Summary:

Whether you are an upstart author or a self published author, an efficient book marketing plan in these times of economic recession need not be expensive if you just know your target market, find the most economical means to inform this market of your works, and establish a lasting, trustworthy relationship with your new-found markets.

Study carefully your expected demographic market’s spending behavior and changing lifestyle habits, given these trying times, and then find effective ways and methods that they may be convinced and persuaded in buying your book. Also, compare the effectiveness of your book marketing plan with the competition of the same genre, and consider relevant marketing factors such as the pricing of the book, the common qualities of the bestselling authors, the present market demand for the genre, and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition.

Try choosing or combining any of these effective book marketing techniques so that you will not only save on your book marketing investment but will become an efficient “author-preneur” as well:

1.  Conduct book signing campaigns at local/statewide bookstores, book fairs, and literary conventions, which lets you market for free or for a very minimal registration fee.

2.  Strategically schedule the announcement of your new book or continuing publicity with a relevant national news event, a new blockbuster movie, or a trade fair.

3.  Write articles on topics of current interest and correlate it with the beneficial features and advice found in your book, then submit at free PR websites.

4.  Participate in various online authors’ or genre-specific blog sites. This is one tried-and-tested avenue for the so-called “viral marketing” to flourish because in manifesting your thoughts and perspectives to thousands of online bloggers, you make them appreciate your knowledge and expertise on a particular subject matter of interest, which is related to the book you are writing. In this manner, you are actually and indirectly promoting your book with your interesting ideas shared online.

5.  Publish actual portions or excerpts of your book together with a concise feature article that can be distributed in high visitor web portals and article data bases on the Internet.

6.  Deal with a reliable print-on-demand publisher that offers complete and extensive distribution services.

7.  Consider more promising, diversified literary text formatting options for your works like having a full text version of your book stored in .pdf format, having an e-book version of your writing, and having downloadable versions of your book to Internet-capable handheld computer owners.

8.  Participate often in writers’ conventions, writing guild conferences and symposia and the like. You could gain crucial, practical inputs from seasoned authors who will give you effective marketing advice that may not be found elsewhere.

9.  Have yourself available as a public forum/special events speaker in the field or area of your expertise. You may not actually sell books, but may issue author cards for the program participants who may be your future book buyers.

10.  Consider listing your book on online classified ads websites.

11.  Send e-mails to your friends and reader fans of scanned excerpts of your book with a matching explanatory note.

12.  Place an ad in social networking sites that allow the marketing of your books/latest work for free or for a discounted fee.

13.  Be a proactive author like giving complimentary copies of your book to celebrities and well-known resource persons, sending opinion articles for newspapers, and getting actively involved in community projects and charitable events.

14.  Contact genre experts, independent book critics, and well known book review companies for favorable endorsement comments,

15.  Send PR’s to newspapers in your city or state for the purpose of being featured and getting book reviews.

16.  Find local or state area radio stations and television stations that actually feature programs about writers, literature, or books then try to find out if you can send a PR of your book or better still, get a radio or television interview.

17.  Make your own creative video presentation of your book and upload it to video-sharing websites.

18.  Be your own book broadcaster. Make a podcast-able audio presentation of your book. This marketing option is ideal for authors of language and speech books, business and economics books, and even of the fiction genre.

19.  Find author marketing websites that offer free ad listings of your book. This is the Internet version of the conventional bulletin board display.

20.  Find book marketing services providers that offer bundled marketing programs at a discounted rate. Compare prices according to your book marketing needs, the kind of services that you prefer, the quality of the services offered, and the limits of your marketing budget.

As a self-published author, you can generate considerable sales returns for your book by resorting to issuing well-written press release campaigns. If your book, regardless of genre, has a newsworthy quality worth posting in various online media organizations, newswire and press-release services websites, then a press release campaign is the right and cost-efficient option to promote your book.

When you finish writing a book, the marketing aspect is similar to a new product offer or launching a new service, with the specific target market still to be informed and identified. Needless to say, publicity plays a crucial role in book marketing, considering that it is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of your book’s subject.

