Excerpted from: 90+ Days of Promoting Your Book Online

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IF YOU’RE JUST TUNING IN, please start on PART 1 RIGHT HERE .

IMPORTANT NOTE
“+”
When you see a + next to any specific day in the book, it indicates an ongoing marketing activity, one that you’ll need to perform repeatedly while you continue to promote your book. Please refer to the chapter titled “AFTER 90 DAYS: YOUR BOOK’S DAILY MARKETING PLAN” for a recommend schedule of these ongoing marketing activities.

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Day 12: Finding the Keywords Your Potential Readers Are Really Using Online by Richard Hoy

Keywords are topic-specific descriptions (single words and phrases) that generate the results people see when they use a search box on a website. Keywords and phrases are among the most vital tools you will use in your online marketing activities. You must be certain you are using the right ones.

Do you think you’re using the best keywords and phrases for your book in your marketing efforts? You might be surprised to learn that the majority of people who may be interested in a book like yours might be using different keywords.

There are several nifty online tools that can help you find the most common search terms on your book’s topic.

Here’s an example:
These are the top marketing phrases Angela originally came up with for her book, DON’T CUT ME AGAIN! True Stories About Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC):

vbac
vaginal birth after cesarean
c-section
cesarean section
repeat cesarean section

Angela was pretty surprised to learn that, when I plugged her main keyword, VBAC, into the site, this is what popped up:

Count   Search Term

90,500   after c section
49,500   vbac
33,100   vaginal birth
22,200   after cesarean
8,100     vaginal birth after
4,400     after cesarean section
2,900     after a cesarean
720        vbac success

When I typed her number two choice, vaginal birth after cesarean, into the site, a whole other list of keywords and phrases appeared, none of which were on her list. The number before each phrase is the number of times that phrase was searched on during the previous month.

For your book, focus on the niche topics. For example, entering “vbac” in Google.com yields about 1.5 million results. There’s very little chance Angela’s website/book excerpt/ezine will come up near the top of the search results just using that term. There’s just way too much competition.

However, the phrase “vbac success” has far fewer results on Google.com. She stands a much better chance of coming up in the search results with content on that specific phrase. The gears in your head should be turning at this point. Ask yourself: What words or phrases should I really be using on my website, in my ezine or blog, on the web pages that describe my book, and in my other online marketing activities?

___ DAY 12
Go to this keyword research tool:
https://www.wordtracker.com

Enter a word or phrase and see what related keywords come up. After doing what I did above, and determining your own most effective keywords and phrases, add them to your website’s metadata, and save them for your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet, which is covered in the next chapter.

NOTE: You can also enter the phrase “Keyword Research Tool” in your favorite search engine to come up with other services and options for performing this research.

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Days 13–20: Your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet by Angela Hoy

You will need several different text-based items when promoting your book online. To avoid jumping all over your computer looking for this, that, or the other, it’s a good idea to create a Book Marketing Cheat Sheet for each of your books. Your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet should be a text-only document with no fancy formatting. This will prevent you from creating unnecessary symbols when copying and pasting into other people’s websites.

Below is the information you should include in your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet.

___ Day 13
Create a new text file (your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet).

Different websites have different limits on the amount of content you can post. You’re going to need three descriptions of your book, all at varying lengths. Write and then edit a Long Description of your book (up to 500 words). Add it to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet.

___ Day 14
Re-read your 500-word description from yesterday with fresh eyes. Make any necessary changes, and do a final edit.

You’ll now need to use that long description to create a shorter one. Copy and paste another copy of your 500-word description onto a new page in your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet. Start cutting that down (editing) to Create a Medium Description of your book (up to 300 words).

Once you’re finished with that, edit it one last time, and then copy and paste another copy of your 300-word description onto a new page in your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet File. Just like above, start cutting that down (editing) to Create a Short Description of your book (up to 150 words).

Create a blurb (a very short description of less than 20 words)

Edit all of these one last time to ensure they are perfect.

