Can’t figure out social media and don’t want to? Sell books the old-fashioned way
It may seem like the only way to sell a lot of books is to use social media. There is texting, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a thousand other social programs with a new one launching every week. Should you use each one or select just one? Or, is it possible to sell books the old-fashioned way with simple word of mouth?
Granted social media is an integral part of communication today, I am here to say there is still a place for word-of-mouth communication. Calling someone on the phone and sharing about your book may seem like an ancient process used by authors who lived in the pre-digital era, but a one-on-one conversation can still have some amazing results.
There is something to be said for a conversation between two people that is not immediately broadcast around the globe.There is something valuable in a conversation that goes no further than the moment and ends with a smile and a hug and no “Download Now” button.
Sometimes we get so hung up on impressing the multitude that we forget the priceless gift of just being a warm and responsive “live” person to someone next to us. A friend shared a poem that she had memorized when a child and it has stayed with her for decades.
Husbands and wives
with children between them
sit in the subway
or so I have seen them,
one word only – from station to station
so much talk
for so close a relation.
– Author Unkown
Today our conversations can be enabled with texting, cell phones and instant messaging. The ways to communicate get easier ever second, but it still takes personal time and energy to keep the conversation going in meaningful ways.
If you are not comfortable with social media, hardly know how to turn on a computer, laptop or cell phone, don’t throw in the towel. There are as many ways to sell books as there are authors who write them. Do what you can and perhaps a simple conversation in the checkout line might result in something that will sell books in a bigger way than you can imagine. It has happened!
Grammar tips: Capitalization of nouns for authors
Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, or idea.
Person: If it’s a specific name, like Joe, Jane, or Sparky, the name is capitalized. However, if the noun is general such as a boy, girl, doctor or lawyer, then the nouns are not capitalized. It can become a bit complicated when referring to parents or close relatives. If you are talking about your mother, the name is not capitalized. But if you are talking “to” your mother or father, the name is capitalized. So in writing dialogue, your subject might say, “Hi, Mom. What’s for dinner?” But if your subject is talking to a friend about their mom, then the noun is not capitalized. “Yeah, my mom always insists on cooking spinach at least once a week. Yuck!”
The same thing is true of offices like senator, president, king, or pope. You may refer to “the pope” or “the president” in lowercase, but capitalize it when it is used as the title of the person, such as Queen Elizabeth or when you address them, as in Mr. President. However, in “American president Barack Obama” or “British prime minister David Cameron” the offices are lowercase because in the context they refer to the person’s office and are not part of his title.
Place: If the name of a place is specific, such as the name of a city or state, then the noun should be capitalized. If the noun is general such as state, city, bird, parent, etc. then the noun is not capitalized.
Seems pretty cut and dry, right?
Sometimes though it gets a bit tricky. For instance, if the word state follows a specific state, such as Washington State, then state is often capitalized. But state would not be capitalized if one were to write, “What state do you live in?” The big clue here is if the word state comes before the specific name, such as the state of California, or after the state name, as in California State.
Thing: If it’s a specific thing like a Rolls-Royce or a Chevrolet pickup, it is capitalized. General automobiles, such as a car or a jeep, are not capitalized.
Idea: This is a bit more nebulous. For instance, the word good is often not capitalized if one is talking about something that is good, such as a good book. If one is talking about a “Greater Good” as an idea, then the word is capitalized.
Capitalization can be confusing in some instances. If in doubt, it’s a great idea to keep a dictionary handy or use an online dictionary such as Dictionary.com.
13 reasons you should add a guestbook page to your Author website
Are you looking for a fast and easy way to connect with your readers? Don’t have time or the desire to keep up a blog? Here is an easy fix: provide a guestbook.
A guestbook is basically a page on your website on which readers can leave comments. All comments are then found in one place on your site. This is great for first time visitors to get a feel of your writing, your following and, best of all, for them to find out that other people love your book(s).
While it’s great to blog regularly and get comments on your posts, sometimes getting those comments is difficult for new bloggers. A few comments spread out over 15 or 20 posts can seem pretty sparse, but if you put all those comments in one place, you have instant reader appeal.
Here are 13 reasons why a guestbook should be next on your “To Do” list for building your author platform:
1. Easy way to get reader reviews.
2. Encourages readers to leave comments.
3. Can build reader participation by providing a link to your guestbook in an email signature or blog post.
4. Provides input for how to improve your book.
5. Keeps you in touch with what visitors to the site are looking for.
6. Easy to put on a blog site with a plug-in. Try WordPress-ViperGB or to go to your Plug-ins page on WordPress, click the Add Plugin button and search for “guestbook.”
