Author’s Tools for Book Marketing: Getting “the Word Out” About Your New
March 7th, 2008Marketing Your Book On-line
Understanding how to promote yourself and your book is something that many new authors do not take the time to learn, and is many times one of the biggest reasons a book fails to become profitable. The best solution for this problem is hiring a reputable publicist, a person or firm that specializes in promoting books for publishers and authors. New Book Reviews.org offers this type of benefit to it’s membership. But, even if you have a publicist, and, or use our services, a savvy author will need to learn the art of promotion to increase the visibility of themselves and their books.
Websites offer authors a valuable tool in promoting themselves and their books. Here are 6 rules to use when setting up and promoting an authors website.
1.Always obtain a ‘domain name registration’ such as this example: www.yourname.com, I know that this is not always possible, but you can use alternatives such as: author-yourname.com, yourname-books.com, or yourname-mystery.com, yourname-romance.com, by using the genre’ or category after your name you will also improve your placement in the search engine results because each time someone searches for a mystery, your site will be somewhere in the results. This is the one area that you must not be limited by a small budget, and should secure additional domain name registrations for the title of each of your books. You can simply redirect, or point these additional domain names to your yourname.com website. Unfortunately, I have seen many new authors try to save money by using free, or sub-domain websites. While there are exception to this, such as “community websites” for authors, they as a rule is ineffective and will not make you ‘look like’ a serious author, or be found easily by search engines.
2.Understand the mechanics of a good website, or hire someone that does. Today’s Internet is filled with millions of websites that do not make mistakes in their design. These mistakes are the kiss of death where search engines are concerned. Errors on a web page, in spelling and broken links will cause a indexing search engine robots, or ‘bots’ as they are known, to stop indexing the page, and or website. Incomplete websites, where pages are ‘under construction’ are also disregarded by bots. If you have no knowledge of how to design a website, there are web designers and developers available that charge very low fees for their services, well under a one time fee of $200.00, so this is not expensive in todays marketplace. Web designers understand the importance of keywords, site navigation, meta tags, title tags, and good ‘content’ that is a must on any website to be successful.
3.Become an avid blogger. This is a great tool for creating interest in you and your book. You must remember that this should not be used for advertising copy, because people are looking for helpful, usable information, not a sales pitch. A blog should be used for posting information such as: your opinion on subjects related to your book, (or other hot topics), up-coming events notification of booksignings, awards, and personal appearences. Always add a link to your website in the “author section” of each post. If you keep your blog interesting, controversial, or humorus, you will develop a audience that could be willing to buy your book.
4.Effective Linking Strategies must be practiced to make your website thrive. These strategies have changed dramatically even from late in 2007. Links on websites are now viewed differently by search engines, especially Google, Yahoo and MSN, in determining page ranking in today’s Internet search engine strategies. Previously, any incoming link was viewed as positive for your website, even reciprocal links counted as positive. But, an algorithm change in December of 2007 changed the way all search engines view links.
Here is a formula that you can use to develop a strong linking strategy.
Out-going links count as a “-1″, (minus 1): every out-going link has a negative value, or takes away from your page rank, a term used for page importance for a given keyword. So use these sparingly, if at all. Every out-going link on your website is costly to your position in the search results, unless the website links back to your website in a reciprocal link.( see more about this below)
Incoming links count as a “+1″, (plus 1) : every incoming link has a positive value, or adds to your page rank.
Reciprocal links count as “0″, (zero): since you have one incoming link and one out-going link (ie: +1 + -1= 0, no page rank value is given, but none is taken away either.
These changes will require each and every website owner and operator to re-evaluate their position in regards to linking strategies, and to make the changes needed to be in a positive position regarding links just to maintain the page rank they enjoyed before the algorithm change.
5.Using the talents you posses to promote your writing career by publishing articles and freelance writing for periodicals or magazines is a great way to get exposure and develop fans that will be eager to purchase your book. The truth is that really good writers are hard to find. Editors of these medias are always looking for good writers, and will recognize your talent when you submit articles to them hoping to get them published. This is also a good source of additional income that can be used to fund your other promotional campaigns. By doing a bit of research, you can find information about the who, what and where, to write and submit articles to these editors. On subjects that they will be interested in publishing, and paying you for your work. This is another example of approaching your writing in a businesslike manner.
6. Be, or become a professional writer in everything you do relating to your writing, publication and your promotions. You can compare this simply by asking yourself if you would take your auto to a “shade-tree” mechanic for new brakes. Probably not, by the same reasoning, people tend to buy products from reputable sources, products that are produced by a company, in our case an author, that is a real author. This does not imply that you need to quit your day job to become a real author, but you must work, act, perform, and appear to the public as a professional writer. A writer that is accomplished, published and worth reading. You must use professionalism, in every facet of your career, to become successful. Doing so will instill a confidence in your fans to buy and read your books again and again. If you understand that taking short cuts, failing to work hard promoting your work, or are afraid of investing time and money into your book, (something you did ask your publisher to do,) you will sell yourself short, and defeat yourself before you have any chance at realizing the dream of being a successful published author.
Nefertity, Michelle Moran’s novel about the mysterious and beautiful Queen of Egypt is spellbinding historical fiction.(Released July 2007, Crown Publishing) The reader is transported into all the love, power, riches and political infighting of ancient Egypt. To read our 
When the Wheels Fall Off, The Metamorphosis of a New Age Man by John L Robinson (Released July 2007, by Publish America) is a primer for those facing life changes. Robinson’s fact filled, self help guide offers insight into finding who you really are, where you want to go, and also offers exercises at the end of each chapter to assist the reader in getting through the rough times and finding the answers that you need. Robinson’s clear and concise style makes this book a must read for anyone during a self evaluation period of their life. To read our 
Alafair Burke’s newest book, Dead Connection, (Released July 2007, Henry Holt & Co.) is the latest NBR.org Spotlight Book of the Week . Burke has penned a winner, filled with suspense and a serpentine plot that will thrill even an occasional mystery buff. To read our 