Just think of the numerous benefits of a well-planned press release campaign:

A press release campaign can create a new marketing source for the book campaign. As a new author, you always think of connecting to your ideal demographic market, and a press release campaign can help you in opening and connecting with new book readers and fans online. Believe this: Potential readers and buyers of your book can be found easily over the Internet, with just the right, catchy titling and interesting wording of your press release draft copy.

A press release campaign can create an additional marketing source for the book campaign. Sounds redundant? Think again. As a self published author, you are always thinking of adding or increasing your book marketing access channels, if you have already earlier resorted to other book marketing methods, regardless of the sales results. This basically means a promising marketing diversification for your book publicity efforts, broadening your base options to reach a wider market scope accordingly. A press release campaign is just a helpful alternative to this precise need.

A press release campaign is easy and convenient. By all means, it’s easily done: you can send your press release copy thru telefax, email, or even snail mail. And you can be selective enough to discover which online newswire groups or PR websites will post your press release for a discounted fee or entirely for free. If you’re a good online researcher to actually find such free online media sites, then you’re a shrewd book marketer indeed! Now, compare what you have just achieved with other book marketing options. See how beneficial it is?

A press release campaign draws public interest and discussion of your book. Having it posted online would mean that the author is willing to invite public discussion on his book, since it helps the reader formulate or arrive at a more analytical opinion of a news topic of general public interest, and even cynical or negative readers will be impressed by your book, thereby bolstering your credibility. Getting the online reading public to be interested and generate a lively discussion of your book’s contents could spur further discussions, thus enhancing your book’s reputation, which could prove to the start of the so-called “word-of-mouth” phenomenon for increased book sales!

A press release campaign can enhance your reputation as an author. If you are writing an analysis book or have a unique fiction writing-style, a timely-issued press release can enhance your reputation as an author on how well you discuss your perspectives or present the plot lines to your story.

A press release campaign increases the chances of a well-deserved book review. Posting an article about your book online or sending it to reputable media targets via fax increases the chances of a critical review on the substantial merits of your book, and a critical praise will bring you national—even international—acclaim.

A press release campaign is long-lasting. Some online PR websites and newswire companies do have archived files or archival options for your book’s PR title and text to be stored on online databases for future research purposes or relevant book subject queries. This is like posting your PR copy to a local newspaper, and it runs continuously for months without fail, but at a lesser or no cost at all.

A press release campaign can be posted on a demographic-specific or geographic-specific site. You can choose which PR websites and media targets to send your media releases, including those found in your home state, or even those which specialize on a specific genre or geographic distribution (if your book is of geographic interest), aside from local or international news lines of your preference.

However, please do observe the following cautions on the limitations of a media release campaign: Please take note that your media release submissions are still subject for approval according to the respective publication and posting standards set and implemented by each PR newswire services. Also, some of these online PR newswires will still request for a complimentary copy of your book before posting your media release; please consider if you are willing to accommodate such free handouts, your limits Please consider also the media rights, publication schedule, and personal info requirements of some PR websites before you decide on sending your media release copy.

For an upstart author with limited resources, marketing the book by email ad campaign can be inexpensive and time saving, aside from being rewarding and profitable, if the author concerned will just carefully observe the following e-mailer guidelines:

1) Email Subject Line

Be careful in editing your email’s subject line, for this is one of the most sensitive and problematic areas when it comes to anti-spam filtering software. Mentioning the name or even email of your recipient(s) is an indication that you have little regard for their privacy, even in an online setting. The best way to avoid any risk is to adopt a professional-sounding title that does not use any attention-getting or catchy words.

Dont’s

• Don’t use ALL CAPS
• Don’t use the particular word “free”
• Don’t leave too much empty, white spaces using the space bar
• Don’t mention the name or email of the recipient(s)
• Don’t mention any date or time schedule

2) Subject Line Capitalization
Words inside an email subject line should not be capitalized to avoid problems with spam filters.

3) Spam-like Content
An email may not be sent properly if it contains spam-like content, so the author should refrain from using phrases that may appear as spam-like to email spam filters. Sentences like “Click here!” or “Once in a lifetime opportunity!” or simply exaggerating with too many exclamation points (!) can hit the sensitive triggers of many of the popular e-mail spam filters.

