Level 2. I Can Go a Little Bigger and Make a Little More Effort

Level 2. Is for authors that want to do a little more effort. They are willing to spend a little money and maybe set up a small website or Facebook book page. They are also willing to turn their smart phone on and speak into it to make an announcement video. Remember to review the step from the previous Level 1 post.

Before Releasing
•    Register a URL for your name.

•    Build an author blog or website, you can do this on Google’s Blogger platform, it is free.

•    Create your One Sheet, post on your website. This is your resume but more sales focused.

•    Register with an e-mail marketing service like AWeber.com, Mail Chimp.com or similar, start building an e-mail list of fans and buyers.

•    Add an e-mail sign up box on your blog or website.

•    Create a lead magnet from your book content and use it as a thank you gift for subscribers to your list, such as a sample chapter, a video series, pdf report, series of e-mail auto-responder lessons.

•    Work on building your author platform; bring these people into your mailing list.

•    Research the main influencers in your market, make a master link.

•    Build your Top 20 influencers and connect with them where they hang out.

•    Build up a network of related blogs and websites that you can connect with and then use when it comes to launch time. Relationships need time and energy to build.

Releasing/Launch
•    Build your online media kit for promotion and interviews.

•    Conduct a simple book launch, pick a date and e-mail your platform.

•    Create a book announcement video and post it on YouTube, Facebook and your other social media platforms, including your author blog.

•    Use a paid PR service like PRWeb and send out a press release for your book.

•    Post on your social media accounts, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, be sure to link back to your website or blog. Actually be always doing this.

Build a Media Kit
•    Build a media kit for promotion and interviews, this can be on your computer and your website.

•    Make up jpg format book cover images in 3 sizes for marketing and posting, 2”, 4” and 6”, 300 dpi and 72 dpi. Your cover designer can give you these.

•    Make a promo picture of yourself holding your book cover, preferable near your head, also several without the book.

•    Prepare 50, 150-200 and 500 word bios and book descriptions with details you can have ready for promotion, interviews, blog posts.


After Releasing
•    Put a graphic of your book cover on your website and connect it to the book’s Amazon sales page, use an affiliate link.

•    Give away free pdf copies of your book for fans, reviews and press.

•    Publish books on both Kindle and CreateSpace/Amazon

•    Set up an Amazon affiliate account and post affiliated links to your website, Facebook and Twitter, really anywhere that you can

•    Connect with local press and media for the local story.

•    Build out a list of retail locations where you can speak and sell your book.

•    Build out a list of potential speaking opportunities; start connecting with these people, organizations and locations.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

Level 1. Marketing My Book with Little Effort and $0 Dollars

Level 1. Is for authors who really don’t want to do anything. They don’t want to spend money, they don’t want to post or blog or make videos or contact podcasters or anything. They just want to hit the publish button and somehow the book sells itself. Level 1 are my recommendations for those folks. You would be surprised, these are most of the authors I meet. They want book launch success but aren't really into all the internet marketing efforts that are usually needed. That is ok, here is my plan for getting your book launched.
 
Before Releasing
•    Be sure your book is edited and has a final proof read, twice if possible. Nothing will create a bad review more than bad grammar and spelling.

•    Create a good descriptive table of contents, these are your books main benefits. They are also very useful for the back cover.

•    Research your title and subtitle, do your readers know what the book is about. Don’t fall in love with your title, it might be wrong.

•    Add your web or Amazon Author Central address on the title page. If you are making a Kindle book make it a live http link.

•    Have a good, clear cover designed. Make sure the cover is readable at thumbnail size. This is the size we usually see when we do a search on Amazon. Elements: title, subtitle, author name, maybe a short quote, maybe benefits, good cover art.

•    If releasing a paperback book have an effective back cover. Elements: title, description, maybe a quote, benefits (Could be your Table of Contents), author picture, author bio, contact info, room for ISBN number.

•    Promote your next book in the back of your current book. Drop in the first chapter of the next book, add your bio, how about yours services or that you speak and how to contact you.

•    Set up your social media accounts, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, Slideshare, SnapChat, Twitter, etc

•    Start releasing content around your subject and from your book as early as you can. Pick 1-3 sites to focus on.

Releasing/Launch
•    Pre-announce that you have a book coming out on your social media platforms. If you have other mailing lists then pre-announce on those also.

•    Announce a release date for your book on your social media. Picking a date really helps give you focus.

•    Announce the book release on your social media platforms with live links to the Amazon sales page.

•    Update all bios on your social media sites with your current book information; include links to Amazon for your book if possible.

•    Fill out your Amazon Author Central Account.

•    Link your book to your Author Central Page.

•    Take advantage of what Kindle and CreateSpace.com offers for programs.

Build a Media Kit
•    Build a basic Author Media Kit for promotion and interviews, this can be on your computer or your website. See more on setting up your own Author Media Kit in my post on how build one.

•    Make up jpg format book cover images in 3 sizes for marketing and posting, 2”, 4” and 6”, 300 dpi and 72 dpi. Your cover designer can give you these, make it part of the cover project.

