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American Top Best Selling Perfect Publishing System !
http://bit.ly/wJ8LbI
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First and foremost, you must get your marketing plan put into action as soon as possible.
There are a lot of decisions to make, and often the biggest mistake made when self publishing is
to put off considering a marketing plan until AFTER publishing. Writers want their book to be the
best in its genre - but to stand out from the crowd, you must market your book very carefully and
start early. There's a reason "Product Launch Formulas" are so popular in the Internet Marketing
world - you have to get your customer's attention if you're going to get people to purchase.
Your target demographic is the most critical aspect of your game plan.
Before promoting your book you should be aware of your target audience. Who do you want to
buy your book? The correct answer to this question is not "Everyone, Everywhere!"
Look at Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" series - you may remember the ABC TV show starring
Robert Urich as Spenser and Avery Brooks as Hawk. Parker wrote something like 50+ novels
centering on his soft-hearted, gun-toting private eye, and every one was a bestseller... but shortly
before Parker's death, he released a Spenser novel that was pretty roundly panned by both critics
and readers. Why was this one book, from a writer who seemed all but guaranteed a success, far
less popular than usual?
Because Parker failed to appease his existing audience - adults, usually (but not limited to) women
over 35 - and on top of that, he failed to grab the interest of the NEW audience he was trying to
court - the "young adult" market. This particular novel focused on the never before revealed
childhood of the protagonist. The readers considered "young adults" could care less about the
character's origins, and the existing market found the story too juvenile.
To reach your target audience, you must be focused on them.
Identify your target audience and gather as much data on them as you can. Outline your goals and
objectives (what you hope to achieve) and determine your budget and implement your strategies
(how you plan to reach your goals).
Then, determine what form your book should take. For example, the dimensions and typography,
number of pages, type of paper, etc. If you're going the e-book route, consider very carefully how
you want your book formatted, protected, and in what type of file format you want to publish
(Kindle, iPhone/iPad, simple PDF, LIT file, etc).
Bestsellers are NOT always the best written books!
Marketing and promotion can make a huge difference. Common wisdom used to be that the only
way to become a best-selling author was to go through a major publishing house. However, many
bestsellers have actually been self published and even self promoted - Christopher Paolini's
Inheritance Cycle was first published by his parents, and Cassandra Claire and Jim Bernheimer
have both gained fame by writing free stories online and have successfully crossed over to
become published writers. The online blog Julie/Julia was picked up by a major publishing house
(and then turned into a Hollywood motion picture!). Has something similar to your book already
been published? Make sure to do some initial research before putting all your effort into selling
something that's been done before. Capturing your target demographic is critical, so choose a title
carefully.
Believe me, a cover IS worth a thousand words.
Your cover should be very directly targeted to catch your audience's eye. What appeals to the
reader for whom you are writing? Jim Baen (the founder of Baen Books) was well-known for
choosing book covers that attracted an audience, rather than necessarily reflecting the content of
the book.
The cover of John Ringo's There Will Be Dragons is a perfect example. On the cover there is a
woman scantily clad in chain mail with a bow and arrow in her grip, next to her is a dragon with
spread wings, and above everything is a rocket ship speeding through the sky. The dragon is a
metaphor for voluntary genetic modifications, and there are no scantily clad women in the book or
rocket ships. However, what better way to catch the eye of browsing shoppers, and still manage to
explain to the reader that this is a fantasy novel with a lot of science fiction elements?
Writers are sensitive creatures!
The first thing you need to learn is that if you plan to handle the marketing and publicity of your
book on your own, you need to get serious, quick. Marketing requires a thick skin and a strong
backbone. Sensitivity may be great while writing your book but you must be practical when it
comes to marketing. Don't take anything personal, especially reviews! Bad publicity is still good
publicity - just ask all the female pop singers who seem to go crazy... and then become even more
popular. Or ask the creator of the Buffy TV series - his show Firefly got cancelled by the network,
only to be picked up as a Universal movie!
Promote Online
Books promoted online have several advantages over those that are not. Marketing can be
cheaper, managing and TRACKING your campaigns can be far easier and more accurate, your
startup costs are lower, and there's a greater opportunity for interacting with your audience. Most
importantly, your book should have its own special website (if you have multiple books, each one
should have a site and you should have a separate author site). Show off your book's cover, offer
exclusive excerpts, display reviews and testimonials on the home page and provide links to stores
and distributors. If your online publisher has an affiliate program, be sure to use that system (every
penny you earn is well-deserved, right?).
Submit your book to books in print databases
Many online and brick and mortar bookstores use these databases and that means more potential
sales for you. Use an email promotion campaign to promoting your book, and consider online
advertising (Google AdWords) or affiliate systems like ClickBank. Write a sales letter that you can
distribute online or mail to bookstores (go to the Baen CD archive and look at the CD listings
starting with "P" for examples).
Blog!
Having a blog has now become one of the most profitable ways to promote online. Using popular
blog software like WordPress is an easy way to manage your entire website and market your book
- it's search engine friendly, it's easy to update, and it's easy to customize with options that let your
readers promote for you. A small, custom designed WordPress site will not cost you a lot to have
professionally done, and will reap many benefits.
Marketing your book is an ongoing process and will require constant re-evaluation. Always be
aware of what works for other authors and incorporate ideas when they make sense for you.
After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
About The Author
Joe is the Lead Designer and front-line customer support tech for Surfacing, a web hosting biz
established in 1997. Joe's dozen-plus years of experience has led him to focus on e-commerce
and geo-targeted SEO/marketing for smallbiz - mom&pop shops, entrepreneurs and writers.
If your blog or php site is getting too CPU/Resource intensive for standard shared hosting, check
out Surfacing.com now!
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Dubya
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American Top Best Selling Perfect Publishing System !
http://bit.ly/wJ8LbI
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