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Marketing & Publicity

Good marketing is an art. Knowing your audience is critical. Get the word out about your book in a compelling and interesting way.

Steps in Marketing & Publicity

  • How to craft your message
  • Social media
  • Search engine optimization
  • Go local
 

Nowhere to Sell Books? Know Where to Sell Books.

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jun 2, 2020

 
Bookstores are currently closed due to the coronavirus. Authors and publishers are waiting it out, hoping to sell their books through those that eventually reopen. But if you look around there are many places through which you can sell books now – think supermarkets and pharmacies.
 
There are tens of thousands of supermarkets and pharmacies of all sizes around the country. Many of these stores sell books. In the past, most book sales through these outlets were mass market paperbacks, but today’s superstores carry a wide variety of books, cards, and magazines.
 
Book Selection Criteria
Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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How to Become More Creative During a Catastrophe

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue May 19, 2020

Unexpected events impact our marketing plans. That is to be expected. But the current pandemic has exceeded anything we may have anticipated. Yet successful publishers are people who always look for the silver lining. We can all learn from the current circumstances and build for a profitable post-pandemic future of selling books. Lessons learned from a calamity that occurred just over 100 years ago can help us evolve even stronger today. 

The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg, and only 705 of its 2200 passengers and crew survived. With too few lifeboats onboard, many lives were lost unnecessarily. With a little creativity more people might have been saved. For example, what if the crew saw the iceberg as a sanctuary instead of a cause of death? They might have ferried people there. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. 

Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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A Look at Self-Publishing and How to Achieve Success

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue May 5, 2020

You’ve done it. You’ve written a book, published it yourself and made it available for the world to see and buy on Amazon. By tomorrow, you’ll be a successful best-selling author, right? Well, here’s where I have to give you the hard truth: nobody is born famous. Unless you’re already a household name or were born into a famous family, achieving self-publishing success takes dedication. This isn’t something to be afraid of or discouraged by though, because being smart about your choices when going the self-publishing route can make all the difference in the world.

In my years working with self-published authors, I find that so many feel they’re above the strategies I recommend to ensure they’re building their platform. They feel that bloggers with only a couple hundred followers are a waste of their time, and they think the only measure of success is sales.

Inside Publishing
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Register for a FREE Live Webinar and see how to build your own great-looking website with Author Home Page

by Richard Smith
Bowker | Tue May 5, 2020

Live webinar for authors!

Author Home Page

If you can click a mouse and type on a keyboard, you can do it yourself! We’ve done the hard work for you and built a complete website solution specifically for authors. Just add your author photo, book cover(s), and content, choose a color palette, and personalize your website – a website you can build in less than two hours that will attract and engage the readers you want to reach.      

Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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A Guide to Book Marketing Timelines

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Apr 14, 2020

During author coaching calls, we almost always discuss marketing timelines, and when each author should actually start promoting their title. Although it’s good advice to start early, it’s important to understand that early can be relative based on each author’s circumstances.

Marketing Timelines Are Not 'One-Size-Fits-All'

The reality is that most “start marketing your book early” warnings come from people involved in traditional publishing. For example, if you’re with a major publisher and are planning to release your book in the fall, they’ll need to pitch it to bookstores in March. This means that you will need to have ARCs (advanced review copies) early in the year in order to meet retailers’ schedules, especially considering how busy the Fall season typically is.

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What is Non-Trade Marketing?

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Mar 24, 2020

 
Publishers typically have a reasonable number of books on hand and may become frustrated when sales slow and they have no way to get rid of them. It is a scenario that can shatter dreams of selling large quantities of books through bookstores. If you find yourself in a similar situation, however, there is hope. You can sell your books to new buyers in non-trade markets at any stage of a book’s life cycle.
 
Hesitation in pursuing new sources of revenue in non-trade markets is typically caused by the thought that bookstores are the only places to sell books, and also by not knowing where or how to find new buyers in new markets. Selling to non-trade markets is not that different from selling to bookstores, particularly in the non-trade retail sector, which includes mass merchandisers and specialty shops.
 
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Register for a FREE Live Webinar and see how ScoreIt! helps you discover which best-selling authors you write like!

by Richard Smith
Bowker | Tue Mar 10, 2020

LIVE Webinar for authors!

ScoreIt! Webinar

Knowing your writing style and genre is the first step in creating an effective promotion strategy for your book. ScoreIt™ instantly identifies the best-selling authors and genres that match your writing style.

Register for this FREE webinar to learn how ScoreIt! can help you reach new readers and sell more books

Book discovery is the biggest challenge in the world of book publishing and ScoreIt!™ helps you solve this dilemma. With the information and links contained in the ScoreIt!™ report, you can begin the journey to more effective book marketing. Get your book discovered and sold with ScoreIt!. 

Here's what you’ll learn at the webinar on Thursday, March 12, 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

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Why Authors Need A Voice Search Strategy

by Miral Sattar
Bowker | Tue Mar 3, 2020

Voice Search

Siri, where’s my book?

With the revolution of blogging, podcasts and internet marketing, something fascinating has happened to writing — and that is the switch from conventional writing standards to ‘conversational writing.’ 

By not preparing for this type of ‘conversational writing’ authors and publishers stand to lose millions this year. 

Conversational writing is based on the way we speak and the way we ask questions to each other. 

Below is an example of the difference between VOICE SEARCH and a regular WEB SEARCH.

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Marketing & Publicity
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How to Reach Your Sales Goal This Year

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 18, 2020

 
If your 2020 New Year’s resolution was to “lose weight,” you already reached it if you lost even one pound. If your goal is to sell more books than last year, one more book sold will accomplish that. In both cases, your intention was probably to do more. These resolutions demonstrate the importance of writing specific, measurable goals, and then having a plan in place to reach them. How much weight do you intend to lose? How many books do you intend to sell this year? How will you do it? Be precise, and you are likely to do what you really want to achieve. 
 
Once you have set your goal for how many books to sell this year, act on these recommendations to make you more likely to reach them:
 
Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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Eight Ways to Write More Persuasive Marketing Copy

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 4, 2020

 
Each year the average person sends about 40,000 words by email. For reference, that’s nearly equivalent to the word count of The Great Gatsby. Are your words effective in persuading people to buy your books? If not, keep reading. 
 
Do you think people actually read all the information in your email, in your press releases, or on your website? Think again. Most people do not read your marketing copy word for word, but quickly scan the page looking for information that is helpful and important to them.
 
People look at your promotional copy with an expectation of some possible benefit for continuing to read. They rarely study your text word-for-word. Instead, they scan the page, looking for words that are pertinent to their needs. A recent study found that 79 percent of test users scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-for-word.
 
Inside Publishing
Marketing & Publicity
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  • Obtain ISBNs (click here!)
  • Convert your file to ebook (click here!)
  • Acquire a bar code (click here!)
  • Increase discovery (click here!)
  • Purchase a QR code (click here!)
  • Register your copyright (click here!)
  • License your book’s content (click here!)
  • Find out who you write like (click here!)
  • Promote your book online (click here!)

Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

Thu, November 13

FAQs about ISBNs

Fri, October 24

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, September 10

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Fri, September 05

Do You Have the Write Stuff?

Wed, September 03

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