Book Marketing Archives | Page 8 of 11 | Jennifer Lancaster

book promotion tools for self-published authors

July 26, 2020

Easy, Modern Book Promotion Tools

Lately I’ve been running into some amateur (yet very talented) self-published writers with little knowledge of book marketing. One serial self-publisher, an obvious talent, claimed that he was “hopeless” at marketing. No more! Here’s the low-down on easy book promotion tools for self-publishers on a shoestring book promotion budget. Now, can we all agree we are living in an image-conscious world? Good, then follow along. Instagram Not so Daunting Any type of author should set up a ‘business’ Instagram account rather than a personal one, so it lets you have a website link in the profile. The trick is not only to link to others, but also to have a lot of book-friendly images ready to go. But if you haven’t got a decent camera/lighting set-up or just publish ebooks, what then? Well, you cheat with mock-ups. A mock-up generator…

February 7, 2019

Book Marketing

How to Make a WordPress Website Measure Visitors

WordPress has now become the most popular self-hosted CMS, beating out Drupal, Expression Engine and Blogger. (A CMS is a Content Management System). Here, we’ll discuss how to log in once to WordPress and measure website visitors, quickly and easily. Along with bloggers, millions of small business people have gotten a WordPress website customised and then scratched their head. They ask: “how do I use a website to measure visitors and understand all the metrics?” Install an Analytics Dashboard to Measure Website Visitors As a business owner or consultant, you’re flat out already – with little time to check your Google Analytics tool. Welcome to a handy Plugin: Google Analytics Dashboard. (Select “Add new” and search “analytics dashboard”, select the one with four stars). Once installed, you’ve got a great time saver – scroll down to the bottom of your…

June 7, 2018

Book Marketing

Learning to write copy without the cringe factor

You may be an author, a blogger, or a copywriter, whichever, we all need to learn to write copy that doesn’t make a reader wince with distaste and that’s persuasive. It doesn’t just apply to book blurbs, but on the book sales page, it becomes super-important to write for the reader. One type of poorly-written copy that will kill a book’s chances is a rambling, self-focussed blurb about why the author felt the need to write the book. I know that the CEO just wrote a 400-page super book and has the best interests of his audience at heart, but they forgot the WIIFM: Always keep the What’s In It For Me in mind. Appeal to what your target audience is going to get out of the book as a whole. This takes really looking into your audience and their media. If appropriate,…

February 20, 2018

Book Marketing, Self-Publishing

A Tale of the Printing Press and POD

In 1450, in the town of Pearlessence, Sir Rupert was talking to his lightly-paid servant, Eric. It seemed the world of technology had moved on without Sir Rupert, which young Eric was only too happy to point out. (Bear with it, this parable does have a point). “Sir, it is a futile effort that you make, copying your manuscripts by hand. Even by woodblock, it takes a week to set up for one book! Have you not heard that in Mulberry city they have a new Gutenberg press, a POD 400*. Its metal, moveable type and mechanized process makes it very fast!” “I don’t care, Eric, I am good with my hands and have all day long to make my books.” “Aye my Lord, but the POD 400 means you could not just copy out a book a fortnight and charge 10 guineas,…

December 23, 2020

Book Marketing

Author Interview: Donatas Jonikas Talks about Marketing his Book

Recently Jennifer interviewed Dr. Donatas Jonikas, Lithuanian author of Startup Evolution Curve, about his new book that scored many natural 5-star reviews on Amazon. You'll find many 'secrets to book success' within. Q. I noticed you give away 100 pages of the book, plus 20 templates based on the book. Did this move seem to lead to more book sales and interest? I did this at the very beginning, so I don’t have firm data about sales before sharing the excerpt and the set of templates. I can’t prove whether it was worth it or not, but generally, yes – it helped, but that was not the single factor. I would even say this was important, but not a vital success factor. A set of 20 templates was initially planned as an added value for book readers. To tell the truth,…

September 30, 2017

Book Marketing, Self-Publishing

Advertising your New Book in Magazines

Advertising a new book in magazines is a choice fraught with spending anxiety. Most Australian authors self-publishing (those surveyed) do not make much income from their writing — about $12,000 p.a. from royalties on average — so advertising and its results need to be assessed with a realistic view. Australian Book Advertising The first choice is whether to advertise in a Title Showcase in the dual deal: Books+Publishing magazine and Good Reading magazine ($340 for a small listing). For Good Reading magazine, however, this advertising goes to a huge market of 50,000. This would be more worthwhile if you have a distributor, because that’s just the way it works in book retail land. If you’re a nonfiction author doing a blitz, then consider pulling out all stops with their combo deal. Combined Marketing Package for $530 AUD (incl GST): 1 x Title Showcase listing to appear…