Plug Your Book!, Steve Weber [the unexpected everything TXT] 📗

to a book, so if any of this information isn't displayed correctly, readers can't find your book.

The fastest method for correcting a listing is to use the catalog update form on Amazon's site. At the bottom of the book's detail page, find the blue suggestion box labeled #Feedback#, and click Update product info. Here you can submit corrections using Amazon's Catalog Update Form for these elements:

Title

Author

Publisher

Binding

Number of pages

Publication date

Edition

Volume

Format

Language

Add or change descriptive content to your book's detail page here:

www.Amazon.com/publishers

Click the link for Submit correct requests and then Online content form. After providing your contact information and your book's ISBN, you'll see boxes where you can insert your book's description, author information, reviews, and more. The new material should appear on your book's product page within about five business days.

Handling sales on your site

Offering your book for sale directly on your Web site can provide the highest profit margin. For those who sell downloadable books from their own site, the sale price is nearly all profit, excepting credit-card fees.

But many authors who sell directly on their Web site also offer a range of other options, like buying links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Some people are just more comfortable buying from a familiar merchant like Amazon. Authors who want to encourage sales through their own Web site can do so by offering something a bit extra, such as signed books or free shipping only for direct sales.

Google Checkout#

PayPal has been a popular tool among Internet merchants for years, but in 2006 Google launched its own payment service, Google Checkout.

Checkout has the potential for revolutionizing sales of books and other items over the Internet, since purchases can be made from any participating vendor using a single Google login. Google Checkout payments are fairly easy to add to any Web site or blog, using cut-and-paste code. Google Checkout also works with Google's search advertising program, AdWords, giving advertisers an easy solution for attracting customers and processing the resulting sales.

Google Checkout could also undermine one of Amazon's key advantages--checkout convenience. For more information, see:

#www.Checkout.Google.com#

Other major online retailers

Barnes & Noble is the biggest U.S. multichannel bookseller, the leading brick-and-mortar bookseller, and No. 2 to Amazon in online sales. "More and more people are researching online before they go into stores to buy," said Kate Zeman, director of trade book merchandising at BarnesAndNoble.com. "That's something we're seeing--what we're doing on our Web site influences sales in our stores."

Barnes & Noble#

Barnes & Noble's key device to promote cross-channel sales is its loyalty card program. Members pay $25 annually and receive a 10 percent discount online and in stores, in additional to several special offers during the year.

BarnesAndNoble.com also features author interviews and online courses. Perhaps due to its lower online sales volume relative to Amazon, BarnesAndNoble.com has much less user-generated content like reader book reviews.

Titles stocked in Barnes & Noble's warehouse are available for 24-hour delivery, but those supplied by wholesalers show as "usually ships in 2 to 3 days." If your book is available through a national wholesaler such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor, it will be available for order on BarnesAndNoble.com.

BookSense# www.BookSense.com# gives independent bookstores a way to have an Internet shopping site without making big technology investments. It's the e-commerce arm of the American Booksellers Association's BookSense program.

BookSense uses the wholesaler Ingram Book's iPage database to provide book listings for its 475 participating stores. Fulfillment is handled by the store or Ingram.

If your book is available through Ingram, it should be available on participating BookSense store sites, said Mark Nichols, BookSense director of marketing.

For books not available through Ingram, publishers can add a title to BookSense's database as long as it has a valid ISBN. Send your title, ISBN, author, publisher, bibliographic data, and cover art to #AddaBook@Booksense.com#.

Paid placement is also available through BookSense, which operates a co-op reimbursement program to help its members defray the costs of Web sites. BookSense handles the paperwork of aggregating offers from publishers who want to have their titles featured on BookSense sites for at least one month. Stores who accept the co-op offer must order at least five copies of the promoted title, unless the publisher specifies a higher minimum.

The co-op program provides for face-out display of physical copies of the book in the store, display on the store's Web site, and sales reporting.

A different BookSense program enables publishers to get reading copies of their books into the hands of local independent booksellers through its "Advanced Access Program." Several times a month, BookSense e-mails more than 1,000 booksellers, listing advance readers or finished books offered for review by publishers.

Booksellers who see your review copy have the option of carrying your title and nominating it for the BookSense "Picks" list of recommended books.

Advanced Access participants can expect to receive e-mails from 25 to 50 booksellers who want to review your book. No specific results are guaranteed from the program, but it is a tool for publicizing your title to people who can provide word-of-mouth advertising in their communities. To enroll, send an e-mail to Peter Reynolds at #peter@booksense.com#. Indicate the title, author, publisher, ISBN, subject category, publication date, and the number of free copies you have to offer. Include a two-sentence book description and an e-mail address where booksellers can request their review copy.

