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.

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Shelf Unbound Competition for Indie-Publishers Expands with Prize for Best Sports Book

by Bowker Publishe...
Bowker | Fri Sep 26, 2014

Book review ezine Shelf Unbound’s Writing Competition for Best Independently Published Book now includes a prize for sports-related works. In addition to best overall winner, the competition will present the Pete Delohery Award for Best Sports Book, which carries $1,000 cash prize. The winner, selected by the editors of Shelf Unbound, will be featured along with the winners and finalists of the larger competition in Shelf Unbound’s December/January 2015 issue, which is read by 125,000 book lovers in 65 countries. Entries are being accepted now through October 1.

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Marketing Strategy Rules

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Sep 23, 2014

Did you ever think about taking a long trip? If so, you probably thought about how you would get to your destination, perhaps traveling by car, plane, train or bus. Then you planned where to stay each night, what to pack and how much it would all cost. Finally you made a checklist so you didn’t forget to do anything and spend your money wisely.

That is the same process used to plan your book-marketing activities. First you think about what you are going to do, analyzing alternatives. Once you choose those that will maximize results, you write a plan as a reminder to perform each action in the proper sequence, at the right time and within your budget.

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Entice People to Respond to Your Direct Mail Campaigns

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Fri Sep 19, 2014

Direct mail is a targeted marketing weapon that that can help you sell more books, test new titles, and generate sales leads. When you have a finite, identifiable group of people who are potential customers for your books, direct mail may be the most effective and efficient marketing tool you can use to reach them. It gives you control of the timing, delivery and content of your promotion, a predetermined fixed cost and the means to forecast and measure the return on your marketing investment.

The foundation of direct marketing is to get people to act – to place an order for your book or to request more information about your consulting or speaking services. There are several basic propositions you can use by themselves or in various combinations overcome the recipient’s inertia.

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Kindle Unlimited, Scribd or Oyster: Which Reader Subscription Service is Best for Self-Published Authors?

by Carla King
Bowker | Tue Sep 16, 2014

Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited e-book reader subscription program caused a real commotion in the publishing industry last month. But how will this “Netflix for books” model affect the self-publishing industry? Is Kindle Unlimited the best, or should self-publishers join the Scribd or Oyster programs instead? How do you get in? Read on for a comparison of these top three reader subscription programs and best recommendations for self-publishers who are looking to add these channels to their revenue streams.

AMAZON KINDLE UNLIMITED

Amazon requires that self-publishers join their exclusive KDP Select program to be included in Unlimited. If you’re already using KDP Select, or you’ve decided that joining the program may give your book launch a boost, then go for it! It’s only temporary.

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A New Book-Marketing Idea Can Be Uncomfortable – At First

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Sep 2, 2014

Book publishers rightfully believe that they should expand their marketing activity because not doing so results in low -- or no -- growth. But thinking about creative marketing and actually doing it are two different things. What happens after the creative idea is born? In most cases, nothing. It is easier and less stressful to rationalize the status quo. The problem is generally not coming up with the ideas, it is in the implementation of an idea that is outside one’s comfort zone. But significant benefits can accrue from trying. Here are Ten Steps to Enlarging Your Book-Selling Comfort Zone.

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Purpose, Passion and Profitability

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Thu Aug 28, 2014

Should you write about what you know and love, or write about what will sell? The answer is, “Yes.” Your passion for your topic can be your ticket to greater well being as much as it should be a key to exceptional market performance.

Why are you writing your book? Is it to satisfy an internal desire to be a published author or to use your book as a building block in your business? Write to your passion but have a clear plan to translate your purpose into marketable product.

You can reduce your chances of commercial success if you do one or the other. So, do both. Your passion for what you love will sustain you through the months or years of writing, and it will also maintain your attitude through the years of marketing it.

There is intrinsic value to writing a book about your favorite subject, but it will not sell in large quantities unless it has value to your target buyers. The solution? Find your passion and put it to work

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Get More Buzz For Your Book

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Fri Aug 22, 2014

Save the date! Wednesday, August 27th at 1:00 Eastern, join marketing guru Penny Sansevieri and publicist Sandra Poirios-Smith as they offer their expertise to independent authors in an hour-long webinar hosted by DCL and organized by Bowker. We’ll cover topics such as expanding your readership, contacting media, bundling books, digital vs print promotion, the difference between advertising and publicity, and much more.

More info about this informative session with these noted thought leaders can be found here.

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Today's Great American Novel (Part 1 of 2)

by June Hyjek
Bowker | Mon Aug 18, 2014

We’re authors. So for all of us, at some point, it became a dream to write the next great American novel. Some of us have been writing for a long time, and maybe some of us weren’t originally writers by craft. But we had a story to tell and knew it had value to others. A great story, maybe the next great best-seller. Just like in the movie, “Field of Dreams,” we thought “If you build it, they will come.” If you wrote a great story, people will buy it. We had to get it out there.

Now, you’ve written that book and you have boxes of it sitting in your garage. Now, you know it’s not that simple.

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Blurb and Bowker Sponsor Shelf Unbound Indie Book Competition

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Wed Aug 13, 2014

Blurb, the popular platform for creating and publishing beautiful books, is co-sponsoring indie book review ezine Shelf Unbound’s Writing Competition for Best Independently Published Book. Blurb will award a total of $1,500 in printing services to the winner and finalists of this year’s competition, which will crown the best from independent and self-publishers. Bowker, the official U.S. ISBN registration agency and creator of SelfPublishedAuthor.com, is also a sponsor of this year’s competition.

Entries are being accepted now through October 1. The winning entry, selected by the editors of Shelf Unbound, will receive a prize package designed to help build their publishing business:

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Sell in a Growing Market – B2B

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jul 1, 2014

The publishing industry’s retail distribution network is rigid and stable. Established chain members move commodity items (books) systematically toward a common end. Each level (publisher, distributor, wholesaler, retailer) is mutually exclusive yet dependent on each other. The value of the product is dispersed and not controlled by the publisher. While this ingrained system is appealing to some, it leads to a conservative, uncreative structure lacking in energy. Conversely, the B2B marketplace is dynamic and growing at a 10% annual rate. Innovative and strategic publishers have the opportunity to change this competitive landscape, bypass an inflexible chain, and seize and control value. Here are the Top Ten Reasons to Control Value in a Distribution Network.

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