My Number One Tip for Selling Your Book, Blog Your Book

Blog Post from BruceTheBookGuy.com with a sell block at the bottom

I had a question recently from a member of my How to Publish Your Book Facebook group for my one tip. It went like this.

The Question:Hey Bruce! Hope you’re doing well! I feel like I hit a wall. I’m averaging about a book a day...not sure if that’s what I should expect? Anyway, I have about a billion ideas running through my head but unfortunately, I don’t have the time to execute them all with my full-time job. I guess I’m looking for one thing to really focus on to push sales...blog...press release.... social media...would you suggest one over the other?

My Answer On the One Thing I Would Do to Market and Sell My Book: Hi I am a fan of creating content for platforms that hangs around for a long time. Like a blog posts or web pages, YouTube videos, Linkedin post and Pinterest. Things that can be done once and shared to many places over and over, like blog posts and videos can. I like to use my book content as my blog content and then add ads on the blog for my own stuff wrapped around my own stuff.

I would take your entire book and break it up into small chunks and blog it bit by bit adding really good titles for each post. At the bottom of each post I would add a sell/bio line about the you and your book and where you can get it. Key is to have be short and have a live link to the book’s sales page on Amazon.

Google will index your book and bring you traffic. If your reader likes it they might decide to purchase a copy. You job is to give them a clear path to purchase. Use your book's content to bring in traffic about your book and wrap ads for your book around it. You can also mix in videos and other content between the posts. Be sure to also add a thumbnail image of your book cover in the sidebar area with a clear Buy at Amazon button on it or below it.

This does several things, it spreads your content out, it gets Google to index your content, and gives you info which you can see in your blog stats what people are interested in. This also gives you lots of posts to market other products like a journal or related Amazon products. The goal here is to get lots of people to see your stuff. From my own experience, you need to get 100-200 visitors to your site to make a sale. This is 1-.05%, which is about the same as direct mail marketing. If you can get 200 people to visit your site from searching for your content you will get a sale if you give them an easy way to know you are selling something and an easy way to buy.

I am also a huge fan of YouTube videos and post on Pinterest. Both of these platforms get a lot of traffic and the content hangs around forever. Videos can be shared all over the web and Pinterest just gets a ton of traffic. Video descriptions and Pinterest posts can have live links, be sure to include them

An advantage of blogging is that the content will stay visible for years. You can also easily share it across many other social media platforms. I know Facebook and Twitter is all the rage but the problem is that everything is so temporary. It just keeps rolling down out of view.

A couple of other tips for your blog. Add a resource page around your topic. You can build this out over time but I have found this to be one of the highest traffic pages on my book blogs. Find something new, just keep adding it. Google loves pages like this. Be sure to include the links.

Another tip; your content may not lend itself to this but if you are able to write about costs of things or how much money you make or something around money, you will get a lot of traffic. People just want to know about money and costs.

Another tip; put up a sample pdf chapter that people can sign up for and download. In the pdf have a book sales page with live links to Amazon. This builds your email list and gets your content in people’s hands.

If you are going to be promoting your book in social media be sure you are where your readers are. Where they hang out is where you hang out. Is it Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, etc?

On the second question: selling book a day isn't bad. For me a nice medium seller is 15-20 books a month, in reality that is pretty good. 200+books a year. I will be writing about repurposing your content further in this book. But adding a journal or workbook to your book and selling it on your blog can be a great idea to increase your sales.

J. Bruce Jones is the author of over 40 books. He is currently working on a new book called How I Sell 4,000 Books a Year. Sign up over on the right to get the latest pdf version. It isn't fully edited but has all my ideas.

Connection and Learning

Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books. 

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Come over and join my Facebook Publishing Group, ask me questions, show your books. Great place to connect with authors and self-publishers

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

Running an Amazon Giveaway Test on My Book Marketing Checklist Book

Here is how the Amazon Giveaway looks on Facebook

I found out yesterday about the Amazon Giveaway program and was like, wow. The program runs on pretty much any product on Amazon, yours and any other, there are a few restrictions but it is pretty broad. You can run a contest for people to win that product by clicking on a link. When they click the link the product gets reposted on their twitter feed or they have to watch a video or some other stuff.

Once you have the Amazon link you pretty much just have to spread the link around the web on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, etc so people can see it and click on it. For mine I am using my Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing book. I have spread the link to Facebook, Twitter, and my blog.

The program works with you going to the bottom of pretty much any Amazon product page and seeing the Giveaway button and then just filling out the form. You have to pre-pay for the product that you are giving away plus shipping. When someone clicks you send them to a Twitter page, or a video or couple of other things. Basically Amazon sends you a link and you spread it around.

The Amazon Giveaway button at the bottom of a product page

The program runs for 7 days and/or a number of clicks that Amazon determines fits for your book. You also have a number of options that you can select on how the prize is awarded. I am sending people to the intro video for my Publishing Mastery 101 member site. Here is the video I sent people to



Here is the Giveaway link for the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishers Giveaway, active until Nov 23, 2017 or until I get 500 clicks.