7. Can monitor comments with Askimet.
8. Easy way for new visitors to read testimonials about your book.
9. Can use the testimonials for other advertising if you ask visitors for email addresses so you can get their permission.
10. Gives you contact information if you want to respond to readers.
11. Lets others see that you appreciate their feedback when you reply to their comments. This also builds a valuable sense of community so make sure to reply to comments.
12. All feedback is in one place rather than spread throughout the site with different posts.
And finally, reason number 13: Reading the entries in your guestbook is a great psychological pick up during slump periods when you wonder if anyone really cares if you write another sentence or publish another book. For the most part, readers provide valuable and positive feedback in a guestbook.
Find new readers for your book by offering an Author Phone Chat
Want to meet your readers?
Offer an opportunity to have a phone chat.
Phone chats can be as simple as using a speaker phone within a group setting or creating a virtual phone chat by using a teleconference service like freeconference.com.
Both methods offer a way for readers and authors to get together.
Six simple steps to set up your first phone chat:
1. Decide what book or books you will discuss during the phone chat.
2. Select the length of time you will be available for the chat. 30 minutes seems to be a time that works for many authors and readers alike, but you can adapt to what suits you and your readers best.
3. Create a separate web page about the chat opportunity. You can let readers know what times and dates are available for you to participate, or you can simply include a form or other contact information for them to get in touch with you.
4. Broadcast your Author Chat availability on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
5. Send out an announcement in your newsletter, send emails to leaders of book groups, and post an invite on book forums that relate to your book genre.
6. Book chats by phone are a fun and personal way to connect with new readers. You don’t have to dress up or leave home and neither do your readers. You can also offer to have a video chat using Skype.
It’s a good idea to set up a few requirements for participation.
Three basic suggestions:
1. Ask participants to read your book before the call.
2. Provide easy ways for them to get your book. Yes, you want them to buy a copy!
3. Suggest the book leader encourage the group to prepare questions before the call so that the dreaded “empty air space” is not a problem.
Finish the call with a special offer for them to sign up for your newsletter or to download a free chapter of your next book.
Ten jet-propelled ways to ignite more sales from one book review
Just starting out? Have one review but feel that you need a hundred more before your book will take off? Fear not. Here are ten ways you can spin that one small review into ten fantastic book promotions:
1. Put the review on your website. If it’s short, include it on the sidebar. If it’s longer, put an excerpt on the sidebar and the full review on an inner page.
2. Include a snippet of the review in your email signature. This is an easy way to get a lot of mileage every day with no extra effort.
3. Use a sentence or two of the review on the back cover of your book. Easy to do if your book is in digital form or you are using POD (Print on Demand). If you have hard copies, print stickers on gold foil and add them to the copies.
4. Include a reference to the review in advertising such as Google AdWords or display ads in publishing magazines. Every word counts here but mention of an endorsement can be a big pull.
5. Mention the review in your bio line when writing guest posts or articles. It’s all about credibility and a few words from a review can do that in spades.
6. Send out query letters for radio or TV interviews using a testimonial from the review. Program hosts want to know that your book has public appeal before inviting you on their show. Nothing proves that better than a positive review.
7. Create a book flyer and use a call-out with a line or two from the review. You can write wonderful things about your book but praise from an outside source will carry more weight.
8. Send an email to popular bloggers in your genre for guest posting using a testimonial from the review. Make that email stand out from the deluge by mentioning the review in your subject line and in the body of the message.
9. Create a new business card and add a line from the review. Today you can print a new business card for as little as $10. It’s worth it to proclaim the message that your book is WONDERFUL without saying a word.
10. Change the message on your voice mail to include mention of the review. A gentle reminder with your phone message that you have a great book can lead to further discussion during the call.
If you want your book to sell, you must promote it. That means spreading the word to everyone with every opportunity. Often times family, friends, and business acquaintances can start that all important word of mouth.
Why authors should have 3 to 4 business cards to maximize book sales
How many business cards should you have?
A good estimate for an author is four.
That may seem like a lot, but there are several reasons why having more than one business card to support your writing is a good thing.
Many writers wear different hats. Whether they write fiction or nonfiction, they can have different areas of expertise. A good way to gain an interview, speaking assignment, or book promotion is to address each area individually with a different business card.
