Most writers are aware that using Twitter and Facebook, and advertising on their own web sites, are effective ways to get your name, message and materials to a great number of people. However, there are other avenues to work with.
There are three areas that have proved very profitable to me in marketing my books. See if they might work for you as well.
One of my books, Ready, Click, Win, discusses how to find, enter and win online sweepstakes. An obvious route to promote this book became easily apparent: Create a monthly sweepstakes where people enter to potentially win this book. I took it a step further and offered my other book, The Book of Affirmations, as its own monthly sweep.
So that people wouldn’t just wait and see if they won the book (and not purchase it right away), I also put in the rules that if they purchased the book and then won it, they could provide proof of purchase and they’d receive their money back.
The sales of my books easily tripled. Not only were sales occurring on Amazon and BarnesandNoble, but I got personal sales from people wanting signed books (and a bit of my luck for winning sprinkled in as well).
I decided to test my different marketing avenues, and discontinued my book sweepstakes one month. My sales plummeted. I started it up again the following month, and they rose again.
It’s easy to create a sweepstakes and you can do it various ways. I created my form-filling sweep through Bravenet, then put links on my web site for people to find and enter. Don’t forget to notify the most popular Sweepstakes Sites, which you can Google. My favorite is Sweepstakes Advantage. They then do much of the promoting for you.
Once the entrant fills out the short form (you can set up the form to gather any information you choose), the information is bounced to Bravenet, then comes directly to me, via my email address. I can then organize the information as I see fit. Some people even use this information to create mailing lists to send out printed, brochures, postcards of their seminars, and the like.
Another building block of marketing for me has involved Email Projects. I offer to send a bulk email (opt-in only, of course!) to each participant, every day, on the subject at hand. The one that is working the best for me right now is regarding weight loss. I have a sign-up form created through PayPal, and once they pay their $15 (the price of my projects is going to triple soon), I receive their information from PayPal, and add them to my email group list.
I send out an email every day for a specified period (30-90 days, etc.) to the entire group. My weight loss email group receives: motivation, self-discovery questions, affirmations (ties in with my affirmation book) and progress on my own weight loss journey.
If, by some chance you’re not using Twitter, Facebook and other such sites, of course stop reading this article and immediately go and create your identity there. We also chose to create a personalized background for Twitter, which talks about my books and other projects in which I’m involved. That way, when people decide whether or not to follow me on Twitter, they’ve already gotten some of my marketing information.
You can check out my Twitter, articles, radio interviews and other projects on my web site: https://www.unleashedminds.com
Check out my Sweepstakes page as well, where I offer people proof of many of my wins. It’s easier to get someone to believe they can really use my sweepstakes book to win online sweepstakes if I SHOW them my winning screen shots and pictures of my wins.
If you’re a non-fiction writer, any proof that you know what you’re talking about that you can show on your web site is obviously helpful to the reader.
I’d love to have you follow me on Twitter and, if you let me know you’re a fellow BookLocker author, I’ll be sure and include you in my Follow Friday lists, which will get you to a wider audience as well.
Start to figure out your building block marketing today and you’ll find your sales begin to grow in no time.
Sharon Elaine is the author of several self-help books published in America, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Her popular book, The Book of Affirmations has over 5,000 categorized affirmations which readers use to manifest their ideal life. She continues to enter sweepstakes daily and has a constant stream of wins. Ready, Click, Win teaches readers how to find legitimate online sweepstakes. You can find Sharon at https://www.unleashedminds.com and at https://www.twitter.com/unleashedminds.
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