What are the Image License and Trademark Requirements for Creating Photo Picture Books

There are thousands of ideas and topics that you can use to create photo picture books. From fall foliage to sandy beach dunes, road trips and old farm equipment. Children's illustrations and stories also fall under the picture book realm. There are a couple of areas of caution that you should be aware of and these center around rights and trademarks. I am not a lawyer but have worked on a lot of productions and broadcasts. It is always best to check with a Intellectual Property or rights attorney if you have questions.


People's Rights: 
People's rights need to be respected and you need to have a release if you can identify the person. People off in the distance walking around is probably fine. You can't get releases of everyone in a beach picture. I wouldn't worry to much about people walking away and all you see are their backs. But if you can identify them or they are the focus of your photo then you need to have a release. This is called an Appearance or People Release.

Kids Rights:
Kids, Kids always need a Parent or Guardian Release, no questions. Many kids also have security concerns with custody issues. Again, some walking away down the street is probably ok but if you can see the kid you need to get permission before taking a picture.

Property Rights:
Property Release. This is a tricky one. Many buildings are under trademark or copyright with their owners or architects. My understanding is skylines and cityscapes and streets are fine. There is a collection of buildings but individual buildings, some government buildings, buildings on the historical register, collections of museum and recreated villages like Old Sturbridge Village or Greenfield Village are under trademarks. You just have to check with the owners or on their websites. If you are doing a travel picture book and wanted to show the outside of Mystic Seaport as one of 25 places you are showing to go in Mystic CT you are probably fine. But if you start walking around taking pictures without permission you might have an issue. This is called a Property Release. Common sense plays a lot here and I would stay away from any property owned by a big corporation like Disney or Universal. Get permission.

Materials, Photos, Jewelry:
Materials Release, these are all the things that get photographed in the shot. The rooms and offices are covered by Property Releases but the box of photos, the paintings on the walls, the box of jewelry, all that stuff. If it is owned by someone and you are taking pictures of it then you need a Material Release.

Trademarks and Logos:
Trademarks and Logos. This can get people into a lot of trouble. the Nike logo on the person's t-shirt in the shot is under the license of Nike Corporation. You don't have rights for it. That is why you see them blurred out on TV. The Budweiser logo on the back of the bar wall, the Mustang logo on the close up of the car.

Personally, I find this a grey area. If you are doing a book of old gas stations across the west you are going to get Texaco logos. If you are doing Boston's Back Bay you will end up showing the famous Citgo sign. On a t-shirt, yes that is an issue, in a city scape I think not so much, it might fall under editorial but you might check. Doing a history of Texaco signs then probably yes.

This may sound like a pain in the neck and a lot of work to chase down. Sometimes you just have to shift your camera a little to the left or right or crop a little and the issue goes away. Or, just do a book on something else. As I said above there are endless topics.

Also, we are not talking about creating stock images that are going to be resold. We are talking about art and editorial usage. It is a little looser. Stock imagery has a lot of rules on photos that will be resold. Books are a little looser, but you need to be aware.

So, the important message here is to check if you are venturing into an area that has people, buildings and trademarks. Everywhere is different, usually you just have to ask and always carry your releases (yes it gets awkward but easier after a while).  

If you are interested in learning more about creating your own photo picture book check out my Publishing Mastery Academy

Here are some of the other things protected with trademark rules saying that you can't take a picture of them. Intellectual Property Wiki, with Getty Images

If you want to see a good example of the rules and requirements for taking pictures at a museum site take a look at the Photography at Mystic Seaport page on their website. Mystic Seaport is a recreation of a 19th century ship building community and museum.

A good phrase to search on is "Photography Usage and Permissions for XYZ" on their website or on Google.

Stock image from Pixabay.com 15968

Creating a New Photo Book and a How to Make a Picture Book Course

Started a new project today of creating a photo book around my local community. I walked all over the town taking pictures of boats, old buildings, the bridge, waterfronts, stores and streets. Beautiful weather and a great day. Being very conscience of not taking pictures of people directly or kids or anything that might have copyright or trademarks tied to it. Keep the pictures general.

In my product planning cycle I have plans to develop courses on How to Make and Sell Picture Books and thought, why not use this project as the example for building the cocurse. So here we go, the beginning of How to Make and Sell Picture Books the course. What I thought I would do is document the process here and on my Facebook publishing groups.



For the photography I am using my iPad, perfect for this project. Easy to carry and use. I am trying to keep it easy and non-complicated. This isn't a fine art project, it is a project to make a book and use it to create the course around.

As things happen a question came up in my How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group about picture rights of people, stores, etc that would end up in the book

QUESTION: Great idea Bruce! Do you need to get permission from the stores, people, etc to put their pictures in your book?

MY ANSWER:
Great question Keith
It is going to be very general and I try to stay very general. I never photo any specific person or especially any children from the front. It is always the backs or they are in the distance. You could never get rights for all these people anyways. I wouldn't highlight any one particular new building but make sure it is always general. New buildings have copyright issues but groups of buildings don't. So no modern buildings built by an identifiable architect featured on the cover that kind of thing. I use to run into this doing corporate brochures. Architects own the rights to buildings. So don't features it or get the approve image, or shoot something else.

But older buildings and houses and historical houses are fine. Skylines of buildings are fine. If you are featuring a person then yes you need the photo rights but just some people off in the distance is fine. I try to keep things general and I usually wait until people have walked past me to take the picture, I get their backs. With our social media crazy world people are being photographed all the time now. Watch out for featuring popular logos or brands, license plates, really identifiable things or anything that can hurt someone. If you feel funny about shoot something else. This is art more than anything.

