How to market your book online

[I, Brian]

So you get a publishing deal - great!

It doesn't matter whether it's self-publishing or traditional print publishing - we'll assume that you reached your goal - as the principles of marketing online apply the same in any instance.

So, what now?

First, comes the website.


The Website

Your website is your business presence online. And that's a very important point to underline.

Of course, you may not know very much about websites or how to build one, which may present a problem. If your serious about your work, you need to solve it in a business manner.

Far too often, new published writers get their mate Dave (or Davina, whoever), to build a website for them. This is a big no-no.

Sure, we live in a world where many people can build a webpage, and that includes your mate Dave. But we're not talking about building a webpage or a website - we're talking about building a business, and anchoring it on the internet at that.

If your mate Dave isn't already managing a very successful online business, he has no place in trying to build yours for you.

You need to get professional help on setting up online.

While there are plenty of companies out there who are willing to do so by charging you your entire advance, what you need to do first is find out what actual issues you need to address.

Luckily for you, there are business forums online where successful internet entrepreneurs who will be happy to help and provide advice - technical issues you need to watch for, the right questions you need to ask, and anything else you need to bear in mind to reach your website goals.

And just to help you get started, here's a couple of key tips:

1. Get your own domain

Why? It allows you control over your online identity, and also empowers you to host your own website. Think: brand identity. Make sure you register it yourself in your own name. For .uk domains, register here - for .com/.net/.org, register here.

2. Get a website built

It really doesn't have to cost the earth - there are also plenty of companies out there who will help set you up online simply and inexpensively.

3. Decide what additional features you want

Tip: You *don't* want a guestbook - it'll get filled with links to porn, viagra, and casino sites within a month.

Tip: If you're feeling adventurous and would like a forum, *don't* opt for phpbb just because it's free - likelihood is you'll get hacked by an Arab within a year, and there goes your site. If you're on a budget, get the free SMF forum - if you're really serious, spend money with vBulletin.


The Marketing

Let's assume you have the website up and running, giving you a platform for your internet presence.

Now comes the marketing.

At this point, lots of writers make a big mistake, and start joining forums and newsgroups to advertise their book.

This isn't marketing on a budget - this is forum spamming. And it's liable to get you a reputation for being an annoying dumb-ass.

No argument.

Let me let you in on a little secret - the internet is not simply a string a websites - it's a massive interconnecting community of people in itself, and websites are the nodes of communication between these communities.

Scenario: you're at the bar with a couple of friends, when a complete stranger runs up to you, interrupts your conversation, and tells you that they've written this genius book - then disappear again.

That's the real-world equivalent of forum spamming. Are you buying from them?

Now consider this: you're at the bar with a couple of friends, when another friend comes over, chats, then tells you about this great book they've read.

That's New Marketing.

If you're marketing on a budget, being able to set yourself up within communities who share an interest in the genre you've written for is a great start.

If your work is good, you start generating good referals and recommendations from people. This helps your sales platform, and for some, it can really snowball...over a couple of years.

By itself it's not going to be enough of a marketing method for most though. The painful truth is that, at some point - and if you are really serious about promoting your work - you're going to have to start parting with your cash.

There are a couple of key ways you can do this:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

If you got a good team to work on your website, it's already search engine friendly. Which is great, because search engines are one of the major methods people use to find information online. Increasing your visibility through SEO means increasing the likelihood of capturing new readers who were looking for something you happened to be able to provide.

However, be warned - there are some SEO practices that can get you wiped out from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. Make sure you know what these are before you let a single company talk you into overly-aggressive tactics.

Also, don't simply shop around on price - there are SEO companies out there who charge a fortune just because some people are stupid enough to pay that price, and there are others who charge peanuts and are only good for monkeys. Try and find a middle ground.


2. Pay Per Click (PPC)

Another way to market your site is PPC - those ads to the right of Google when you do a search.

On the one hand, it can be a great way to raise the profile of your website and book and gain yourself high-quality sales leads. PPC can be a very effective marketing process.

On the other, it can be a very fiddly process, and if you don't learn how to track sales conversions with keyword targeting, then you can end up burning money.

If you have a large enough PPC budget, it may be worth hiring a company to manage the account for you. Just ensure that if you do, you know what they're actually do for you. Some will claim to be able to halve your PPC budget - but all they do is switch your campaign on and off during the day. Seriously.


3. Advertising

Believe it or not, advertising is often a very inefficient way to generate sales. The margins are often poor, and sometimes advertising campaigns are created out of vanity than any real brand awareness exercise.

