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Like many products, the selling of books is being made online in huge quantities. Rather than going to libraries or physical bookstores, the number of people buying books online is increasing day by day.
Almost all people, especially the young generation readers prefer to look for books online. Hence, the matter of online book promotion is also getting ever-increasing importance.
Without online book promotion, the sales of your creative pieces are possible today.
7 Effective Ideas for Online Books Promotion
Here are some techniques by which you can promote books online effectively.
1. Making strategies ahead of time
The first important thing for online book promotion is to make strategies. However, the tendency of skipping this part is visible a lot.
Many book marketing activities go in physical places as they aren’t linear. Indeed, the case of book marketing requires making plans and project management sense to set goals.
In addition, it’s needed to figure out the best marketing tools, and decide what to do first. You’ve to decide on your first doing list by analyzing the market.
Observing various factors of the market, and making calculations and estimation, you have to decide your strategies, i.e., by which you would do the job of online book promotion successfully.
2. Create an author website
Is it necessary to launch the author’s website before the publication of the book? Surely, it’s needed for online book promotion. You can launch it even before finishing writing the book. By placing your current write-ups on the blog, you can invite your future readers and fans to go through your writings.
Besides the blog writing, include your biography on the site, along with featuring your book cover on the home page after finalizing the cover design. A synopsis of the book is needed to be added there. Include endorsements, reviews, book launch events, and social media links.
In addition to a blog, include your bio. Feature your book cover on the home page after getting the cover finalized, along with a synopsis of the book. Then, add endorsements, reviews, book launch events, photos, news, and links to social media.
3. Building an author platform to remain ahead of publication
The author platform is a collection of people who would value your name and expertise, and with whom you communicate regularly. In addition, the chance of making them purchase your books increase.
The author platform is online-based and exists over several other platforms, where people can connect with you. It can be your blog, Goodreads or Amazon page, social media, webinars, online live and so more.
If you’re an entrepreneur or professional, offline communities like your client base and audiences at speaking engagements and conferences are also part of the author platform.
The idea of connecting with the readers online is good as you can maintain that connection and let them know your latest writing works. Put a sign-up sheet at your event and collect business cards. Follow influential customers on social media.
Once your author platform is completed, then your turn to communicate with the audience during the book launch time. How you can do that? You can do it by 3:3:3 Book launch plan that has detailed instructions on how to:
- Identify 3 audience
- Making a strategy of 3 rounds of contact with the audience
- Craft 3 messages for each round of contact customized for everyone.
By focusing on the 3:3:3 strategy, authors, in the best way, can concentrate on the audience that would help them with online book promotion. Using it, you can quickly strategize how and when to contact each audience.
That means authors can stay organized and avoid losing records of the senders’ identifications, sending time, and sending procedures of the emails or social media messages.
Limiting to three messages means the authors can focus on delivering 3 well-written messages that are targeted at customers with high potential rather than innumerable emails and posts that don’t bring up fruitful results.
4. Becoming Active on social media
In today’s time and world, you can’t deny the contribution of social media to our life. Therefore, social media is also part of building the author platform.
Online book promotion is just like the creation of an ecosystem within which your books can wade ahead. Social media, your website, Amazon, and other online retailers are surely part of this system.
In this ecosystem, your audiences live and you can hope they will consume your books.
Many authors wonder where to start, what to say, and how many posts they’d give on social media.
It’s not a place where you’d only give your family picture and food photo; rather, for a long time, it has become a very strong weapon in marketing. People are really interested in your story.
They want to know your identity, your activities, and your capabilities. So, be real, be genuine, and be yourself. It’s the best part of online book promotion.
The matter is it’s okay to be active on only a few selected media. It can be chosen according to your preferences, your comfort of using or thinking about what could be the best media for your books.
For instance, if you like to show photos, then Pinterest or Instagram would be best for you. If you like to write along with providing photos, Facebook would do well for you. If you write a business-related book, then go to LinkedIn.
To find your voice in social media you can start by following other authors or public figures. For example, Elizabeth Gilbert likes to blog on Facebook. She’s turned her Facebook page into a blog. It sounds really great.
5. Establish your keywords and maximize SEO
As you’re in the ocean of the internet, make sure people find you in these countless patterns of the tide. Establishing the right keywords and maximizing SEO are must-needed things for online book promotion these days.
Fixing the right title on both Amazon and IngramSpark is necessary to make your books available both for ordering and print-on-demand. At the time of setting up the title, you’d be asked about in what categories you want your to be included.
Besides, what keywords to use in your books more searchable is equally important. Thinking and researching mean a lot of consideration is needed here. Selecting the right title and words is very, very important.
Keywords can be included in your writing and its title, in the photos you provide with the text along in other strategic places on your website.
6. Setting up a book and author pages like Amazon’s
If someone thinks of buying your books, then, first of all, they would go to your Amazon.com page. You should consider the Amazon book page as your best chance to tease potential readers, as an integral part of online book promotion. Through it, you can tell them why they’d buy your books.
Amazon’s book page gives you the facility to say a lot about your book. It may include editorial reviews, which are much different from readers’ reviews. You can endorse them with Amazon and put them under editorial reviews.
Through the ‘Look Inside’ option you have the facility to provide the chance for the readers to view some parts of your writings. And of course, there are readers’ reviews.
Try to get as many reviews as you can. If other readers recommend a book, then people inspire to get a copy of that. How would you make it successfully?
Ask your readers to leave reviews on your Amazon.com page. One idea involving the least technology is to include printed bookmarks in copies of your books that you give away that’d ask readers for review.
If the system doesn’t work properly, then be proactive– Ask your friends and family members to give reviews. They can use nicknames, instead of giving reviews with their own name.
Finally, accessing through author central of Amazon, you should set your author page. Then, your book will automatically get linked with your author page. You can add your bio, relevant videos, and blog feed links to your author page.
7. Content– The foremost important thing
After finishing the writing for your marketing elements, think about it. Have you done it completely or are you satisfied with it? Developing content is the most important part of your ongoing online book promotion.
What should be included in your content? Here you can include a weekly or fortnightly blog, video clips, photos on social media, and podcasts.
Depending on your goal and genre, you can also upload or put secondary content on your website. You can also offer downloadable content.
For instance, if your book is about web development, you can create useful content for the readers that can be downloaded from your website and publicized on social media.
In return for providing something valuable, you should have the chance to collect the email address of potential customers. This email list can contribute to connecting or reaching a good customer base for your product,i.e.’ the book.
Last Words
Always remember that your online book promotion is not a static but always dynamic job. You have to revise and re-energize it regularly. So, start right now and be your own marketer.
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