What I like about most community stuff is that it is in the public. Public buildings, general skylines, parks, doors, trees all that kind of stuff. Keep the general stuff general, a street, a skyline, a waterfront. And the specific stuff very specific, a fence post, a antique light, a cool old fashion sign, things that give the neighborhood character but stay out of rights issues. You aren't reselling specific images of a famous building. It is a book on a town or city.

I did ask a guy if I could photograph his cool scooter/motorbike and talked to him for a while. Looking through my images I have churches, streets, general storefronts and some windows, boats, anchors (I am in a seaport), old houses, docks, more old churches, the old bridge and lots of metal stuff, marinas. So I think fine.

I am sure there is a line here but I am trying to fall in the art/photography world. But there are so many subjects where you just slide the camera to the left or right and avoid the stuff that might have an issue. I am also operating under the ask forgiveness instead of permission. I know enough about rights to know what not to shoot and if it feels funny, just don't do it. If you were going to make a real community book that you sell everywhere in the community then I might go ask each store owner if they are ok with being in the book. That could be a cool community project. But stay away from any big chains like CVS or Subway or Disney

Excellent question

Another member weighed in from my How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group taking pictures of public buildings and how some of them are sometimes off limits especially if you are reselling the images as stock images. Which I am not.

She shared an article on DYIPhotography.net which you can read more about here
10 FAMOUS LANDMARKS YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO PHOTOGRAPH FOR COMMERCIAL USE

If you are interested in learning more about the course you can check out my Publishing Mastery Academy

Here are some of the other things protected with trademark rules saying that you can't take a picture of them. Intellectual Property Wiki, with Getty Images

TRAINING SESSION: Learn How to Make a Journal Book Using PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a powerful program with a lot of capabilities. Most of us it for creating presentations, but it can also be used as a graphic design page layout program. Like a poor man's InDesign. It is really quite amazing. In today's presentation I will be using it to create a Journal Notebook that we can sell on Amazon through CreateSpace.

This training covers creating your journal from beginning to end. Creating the page template, adding lines, art and finishing the print ready PDF. We then move to creating the cover spread, which includes the back, spine and front plus bleeds.

Click here to watch the PowerPoint training: How to Make a Journal Book Using PowerPoint

For the training session I developed a full 6" x 9" x 120 page PowerPoint template that you can use to build your own journal note book. Both the 120 page inside and the full cover spread are included in as part of the Easy Journal Books course.

This training is part of the Easy Journal Book online course that I also offer in my Publishing Mastery Academy. Along with the PowerPoint training is included the InDesign training and the page and cover templates.

Click here to watch the InDesign training: How to Make a Journal Book Using InDesign

120 Page PowerPoint Journal Template, Included in Easy Journal Book Course

Cover Template for a 120 Page PowerPoint Journal Book. Included in Easy Journal Book Course

Both the 120 page book and cover templates are included in the Easy Journal Book Course.

Learn to Create, Publish, Market and Sell Your Book with Publshing Mastery 101 Membership Site

 Publishing Mastery 101 membership site launches today!!


I am announcing today the launch of my new Publishing Mastery 101 membership site for creating, designing, marketing, selling and re-purposing your book. I am bringing together all of my trainings, courses, and experience in one central place. This member site will support what we are doing here and in the How to Publish Your Book FB site but gives me more abilities to tie it all together and go deeper. Hope you check it out and will come over and join. You will see lots more about it and what I have planned as we move forward. Thank you everyone for all the great support, questions and all your books. We have great group here.

We will conduct training, classes, building books and answering your book publishing questions.

Benefits:
• Monthly Q & A Book Publishing Calls
• Free Access to all Publishing Mastery Academy Courses
• Design, Publishing, Marketing and Selling Training Sessions
• Publishing Mastery 101 Facebook Group, Community

 Courses Included:
• Easy Journal Books
• How to Market Your Book
• How to Publish your Book in 7 Steps
• Easy Kindle Books
• How to Make Children's Picture Books for Kindle
• How to Make an Author/Book Blog

Click here to visit Publishing Mastery 101, https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/p/publishingmastery101

TRAINING SESSION, Learn How to Make a Journal Book Using InDesign,

I will be live today in the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group teaching how to make a Journal Book using InDesign. The training session is today at 3:00pm EST October 20, 2017. Come over and join the group and check out the session. Journal Books are fun and easy to make

To know more about the full training course check out EasyJournalBooks.com

You can check out the training session video by Clicking Here, How to Make a Journal Book Using InDesign

How to Layout Out a 2 Page Photo Spread in PowerPoint and Adobe Indesign

Training Video on How to Layout Out a 2 Page Photo Spread in PowerPoint and Adobe Indesign. J. Bruce Jones takes you through the steps to properly layout a photo that goes across two pages in your book. The training covers laying out the page in PowerPoint, setting up the page and creating margins, and how to crop and place your photo correctly so that it will go across two pages. We then go into Adobe InDesign and repeat the training.

 J. Bruce Jones "Bruce The Book Guy," author of over 40 books teaches self-publishers how to design, layout, publish, market and sell their book. If you want to know more please visit the Courses page here on the website.