As with many above points, you're going to have to exercise some initiative here - not least in finding website with real traffic in your genre area that will actually convert to sales profitably.

It can be done, but try not to get carried away with too much too quickly - remember, you're not looking for your name on every second webpage, but an actual return on investment.



Conclusion

Forget the daydream where you simply sell on the brilliance of your talent - that's all it is - a daydream.

If you're serious about being a writer, you're going to have to treat it seriously as a business - that's if you want to aim to be as successful as possible.

That may seem daunting, but the same can be said for writing a book. You got this far - don't give up now.

So to end, here's a few simple business tips to help you with your writing business:

1. Be professional at all times - alienate your industry and readers at your peril;

2. Mind what you say in public - search engines can be your friend...or your enemy;

3. Have clear goals - what you think you can achieve, and how to achieve them;

4. Remain flexible - the internet is as changing as the sea, so learn to surf the waves;

5. Persevere - success is 10% innovation, and 90% perspiration - or something like that;

6. Track your spending - don't throw good money after bad, make sure you know what returns you're getting;

7. Keep it real - keep your imagination in storytelling, and be practical in your business dealings;

8. Good luck!

[kyektulu]

That is excellent advice Brian, thank you.

[the_faery_queen]

do you not think those payper click things can look desperate? i've seen some google adverts and they seem desperate. look at my book! do you think it will put people off?

and guestbook, well i have one, its moderated, so no spam for me! but yeah, most of it is sound advice, but all stuff i've done was hoping you'd have some new exiciting ideas for m! tho saying that, i may consider the pay per click when i have a bit more cash coming in. and definetly thanks for the forum links. its osmething i have been considering. tho i do get scared of trollish ness. but then, proper forums require logging in and emails and the rest, right?

thanks

[Marky Lazer]

Nice write up, Brian.

[I, Brian]

It's worth underlining that it's only a perspective from an internet marketing viewpoint - I wouldn't be surprised if Mark Robson has a different take on it from a publishing business point of view.

It's also worth pointing out that it's only a general overview - there's loads of avenues you could go with via SEO and advertising - I simply haven't been able to detail them all here.

As for PPC - I've seen some self-published authors really push on this. They often say something like "If you like XXX, then you'll enjoy XXX by XXX". However, whether they actually get much of a return on investment is another matter.

If it's any consolation, the PPC rate for SFF topics is pretty low - that's good for advertisers, but not so good for publishers.

The main thing I really wanted to get across is that simply joining online groups to advertise a new book or writing project is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. It's spamming, and it's badly received.

[the_faery_queen]

totally. that's one of my pet hates really. i guess cos before, i was jealous, and now, im like, well so do i! so saying, i hav a book out doesnt' interest me. i would read a book from someone i knew/had gotten to know. or someone who had a book out THEN i got to know them, but not someone who just shows off and then vanishes.

half the stuff i buy is because i know the author, have read their stuff before. so this is going to be no different. i'd buy a book based on knowing the author, just in a more actrual way this time, rather than through experience of their past stuff
or something.
if that makes sense?!

[I, Brian]

Yep - you're talking about viral marketing, but I figure that's getting a little more advanced.

[the_faery_queen]

im just glad i made sense!

[Teresa Edgerton]

I wonder how many books the viral marketing people sell by spamming really high-traffic sites, though? At a less specialized forum than this one, where thousands of people visit a day, how many people will read these messages before they get removed, people who are gullible enough to be favorably impressed by them?

Because I wonder about spam in general -- email in particular. All the people who try to get you to open their letter by pretending it's about something else altogether, or who get past your spam filters by deliberately misspelling words or on some other pretense? Isn't this directing their ads at the very people who don't even want the product? And mortgage lenders in particular. They expect you to have important financial dealings with them, when they've only attracted your attention in the first place by a trick as clumsy as it is dishonest? Yet someone must be responding favorably, or why do advertisers keep doing these things?

[dwndrgn]

I wondered about this same thing. Someone does respond. Since it is so cheap, they (the spammers) can easily send out millions of messages and if even less than 1 percent buys their product, it is cost effective. What I wonder is who is that one percent that were either fooled by the 'trick' or interested enough to buy from some outfit that would trick people into buying their product? Whoever they are, I wish they'd educate themselves and or limit themselves to brick & mortar shopping so that the spammers wouldn't get any profits at all and the need for spamming would go away. I'm tired of emails with the subject h*rbal v*agra or emails from Jennifer Chalmers and her "Importantmesage about your FreeGiftCertificate" all misspelled and typed up incorrectly and just plain annoying.

