose.

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How to Use Video Blogging to Boost Your Book Marketing

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Apr 30, 2019

If you’re ready to step up your book marketing, an option you may not have considered before that can be very successful is video blogging.

You may be saying to yourself how getting the lighting just right, or making sure your hair is perfect, or even figuring out what your good side is can be a real hassle.

I totally understand that. But I can’t say enough how much I love the responses I get from video blogging. Why? It’s so engaging and always beats the other content I put out, so I highly recommend this fantastic book marketing strategy.

How much work is it?

Writing a blog and making a video blog is very similar, but believe it or not, video blogs involve less work.

Keep in mind that the most exciting and interesting video blogging content is less than 2 minutes.

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How Strategic Creativity Can Increase Your Sales

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Apr 23, 2019

Book publishers exhibit a unique balance of strategic thinking and creativity — to a point. They sporadically apply innovation to all the tasks that must be done to get a book published (editing, internal layout, cover design and pricing). But this dance with originality usually ends with delivery of the first printing. Authors — working with their publishers — are more likely to reach large-scale success by applying strategy and creativity to the post-production tasks of distribution and promotion of their books.

The typical distribution actions are to get the book lodged on Amazon.com and arrange distribution through bookstores and to libraries. Promotion is usually limited to social media, social networking and reviews. Nothing accomplished to this point has served to differentiate the product from the other 1,000,000-plus books published last year. The result? Poor sales.

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Why You Need a Reader Profile to Sell More Books

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Apr 16, 2019

Everyone going into business should do market research. Authors are no different and should be sure to devote time to building a reader profile. Knowing your reader will help you decide what strategies are best for you to use as you market your book.

While it may sound technical, this step is critical to your success as an author. The reality is that your book is not for everyone. Nor is it for “all women with hopes and dreams.”

You have to be realistic. Inspiration and visions are important, but if what you want to do is sell books, then you cannot afford to skip reader profiles. They will show you how to find the right people, and through which channels.

Here are some of the key primary benefits of creating reader profiles.

People are complex.

Your potential buyers have limited free time, just like you.

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Customize Your Pitch to Each Catcher

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Apr 9, 2019

Whether you are cooking a meal, planning a vacation or making a sales presentation, it is the preparation that determines the relative success of the outcome. The more time you put into preparing your sales presentation — what you will say and how you will say it — the more likely it is that you will get the order.

Your presentation to a corporate buyer, media producer or book distributor is not about your book, it is about how your content can solve your prospects’ problems. The corporate buyer wants to increase sales. The producer wants a good show for the audience, and a distributor wants to keep the pipeline to retailers full and flowing.

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Get More Business from Existing Customers

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Apr 2, 2019

Selling books to corporate buyers in large, non-returnable quantities is a profitable way to build your publishing business. As an added benefit, satisfied buyers can place blanket (recurring) orders for future, planned deliveries. These are even more profitable since it is easier and less expensive to sell to existing customers than it is to find new ones.

Nurturing recurring revenue with one customer is different from getting the initial order. These buyers need to be reminded of the benefits of your content — at the point in time they are about to make a new buying decision. If you contact them on a regular basis, your chances of a positive reception are improved.

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One For the Books — Why Companies Should Use Books as Promotional Products

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 26, 2019

For many years, corporate buyers have been purchasing coffee mugs, cameras, apparel, watches and other items to use as promotional items. These are tools used to increase sales, encourage buyers to remain loyal to a product or to change their loyalty from competitors. Until recently, there has been little awareness about using books to accomplish these goals. Therefore, you may have to first convince the buyers of the viability of using a book as a promotional tool.

There are many reasons why a book makes a versatile and profitable promotional product. Primarily, there millions of existing titles on an endless variety of topics, and if the appropriate title does not exist it can be created and customized. Below is a list of additional reasons why books are superior to many other promotional items.

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