The Plan that Launched a Thousands Books by Tara Alemany details exactly what you need to market your book.
While reading this book, one question I kept in mind was this, “How does this book stand out from all the other blogs and articles I read on a regular basis on this same subject?”
If you are well versed on the blog world, you may find a lot of information you’ve seen before on this book. I found myself nodding along with some of the points made here, as they were very familiar to me. However, Tara Alemany explains a lot of points that I had not thought of before, such as knowing how to personalize your published e-book, where and how to send out a press release, and various programs and campaigns you should try.
There is a ton of information in this book and what makes this different than a lot of books and blog posts that I’ve read before are a few points –
- It’s all in one book. This matters a lot to me because I can Google information until the day is over on the correct marketing for my book and run across thousands of posts that don’t exactly nail it like this book does.
- It has real things you can do for your book. Another thing that tends to intimidate me on articles on marketing is that they are never specific enough for me. Marketing your book is a long process and it’s easy to get lost in vague explanations on what to do. This book is specific and gives links you can go to in order to get started.
- It isn’t too long. This book won’t take you days or weeks to read and this is why I enjoyed it. This gives a manageable approach to marketing in its brevity and it doesn’t feel as overwhelming.
Like I said, if you are well versed in researching marketing, this book may not teach you anything new. But if you are in the baby steps stages, and you are just getting your feat wet, you will want to purchase this book. This is fantastic for those writers out there who don’t want to get too overwhelmed, but at the same time want information.
I am also proud to announce that I will be giving away three copies of this book!
How to enter –
+1 Entry: Tell me in the comments section what is the greatest challenge for you in terms of marketing your book.
+1 Entry: Follow Tara R. Alemany on Twitter @EAndTSMom
+1 Entry: Follow me on Twitter @BeingTheWriter
Contest ends on 7/22.
I would love to win this book! I'm now following both you and Tara on Twitter. I'm entered in the contest and following two great writers–a win, win, win! It does sound like a helpful book and if I don't win it, I'll buy it. Thanks!
Thanks for following me, Peggy! I hope you enjoy the book when you get a chance to read it, however you come by it. 🙂
I'm not at the marketing phase yet, I still have roughly 2/3 of my novel left to write. The challenge in marketing my short stories is that I'm lazy. I have them listed on the front page of my blog, but I've failed to continuously broadcast them for fear I'll come across as spammy, and I don't want to do that! 🙁
And I'm following you and Tara now. Thanks!
Thanks for following me, Diane. There can definitely be a fine line between marketing a title and spam. Yet, the key difference is the reader's perception. If what you're putting out there *always* provides value to the reader, you can promote it every day and still not overstep the boundaries of spam. (Well… Perhaps not *that* frequently, but you get where I'm going with this.)
Promoting a story can be as easily as sharing what someone else has said about it. If you've got 15 reviews on Amazon of your title, pick 1 a week and share a snippet of it, with a link back to the full review (on Amazon). If you know the reviewer, publicly thank them.
Genuine humility, generosity, honesty, service, etc. all can allow you to share more frequently, but only when the focus is on benefiting the reader, and when the experience is real. False humility, generosity, etc. are easily detected and quickly spurned.
Regardless, all the best with finishing your current project!
I'm still a long ways from having a book to market (learning how to revise right now), but I've spent a little bit of time looking into it. It seems like the most difficult thing to me is knowing what avenues we should invest our marketing time in that gives the best return on that investment. The internet presents all sorts of options, but surely some are better than others.
And now I'm also following you and Tara 🙂
Thanks for the follow, Mike! There are definitely some better methods than others when it comes to marketing your book. Knowing who your audience is, and researching where they "hang out" online is key. The secret ingredient though to it all is Time. It's never too early to start building those relationships that will help you Leap Frog over other titles because of the name-power behind them. So, start building your networks NOW!
the toughest part of my marketing is that my genre truly is unique…biblically based erotica written in poetic and chaste Elizabethan English. There is nothing out there like it.
Lots of the marketing talk is geared towards non-fiction which makes more sense.
Lots of the marketing talk for fiction is "get your audience involved with plot twists and naming characters" but my plots and characters are already mapped out.
I'm building a mailing list but I need controversy around my book I think.
followed both twitter accounts.
I'd love to see what I can learn from this book.
Just read Tim Grahl's "First 1000 Copies" and currently reading Joanna Penn's latest and have read a bunch of others trying to piece together ideas.
My book comes out soon.
That is definitely a unique genre, mjs. But when it comes to marketing, it always comes down to figuring out what it is that the reader (your marketing audience) sees, hears and wants out of your book and a connection with you. In that sense, the marketing strategy for every book, regardless of genre, starts first with understanding the reader. I can say, one of the first thoughts that comes to my mind is, why this genre? How did you get there?
Controversy always sells, but it can quickly get out of control. So, don't invite it unless you can manage it. The outcome could be something totally different than you want. That's not to say, don't go there at all, but don't jump there first!
Tim Grahl's great. He sent me a copy recently that I hope to carve out time to read soon. Michael Hyatt's "Get Published" is another essential resource for any writer. http://michaelhyatt.com/getpublished
Anyway congratulations on your new book!