Dont’s

• Avoid using the phrase “Click Here!”
• Avoid using exclamation points

4) Text-Based Is Better
While emails can be either HTML-based or text-based, make your emails as text-based. The obvious reason is that if you want to increase the spam safety and accessibility of your email, text-based email ad is the safest solution. This means that even if you choose to go the somewhat complex HTML route option, make sure that you format and layout the email content to make it appear that it was in fact a text-based one. Do not send your HTML-based e-mail without a text-delivery option. If your email is in HTML and it doesn’t automatically switch to text-format for those readers who can’t receive HTML, it will get filtered out.
Dont’s

• Avoid sending HTML-based e-mail without a text-delivery option

5) Attachments
Attachments often carry viruses, so they are usually filtered out proactively. If you send a book email ad with an attachment, it is a burden to expect from the readers to further run the attachment through a virus protection program. Thus, it is discouraged.

Dont’s

• Never send an email ad campaign containing an attachment
6) BCC
In maximizing the distribution of the book email ad to the most number of recipients, an author might be tempted to send that email ad using Bcc distribution to more than a few recipients. As a conscious and circumspect author, you should avoid this practice. If you use lots and lots of recipients inside the Bcc field, it is very likely that the email will be marked as spam.

Dont’s

• Don’t send Bcc lines to several recipients simultaneously

7) Color Use

Refrain from using colored texts to send your ad message across, for it generally sends a wrong signal to the recipient(s). Black remains the most legible color on your screen, while a red emphasis is highly correlated with tricky marketing schemes and spam email. Other colors like blue or green should be avoided at all costs. So, do not change the default color settings of your email to avoid a non-send.

Dont’s

• Don’t change the color of your email background
E-mail File Size
Regarding email file size, keep the email size between 20KB and 50KB. Be also aware that a majority of spam emails weigh-in at less than 20KB most of the time.

Do’s

• Keep your email size within the 20KB-50KB size range

Dont’s
• Never send an email that is more than 50KB in size

9) Bad HTML Code
When it comes to text preparation and encoding, refrain from creating emails by utilizing bad HTML code generated by popular tools such as Microsoft® Word®. Nevertheless, if you are really predisposed to create your book e-mail ad in Microsoft® Word®, then save it as HTML; however, you should be aware that the code generated by MS Word® and other tools may be very “unorthodox,” and this is one thing that e-mail spam filters really do not like.

Dont’s
• Refrain from creating emails using bad HTML codes

10) Images
Regarding the use of images, their use should be avoided inside the email in place of text. Just keep your message simple and direct to make an impression on your email recipient(s). Using images creates a mistaken impression that the author is merely “showcasing” his book with dazzling, mesmerizing visuals just to sell.

Dont’s

• Don’t use images inside the e-mail in place of the text

12) Virus Free
Do ensure that your computer is virus-free or malware-free. Of course, you don’t want to inadvertently send out a virus-infected email ad from your machine, together with your own email address and name prominently featured. Make sure that you purchase and install an authentic, reputable, and efficient anti-virus software from an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to be safe.

Do’s

• Purchase a reliable anti-virus software for your computer

Dont’s

• Avoid sending email messages that are virus infected

Limited marketing resources notwithstanding, a wise, pragmatic, and efficient author is one who has already identified his particular target demographic market, is convinced that “opt-in email sends” can be an effective and potent tool in marketing his book, and believes in the power of “word of mouth” to make excellent sales returns from the book promotional campaign thru email ads. Indeed, in today’s cutting edge world of IT-empowered ad dissemination, an author can rely on and make optimal use of this very convenient option for his book marketing campaign. For they are all a click-send distance away.

Author Resource Box
Join one of the most dynamic social networking sites of BookWhirl. Learn more about the dynamics of marketing self-published books, Author Marketing Services, and Book Marketing Services.

To link two books together, take these steps:

Email kdp-support@amazon.com and give them the ASIN and ISBN numbers of both editions, and request to have the two books linked together – should take 2-3 days.

Thanks to Tina Folsom for the tip.