Making and Selling Products Quickly for Your Website on the Monetize U Show, Interview with J. Bruce Jones

What a fun afternoon on Tuesday with Gail Turner Brown and RL Chance and the Monetize U Show. They interviewed me on making and selling products for your website in 15 minutes. We had a great conversation on all aspects of making a quick pdf product and selling it on your website. How to create the content. The tools you need. How to format it the document. Where to host if on the web and how to price it. Gail and Chance are real take action kind of people. We ended up have a fantastic after show conversation that went on for over an hour.

You can check them out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/monetizeu/
and on-line at TheMonetizeUShow.com

Here is the show




Check out the course.

If you want to know more about building products quickly for your website I have put together a short course called Make and Sell a Product for Your Website in 15 Minutes, click this link to learn more.

Included in the Course:
Quick Version Video of how to Make a product and Sell it on Gumroad.com and your website, plus a companion book.

5 Part Video Training Series on making and selling a product, we dive into more detail. Hosted by Diane K. Bell, Bruce Jones walks you through the essential steps from coming up with an idea for a product, building it and then selling your new creation on your website. Includes:
1. Product Idea
2. Creating the Product
3. Hosting Your Product
4. Marketing Your Product
5. Selling Your Product

Includes a Bonus Video Case Study on how to create a quick pdf product and a video version of what you just created. For the product I create a quick guide on how to launch a book to an Amazon Bestseller.

Bonus PDF, Write a Book_Top Ten Tips Book Technique, included in the course. This book tells you how to quickly create a book from what you already know in ten steps.

Make and Sell a Product for Your Website in 15 Minutes and the PrintfulChallenge

I have been participating in the PrintfulChallenge from Printful.com. This challenge is about 30 different ways to market your products and grow your store. They are wrapping it around their tshirts, hats and mugs but really it can be applied to any product or presence online. I am taking part in it and showing my progress in my How to Publish Your Book Facebook group. Be sure to come over and check it out.

Check it out the Printful Challenge here, Grow Your Store with Printful's eCommerce Challenge

Day 3 in the [PrintfulChallenge] is Product Description. The task to review and rewrite the description of one of your products. I took it as a opportunity to update a product that I put together a while back on How to Make and Sell a Product for Your Website in 15 Minutes. On Tuesday, September 12th, I will be a guest on the Monetize Show with Gail Turner Brown and RL Chance talking about product creation. I love having a deadline to get things done. Below is my new text. I will share the link for the show as soon as I have it. You can check out the updated product.

Included in the Course:
Quick Version of how to Make a product and Sell it on Gumroad.com and your website

5 Part Video Series on making and selling a product, we dive into more detail. Hosted by Diane Belle, Bruce Jones walks you through the essential steps from coming up with an idea for a product, building it and then selling your new creation on your website.

Includes a Bonus Video on how to create a quick pdf product and a video version of what you just created. For the product I create a quick guide on how to launch a book to an Amazon Bestseller.
Bruce Jones is the creator of over 50 on-line products from a very successful clip-art map collection, over 40 books, pdf collections, posters, on-line courses, t-shirt, mugs and many more. Bruce has been creating products for over 25 years.

Bruce Jones is the creator of over 50 on-line products from a very successful clip-art map collection, over 40 books, pdf collections, posters, on-line courses, t-shirt, mugs and many more. Bruce has been creating products for over 25 years.

Buy Make and Sell Products

Amazon Day: Training, Understanding the Amazon Book Sales Page • 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge

Your Book/Author Media Kit is an essential part of your author/book website and your marketing. It is a library of all the elements that you will need to promote your book. It includes book cover graphics, descriptions and sample content. It also has resources that fans, the press, event management and anyone else needs to be able to promote you.

Book Photo Graphics
I like a variety of sizes; 2”, 4” and 6” images in jpg, rgb format. 300dpi resolution for print and 72dpi for web. Be sure to ask your book cover designer for these images. Make this part of the original book cover design project. If you can only get one resolution then go for the 72dpi so you can easily market on-line.

Your Book Info and Description
• Book descriptions, a short ten word sentence or so for use in posting on social media or at the end of a post. Then a 50-100 word description, 250-500 word description. 
• Include info about the book, specs, ISBN number, pages
• Where to buy your book, print and e-book with links
• Book reviews, look at Amazon reviews
• A sample chapter
• A Book Trailer video if possible, Watch for Day 4: YouTube Day we will be creating one.

Author Photos
Spend a little money and have a professional photo done. Also be sure to have some images done with and without you holding your book up next to your head. Have several different sizes produced. I like a 2”, 4” and 6” images in 300dpi for print uses and 72dpi for web use. You can also do these yourself with your phone

Author Bio
Have several different length bios for different uses
•  A very short, one sentence or so bio you can use at the end of a blog post, remember to include your web address and mention your book.
•  50-100 word bio and a 250-500 word bio.

Contact Details
• Phone, e-mail, Skype, website address, social media addresses

Social Media Links
• List all of your social media connections, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
• Recent speaking events, maybe a video or two if possible of your speaking.