•    Make up a picture of yourself holding your book cover, preferable near your head, this can be as simple as a selfie.

•    Prepare 50, 150-200 and 500 word bios and book descriptions with details you can have ready for promotion, interviews, blog posts.

After Releasing
•    Use the Amazon sales page social media links to post about your book.

•    Ask for Amazon reviews in your posts.

•    Write and send out a press release on several of the free or paid PR sites.

•    Add your book title and link to your e-mail signature line.

•    Let every company, organization, or association you are part of know about your new book, especially if they have a newsletter.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

A Launch Action Plan for All Levels of Authors

In Part One of Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing I broke down and wrote about specific steps that you can take to market your book. Each chapter gives you a checklist of tasks or ideas. Part 2 takes a different approach. One of the most common questions I get asked is “What Now?” what should I do, usually right after the author has published their book on Amazon. How do I launch my book. Most authors I meet aren’t into being marketers, they just want to write and publish their book and then that is it. “It was hard enough writing the book, now I have to market, what is that all about?” I have broken Part Two down into three sections or levels. Each level is covered in a upcoming post and can be used to launch your book.

Level 1. Is for authors that don’t want to do anything. They don’t want to spend money, they don’t want to post or blog or make videos or contact podcasters or anything. They just want to hit the publish button and somehow the book sells itself. Level 1 are my recommendations for those folks. You would be surprised, these are most of the authors I meet.

Level 2. Is for authors that want to do a little more effort. They are willing to spend a little money and maybe set up a small website or Facebook book page. They are also willing to turn their smart phone on and speak into it to make an announcement video.

Level 3. Authors who want to go full on. They have been building a platform, building an e-mail list, willing to make videos and share them on their author/book website. They will also take the time to set up and conduct a book launch.

Marketing is hard, it is a continual and time consuming process. One of the Internet marketing leaders that I follow, Pamela Hendrickson recommends an 80/20 rule. Spend 80% of your time marketing your book; the writing was the 20% part. I know it took a lot of effort to write your book, sometimes years, but unfortunately that was the beginning. Now comes the hard part of getting people to find, see and then spend money on your book. Each level below builds on the one before, read through the ideas, select what works for you and jump in.

For real simple take on launch a book take a look at an earlier post for three simple things I would do to market my book.

What ever you do come over and join my How to Publish Your Book Facebook group and let us know what you are doing.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

Don't Forget to Market Your Book in The Real World, Off Line Book Marketing

We spend so much time focusing on our online platforms that we forget that there is an entire world out there that isn’t based around FaceBook and Twitter. All of it can be used to promote our book.

___ Be sure to announce your book in any groups or organizations that you might be part of. They usually have newsletters with What’s New sections and are always looking for content.

___If you send out any regular mailings such as a newsletter be sure to announce it and include a regular ad for the book.

___Add a picture of your book to your business card. Your business card is your personal brochure, make sure your book is on it, including where people can buy the book.

___Contact your regional print and TV media, they love local stories.

___If you speak to audiences at conferences or organizations be sure to bring books and sell from the stage or the back of the room. The profit margin on this can be pretty high.

___Use your book as a calling card for prospects or consulting. People love receiving books. You can bet your competitors aren’t.

___If you are trying to connect with a new client, try sending a free paperback copy of your book directly from Amazon using their gift program or use FedEx. With FedEx you can also include a cover letter. People love receiving free stuff, this is a great way to get noticed.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

7 Tips for Setting Your Videos Up So They Can be Found

Setting Up Your Videos
In the previous post we talked about how to put together a book trailer video to use during your book launch. In this article we talk about some of the keys to getting your videos found in YouTube and Google.  YouTube gives you a lot of ways to help get your video found in search, the key is to use them. Fill in all the boxes YouTube provides with lots of relevant text when you upload your video and you will have a much better chance of our video popping up. This includes the video title, description, web address and key words or tags. Ok here are my 7 tips for setting up your videos

1.    Video Title, have a good descriptive video title, include your main keyword.

2.    In the initial sentence of the description, include a full web address as the first item, including the http://, then a short intro description. The first sentence needs to grab because this is all you initially see below your video.

3.    Add a full description, fill it out with a lot of relevant descriptive copy, maybe with a transcript of the video. Include your contact info. You can really fill this area up with text. Google indexes this area so it is important to also add your keywords into the copy.

4.    Add Keywords or Tags that Relate to the video and the topic, this is super important.

5.    YouTube is a social media platform, this means share your video on all your social media platforms and interacting with people who comment on your videos.

6.    Use Annotations and YouTube Cards to connect with other videos, make additional comments or give information.

7.    All videos should have some kind of call-to-action (CTA), including a web address or contact info during or at the end of the video.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

How to Make a Simple Video Trailer for Your Book Launch

Video should be part of your book marketing efforts. It is a powerful tool that you can use on your website, in your social media and on YouTube to promote your book. Below are some tips to help make your an effective video. Your book trailer video should cover 4 basic topics and be 1 to 3 minutes long.

