Traditional marketing and promotion is all well and good, but since your work is now online, there are all sorts of interesting new possibilities to explore in spreading the word about your book.
In addition to emailing a notice to every list you're on (as well as sending out an email blast--more on this in a moment), you can explore the Kindle and e-reader forums. There are too many of these to count on Amazon alone.
For instance, check out the Kindle Community. Be on the lookout for threads like "Have you published a book on the Kindle" and other invitations to talk about your work. Reply to those discussions. Otherwise, avoid BSP (forums can be very strict and readers unforgiving on this point), but feel free to post a comment in the forum of your choice (one pertaining to your genre), with a mention of your book (and a link to the Amazon order page--using the "Insert a Product Link" button) in your signature line.
So how do you find these Amazon forums? Click on "Community Directories," then check under the topics (mine would be "mystery" or "thriller"). Click on the one you want and--voila! You'll have a load of threads to choose from (too many!).
And that's just Amazon alone.
Along with these you can post to the following forums:
The Kindle Boards: http://www.kindleboards.com/
MobileRead Forums: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/
Kindle Forum, Kindle Social Network: http://www.booksummit.com/forum/
Google the terms "kindle e-reader forum"--there may be even more.
There's also a Yahoo group called the Kindle Korner. I've seen people post reviews there. While BSP is prohibited, you could always request someone read your book and post a review. Also, participating in the discussion is to be encouraged (with your name and book title in the signature line, natch).
Just don't toot your own horn all the time. Post something interesting about e-books in general. Share an article you found. Recommend an e-book. Post a review. Engage readers. (You're writers. You should know how to do that! :)) It isn't all about you.
There's an expression for this. It's called "relationship marketing." Establish a relationship with your readers online. You can do this through email lists, forums and social media like Facebook and Twitter. Participation is the key to success here.
And another nice thing about e-books is the awesome potential for cross-promotion with other authors.
For instance, I currently have an excerpt from J.A. Konrath's book, THE LIST, tacked on as a bonus to my e-book version of IDENTITY CRISIS. And, Mr. Konrath has kindly added an excerpt from my book to his, in return. (Along with two other excerpts--from Lee Goldberg's THE WALK, and SUCKERS, written jointly by Konrath and Jeff Strand--talk about being in good company!)It's that kind of flexibility that lets you get a bit more creative with your promotion and marketing.
And that's not all. Ask your fellow authors to review your book and post their reviews to these forums I mentioned. There's nothing like good word of mouth (and from a fellow author, no less) to sell your work. Then, do them the return favor, by reading their work and posting your review online.
Some other online review sites you might want to consider include:GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/
LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/
And these are just three I happen to know about.
And the email blasts. I'd encourage you to network (yes, leave your house and meet people), tell people in various walks of life about your book (not just other authors, but business people), get people's cards and add their email addresses to your list (or lists, if you'd like to keep separate ones). Then, when you have an important announcement about yourself or your book, you can tell everyone at once.
This is what's known as "push marketing." You push the message out to others (as opposed to "pull marketing," which you do through blogging or your Web site). Just make sure you have an interesting message when you do this. I'm not big on email newsletters for this reason. I see a newsletter, I equate it with puffery. I automatically delete it. Make your message compelling. Don't do frequent email blasts. Don't bore everyone with self-promotion and empty content constantly.
And, you realize that, with every online post and email you send, you can include a link to your e-book's order page. Make it easy for people to buy it. (Just be careful doing this on forums. It's considered advertising on the Kindle Korner, for instance, to provide direct sales links. Just sayin' ... watch what you do ...)
Well ... enough to get you started? (And I didn't even mention using blogs. Okay, next time ...)
Next week: promoting your e-book through blogging.
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