Why social networking book sites are (almost) as important as Facebook

Posted on by Gretchen

It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of Facebook. With over 600 million users worldwide it is by far the largest social networking site in the world and as Gretchen points out in her last post “probably the most important tool for first-time authors”. I couldn’t agree more. However, Facebook isn’t the only social networking site authors should be paying attention to.

Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari are three large social networking book sites that authors need to make sure they have a presence on. These sites are important because they are filled with avid readers–booksellers, librarians, book bloggers, teachers, and fellow authors. They’re the readers who talk about books most and will spread the word by posting, tweeting, and reviewing your book online and recommending it to their friends, customers, and colleagues off line. They are buzzmakers who can help catapult your book to the best sellers list.

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Facebook is an Author’s Best Friend

Posted on by Gretchen

A lot of authors I’ve talked to have poured money into their author websites. The cost of building a website varies widely and can run anywhere from $800 to $10,000. One author I know complained bitterly to me at a dinner party that he put up an expensive website a couple of years ago, spent hours creating content for it, and over the lifetime of the site, it’s only had 900 visits.

It’s really no wonder. How is your audience supposed to find you buried under a mountain of SEO’ed websites and other garbage on the internet. As Dee Dee likes to say, building a regular website these days is like opening a bricks and mortar store in the middle of the woods.

There is an answer to this problem. Put up a very simple website (with a blog) and plow the real money into a custom Facebook page.

In a previous post I mentioned that social media is safe haven in an ocean of risk. Facebook is probably the most important tool for first-time authors but it’s also crucial for authors who want to have a robust career going forward. We’ll show you what we mean.
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The Importance of Pre-ordering

Posted on by Gretchen

We always get asked, “When is the ideal time to start a publicity campaign?” And we really only have one answer to that: “Yesterday.” As nerve-wracking as it sounds, it’s the way of the world today. There is always something you could be doing to make sure that your book launch will be a success, whether it’s blogging, increasing your visibility on social media, or building buzz for your forthcoming book online. But surprisingly, there are really smart, experienced publishers who believe everything should wait until the book goes on sale.

When we worked for big publishers there were a few rules that seemed to be handed down over generations to publicists. One of them was that you never want any publicity to hit before books are available “in stores”. In fact, I was just in a meeting at a large publishing house the other day where I heard this repeated to me by a marketing director.

But these days a large and growing number of books are not purchased in stores, they’re purchased online. In our last post, we talked about the incredible market power of Amazon where books are purchased in a matter of clicks WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE EVEN IN STORES YET. It’s called pre-ordering and it’s a beautiful thing.
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The Top 5 Ways Authors Can Use Amazon to Market Their Books

Posted on by Gretchen

Amazon is the largest e-commerce site in the United States, racking up 90 million visitors per month. Of course, now you can buy almost anything on Amazon, but they started out with books.  Amazon and traditional publishers have an uneasy relationship because Amazon has so much market power. They routinely undercut other retailers on prices and have more customer data than any other retailer.  They know exactly what you like because they keep track of everything you buy.  As an author, it’s a dream to think you could tap into that data to market your own book.

At least it was a dream.  Amazon has been slowly offering access to authors to it’s platform and its sales data. It is now an outlet for authors to act as their own publisher (á la Seth Godin, the first author to use Amazon’s new “Powered by Amazon” publishing program), track their own sales, and interact with and grow a dedicated fan base of readers, who are just clicks away from becoming consumers.

Whether you’re ready to try your hand at self-publishing or you’re happy sticking to the traditional publishing model, here’s a list of the 5 things every author needs to start doing on Amazon today.

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Shattering the Paradigm of Book Publicity

Posted on by Gretchen

We are all learning how to leverage the newest technology to further the conversation about great books and ideas. But unlike authors who are busy writing and creating those ideas (we hope), we’re obsessed with new technologies and strategies for promoting books.

The digital revolution has been wide and deep. One of our favorite clients, Larry Kramer, the author of C-Scape, says the internet was the biggest jump in the democratization of information since Gutenberg invented the printing press. We agree. Continue reading ›