As we all know, the best selling books are not necessarily the best ones. Thus, it depends on which book was promoted and how. It used to be a common wisdom that the only way to become a best selling author was to go through a major publishing house. However, since many years, many bestsellers have actually been self published and self promoted. When deciding whether to self publish your book or not, you should examine the advantages that successful self-publishers seem to have over their not so fortunate colleagues.
As writers have a reputation for being sensitive creatures, it should first of all be noted that those who plan to handle the marketing and publicity aspects of their book themselves should shed this image and possess thick hides. While you can be sensitive while writing your book, you have to change your approach and become practical when it comes to marketing it. You should not take any negatives personally and should feel as if all the setbacks are taking you closer to your goal.
First of all, before taking any steps to promote your book you should be aware of your target audience, that is, who will buy your book? 'Everybody' is not the correct answer to this question, although it is a common answer. The more focused you are on your target audience the easier it will be for you reach them. After identifying you target audience you should try to gather as much data about them as you can. The next step should be to outline your goals and objectives, determine your budget and implement your strategies.
In this age of internet a book that is promoted through net certainly gains an added advantage over those which are not. Thus, to promote your book online, you should first of all have an exclusive website for it. Here you should display your book's cover, excerpts, reviews and testimonials on the home page and provide links to booksellers that carry your book. Another way to get your book noticed is by including it in the Bowker "Books in Print" database. Several online bookstores use this database. If you are not building a website for your book then you can use the e-mail promotion campaign for promoting it. First of all, you should send a newsletter to your different e-mail contacts. Inform them about your book and then follow up with a compelling book sales letter.
Another way to promote your book online is by creating your own blog. Having a blog has now become one of the coolest and in some cases one of the most profitable things on the web. On your blog you can add the link to your site and depending on the popularity of your blog it can receive more than one hundred thousand hits per day.
Thus, with the help of Internet any author can become successful, provided he has the drive, energy and time to see it through.
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