Mystery Books
Mysteries
Contests, Games
Other Mystery
rtcles
on writing and self-publishing mystery books collected by Self-Publish
Mysteries.
Brent Sampson
Top 5 Book Selling Tips
Every author wants to be a bestseller. Here are an expert's five easy tips on selling your book faster and smarter.
TIP # 1 Online reviews are paramount in importance when it comes to
drawing attention to your book. And the best part is, you're in control
of your own destiny! If you haven't yet submitted your own review on
sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, what are you waiting for?
This should be one of the first steps for every published author.
Encourage other family members and friends to review the book, too.
They're inclined to be more generous than perfect strangers, but don't
underestimate the effect of any honest review. Published reviews on
sites like Amazon, Barnes &Noble, and the many other sites
Outskirts Press books appear demonstrates interest in your book. And
that's a good thing! Post a review for your book today, and ask others
to do likewise.
TIP #2 Enhance your online listing with Amazon.com by participating in their "Search Inside the Book Program."
Sign up to join this revolutionary new way to merchandise your book on
Amazon.com. When customers search for books on Amazon.com, actual words
from inside your book -- not just the author or title -- are engaged to
return the best possible matches. With this powerful new search
feature, customers can discover books that may never have surfaced in
previous search results!
With "Search Inside the Book," customers can also browse sample pages
and do additional searches inside a particular book to confirm that the
title is just what they're looking for. All of this helps authors like
you sell more books.
Once you sign Amazon's Publisher Participation Agreement and are
accepted into the program, you will need to provide Amazon.com with a
physical copy of each book you would like to include in the program.
TIP #3 Become an "expert" in your field and book sales will follow.
It's true that promoting a book requires a great amount of resolve, but
it is also true that working smarter, rather than harder, can help reap
those rewards.
By projecting yourself as an "expert" in the genre in which you write,
you can open new doors for networking, doors that often remain shut
without that expertise status.
How does one go about making himself or herself an expert? Easy! You
already are one. The name on your published book proves it. Now just
use that book as a calling card to line-up speaking engagements,
freelance writing gigs, and other opportunities at a variety of venues.
Two good places to begin are AOL and the ABOUT.COM information network.
Both have category-specific forums in which you can participate, and by
mentioning that you are the "Author of such-and-such" within the scope
of your communication, you begin to label yourself as an expert to
fellow participants. Being recognized as an expert in a technical or
"non-fiction" category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective
category of "fiction expert" but even if you have written a work of
fiction, becoming a recognized expert is conceivable.
Whether you've penned poetry, horror, or romance, there is a forum in
which to voice your opinion. The Internet is full of chat rooms, use
groups, genre-sites, and more -- all thirsty for content from published
writers. You just have to know where to look. Start selling books
tomorrow by being an expert today.
TIP #4 "Pay For Performance" internet advertising is making big waves
lately. While most search engines feature such sponsored links, there
are currently only a number of engines providing the back-end
technology, and of those, only one serves the majority of search
engines used by the public: Overture.
The way pay-for-performance (or p4p) works is simple. You bid on search
terms (either words or phrases or a combination of both). Your webpage
link then appears in search engine results relative to the price of the
bid. If you're the highest bidder, your webpage appears at the absolute
TOP of many search engines. Remember the frustration of typing in a
search for your webpage and never finding your link? No longer!
But that's not even the best part. The best part is this -- you only
pay if someone actually clicks on your link. And since you've defined
the search term, the people clicking on your link are already
predisposed toward your subject. In essence, they're already pre-sold.
Let's look at an example. Say you've published a mystery novel about
the death of a land baron in Louisiana. Not exactly a new plot, and yet
millions of "whodunit" readers would be anxious to read it. Your
solution? Open an Overture account and bid on search terms like
"Louisiana Mystery Novel" and "Mystery Book Plantation" and similar
terms. Counter-intuitively, the more vague the term, the better, since
very specific searches deliver very motivated buyers to your page, and
since you're paying for each click, you want those people to buy!
That brings us to the down-side. You have to be very careful managing
your bids, or it can be expensive. Do not bid on ridiculously vague and
popular words like "book" because you will never recoup your money.
Instead, focus your search terms as specifically as possible.
If you've been clamoring for more traffic to your free Outskirts Press
webpage, Overture may be just your ticket. To sign-up, click below.
They'll even give you a $10 credit to begin.
Visit Overture at their website for more information. Tip #5
Use ebooks to help promote and sell your paperback or hardback edition.
Think of e-books as a teaser. With a lower purchase price and more
immediate gratification, many people are inclined to give an e-book a
try when they might pass on a traditional paperback. Furthermore, if
they like the e-book, 80% of people end up purchasing the "real" book,
too!
There are three schools of thought concerning the way in which e-books
should be sold. 1 - Some believe that e-books should have a very low
purchase price, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00 for the entire
book. 2 - Other believe that e-books should only contain excerpts, or
sample chapters of the full book, and that they should be provided for
free. 3 - Still others believe that e-books best serve their purpose
when the entire e-book is given away. This encourages word of mouth
about the author and the book, which in turn helps support additional
book sales and really shows dividends when a subsequent book is
published by the same author.
Whichever course you follow, there is little doubt that e-books are
beneficial to your promotion efforts. If you don't yet have an e-book,
what are you waiting for?
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About The Author
Brent Sampson is the President and CEO of Outskirts Press Publishing, and author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Published Writer.