Goals: Build Your Author and Book Media Kit
For our first day challenge we are going to pull together the elements for a media kit. Be sure to watch the video training on how to create the different size photos you will need.
• Create your book cover images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi
• Create your author images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi
• Create your author photo with you holding a book cover, images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi

• Write a 10 word or so book description and author bio
• Write a 50-100 word book description and author bio
• Write a 250-500 word book description and author bio

• Table of Contents

• Book and ebook specs

• Create a listing of your social media accounts, including the links

• Create a list of where your book is available for sale and the URL weblinks

• Include any speaking events that you have done

Purchase the Entire Course

If you would like to purchase the entire course, which includes all of the Challenge videos, the books and the bonus video please click on this link
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below


Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook 

Media Kit Day: Goals, Building Your Book and Author Media Kit • 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge

Your Book/Author Media Kit is an essential part of your author/book website and your marketing. It is a library of all the elements that you will need to promote your book. It includes book cover graphics, descriptions and sample content. It also has resources that fans, the press, event management and anyone else needs to be able to promote you.

In today's Media Kit Day training video we create our media kit. The book and author photos, our book descriptions, and author descriptions and all the elements we will need to promote and market our books.

Goals: Build Your Author and Book Media Kit
For our first day challenge we are going to pull together the elements for a media kit. Be sure to watch the video training on how to create the different size photos you will need.
• Create your book cover images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi
• Create your author images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi
• Create your author photo with you holding a book cover, images, 2”, 4” and 6” at 72dpi and if possible 300dpi

• Write a 10 word or so book description and author bio
• Write a 50-100 word book description and author bio
• Write a 250-500 word book description and author bio

• Table of Contents

• Book and ebook specs

• Create a listing of your social media accounts, including the links

• Create a list of where your book is available for sale and the URL weblinks

• Include any speaking events that you have done

Day 1: Media Kit Day Worksheet, What I Did

GOAL: Build a Book Media Kit• Book cover graphics, 2”, 4”, 6”, jpg format, 72dpi and if possible 300dpi

• A short 10 word sentence for use in posting on social media or at the end of a post.
Learn how to market your book with the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing by J. Bruce Jones, available at Amazon.com

• 50-100 word book description
Bruce's latest book is Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing, which went to # International Best Selling status in three countries this spring. The book is about how to market and launch your book on Amazon.com. It includes many of the tasks that you will need to do to launch and have a successfully selling book. Including three levels of book launching action plans. One of the most common questions I get asked by new authors is “What’s Next?” They have pushed the published button and launched their book on Amazon.com and then go what do I do now? Books don’t market themselves just because you are on Amazon. You need to be involved on a regular basis with getting your book out to the world and getting people to buy it. This is true wither you are an indie author or you have a publishing company behind you. Books need to be marketed in order to find customers. Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishers tells you how. Available at Amazon.com

Includes:
3 Simple Things I Would Do to Market My Book

Part 1, Book Marketing Checklist
General Book Marketing Concepts
Start Marketing Your Book the Day You Start Writing
Selling on Amazon
Book Launch Prep & Build Out Your Media Kit
Preparing for Your Book Launch and General Marketing
Going for a Best Selling Book
Online, General Book Marketing
Making Your Book Trailer Video
Off Line Book Marketing

Part 2, Book Launch Action Plan
Level 1, Marketing My Book with Little Effort and $0 Dollars
Level 2, I Can Go a Little Bigger and Make a Little More Effort
Level 3, I Want to Kick It Into Higher Gear, Try to Really Push It

Book Marketing Resources

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.

• 250-500 word book description


• Table of Contents, these are your sell lines for your book, these are the book’s benefits. Included some of these in your description.

Part 1, Book Marketing Checklist
General Book Marketing Concepts
Start Marketing Your Book the Day You Start Writing
Selling on Amazon
Book Launch Prep & Build Out Your Media Kit
Preparing for Your Book Launch and General Marketing
Going for a Best Selling Book
Online, General Book Marketing
Making Your Book Trailer Video
Off Line Book Marketing

Part 2, Book Launch Action Plan
Level 1, Marketing My Book with Little Effort and $0 Dollars
Level 2, I Can Go a Little Bigger and Make a Little More Effort
Level 3, I Want to Kick It Into Higher Gear, Try to Really Push It

Book Marketing Resources


•  Be sure to include in your book specs info about the book, ISBN number, pages, size, paperback/hardcover, black/white, color. Maybe your book’s category

• Amazon Print
•  Paperback: 52 pages
•  Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (February 15, 2016)
•  Language: English
•  ISBN-10: 1530067065
•  ISBN-13: 978-1530067060
•  Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches

• Amazon Kindle
•  Print Length: 65 pages
•  Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
•  Publisher: Bruce Jones Design Inc. (March 3, 2016)
•  Publication Date: March 3, 2016
•  Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
•  Language: English
•  ASIN: B01CJ9K4F0
•

•  Where to buy your book, print and ebook sites including the URL links. Amazon, Barn & Noble, Kindle, etc.

• Amazon Paperback Link (or where ever you are selling your book)
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Marketing-Checklist-Self-Publishers-Complete/dp/1530067065

• Kindle Link
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Marketing-Checklist-Self-Publishers-Complete-ebook/dp/B01CJ9K4F0


•  Book reviews, look at Amazon reviews. Look at your reviews for comments and quotes that you might be able to use in your descriptions

4 star
Very good information and advice to help one with self-publishing. But I have to laugh. Once again, I find another author who doesn't follow his own advice. At the outset, he warns that proper writing, i.e., grammar and spelling, etc., is very important. And then he doesn't do it himself. As noted inside, it does detract from the book's quality. Bottom line: If you're writing about writing, write it right.

