Marketing Ideas (Website, Blog, and Social Media, oh my!)

Marketing Ideas Online

Getting Your Name Out on the Web

Add your profile to websites that can help promote you and your book:

www.authorcentral.amazon.com Once your book is published and appearing on Amazon.com, go to this link to set up an account as an author. From that account, you will be able to add your profile, your author website, and your blogs. You can also enter categories for your book so people can more easily find your book. The site also provides opportunities to join groups of people who have similar interests to yours or who might be interested in the story or information in your book.

Amazon Enhancements

While having your book on Amazon is a great start to being a successful author, there are things that you must do as an author to help Amazon customers find your book and then want to buy it. Amazon has built in a myriad of options that you can use as an author to help get your book in front of the buying audience.

To begin with, you must set up an author account with Amazon through what they call Author Central. Go to www.authorcentral.amazon.com and follow the steps to set up an account with the email account that you use as an author. The setup will require that you give an email address and a password.

Once you are set up, follow every link that Amazon provides to add your bio, your blog, and even the events you will be attending. Include events you set up yourself as well as the events that BQB sets up for you.

Link to your author website and your blog. If you don’t have either, go to the section for each of those items on this website to guide you in setting them up.

One of the advanced options from Amazon is a link to Shelfari.com where you can enter detailed information about yourself, your book, and even the characters from your book. If you can’t find the link from Amazon, log in to Shelfari.com and use your Amazon password and username to log in.

Create a Website

The question is not whether or not you will need to create an author website, because that is an absolute necessity if you want to become a successful author. The question is how you will create it. You have a couple of options.

  1. Have someone create it for you: This is the simplest option, especially if you are new to websites and the Internet in general. BQB has a list of recommended website builders, or, if you personally know a website builder, have them create your site.
  2. Create one yourself: You can create a simple author website through services such as GoDaddy and the templates that they provide. If you have not yet purchased your author domain, purchase it through GoDaddy.com (or a similar service) and you will get a free five-page website as a part of your domain (this is the case for GoDaddy at least). If you already have your domain name, you can still purchase a five-page website from GoDaddy for around $4.99 per month. There are other website companies that offer do-it-yourself options as well. Weebly.com is another reasonable and easy to use do-it-yourself option.

The most important elements you’ll want to include on your website are: book title, book cover, description, author bio, author picture, where to buy the book (include easy to follow active links to your book on BQB’s online store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and eBook versions), Blog (if you’ll be writing regularly), Reviews, News and Events. Be sure to add links to your press releases, interviews, upcoming signings and more. This is your hub for all information about your book. Most authors choose to use their name as the book URL instead of the book title, since they might be writing more in the future and want to have all books on one website.

Create a Blog

Blogging has become a very popular way for authors to become well known to the reading public, and it’s easy to create and maintain a blog. Posts should be brief, no longer than 300-500 words and the tone can be casual. It’s important to write about topics your fans would enjoy. Consider themes around your book, offer entertaining stories, advice, promotions, giveaways, and guest blogs that are in the vein of your target audience.

If you don’t have time to blog from the start, it’s always something you can include in your future marketing plans and goals. It is a time commitment to regularly write, edit, and post new material, even if the posts are short. So consider whether this is something you will enjoy.

Ideally, your author website will have a blog option built into the system, and if so, that is the optimal choice. However, if you do not yet have an author site or if your author site does not have a built-in blog option, there are two blog sites that are very easy to use: www.wordpress.com or www.blogger.com. Just go to the site, set up an account (using either your author name or the name of your book, whichever you will be using to brand yourself as an author) and start blogging.

Try to blog a minimum of once or twice a week. If you are not sure what to blog about, search for one of your favorite authors on the Internet, find his or her blog, and start following them. You’ll find that the topics and comments are varied and are not just about writing. Then begin blogging.

Social Media

It’s important to really get the word out to the world via social media. The big three are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are also author-centric and reader-centric sites you’ll want to consider. Check out this social media PDF cheat sheet from our friend Shari Stauch at Where Writers Win for a list of over thirty useful sites and networks to consider. Support fellow authors and learn from others who find successful ways to promote their book or event via social media. Team up with authors or organizations to cross-promote books and share information. Be sure you “like” and “follow” others within BQB and support their posts and updates just as you’d like them to do the same for you. Click here for a full list of all of the author websites and social media contact details.

Other Resources

 

Click here to go back to the BQB Authors Portal.