The main idea: get your book translated into different languages by promising the translator money on the back end after the book sells, rather than an upfront fee. Scott Nicholson writes on David Gaughran’s blog:

Amazon just opened its German store, and more digital and paper markets are going to open up for indie authors, and overseas readers will finally get an incredible range of choices. But it’s going to take a new kind of indie—the “indie translator.”

I currently have three foreign translations available for independent sale and three more in the pipeline, as well as a creative split-revenue, cooperative deal inChina. None of them required an agent, and each project was entrepreneurial and unique.

You hear some indie writers say “Well, I’d still need an agent for foreign and movie deals.” Like everything in this rapidly changing environment, that’s not necessarily true, and certainly not absolute. In fact, the same principals apply to indie digital publishing in foreign markets as in the US—all you have to do is upload a digital file. And paper books, especially print-on-demand, will follow the same pattern….

I pay a 20 percent royalty of net sales to my translators. For a $2.99 book, that would earn around 40 cents a pop. Not much, until you consider that’s income for life on a one-time job. Imagine if you translated 10 bestselling titles at 10 percent–you’d be making more than the US author currently does when he/she sells a foreign right through a publisher!

It’s a bold idea, but it has one catch: you need to be able to guarantee a healthy level of sales in a foreign market, and that’s fairly difficult to guarantee. So it would seem this is mainly a step for successful self-publishers – i.e. people who could probably get a rights agent who would work out all the details and get an advance. It’s an option to seek out your own translator, but it is not exactly an option that’s equal to the ease of self-publishing – unless you’re familiar with the overseas market, the language, and the translator. Chances are, a lot of self-publishers don’t fit that description.

And translation is also a totally different game than self-publishing. Though it might look totally impressive to see your book converted into another language, to a native reader a poor translation is just going to read like a bad book. What this means is your book is less likely to sell so you can even pay that translator. You don’t want a translation to come out like Ebookit’s automated audiobook tool – useful in a pinch, but lacking a lot of human warmth. Translation is an artform equal to any kind of writing, so you’re going to have to vet a translator very carefully – including having a native reader read a sample to make sure it reads naturally.

This sounds like a lot of negativity – but it’s just to suggest that writers tread carefully. It’s an option, but there are many more variables than traditional self-publishing.

Meanwhile, Alex de Campi, a graphic novelist, attempted to use Kickstarter to sell both American and foreign rights. However, Kickstarter said that it was against their terms, so she had to take it down – for instance, she was selling the American rights for $5000. Again, she’s trying to raise $27,000 so the writer who sets out to do something like this is already successful in some respect.

I’ve had one book translated, which was put out by Hachette Litteratures, one of the bigger publishers in France. I was paid $4000.

The way this happened is that a friend translated it.  I lived in Paris for a year, we met, years later the translation deal came together via an agent I’d met in Paris, who also helped facilitate rights for a UK edition of the same novel.  And that’s sort of instructive – in publishing, it’s who you know as much as anything.  So if you get in touch with prospective translators, good things can happen.

So where to find a translator? Network. Pen American has a good list to get started.

There are good arguments for both sides of the issue on eBook pricing. A lower price may devalue your work, but it may also drive sales. There’s also the option of giving it away for free.

Henry’s recent experiment with giving his novel away for free got me thinking about doing the same with mine. I have a sequel due out later next year, and giving the first book away for free might be a good way to drive sales of the next one. Still, there’s that sticking point of giving it away without anything in return. I’ve been gun-shy about giving my book away for free because of this.

Well, I think I’ve found a way around that. Better yet, I created a contest around it.

I’m using a site called Pay With A Tweet. It was created for the explicit purpose of promoting your work, offering it for the “price” of a single tweet about said work. Anyone who clicks the Pay With A Tweet button on my site will be able to download a zip file containing the PRC and EPUB versions of my novel. In exchange, a tweet is sent from a user’s account, linking back to the post.

To set up a button of your own, you’ll need to provide a link to the file you want to offer for download, as well as a shortened URL to wherever you want to direct users. You can determine what the tweet says, but users are allowed to modify it before they send it (note: they can’t change the URL). The site gives you several button options (including a QR barcode). After that, all you need to do is copy the html into your site, and you’re done.