There is never just one way to sell a book. While some ways will work better than others, it doesn’t make sense to leave books on different tables, hoping the right audience will find them. Having a variety of business cards allows you to promote yourself as an expert in a subject to a particular audience.
For instance, if you want to sell books during a business conference, a card that merely states you are an “author” will not carry as much clout as a card that touts you as a “business consultant” or “entrepreneur.” Your books in this case are seen as tools of your trade, even if they bring in substantial income for you. Business groups are looking for solutions, not entertainment, and a book without an expert behind it will not be considered and will not get its author in front of the podium.
On the other hand, perhaps that same book can change lives in other situations besides business. Perhaps your book called Getting Organized would work in a parenting group or in a school setting. In this case, you would want your expertise to slant toward education and your business card to state that.
In another scenario, perhaps you are part of a writers association or plan on attending some large book conventions. At these events having a card that promotes your success in the field of writing will make deeper impressions.
Business cards are an inexpensive way to network and build relationships. Use multiple cards to your advantage to promote your books as much as possible.
Too much competition for your book?
It used to be quite easy for someone to start a small business in a small town and make a success of it. Granted there weren’t ten million customers available for whatever they did, but there was a small group of people that were available and these people would stop by and give the new shop a try. Or at least take a peek in the window. After all, there wasn’t that much going on in the small town and you were something to look at.
Today with the Internet, every business is toted to be available to a millions of people all at once.
It’s true. It’s amazing. Millions of people.
But there’s a catch!
Just because your online business is available to millions of people doesn’t mean millions of people are going to take a look.
In fact, maybe none of them will.
There’s nothing wrong with your business perhaps, but your business itself is just one in a million and who has time to search you out?
You might start raising a hand and waving it as the visitors go passing by your website, but so are ten million other hands out there waving.
Stop trying to reach everyone. Back up and pull into a small corner of cyber space and start reaching out only to a few.
Do whatever it takes to reach ten people. Make that your goal for the whole month.
Ten people. That’s easy, right?
Contact two people a week and tell them about your website or book.
• Write a personal letter.
• Get on the phone and start a conversation.
• Write a blog post about your book.
• Offer to send a book to someone for review.
• Visit a blog and leave a comment.
• Tweet something about your book
• Pin something on Pinterest about your book
Forget about the millions of people out there. You can’t reach them all at once. You have to start small, person to person.
To learn about real book marketing strategies and to get a jump start on your marketing, check out the Authors Academy.
Word of mouth begins with a listening ear
Looking for a better way to sell books?
Not comfortable with standing on a street corner and waving your latest edition in the air?
How about doing something that authors forget to do?
It works perfectly for the introverted author who’s more comfortable listening than speaking. In fact, that is what the way is. Listen your way to selling more books.
You see, most people would rather have someone listen to them than listen to someone else.
Wouldn’t you like someone to listen to you? Really and truly listen?
In this day of mass communication and social media overdose, many people are overwhelmed with tons of words being thrown at them from every direction. Everything is coming in mega doses. Email boxes overflow, Facebook contacts pop in from every corner of cyberspace, and Twitter, text and instant messages multiply faster than the national debt. Who’s listening?
If you give some quality listening time to your readers, you will actually sell more books. Here’s how to listen your way to book selling success.
If you have a blog, ask your readers to share their story or comments. When they do, prove that you have listened to them by answering with a thoughtful reply. Of course, it takes time, but listening does.
If you listen and respond to others, they will listen and respond back to you. That is how author/reader relationships develop.
Concentrate on making friends, not cultivating customers.
The next time you are in a conversation with someone, listen to what they are saying.
Enter into the conversational topic that is on their mind. If you listen well and establish a rapport, you will find that an opportunity to talk about your book will open up at some time in a nonconfrontational and natural way. It may not be in the first five minutes, it may not happen with the first conversation or even the second or third, but it will happen. And, when it does, your new friend (because that is what develops when people listen) will be much more open and willing to hear about your book.
So think of it this way. You could tell a hundred people about your book who have no time to listen to you and it goes over their heads, or you could tell a much smaller number that will result in sales. Of course, I know you want to sell millions of books and you don’t have time to “listen” to a million people, but, surprisingly, if you become a friend to a few who become willing and eager to tell their friends about your book, you have started that most important factor in successful bookselling.
That small number of friends can quickly grow and expand into a large fan base that eagerly buys every book you put out.
Start small, be patient and slowly grow your audience one conversation at a time.