1. Who you are, your name.

2. What you have got, the name of the book.

3. What the book will do for you and what you will learn, use your Table of Contents to come up with your list of key points.

4. What you want the viewer to do next, buy your book on Amazon.com, go to your website, give them a call to action.

Smartphones work great for making nice simple, one take video book trailers. The quality is great and if you record in a quiet place the audio will be just fine. You can always improve but smartphones work very well for this purpose.

Key point for quality is to make your smartphone nice and stable, use a small tripod from Amazon.com or from a site like Caddiebuddy.com. Also turn off any radios or fans that might make extra noise.

Quick Tips
•     Almost any simple digital camera will do for making a video. This includes the smart phone in your pocket. The quality is amazing and most are connected right to YouTube.

•    A little tripod can really help with the quality.

•    Don’t have a camera, then use the Save as Movie option of PowerPoint or a screen capture program like Screenflow.com or Screenr.com.

•     Keep the video short. This is key; around 1-3 minutes is perfect.

•     If you can do it in one take, you might not need to do any editing. If you are editing, then make each shot at least 10 seconds; (count in your head). You can also add in still images, or video from a PowerPoint presentation.

Here is a video trailer I did for my Mandala Happiness 1 Coloring Book


•     Lighting is important. Turn on the lights or stand by a window. 
A dark video just doesn’t look very good. Watch out for backlighting such as a window behind you. It can kill your video.

•     Stay close to the camera for good sound, turn off any radios, and watch out for background noise. If your camera has a mic input, you can also add one for better quality, lavalier mics work well.
•     In your video, give viewers a call-to-action: ask them to do something, call, go to a web site, suggest something to get them to your web site.

•     Do some simple editing with iMovie on the Mac, MovieMaker on the PC, for more complex, use Premier. You can even edit right in YouTube or the new YouTube Capture app that works for iPhone. Many cameras also come with video editing software.

•    Add your web address along the bottom or lower third of the screen. Add contact info or a call-to-action at the end. Tell viewers that your book is available on Amazon.

•     Upload your video to YouTube, then link it to a blog, your website, Facebook and other social media sites.

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

General Book Marketing Tips Part 2, Connect with the World and Talk to Your Fans

We continue with some more general book marketing tips that we started in a previous post on Book Marketing. Books don't sell themselves, you really have to push them out there and then keep them front and center to make sales. Below are several more to choose from. These are simple to put into action and will build a general background for your book.

 ___Use the social media share buttons from your Amazon sales page.

___Prepare a one page pdf book info sheet with author bio for the media or public speaking.

___Post info about your book on your blog, about your subject, and about your activities. Take people on your journey.

___ Post regularly on your Social Media sites around your topic and book.

___ Interact with your fans in your Facebook group, social media and anywhere else, including YouTube, respond to all comments.

___Be sure all your web and social media efforts are up to date, connected and can send interested readers to Amazon for buying.

___Look for media outlets that will publish your press release or book reviews.


___Ask for book reviews. Book reviews are a big part of having success on Amazon.

___Kindle Select Program is a program offered by Amazon for Kindle books. If you are willing to give Kindle exclusivity of your book for a 90 day period they will let you price your book for free for a mix of 5 days during the 90. A lot of authors use the program to help jumpstart their book sales. You can only use this program if you don’t have any of the book content anywhere on the web. Not posting your book content is a decision you will need to make when you are starting your marketing. Many authors have found pretty good success when they initial launch their book with this program.

    Personally I am a big fan of posting your book content on your own website as soon as you can to start getting exposure but not everyone agrees on this. With Kindle Select you are only limited for 90 days and then you have to renew. Limiting your content doesn’t apply to physical paperback books going through CreateSpace, you can do what you want. You can read more about this program when you upload your book on the Kindle KDP site.

___Review all your online bios in social media, Linkedin, Facebook, industry groups for the most up to date info. Be sure to mention your book and where to get it or more information.

___Update your e-mail signature line about your book, include a link to Amazon.

___Be sure to announce your book in any online groups or organizations that you might be part of.

Book Promo Sites
___List your book in Goodreads and other online review sites.

___There are lots of free and paid book promotion websites for you to list your book on for exposure. Some will work if you are using the KDP Select program. Be sure to read the terms of service and be aware of the rules around Kindle Select if you are using that Amazon program.

Resources
Kindle Select program, https://kdp.amazon.com/select
Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/

The above text is from the International Best Selling Book by J. Bruce Jones, Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is available at Amazon in Print and Kindle. J. Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 books and training courses for authors who are self-publishing their books.

 To Buy a Copy, Please Click Below

Print: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan 

Kindle: Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing with Complete Action Plan

Behind the Scenes on Fixing a CreateSpace Cover Issue

Learn how I fixed an issue on the cover with one of the illustration on my new book Camping & Travel Adventure Journal. I uploaded the book with a .png file for one of the illustrations think it would be transparent. I ordered and received the printed proofs and the illustration came out with a white background. I realized I needed to go back in an create an updated Adobe Illustrator graphic. Learn how I did it in this new behind the scenes video.




Here is how the cover came out from the first round of proof from CreateSpace. The white should be transparent