[Jeremy]

Thanks, Brian, for all the great advice. Personally I never had any desire to purchase books advertised by the author in a forum like this. I am very susceptible to the "hype" that a book is receiving. The books that I often considered buying were those on the best-seller lists, heavily advertised, or displayed prominently in bookstores. There were exceptions, but they were rare. I bought the last two Harry Potter books the first day they were available, even though I still haven't finished either of them. It took all my will power to resist the temptation to buy Eldest by Paolini. I think I am similar to the vast majority of book consumers out there. The moral for me, someone who dreams of becoming famous as a writer, is that I should focus all my energy and resources in finding a good agent, who will hopefully in turn find a big publisher that will spend heavily in advertising. Those are just dreams at this stage.

[the_faery_queen]

problem is, jeremy, not everyone can make it big onto the bestsellers, and these days, many publishers want epopel to promote their own books. so this way is going to be done far more often it hink. but i agree with you, i have yet to buy a book not in a bookshop or not by a well known person, because im a bit fussy and nervy. but my friend's book is coming out soon, and so that will be my first shot in small print purchses and i think, as mine is coming out the same way, that i should encourage more epople to take a chance on the self marketted things

and yeah, i always wondered if the spam ever worked. it must, right, or they wouodn't bother doing it? i know scams work sometimes, andi think, how, those people must be crazy to fall for those things. *shrug* it doesn't work on me, tho. because i tend to deliberately avoid anything that is spammy just on principle/

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

The moral for me, someone who dreams of becoming famous as a writer, is that I should focus all my energy and resources in finding a good agent, who will hopefully in turn find a big publisher that will spend heavily in advertising.

Sadly, Jeremy, it rarely works that way. What usually happens is that first the book or the author makes a big splash, and then the publisher spends heavily on advertising. Even then, it's less a case of the publisher trying to convince us as readers that we want what they have than an announcement that they have what we want.

In fact, the opportunities for fiction writers -- and particularly writers of genre fiction -- to promote our works have been, traditionally, very few. Oprah is never going to choose our books for her book club, and unless we become international best sellers first network talk shows are not going to book us as guests.

The thing about online advertising and promotion is that it's still comparatively new. It may offer us opportunities that we never had before. Or it may turn out to be the same thing all over again. We don't know yet, and we'd be foolish not to make the effort. It might also be that methods that were effective for a time may eventually cease to work at all. For instance with viral marketing, as people become more aware they're less likely to fall for some of the ploys. We get so much of it here, those of us who spend a great deal of time on this forum have learned to recognize it, often before we've finished reading the first sentence.

There may be other methods effective now that won't be effective next month or next year. We need to figure out what those methods are and use them while we still can, and not waste our time on other things that won't work.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Kelpie

I wonder how many books the viral marketing people sell by spamming really high-traffic sites, though? At a less specialized forum than this one, where thousands of people visit a day, how many people will read these messages before they get removed, people who are gullible enough to be favorably impressed by them?

Very little - as mentioned, people are especially interested in buying via recommendations. People hardly ever respond to the forum spamming we get here (and my other forums) so I don't believe there's any reason to believe it's a very effective method, regardless of traffic. Not enough to make a significant impression on sales. Added to that, most big forums are moderated anyway, so the forum is generally short-lived.

[Robert M. Blevins]

Some POD companies are getting better. Not those ripoff publish-your-ms outfits, I mean companies who can print/ship/track a book for you, even collect your payments and split royalties with a second author.

Lulu.com is one of the better ones. Of course, the best printer is probably Lightning Source, and they certainly are the cheapest. To use LS you had better know how to properly format for print, or it won't work. Research pays off here, plus some Adobe software.

Lulu is easier and provides more in-house services, a rating system based on paid sales, the extensive forums, free storefront (no paid premium storefront stuff here) and they have several shipping options, including FREE.

For example, at our modest press here in Seattle, when we use lulu.com to print and ship books, we can produce a six-by-nine inch paperback that retails for just under 10usd each, and THAT INCLUDES A GENEROUS ROYALTY. Lulu does practically every print format and size imaginable, at a workable price. Bulk discounts are generous. Staff is great.

On a personal note, they also pay royalties promptly. PayPal is every month, checks are quarterly, your choice.

Our favorite printer is definitely Lightning Source, though. They are good and print at wholesale rates. Study up before you use them. They also have minimum print runs...they won't do just one copy, usually.

Do NOT go to CafePress to have a book printed. They are smaller, of lower quality and cost one cent more per page, adding say...three dollars to the cost of a three hundred page novel. They do t-shirts and mugs at CafePress very well. Books? Well...