At Wheatmark, our work with authors does not stop once their books are published. In fact that is just the beginning. That is why we place an emphasis on educating our authors about book marketing.
9 reasons authors should still commit to sending press releases
Google has new rules about press releases. Writing them simply to get links back to your site and create Google synergy is no longer a favorable action but there are still plenty of positive reasons that authors should use online press releases.
After all, when it comes to selling more books, there are other entities to impress, besides Google, in the bookselling world. Think of people like book readers, book reviewers, bookstores, publishers, media-hungry folks looking for a good story, bloggers looking for someone to interview, radio and TV stations looking for the next great guest on their program.
Still not convinced? Here are nine reasons that writing press releases every 30 to 90 days should be part of your yearly book marketing strategy:
1. Exposure. This goes without saying. Wonder why no one is buying your books? One good reason may be they simply don’t know your book exists. Let people know.
2. Expansion. A well-written press release will expand your audience beyond the market you are now reaching.
3. Excellence. Sending out press releases is a powerful way to let potential readers know about all the great things your book has to offer.
4. Excitement. A press release promotes your book as something new, interesting, and exciting to look at. Get folks to move beyond ho-hum and put a few sizzling tidbits in that leading paragraph to hook them into finding out more about this new, great read.
5. Authority. Press releases call attention to you as an author. You become the expert when you present facts, figures, and compelling reasons why your book is important to the reader.
6. Credibility. Do you have a media page on your author site? If so, listing your press releases is a definite sign that you are a professional writer in the book world. When the press wants to know more about you, this is the first page on your website they will want to look at. Not only can you list your own press releases in this section, you can also link or display other news events about your book.
7. Relationship. One of the most powerful things Wheatmark stresses to all their authors (new and old alike) is the importance of building strong reader and media relationships. Start locally with newspapers, radio stations, magazines, and blogs in your area and move outwards. If you send out a press release to your local paper three to six times a year, they will start to recognize and remember you.
8. Proactive Mindset. It takes work to write a press release. You have to think about what to write, get creative about how to present your book, and be bold and courageous in presenting the powerful ideas your book offers. Writing positive things about your book gets into the very fiber of your thinking processes and builds up a positive self image for the person who probably needs it the most: You.
9. Elevator speech. Can you succinctly tell someone about why they should read your book? A well-written press release starts out with one or two sentences that nail that speech down. Once you have written a few press releases you won’t even have to think about what to say at your next networking event. You will have already implanted those words in your head and they will pop out without a struggle. Nice.
Hopefully, I have convinced you of the importance of press releases. If you want to read more, here are several links to fuel your press release thinking process.
Get free publicity with provocative press releases.
How to sell more books with news releases.
Press release sites for authors.
If you’re an author and feel stuck in your book marketing, get a jump start by learning about the best and latest book marketing strategies in the Authors Academy.
Create an audio excerpt of your book for more book sales
Here’s a great way to get new visitors to your site to read your book: Let them hear an audio excerpt!
An audio excerpt from your book is simply another medium that your potential audience can consume. Why not let them have it?
Many bestselling authors offer at least one audio presentation of their books. While you may not want to create a complete audio version of your book, adding the first chapter or pages of your book in audio form is easy to do.
Here’s an audio excerpt from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
If you have a blog website, it can be as easy as creating a separate page and adding media to it in the form of an mp3 audio clip.
How do you get the audio clip?
The process is fairly simple. (Or at least it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.) The free, quick and easy way is the best place to start. Once you get the hang of creating an audio clip, you can spend a few more dollars if you want to and add a few bells and whistles.
This example starts with two notes from a music clip and then begins the story: The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold.
There’s a certain magic in hearing a book being read out loud. Hearing the author’s voice creates a connection between the author and the “reader” that printed words otherwise cannot.
Several free services allow you to simply record your voice over the phone or through a microphone. You can read aloud the first chapter of your book and simply post it to your website.
You can use a program such as Audacity and record your voice using the microphone on your computer. It may not be sterling quality, but for voice it will be good enough. Don’t worry about little hiccups in your reading; unless it is a serious cough attack, the listener will hardly notice and, in fact, it will make it more believable that it’s the author reading rather than a professional voice talent.
If you want to edit it, you can do that with Audacity easily. You can remove pauses as easily as you would change a misspelled word in your word processor.
At Wheatmark, our work with authors does not stop once their books are published. In fact that is just the beginning. That is why we place an emphasis on educating our authors about book marketing.