As a way to entice users to click the button, I added a specific hashtag to my tweet for tracking purposes. From now until the end of November, anyone who tweets about my book will be entered into a drawing for a prize package full of goodies which includes, among other things, a signed hardcover and a $30 Amazon gift card.

Time will tell if this is an effective method of promoting, but I can already confirm I’ve had a number of Kindle sales since I started the contest.

If you’re on Twitter and use it to promote your book, you should consider trying Pay With A Tweet. So far, it’s proving to be a useful promotional tool.

TK

By Wesley Craig Green – a writer of comics & movies, occasional entrepreneur, pop culture junkie, and lover of all things 70s.

Till only a few years ago, making a successful go at self-publishing (by “successful”, I mean having a growing audience which actively supports your work) was not the norm. For every Jeff Smith, there were a hundred self-publishers who put out anywhere from one to five issues of their self-publishing creation before they either ran out of funding or drive. This isn’t to say they or their book(s) were a failure. Far from it. It just means the odds were stacked against you from the get go if you were a self-publisher.

But times have changed.

No longer is Diamond Comics (the biggest and most influential distributor of printed comics to stores carrying comics) or a few indy-friendly comic shops the ones who decide the fate of your work. The crack in their armour first began with the move of established and would-be self-publishers to web comics. Self-publishers like Phil and Kaja Foglio with Girl Genius and Colleen Doran with A Distant Soil have proven making the move to the web can expand your audience and be more profitable. This is not to say they have forsaken publishing in the traditional sense. The Foglios and Doran still publish collected editions of their web comic which sells very well for them. Other web comics also follow this template with success while others first seek donations from their fans in order to publish collected versions of their web comics.

Which brings us to the advent of digital comics. While the digital comics playing field is still in a state of finding its legs in terms of pricing and the release dates of newly-published comics, the changes brought about by digital comics is only beginning to be felt, I believe.

One of the questions raised with the growing influence of digital comics is how profitable they are for publishers. No publisher has released any data regarding digital sales. But the continuous press releases put out by just about every publisher shows digital comics is a growing part of their business. If that wasn’t enough, a growing number of publishers like DC Comics have decided to release some if not all of their titles in digital format on the same day they are made available at comic shops.

So where does this leave self-publishers? That’s a good question. Digital comics can distributed or made available just like printed comics by either using a distributor or by making their digital comics available as a stand-alone app.

Digital comic distributors Graphicly , Comixology and Drive Thru Comics offers self-publishers the opportunity to have their self-published comics available through them. But again, there is no data telling us nosey people just how much money creators and publishers are making from their digital comics. Drive Thru Comics is the only distributor that specifies what terms they offer creators and publishers (60% to 70% of profits dependant on if you are exclusive to them). However, it appears Graphicly has the largest number of self-publishers and indy publishers which could indicate they either take on just about any comic offered to them or that they are easy to work with or they offer self-publishers and indy publishers the best deal both in terms of distribution and profit. Comixology, on the other hand, appears to only offer a small number of titles from self-publishers. But this could be a result of their future Guided View Authoring Tools program which is suppose to make it easy for creators and publishers to format and submit their comics to Comixology for distribution. This was announced back in November 2010 so whether it actually happens remains in the air.

The other option is to have a stand-alone app created for your digital comic. While this option gives the publisher complete control over what the app does and contains, it also makes it more difficult and costly for the publisher as well. Difficult in that Apple becomes the Diamond Comics of digital comics. What this means is they dictate what is and what isn’t available through their iTunes store. And from I have heard and read, they can be very ruthless in what they don’t allow in. If that wasn’t a big enough hurdle to clear, the costs associated with having a dedicated app created for your creation can be costly even for a simple application. App developers are aplenty on such sites as Odesk (http://www.odesk.com) and Guru (http://www.guru.com). Despite the costs, hiring an app developer may be cheaper (or even a lot cheaper) than printing.

Maybe you see digital comics as I do in that they are the new form of self-publishing for comic creators. It is my belief the number of self-published and independent publisher titles available through Diamond will shrink as the number of self-published and independent publisher digital comics grows. One thing is for sure: digital comics is making it possible for self-publishers and independent publishers to be a viable part of the comics market again. No longer do they have to worry about being picked-up by Diamond and have to worry about a shrinking number of indy-friendly comic shop retailers ordering their comics. Now their success rests fully on their shoulders. And that is how it should be.