5 star
An excellent aid in how to market one’s self-published books, Book Marketing Checklist reads as a concise workbook, giving various helpful tips and hints (that I’ll now be applying to help market my own books). I especially liked how Mr. Jones broke down into 3 levels how involved one could get in the marketing process. This approach is a good one, because some authors are new to promoting their books, while others are further along. All in all, it’s a very helpful read and I would recommend it to other self-published authors.

Author Media Kit

Have several different length bios for different uses

• Author photos, same as the book, a 2”, 4” and 6”, plus photos of your head with you holding your book next to it. Same thing 2”, 4” and 6”, 72 dpi for web and 300dpi for print. You can do these with your phone.

• A very short one sentence or so bio you can use at the end of a blog post, remember to include your web address.

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. Learn more about me at BruceTheBookGuy.com

J. Bruce Jones Is the best selling author and publisher of over 40 books and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. Bruce’s latest book is Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing available at Amazon.com.

• 50-100 word author bio
Bruce Jones is an #1 International Best Selling Author, graphic designer, and product developer. Bruce writes, speaks and consults on publishing, social media, blogging, video and general marketing. Bruce is the creator of the World of Maps editable PowerPoint and Illustrator map collections used for business and sales presentations worldwide. Bruce is the author or creator of over 40 books on geography, music, business, children’s and coloring and also practices Tai Chi.

Bruce has been teaching and consulting on self-publishing and indie books for as many years as he has been making them. With the release of his course How to Market Your Book, Bruce is able to bring his experiences and knowledge to everyone else.

• 250-500 word author bio

• Contact info including, phone, e-mail, Skype address, website address, social media addresses


Social Media Links
• List all of your social media connections and web addresses:
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jbruce.jones
Twitter, https://twitter.com/bjdesign
Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/jbrucejones/pins/
Linkedin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucejonesdesign/

Speaking
• Recent events where you spoke, maybe a video or two if possible of you speaking.

Make Market Launch It San Diego Event, spoke on how to build and launch a product in 15 minutes

Purchase the Entire Challenge Course with Bonuses

If you would like to purchase the entire course, which includes all of the Challenge videos, the books and the bonus How to Make a Blog video please click on this link
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below


Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook
 

Challenge Prep Day, Taking Your Book's Market Snap Shot, Where Does it Sit?

 Ok, I hope people are starting to take their book's SNAP SHOT [PREP DAY GOALS]. During the course of building this Challenge I did all of the tasks that I am asking everyone to do. Including taking my book's position in the world. It is kind of depressing. Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is one of my most successful Kindle books. Most of my book sales come from the print side of Amazon, but this book has done well. But is released over a year ago and is now lagging and not doing much. So my turn also to juice it up. 

My Kindle sales for Book Marketing Checklist doubled while making the Challenge

Ok, I hope people are starting to take their book's SNAP SHOT [PREP DAY GOALS]. During the course of building this Challenge I did all of the tasks that I am asking everyone to do. Including taking my book's position in the world. It is kind of depressing. Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing is one of my most successful Kindle books. Most of my book sales come from the print side of Amazon, but this book has done well. But is released over a year ago and is now lagging and not doing much. So my turn also to juice it up.

So here are my numbers for July, 
Kindle 5 sales
CreateSpace/Amazon, paperback 0 sales, upp, zero. 
Lots of room for improvement

What is interesting is that during the 3 days or so that I was building my videos and trying different things I ended up doubling my Kindle July sales. It works, getting out there and marketing my book helps. I went from 5 to 10, not great but activity works, YEA!!.

You can see all of my Snap Shot in the Workbook Bruce's Sample in the Files area

The other areas that I recorded and want to watch are my social media and blog traffic. Since I have pushed out and shared I have seen people coming over to join the group from Daniel Hall Real Fast groups. Follow Daniel he does great stuff. I also shared the [5 DAY CHALLENGE] with other FB groups. My Twitter numbers are going up, the blog visitors are going up. I posted the video on YouTube, Pinterest, 2 Blogs, all are ways to promote your book. I need to watch them all.

Success in marketing has a lot to do with marketing where you are and then where you want to go. What is working, what isn't and then adjusting. It is a continual process. But the key is taking action.

5 Day Book Marketing Challenge Prep Day:

Taking a Market Snap Shot of Your Book and Setting up Your Social Media Worksheet

Here is my Book Market Checklist for Self-Publishing Snap Shot
Be sure to download the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge Workbook located in the Facebook Group

Welcome to the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge. The goal with this challenge is to introduce you to a set of skills you can use to market your book and give your book a basic footprint in the world. I want you to use the worksheets to record your results and to also create a library of elements that you can use for your marketing. To get started I want you to take a Snap Shot of where you are with your book and its exposure.

In this edited Workbook I have taken the Challenge myself and record my results. Look at what I have done to market my books and use it as an example for yours. Think of it as a swipe file. Take my bios, descriptions and video scripts, and change them to be yours.

GOAL: Collect and Write Down Your Book Snap Shot, here is mine.

