SURE FIRE WAYS TO A BESTSELLER! Online Marketing Symposium

What Works – Online Marketing Symposium

Be very careful ...

     It is Indie Author Season. 

Just listen to these two offers!

DO YOU WANT NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK?

For just 99 DOLLARS,

you can enter Writer’s Digest's 22nd annual self-published competition!

The Annual Self-Published Book Awards.
 
The prizes:

• A chance to win $3,000 in cash
• National exposure for your work
• The attention of prospective editors and publishers
• A paid trip to the ever-popular Writer’s Digest Conference!

Or better yet!

Create Your Writer Platform | Join Chuck Sambuchino January 21!

Just $79.99 for 90 minutes of wonderful ideas you already know.  The ghost of Mark Twain is wiping the tears of laughter away.

Save your money, my friends, and FOR FREE gain ideas from this wonderful bloghop:

Online Marketing Symposium – Monday, January 20

Hosts –

Arlee Bird - http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

Yolanda Renee - http://yolandarenee.blogspot.com/

Jeremy Hawkins - http://www.beingretro.com/

Alex J. Cavanaugh - http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/
 

 

THE ALCHEMY OF A BEST SELLER
 

 

We all want there to be a secret formula to produce a bestseller, to become the next JK Rowling.

 

We all know the conventional wisdom -

 

1.) Market ourselves on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram'

 

     Sadly, the waters are more crowded than a public swimming pool in Hell.  You're just one of a million bobbing heads in the cyber-waters.

 

2.) Craft a Hook of a Title -

 

     FRENCH QUARTER NOCTURNE - DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE

 

     Want to know how many copies of those I've sold?  Don't ask. 

 

But that doesn't mean you just toss in the towel.  Be creative with your title:

 

a.) Pick your title BEFORE you begin (you'll be with your novel for weeks so have a title that inspires you!

      b.) It's a marriage - LOVE YOUR TITLE

      I. What a great title does:

            1.) Captures your audience’s attention
            2.) It communicates what your e-book is about
            3,) If it’s your style, it should include a little bit of a “What the Heck?” factor:
                      
Titles tell your audience a little something about you.
Look at these three sets of words:

• Epic; Awesome.
• Remarkable; Brilliant.
• Elegant; Erudite

Each pair of words has a unique flavor. You can almost begin to see the people that would use them in a title or a headline.

Which means that the words in your e-book title need to reflect your style.

       II.) WHO'S AN OXYMORON?~!

           i.) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE was a great title to an older book because it linked two opposites.

           ii.) Startle your reader and snare his attention.
 

3.) Have a killer cover -

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HIU5O38

 

     Leonora Roy has done riveting covers one after another for me.  According to Amazon, I have sold only one copy of DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE.  Ouch!

 

     But that doesn't have to apply to you.  Think the "why" of a great cover:

 

You can choose a proper image for the book cover that will draw attention to your eBook.

     a.) You need to choose the proper thumbnail with a theme that reflects the contents of your eBook.

     b.) Many readers will be drawn to the book cover long before
          reading the description and the reviews.

     c.) It helps if you have a book cover that instantly draws attention.

 

4.) Write a riveting novel

 

     Sandra, my most caustic reader, says DEATH held her spellbound. But still no sales.

 

     But anyone can give up!  They say sex sells.  But not so much anymore.

 

Be creative in the take on your novel.  Put a cliche on its ear.  And add laughter, for there is not enough of it these days.

 

Or give the audience what they think they want PLUS insightful prose as in:

 

 

{In Whip Smart, Melissa Febos

chronicles five years in her early twenties

when she was a dominatrix and heroin user.

But the book is about so much more than those details.

It’s about living a lie:

sometimes many lies at once.

It’s about lying to yourself.

And it’s about discovering truths about yourself in places you never expected.}

 

So what do we do to write a bestseller?

 

WE HAVE TO GET NOTICED!

 

Yes, we have to have polished formatting, professional editing, and a storyline that catches the reader and will not let her go.

 

And we have to have the all important WORD OF MOUTH ...

 

     But to have that, first we must have a string of mouths singing our novel's praises.  In other words ...

 

WE HAVE TO GET NOTICED!

 

I don't mean use the right keywords in the title and subtitle of your book.  That's an old trick. 

 

And do you know how many books out there have ZOMBIE, VAMPIRE, and LUST in their titles?

 

So many people abused Tags, Amazon, I believe, has removed them.

 

 

SO HOW TO GET NOTICED?
 

 

1. Identify your audience.

This is a vital step in the promotion and marketing of your book, and–if done right–will make the rest of the process infinitely easier.

Find out who your book appeals to, get to know those people well, and be where they are, both online and off.

2. Establish a budget.

How much money are you able and willing to spend marketing and promoting your book?

Include everything from paid advertising to travel costs.  If you're broke like me, you will have to be very creative.

3. Create a marketing plan.

How much time can you devote to establishing and maintaining your book promotion strategies?

What marketing tactics do you intend on implementing first? What are your goals and how will you measure them?

4. Get creative.

Use your book’s theme, location, or time period for inspiration and making marketing connections. A character’s hobbies, occupation, lifestyle, values and interests can be jumping off points for developing promotional strategies.

Brainstorm (with Google), companies, experts, businesses, organizations or groups that you can approach for joint marketing ventures.

5. Tell your author brand story. 

Write an author biography that briefly defines your reason for being; keep it to two or three short but memorable paragraphs that will resonate with your readers.

Better yet: make it one paragraph. Show some personality and give your readers a reason to care.

6. Create your hook

Make it short as in mine for DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE

Before Indiana Jones.  Before Allan Quartermain.  There was Samuel McCord
             ... and his doomed love for She Who Devours.

7. Write a series.

Obviously this won’t work for every author or book, but when possible, creating a series is a very powerful and effective way to develop a presence,

gain reader loyalty and boost sales of earlier works with subsequent novels.

8. Advertise your previous works in each book you publish.

 One of the best places to advertise your previous work is at the end of your current book, where you’ve got a happy reader, eager for more.

9. Tempt your readers with more.

Insert sample chapters from the next book in a series at the end of your current book to pull your readers in.

Now, save your $99 and go on to the other bloggers in the Online Marketing Symposium this coming Monday!