Include all your enrollment information in one paragraph that can be easily inserted in a larger message to bookstores. Here's an example:

TITLE ABC by John Doe, (Publisher XXX, ISBN: 0-000-00000-0, $19.95, hardcover, September 2007, Mystery/Thriller). A two-sentence description goes here, maximum 50 words. XX number of Advance Reading Copies available.

mailto:yournamehere@ emailaddress.com

Don't include Web site information, press releases, or cover art. It can take two to three weeks from the time you send your message until booksellers see it.

BookSense charges $100 per title, with discounts available for members of the Publishers Marketing Association. You can send a check payable to American Booksellers Association at: ABA, 200 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591 ATTN: Sadie Evans. For information on how to pay with a credit card, send an e-mail to #sadie@bookweb.org#.

When you send review copies to BookSense members, enclose a thank you note and a reminder to "e-mail or write Dan Cullen #(Dan@Booksense.com#) if you like it."

More information about BookSense is available by sending an e-mail to # Staff@Booksense.com#.

#Ethics of online marketing#

Perhaps nothing is more important to authors and publishers than their reputation. While it's perfectly fine to promote your work energetically, consider the way your promotion might appear to others. Sometimes there's a fine line between being aggressive and being overzealous.

In some cases, the boundaries are clear. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act outlawed unsolicited commercial e-mail, so it's inappropriate to market your book by sending e-mails to strangers. In other cases, you'll need to use your judgment. For example, one section of this book discusses how to persuade people to review your book on Amazon. But don't ask people who haven't read your book. And don't review your book yourself. Don't buy thousands of copies of your own book in a ploy to push it onto the bestseller list.

On the Internet, it's fairly easy to hide your identity, but often it comes back to haunt people who use it as a marketing technique.

Shill reviews

For years it was rumored that several authors and publicists had posted flattering reviews of their own books on Amazon, anonymously. This dishonest tactic of writing shill reviews, sometimes called "astro-turfing," depends on contrived reviews to simulate a grassroots movement for a book on Amazon.

Then in 2004, a computer glitch revealed it was true--the real names of the authors were displayed, earning them a lifetime of embarrassment. One was John Rechy, author of the bestselling novel City of Night. The ironic thing was that Rechy was a successful writer whose honors included a PEN-USA West lifetime achievement award. He wasn't famous, but he didn't need shill book reviews either. But that computer glitch made him much better known, though probably not in the way he'd hoped.

One medical doctor who has a book for sale on Amazon has submitted hundreds of reviews of other books, which serve primarily to point attention to his own book. Apparently the doctor isn't concerned that his reputation as an author has been tarnished, as he's continued the activity.

In response to years of controversy about abuse of its review system, in 2006 Amazon began requiring that reviewers have an account with a registered credit card before reviews can be submitted. The safeguard prevents individuals from using multiple accounts to submit phony reviews. However, customers aren't required to purchase a copy of a book from Amazon before reviewing it.

Spam

This book is intended to encourage authors to promote their book energetically and ethically. However, on the Internet, remember that tactics that may seem perfectly fine to you could offend someone else. For example, in 2005 an author sent a series of e-mails announcing his book to a list of addresses harvested from Amazon's Web site. Several recipients were angry enough to post critical reviews of the book and lambast the author for "spamming." The headline of the book's top Spotlight Review declares, "this author is a spammer." It's not something that will favorably impress potential readers.

Many book-marketing consultants advise authors to enter articles about themselves and their book in Wikipedia.org, the popular online encyclopedia. However, the site's guidelines clearly state that Wikipedia is not to be used for personal promotion or to popularize products or Web sites. Articles that are deemed self-promotional are deleted. Likewise, many books are promoted on Craigslist.com, an online classified service operated by eBay, in apparent violation of the site's terms of service.

Plug your book relentlessly. But don't do something in the heat of the moment that could damage your credibility. The biggest asset authors and publishers have is their credibility with the public.

Recommended reading

_Publicity on the Internet _by Steve O'Keefe. 1997, 2007.

Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or A Successful Self Publisher's System for Profiting from Nonfiction Books with Print on Demand and Book Marketing on Amazon.com by Aaron Shepard. 2006. ISBN 093849743X.

The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity by Lissa Warren. 2004. ISBN 0786712759.

_Publicize Your Book!: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention it Deserves _ by Jacqueline Deval. 2003. ISBN 0399528636.

Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies by Susannah Gardner. 2005. ISBN 076458457X.

Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach to Printing and Marketing Books for Publishers and Authors by Morris Rosenthal. 2004. ISBN 0972380132.

1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers by John Kremer. 2006. ISBN 091241149X.

_Growing Your Business with Google, (The Complete Idiot's Guide to) _ by Dave Taylor. 2005. ISBN 1592573967.

How to Publish and Promote Online by M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy. 2001. ISBN 0312271913.

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman and Michael Larsen. 2000. ISBN 089879983X.