Book Snap Shot

• Book title and subtitle
Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing: Complete Book Launch Action Plan Included

• Author(s), Illustrator
J. Bruce Jones

• Where did you publish your book?
- CreateSpace/Amazon Yes, paperback

- Kindle/Amazon, ebook

• ISBN and ASIN Numbers, number of pages, size, pictures, black/white or color, paperback, hardcover, etc. This info is located in the Product Details area on your Amazon book sales page, just scroll down and you will find it. Print and Kindle ebook have different specs.
 
Paperback
• Paperback: 52 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (February 15, 2016)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1530067065
• ISBN-13: 978-1530067060
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches
 
Kindle ebook
• File Size: 1978 KB
• Print Length: 65 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Bruce Jones Design Inc. (March 3, 2016)
• Publication Date: March 3, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01CJ9K4F0

Categories and Keywords

• What are your book’s categories and its keywords?
Original CreateSpace Category
Business & Economics / Marketing / Direct

• Amazon’s current category
• #1218 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Direct

• CreateSpace Keywords you are allowed up to 5 words or phrases with up to 25 characters each
Book marketing plan, self published books, how to sell your book, writing skills, book launch

• Original Kindle ebook Categories (2)
• Nonfiction > Business & Economics > Marketing > General
• Education & Reference > Reference > Writing Skills

• Amazon’s current Kindle categories
• #975 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Education & Reference
• #1070 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing Skills
• #1713 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Business & Money

• Kindle Keywords, you are allowed up to 7 words or phrases with up to 25 characters each
Book marketing plan, self published books, how to sell your book, writing skills, book launch, marketing checklist, best selling books

• Record the link to your Amazon or other sales page.
 Amazon Paperback Book
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Marketing-Checklist-Self-Publishers-Complete/dp/1530067065

• Kindle ebook
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Marketing-Checklist-Self-Publishers-Complete-ebook/dp/B01CJ9K4F0

Current monthly sales, reviews-good and bad, this is your base line.
• CreateSpace Monthly Sales, Located in your account dashboard, None, 16 reviews, 4s and 5s

• Kindle Monthly Sales, See Reports in your account, 5 books July

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE FULL COURSE WITH BONUSES

 

Author Exposure Snap Shot

• Author
J. Bruce Jones

• Contact
XXXX@bjdesign.com
XXXX@gmail.com
Phone number

• What web platforms do you have, write down the sites and addresses?

• Main Website Address:
https://www.brucejonesdesign.com/

• Main Blog Address:
http://brucethebookguy.blogspot.com/

• Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jbruce.jones
Twitter, https://twitter.com/bjdesign
Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/jbrucejones/pins/
Linkedin, https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucejonesdesign/


• What online groups are you in, Facebook, Linkedin, professional, personal?
Linkedin, Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1515307

Linkedin, Book Publishing Professionals
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/63223

Facebook, How to Publish Your Book
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

Facebook, Self-Publishing and Book Marketing
https://www.facebook.com/groups/selfpublishingandbookmarketing/

Facebook, Real Fast Book
https://www.facebook.com/groups/314894431928205/

• What organizations, associations and groups, on or off-line are you associated with, make a list. Do these groups communicate with their members? Do they have a newsletter or something similar that you might be able to join? Record the group.

• What local media outlets do you have around your community, news, community papers, radio, TV, Patch?
The Mystic Times, 47 Eugene O’Neil Drive, New London, CT 06320, email contact XXXX.theday.com

• Connections: Look through your connections, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc and see if you have any influencers or people with large followings.
Daniel Hall
Pat Flynn

• Want to Connect to: Who would you love to be connected to, who would help you the most?
Joanna Penn, TheCreativePenn.com
Joel Friedlander, TheBookDesigner.com

Ok, there you go, 



Purchase the Entire Course
If you would like to purchase the entire course, which includes all of the Challenge videos, the books and the bonus video please click on this link
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below


Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook

5 Day Book Marketing Challenge • Give Your Book a Footprint in the World • Overview

Thank you for participating in the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, where we be giving your book a footprint in the world. The Challenge takes you through 5 key exercises that you can use to market your book. I have published over 40 books and have helped many more people bring theirs to the world. Marketing your book is essential in order to have publishing success. It is one of the things authors hate doing. This challenge hopefully give you some of the essential skills and set your book up for success. It isn't a full blown book marketing course but a tune up for your book. When complete you will have a Media Kit, understand Amazon a little better, have your social media works, create a book trailer video and begin work on an Author website.

Each day for 5 days I will be releasing a Training Video and a Goals Video with several tasks that you and do to help your book. I have also written a companion book, 5 Things to Do to Market Your Book and a 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge Workbook that you can use to record your progress.

The challenge is being held on my How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group page. I encourage you to come over and join us there. I also hope you will share your results with the group. I am reposting the Challenge videos here in the blog also.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

To start the Challenge please watch [PREP DAY TRAINING] and [PREP DAY GOALS], this will give you an overview and what to expect for the challenge. These video help you take a snap shot of where your book current status.

DOWNLOAD YOUR BOOKS In the files area over on the left you find several PDF and .Doc files to download. The [5 DAY WORK CHALLENGE WORKBOOK] and [5 THINGS TO DO TO MARKET YOUR BOOK], download both of those files.