Kindle has released its specs for the Kindle Fire and beyond, which now support HTML 5.

We’re pleased to announce a wide range of new features and enhancements – including HTML5 support – coming in Kindle Format 8 (KF8). KF8 is the next generation file format for Kindle books – replacing Mobi 7. As showcased on Kindle Fire, KF8 enables publishers to create great-looking books in categories that require rich formatting and design such as children’s picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical & engineering books and cookbooks. Kindle Format 8 replaces the Mobi format and adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, opening up more opportunities to create Kindle books that readers will love.

So this is how they’re competing with iPad, but also significantly: they’re sticking with HTML – meaning they’re not going to go with ePub as their standard, like the rest of the industry.

This doesn’t make formatting for the Kindle exactly easy.  But their engine for converting straight from another document, rather than messing with code, is getting better. Already, it’s easier to convert straight from Word for a text document (not seamlessly, but better than the past), so document conversion will have to be available for novice users. They note:

Upcoming enhancements to Kindle Publisher Tools will make it easier and faster for publishers to create high quality Kindle books. KindleGen 2 (available soon) creates Kindle content from a wide variety of sources including HTML, XHTML, and EPUB.

For advanced programmers, the new specs offer a lot of versatility. Here’s a list of the HTML commands now available.

To eBook authors, marketing can be a daunting task. Whether you’re an indie publisher or you are using a traditional publisher, the marketing is usually left up to you.

It is a digital world now and self-publishers are not tied to bookstores with limited shelf space and a revolving inventory. In fact it will be on sale for a very long time. With the longevity of your eBook’s life, you have the ability to try several different marketing avenues until you find one that works.

So where do you start with this marketing thing?

Your marketing goal should be to fill the sales pipe with quality content and give your readers as many entry points to your buy pages as you can.

Synergy
One of the phenomenons in the ebook marketing world is the momentum that is created when an author catches on. Every week it seems we are hearing about an author reaching the ebook million unit sales plateau. Their secret is they know how to market and brand themselves. Yes they are in all the right places. The speed of the Internet and the reach it offers to the ebook marketer is breathtaking.

So how do they do it? Besides great content and hard work, how do they reach that prize status?

Entry Points
One of the marketing strategies they use is the creation of as many entry points as they can to get to their sales page. They never miss an opportunity to put that ebook product in front of their prospective readers. Here are some of the entry points.

1. Ebook-links. Don’t miss the opportunity to add links in your ebook to the other titles that you have for sale. You should also link to your author’s website and blog and other reference points so readers can find their way back to you. Use the power of links.

Traditional publishers are missing this one on a regular basis. They are so anxious to make a copy of the paper version and get it online; they don’t render the buy links to the other titles in your ebook.

2. Websites. Have multiple websites. I recommend one for each ebook plus an author site that encourages reader communication. Make sure you reference your other titles on the individual sites. There are many free opportunities to setup multiple sites and blogs. Have giveaways and conduct contests. Anything that keeps your readers coming back to your website. Having your readers help with the title of your next book or the design of your next cover is a powerful tool to use.

3. Blog. Toss in a blog with interesting reader information and an interaction component. Don’t forget to include a blog list on your site. You know. Related blogs you like to read. They in turn will link back to your blog, creating more entry points. Encourage the cross-linking. It is win-win for both parties.

4. Tags and Metadata. One of the most important components that must be addressed every time you do something online is the path readers will take through search engines to get to your information. Search Engines Optimization (SEO) is the key to readers finding your ebook online. Spend some time analyzing what types of tags and categories you want to include in your messages. You may want to start with Google Keywords. Then look at your competition and see what they are doing.

5. Email Signature Line. Use your email signature line to sell your ebook. Show a thumbnail of your cover with a link to your buy page. Then start emailing a lot. Sometimes emails work better than commenting on forums and other blogs to create activity.

