Press releases seem to have gone the way of the dodo bird with most press releasing services focusing on search engine optimization rather than connecting with the media.

What new book announcement strategies have you employed with success?

Since I was publishing my first book and didn’t have a previously established fan base, I did a similar thing on a smaller scale with Facebook. I spent a few months leading up to the book release cultivating my friends list (going through other friends’ lists and reconnecting with anyone I knew even tangentially), and posted regular updates on the publishing process. By the time the book came out, many of them were excited to buy it, and pimped it to their friends as well. One guy I hadn’t seen since high school bought twenty copies wholesale to sell at events he puts on in SF.

Obviously, selling to family and friends is a pretty limited market, but it can be a nice little kickstart.

What approach should one use when trying to create excitement? Would people want to read about writers in the editing process and writing process?

As you can guess, I’m still trying to figure out which way to go with my advertising.

Ariel Ceylan

Cool.

Ariel Ceylan

There’s a lot to be said for networking. At a Pacific Northwest Writers Association workshop attendees were advised to have an email list of 100 contacts who were interested in (a) You; (b) or your genre; (c) books in general – you get the drift. So, loving Excel, I built a worksheet with the columns (1) date contacted; (2) Name; (3) eMail address, etc. And, every. single. person. I met for the year I was finalizing my first novel went into a category of that worksheet. It now numbers over 600 – I get The Best results from a staged-send ‘Hello, this is what my book is doing now’ note to that list.

News releases that offer a free-something – like my news release on how to embed a linked TOC into an eBook does well for introduction to my self-publishing eBooks, but nothing beats actually making internet ‘friends’ connecting with your readers often and writing to their tastes (ala John Locke).

I like this podcast idea. When I’m ready to publish my second volume sometime this fall I’m going to invest in this.

Since I became a self publishing author, I have relied on Facebook and Twitters to sort of advertise my works. I am happy to be a new member of this distinguished group and I hope I will learn from my colleagues methods I could employ to sell more books.

Hi There!

It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by since I posted my original thoughts here, on ‘Announcing Your Book ~ What Works’ Gosh, a whole world of change, also!

From experience, I totally agree with digitaldarwin, the news release (I use PR Log) has gone the way of the DoDo bird – mastering the SEO jungle is not so easy anymore! I write Ghost Stories and my best performing news releases (>1,000 hits a month, every month) have to do with hauntings in my own city, like, “Seattle Author Follows Seattle Hauntings’ type stuff; which works in May as well as it does in October. But still the 1% rule applies: 1,000 hits will only result in 10 eBook purchases. I recommend to not leave news releases out of the mix, but to PRE-PLAN to tie your book release moment to an ‘event’ that IS getting SEO value: Like, historical fiction? Use a comparison of the movie “Lincoln” with elements of your Civil War fiction, as your lead. Gardening? Temperatures are changing, winter is on its way is what is at the top of a ‘Gardening’ Google search today – tie THOSE topics into the lead of your book release news post.

The MOST fun I’ve had this year is with Facebook Surveys – if your survey is comedic, silly, breath-taking you’ll be a winner! (Chick Lit? Ask the wild question “If your BFF office mate was having marriage difficulties would you (a) recommend she have an affair (b) recommend a solo vacation for her to think things over (c) insist on marriage counseling *Key element is to ASK in the lead-line of the Survey Question that your FB friends hit the ‘Share’ button – then as responses come in ACTIVELY GRAB new friends with a friend invite and a ‘we have a mutual friend’ message.

I tripled my FB friend count in three months by aggressively using the survey feature. https://www.facebook.com/?sk=app_10150110253435258 (Don’t neglect the ‘Ask Your Friends’ component of FB surveys!)

Doing an eBlast? Get a graphic artist friend to make it POP! …and of course, it HAS to be wired with a live-link to the ‘Buy’ button.

Here are more of my updated ideas on what works and what doesn’t: http://www.avharrison-publishing.com/?p=788 ~*~Emily~*~