Author Comment
An Author Comment (this is what Amazon.com calls it) is a personal message, in first person, from you, the author, to the potential reader concerning your book. We usually use a short version of the introduction of a book for this, provided it doesn’t exceed 250 words.

___ Day 15
Write and edit your Author Comment (up to 250 words) and add it to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet.

Author Bios
Many sites allow authors to post their biographies on pages where their book is featured. Although some, like Amazon, allow you to write quite a bit, others only allow a very short post.

___ Day 16
Write a Long Author Bio (up to 500 words).

Write a Short Author Bio (one short paragraph).

Add these to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet. Table of Contents and Back Cover Text

Many sites also allow authors to post their table of contents and back cover text online.

___ Day 17
If your book has a Table of Contents, copy and paste it into your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet…but remember to remove the page numbers because it will look silly if you include those on other websites.

Add the back cover text from your book to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet.

Keywords
Please refer back to the previous chapter before completing this section.

If you were using a search engine to look for a book like yours, what keywords would you type in? You’ll need different sets of keywords for posting to different websites online, as well as for your own marketing activities when searching for places online that might be able to help you promote your book.

Need some help? Who are your major competitors? What keywords are they using on their own websites or in their online bookstore pages? To find this information, go to the web page in question, right click on your mouse, and click View Source or View Page Source. You may need to click a bit to find the Source option in your browser.

___ Day 18
Make a Primary, Short List of Keywords (up to 5 words/phrases) that are the ones you believe people will use most when searching for a book like yours.

Make a Secondary List of Keywords (10 additional words/phrases). Make a Third List of Keywords (10 more words/phrases).

Add all of these to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet.

Excerpts from Book Reviews/Comments
Unless you have obtained written permission from the author of a book review, you can’t post/publish their review in its entirety anywhere. You need to obtain written permission from the actual reviewer and/or from the website or publication where that review appears, depending on who owns the copyright to the review. Although many reviewers are happy to allow authors this courtesy, some are working for publications. Those companies might own the rights to the book reviews they pay writers to produce.

Under Fair Use Copyright Law, you can quote briefly from copyrighted material, provided you cite the source.

You will probably receive fan mail from readers. When you receive a nice comment (even from family and friends who have read your book), thank the reader, and ask whether you can quote them in your marketing materials. The vast majority will be happy to let you do so but you should offer them the option of only using their first initial and last name, their first name and last initial, or just simply initials in the event they desire anonymity.

___ Day 19
Add two sections to your Marketing Cheat Sheet: Book Reviews and Reader Comments. Start pasting these review excerpts and comments into your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet in this format when they become available:

Book Review:

“Excerpted comments from book review.”

– Name of reviewer, Title, Publication/Website

or

Reader Comment:

“Comment about book.”

– Name of reader, City, State

Bookmarks (no, not the printed kind)

You’re going to be participating in quite a few online discussions while promoting your book and you need to remember where these discussions are taking place. Whatever you do, don’t drop into a discussion, post something, and then disappear forever. This can hurt your credibility and may make it appear you just dropped by to spam the group/blog/publication.

Although some websites will notify you by email when somebody responds to one of your posts, not all do, and spam filters might eat some of the automated messages coming your way.

Furthermore, the “bookmarks” in your web browser might not be saved if you have a computer crash.

___ Day 20
Add a “Bookmarks” section to your Book Marketing Cheat Sheet, and start copying and pasting the URLs of ongoing discussions you are participating in during your online marketing activities.

NEXT TIME: Using a variety of promotional “signatures” in your marketing efforts, and creating your free book excerpt!

RELATED:

• Can You Republish Amazon Reviews? Maybe, or Maybe Not…
• More Book Marketing Advice!
• Marketing to Bookstores – Still a Waste of Time?
• How to Sell Books on Consignment to Bookstores and Other Retailers
• Do NOT Sneak Your Self-Published Book Onto Bookstore Shelves! 
• How to Go Broke AFTER You Publish Your Book! (Hint: Buy your publisher’s worthless marketing products and services…)

Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)

See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.

ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy

BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks

ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750

ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/

Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/

Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE

90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy

Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.

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