I have also included my example of the WORKBOOK which you can use as a swipe file and follow what I did. Please post your results and comments in that days Facebook postings.

Each days Challenge name will be written with the brackets and in all caps so that you can search and find previous videos (this feature works on Facebook and other social media platform), such as [PREP DAY] TRAINING.

5 DAY BOOK MARKETING CHALLENGE SCHEDULE VIDEOS 

AVAILABLE NOW
Day 0: [Prep Day
Training Video
Action Goals Video

Day 1: [Media Kit Day]
Training Video
Action Goals Video

Live Training Session

Day 2: [Amazon Day]
Training Video
Action Goals Video


COMING NEXT
Day 3: [Social Media Day] August 5, 2017
Day 4: [Video Day] YouTube/Facebook Live
Day 5: [Website Day] Author Website and Blogs

BONUSES 
Day 6: [SUCCESS DAY] Rinse and Repeat Day Plus Bonuses

GENERAL INFO 
[5 DAY CHALLENGE]

All the support material is available in the course or in the
How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group Files area

Purchase the Entire Course
If you would like to purchase the entire course, which includes all of the Challenge videos, the books and the bonus video please click on this link
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below


Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook

Prep Day Training • Taking a Snap Shot of Your Book • 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge

Welcome to the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge. Over the next 5 days I will be bringing you through some basic steps you can do to restart your book marketing. The goal with this challenge is to introduce you to book marketing, keep things simple and giving your book a basic footprint on-line.

We will be covering
• Building Your Media Kit
• The Amazon sales page
• Social Media
• Creating a Book Trailer Video
• Book/Author Websites and much more during the challenge.

Today is Prep Day for the Challenge and to get started I want you to take a Snap Shot of where you are with your book. To help you I have put together a 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge Workbook with daily worksheets to fill it in and record your progress. And a new book, 5 Things to Do to Market Your Book. Both are available in the How to Publish Your Book Facebook group and in the full course.

Be sure to come over and join the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group and share your results.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/

For today we will be learning about how to figure out our books baseline. Without a baseline we won't know if or we have done is working.

Book Snap Shot
• You have a published book, where is it published, record the link?
• Record where your book stands now in monthly sales, Amazon book reviews-good and bad, this is your base line.
• What are your original and Amazon book categories and its keywords?

Author Exposure Snap Shot
• What web platforms do you have, write down their sites and addresses? Website, Blog, Social Media?
• What web groups are you in, Facebook, Linkedin, professional, personal?
• What organizations, associations and groups are you associated with, make a list. Do these groups communicate with their members? Do they have a newsletter or something similar?
• What local media outlets do you have around your community, news, community papers, radio, TV, Patch?
• Look through your personal connections, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc and see if you have any influencers or people with large followings.
• An finally who would you love to be connected to, who could help you the most?


If you want to go further we have a companion course that has all the videos, books, workbooks and a bonus training on how to make a Book Blog.
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below


Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook

Prep Day Goals • Record a Marketing Snap Shot of Your Book • 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge

Welcome to the Prep Day Goals video for the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge. In this video we record where your book sits in the world. We take a snap shot of it. Is it selling, how many, where, what is your exposure on social media, do you have an author platform. That is what today is all about

Over the next 5 days we will be learning some basic marketing techniques to see if we can move your book up in the sales ranks. The goal with this challenge is to introduce you to book marketing, keep things simple and giving your book a basic footprint on-line.

Please download the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge Workbook with daily worksheets to fill it in and record your progress.

Be sure to join the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group and share your results. You can also download the Challenge companion book, 5 Things to Do to Market Your Book and the Workbook that goes along with the Challenge. The books are located in the Files area on the left
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook/


GOAL: Collect and Write Down Your Book and Author Snap Shot.

What you are doing is taking an overview of your book and where it sits in the world.  Sometimes this can be painful but it gives you a place to start. If you have been at this for a while you might have forgotten all the places that you might have your book located and selling. Or you might also discover that you are only on Amazon.com and you need to spread your book around and get more exposure. Amazon does not market your book, you have to take on this task. Fill out the Book and Author Snap Shot Worksheet and look at the results.

• Please download the Challenge Workbook with worksheets and fill it in as we work our way through the Challenge and the Challenge book 5 Things to Do to Market Your Book.

• Please download the Challenge Workbook with worksheets and fill it in as we work our way through the Challenge. Available in the full course or on in the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group

If you want to go further we have a companion course that has all the videos, books, workbooks and a bonus training on how to make a Book Blog.
https://gumroad.com/l/AjSpT#



J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Bruce is the creator of the 5 Day Book Marketing Challenge, to learn more or purchase the full Challenge course please click below

Buy the Challenge

Please come over and joint the How to Publish Your Book Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook

7 Key Tips for Setting Up Your Videos for Search On YouTube

The key to getting your videos found in YouTube and Google search is to fill in all the boxes YouTube provides with lots of relevant text when you upload your video. This includes the video title, description, web address and key words or tags.

1.  Video Title, have a good descriptive video title, including 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 essential.

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.

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books, including the Book Marketing Checklist for Self-Publishing and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Come over and join over 2,000 authors in our Publishing Facebook group, learn from all our active engaged authors  https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook