How to Sell Your Book Using Social Networking

By Anthony S. Policastro
 

Now that you have written and published your book, the hardest part is selling it. With more than 400,000 titles published in 2008, and now the explosion of ebooks, your marketing efforts have to be extraordinary even if you believe you have written a bestseller.

Whether you are self-published or published by a traditional house, you will have to market, promote and sell your book. With print book sales declining, and ebook sales exploding, traditional publishers are forced to rely on the authors to promote and sell their books. They no longer have the unlimited marketing budgets of the past.

I know many authors both self-published and traditionally published who are working equally hard to sell their books. It's a tough market, but here are some ways to improve the odds.

• Get Connected with Social Media – Create a Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin page, open a Twitter account, join any NING social networks related to your interests and book. Sign up to networking sites like Meetup.com, Classmates.com or InsideAreaCodes.com. Register with social bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon.com, Delicious.com or Digg.com. 

• Register as an author on the online book sharing sites like Goodreads.com, Scribd.com, weRead.com and Shelfari. Visitors see your book, may purchase it and post a review on these sites.
  

• Use your book cover as your avatar or personal photo. The book cover consistently reminds others you are published author. It may peak their curiosity enough to investigate your book and maybe purchase it.

• Work the social network sites consistently. After you have chosen the sites best suited to your interests and your book subject, you must participate on the sites for social networking to work. It is like you are running on a treadmill and the treadmill is connected to a generator keeping the lights on in your house. As long as you are running, the lights stay on and you keep building that Internet buzz about your book. When you slow down, the lights dim and the buzz is not so intense. When you stop completely, the buzz disappears.

• Put aside about a half hour of time each morning and each evening to participate on the social networking sites. Make comments, post announcements, send tweets, and respond to other's posts and blogs. You don't necessarily have to make your submissions related to your book. You can talk about anything as long as you're a doing something online where others see you and your book. Leave a link back to your book or web site on any post or comment and make sure you say something interesting to attract visitors to your website or blog.

• Create a blog and leave comments on blogs similar in subject matter to your book. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com are the two most used free blog hosting services. Blogger is best for the beginner blogger because it is very easy to use and doesn't contain a lot of bells and whistles used by programmers. Wordpress is the more advanced blog for users who know more about web page design and creation. Either site will work for the beginner or advanced user.
  

• Search for blogs that are similar in subject matter of your book or interests. Technorati and Google Blog Search are good search engines for finding related blogs.

• Join forums about your subject matter and participate. Use the various search engines to find forums related to your book. I find forums get a lot of traffic and when you post a discussion, you usually get instant results.
  

• Create contests and giveaways on your blog or website. Goodreads manages a book giveaway contest. All you have to do is determine how many books you want to give away and which countries you want contestants. Goodreads randomly chooses the winners for you and all you have to do is send them a book.

Is Dark End of the Spectrum a Harbinger of the Future?

When I started researching my thriller/mystery about digital terrorists, DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM in 2005, I found that many security experts were talking about cyber threats and the possibility that organized hackers could take down the any major US infrastructure like telecommunications or the power grid. But their concerns went unheeded mainly because the mindset was that things that went on in cyberspace didn't affect things in the physical world.

Image via Wikipedia

But the technology was there and in place only the human part of the equation had not yet caught up with it. As technical novelist and visionary William Gibson wrote, "The future has already arrived, it is just not widely distributed."

But, when I Googled specific incidents that I read about on the Internet, there was little or no press on them. Just unofficial sources of information. But my instinct told me the threats were real and they had occurred.

The truth was that many companies, governments and organizations that had been hacked kept it secret. They didn't want the world to know as well as other hackers that their computer networks could be breached.

The problems have been escalating significantly since 2005 as more and more of our daily lives depend on the Internet.

Just last week The New York Times and other major media reported that Google asked the NSA (National Security Agency, the super secret agency that is charged with global electronic surveillance) to look into "computer network attackers who breached the company’s cybersecurity defenses last year, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement said Thursday," according to a report on Feb. 4 by The New York Times.

Google said the attacks originated in China, according to The Times and this is not the first time US government agencies, corporations and major infrastructures like the power grid and water treatment facilities have reported cyber attacks from China.

The Times article further reported that,

"Concerns about the nation’s cybersecurity have greatly increased in the past two years. On Tuesday, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, began his annual threat testimony before Congress by saying that the threat of a crippling attack on telecommunications and other computer networks was growing, as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies had 'severely threatened' the sometimes fragile systems behind the country’s information infrastructure.
'Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication,' he told the committee."

I wrote DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM with the hopes that my storyline would shed light on the increasing threats in cyberspace and how those threats could disrupt more than our connections to the Internet. I also wrote about the human drama involving a family and how it would play into such a tragedy if one were to happen.

And what is scary about such an attack is that there is no warning - it just happens as quickly and completely as turning a light off in a room.

I just hope a major breach in our computer systems never happens and that DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM will shed some light on this ominous, invisible threat that could seriously disrupt our way of life.

If you want to experience first hand a plausible, possible scenario of what could happen if the US infrastructure is compromised by digital terrorists read DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM, available from Amazon, and bookstores everywhere.  The ebook is available from Smashwords.com, the Kindle, the Nook and Mobipocket.com

Simon & Schuster Doomed to Failure in eBook Venture

By Anthony S. Policastro

Simon & Schuster will now sell its most popular titles as eBooks on Scribd.com. Great news! A major publishing house is going digital.

But they are doomed to failure.

They think readers will pay 20% off the list price of a book's most recent printed version, according to an article in The New York Times on June. 11.

So a printed Simon & Schuster title that lists for $26 will sell for $20.80 as an eBook and a $15 paperback's eBook version will sell for $12.00. Lots of luck Simon & Schuster. You would have better luck selling ice cubes on the North Pole.

Most people won't even pay $10 for an eBook. The reason is that they do not perceive the value the same as the printed version.

With a hardcover or paperback, you can feel and smell the value in the design of the cover, the layout of the type, the feel of the paper, and its ubquitious portability. You don't have to worry about a battery going dead or the sun being too bright to read the book.

An eBook has none of those characteristics and publishers will never convince the public, and they have tried, that eBooks cost as much to produce as their printed cousins.

In my last post, I asked the question, Would you pay $26 for an eBook? about Google competing with Amazon in the eBook market.

What stuck out in my mind was that publishers were embracing the move because they could charge what they wanted for eBooks on Google since they could not set prices on Amazon's Kindle. The article was updated a few days later with new information that Google will also set the price of eBooks similar to Amazon.

So Simon & Schuster, if the two largest forces on the Internet know that eBooks have to be priced much lower than their printed versions, why do you think a 20% discount will work?

Your new venture is doomed to fail unless you lower the price of your eBooks.

Here's my suggestion:

Price your major titles at $8.88 for the eBook version. The price is lower than Kindle's major titles and readers don't have to shell out $359 for the Kindle. In addition, three eights is traditionally lucky and fortunate and that luck and good fortune may come your way.

As long a major best sellers are priced on the Kindle at $9.99 and free and lower-priced eBook sites are popping up like weeds, why would anyone pay $20 for an eBook?

What do you think?

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Would You Pay $26 for an ebook?

By Anthony S. Policastro

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Google has announced that it will sell ebooks to consumers - competing directly with Amazon.

The Times reported,

"In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New
York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that
would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to
consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com,
which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device."

I applaud Google for taking on such a challenge because it is not healthy for anyone when one group or organization monopolizes a given market. And Amazon clearly wants to dominate the ebook market with its ebook reader, The Kindle, as it did with printed books.

However, the Times also reported that publishers were happy about the announcement because publishers,

"...have expressed concerns about Amazon’s aggressive pricing strategy for e-books. Amazon offers Kindle editions of most new best sellers for $9.99, far less than the typical $26 at which publishers sell new hardcovers. In early discussions, Google has said it will allow publishers to set consumer prices."

It seems to me that publishers are happy because they will be able to charge $26 for an eBook through Google - the same price they command for a print version.

Well, they will have another rude awakening because most people who buy ebooks don't believe they should be the near or the same price as a printed version. Just take a look at all the commercial ebook sites whose titles average $15 or more. Their ebooks are not selling.

Part of the success of the Kindle is that the average best seller is priced at $9.99. People who have Kindles feel like a kid in a candy store whose dad just said, "Get anything you want."

The $10 price is the sweet spot of pricing for ebooks. If prices increase significantly, then it is no longer a sweet deal.

What do you think?

Ten Things Every Writer Can Do to Ensure the Success of His/Her Book

By Stacey Cochran

Thanks so much, Anthony, for letting me guest blog at Writing is About... I am currently in the midst of a 45-Day Blog Tour to promote my new novel CLAWS, and I need all of y’all to head over to Amazon, buy a copy, and write a review. That, more than anything else, will support the success of this book.

Which leads me to the topic of my guest blog here today:

Ten Things Every Writer Can Do to Ensure the Success of His/Her Book

1) Edit the Hell out of It. This should be the first step after completing your manuscript. My usual timeline is to spend about 3-6 months after the first draft is done, revising and tinkering to make sure I’ve got it as tight as can be. Then, I put it in front of my critique group.

2) Join or Create a Critique Group. I organize the 1000+ member group Raleigh Write to Publish, which hosts dozens of events for local writers every month. In addition to this large group, I also belong to a small “workshop” group that meets every couple of months to knock around one another’s latest works in progress. Not every writer works well in a group like this, but I’ve found the feedback (and accountability) of having a steadily meeting group for the past two years invaluable to improving my work and keeping me on track as a writer.

3) Create or Hire a Designer to Do Your Book Cover. With CLAWS, I worked with a graphic designer friend whom I’ve worked with on two previous book covers. I went to her with the initial concept, the mountain lion eyes embedded in black, and she came up with the font and design. A book cover should explain to a reader in a split second what the book is about; aim for iconic imagery and plan to use your cover in other forms of promotion like press releases and book trailers.



4) Create a book trailer. I designed a book trailer for CLAWS that has received over 100,000 views on YouTube.





While this alone won’t sell a single copy, the name of the game is exposure and if tens of thousands of people are watching you, buddy, that’s exactly what you want to promote your book. The keys to YouTube trailer success is: a) keep it short (mine’s under twenty-five seconds), b) make it shocking and entertaining, c) avoid slickness and pretension. One of the most successful YouTube marketing campaigns in the past two years involved a blender company that did short “Will It Blend?” videos where they tossed cell phones, chunks of wood, children’s toys, etc., into their blender to see what would get destroyed.

5) Blog Tour. Every writer working today can do a blog tour. It costs nothing, yet it gets your book seen by hundreds of people. All you have to do is ask people, agree to help them in some way, and stay organized. I think 30 or more days is essential to have meaningful exposure, but maybe two weeks is all you’ll need. Find your comfort zone and stick to it.

6) Cover blurbs. No matter where you’re at on the publishing totem pole, I guarantee you can find a handful of writers who are better known than you who will endorse your book. Sure, you’ll get the occasional person who claims for “moral reasons” they can’t blurb your book, but it only takes 2-3 good blurbs to convince readers that your book is worth checking out. For every ten rejections, you’re likely to get at least one positive response. So plan accordingly and don’t be shy about sending folks a copy of your book in the mail. It costs a little money to make a little money.

7) Design a website or blog and make it meaningful. I have two websites: staceycochran.com and howtopublishabook.org - the StaceyCochran.com site is where folks can find out info about me and my personal life. You can also see what book I’m currently promoting. The howtopublishabook.org site is where I give back to the community. This site has been visited by people from more than 120 countries around the world, regularly draws a couple thousand so-called “unique visitors” per month, and it’s the place where I post interviews I’ve done with publishing professionals (agents, editors, authors, publicists, etc.). I designed the site around the phrase “How to Publish a Book” and it currently sits atop the Google page rankings for this phrase. A lot of people search this phrase every day on the Internet.

8) Give back and help others. I have built my career on the notion that what others have to say is more important than what I have to say. Through my TV show and through the more than 200 author events I’ve done the past three years, I have tried to give other people the spotlight. Part of this is by necessity but another part of it is that I truly believe that we are all better off by sharing the floor and giving others a chance to succeed. Many writers think that helping others somehow compromises their own chances at success. By and large, these writers never succeed. The more willing you are to help out folks, the more folks will want to help you out.

9) Start a TV Show. In this day and age, anyone can set up a camera in their house, record themselves, and put it on YouTube. If you’ve got a strong Public Access TV station in your town, you may even have access to multi-million dollar equipment. The first year of my TV show I interviewed mostly local self-published authors, but something happened in year two. Word got out to publishers. Since then I’ve interviewed seven #1 New York Times bestselling authors, and it’s gotten my name circulated around every major publishing house in New York. Without a doubt, starting my own TV show (which began with a point-and-click 100-dollar digital camera) has given me the greatest boost of any one single thing I’ve done in my career.

10) Wash, rinse, repeat. If your current book tanks and you only sell a few dozen copies, don’t worry. Go back to the drawing board, write a new book, and try to repeat all of the things you did well, while improving on the things you didn’t do so well. No single attribute will serve you better as a writer than inner drive and persistence. Personally, I think if you’re doing what you do for a purpose larger than yourself this will help to sustain you through the lean years.

Thanks so much, Anthony, for the opportunity to guest blog here today at The Writers Edge. And thanks so much for all that you do for writers in our community.

Truth is Stanger than Fiction, but now Fiction is Turning into Truth

UPDATE: Stephen Wolfram launched the Wolfram/Alpha this past Saturday, May 16, 2009. Be sure to visit his site and try it.


When I finished my thriller, DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM (DEOS), two years ago I never imagined that some of it would come true!

With the reported release of the Wolfram/Alpha search engine this month (May 2009) by its creator Stephen Wolfram, a significant plot element of DEOS will come true.

Like the chip that I imagined in my novel, the Wolfram/Alpha program “draws on the knowledge on the internet, as well as private databases,” according to a May 3 report in London’s The Independent online edition.



“Instead of searching the web for info, Alpha is built around a vast repository of curated data from public and licensed sources. Alpha then organizes and computes this knowledge with the help of sophisticated Natural Language Processing algorithms. Users can ask Alpha any kind of question, which can be constructed just like a Google search (think: ‘hurricane bob’ or ‘carbon steel strength’),” explained a post on April 25 from the blog ReadWriteWeb.

The imaginary chip/program in my novel runs spiders all over the Internet recording and logging the location of specific information. When you ask the chip a question it locates the relevant information and uses algorithms to produce the most correct answer. Only this imaginary chip becomes sentient as it gains more knowledge and within two weeks of its launch has the IQ of a teenager in the novel.

Much of the technology I mention in my novel is based on existing or developing technology that I stretch a bit with literary license to create a dramatic plot and rich characters. Some of the plot elements are based on actual events and plausible scenarios that I uncovered in my research into the hacker culture and its players.

I wrote the book hoping to raise awareness of the real and looming threats in cyberspace. And now, some of those threats are coming to fruition.

One such event was the Conficker Worm attack in April which is also similar to a plot element in DEOS. (See my press release on the Conficker Worm.) The DEOS plot is about an Internet worm that takes over the US power grid and cell phone network, and it cannot be stopped. Does that sound like the Conficker Worm?

I just hope the rest of DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM never comes true.


(Get a FREE signed printed version of DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM! Download a free ebook version from Smashwords.com and let me know if you will review the novel. Post your review and I'll send you a signed printed version.)

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