6. Guest Blogs and Interviews. Try to get involved in your genre community. A guest blog or an interview is a great opportunity to get your name and your ebook in front of another audience of readers and buyers.

7. Helpers. Connect with your helpers with links to their sites. Your helpers include your copy editor, your cover designer and your book designer. Linking to them can create a turnaround with a link back to your site.

Reader Interaction
You must develop an interaction with your reader. Here are some ideas.

1. Direct contact to your audience through social networking is very time consuming but it can be very rewarding. Facebook and Twitter along with Linkedin and Mobileread are good venues for starters.

2. As you go through your marketing activity, you must give your reader ‘that expert feeling’ about you and your book. Nothing turns them off more than marketing copy with typos. Talk the talk and walk the walk.

3. Your thumbnail cover could be the difference in the buy decision. You must keep in mind an ebook cover is looked at differently than the traditional cover. The prospective reader can’t see the brilliant colors or feel the raised print. If you can’t read the thumbnail, neither can the prospective buyer. You may have two covers. One for the paper version and one for the ebook version.

4. Amazon Public notes could be another opportunity to interact with your reader base and create synergy. If you can get them involved, your next ebook will be an easier sell.

End Game
So where are we going with this? Activity is a good thing. The more interaction you have with readers, the bigger opportunity you have for continued ebook sales. Here are several takeaways.

1. Motivate the buyer at each entry point. Make it easy to buy your ebook.
2. Get readers to read your first two chapters.
3. Develop synergy between each entry point with reader interaction.

If the Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites are the only place readers can find out about your ebook, I advise you to go fishing and dream about what could have been.

How will they find you and your ebook? Should you seek a mentor to help you market your ebook? You will find out that there is not enough time in the day to do everything yourself.

View my website: HBSystems Publications
Or EMAIL at: jrm@hbspub.com
Or goto my blog: The eBook Author’s Corner
Author: Call Off The Dogs, a rendered eBook
LinkedIn Profile: James Moushon

This blog first was posted at the ‘Marketing Tips for Authors‘ site by Tony Eldridge.

Tony is the author of the action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, that Clive Cussler calls a “first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure” and the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests which helps people find targeted Twitter followers.

His blog is frequently listed as one of the top ebook marketing blogs in the industry.

So what’s Storify – the main way it’s used is creating an embeddable post of Twitter links.  What makes these posts so useful is that there’s a retweet/reply button next to each tweet, plus the ability to embed the entire post on another blog.  Here’s Storify’s own post about Steve Jobs:

Pretty slick, right? There’s a number of ways this could be used. You could create a series of tweets about your book. A series of tweets about a genre. Here are some tips from Galleycat:

1. Collect all stories surrounding a piece of literary news. We made a Storify post about how publishing folks responded to the earthquake in Virginia. Start with a news story, and then mix in social network opinions.

2. Create a tribute to your favorite author. We built a quick collection of tributes to Steve Jobs last night. We started with a news story about Jobs, adding video and Twitter tributes.

3. Collect book reviews and articles about a new book. As you can see this post on Haruki Murakami‘s Norwegian Wood, we included a Google Books link, social media responses, Flickr photos and news stories about the book.

4. Preserve news and ideas from a publishing conference or industry expo. From book parties to BookExpo America to the Publishing App Expo, most of our posts about an event evaporate within weeks. Save all your posts and digital photographs in a single Storify page so you never lose the experience.

5. Highlight a specific literary conversation on Twitter or Facebook. When Twitter hashtags like Undatable in Lit or Why I Write get popular on Twitter, you can link to the article that started it all, save your favorite posts and share them with readers on Storify. Follow the same formula for literary controversies on Facebook like the “I Hate Reading” Facebook page.

Now that Storify has teamed up with Soundcloud, another idea would be to make an audio book – each player as a different chapter. You can add other media like Youtube or pictures as well. Even text chapters would work. Making the whole thing embeddable is really what makes the app useful, as it helps a book or post go viral. Another option: a slideshow. Check out what happens when you add /slideshow to the end of the Steve Jobs post above:

http://storify.com/storify/top-10-most-quoted-tweets-on-storify-about-stevejo/slideshow

It’s really the coolest thing I’ve seen on the web in a while.