Blogs and social networks are an extremely effective way to market your books and make connections. Consider another option: a personal website.
There are some simple steps to owning your own website, and the rewards are plenty. There are available sites that will host your website for free, but most charge a few dollars for a year's ownership (the average charge is $10-$15 a year). You will then have to do a domain name search to be sure that the name you would like to claim for your website is not already in use by someone else. Most websites offering domain registration also offer domain name search engines. If the name you prefer is not available using dot com (.com) you may also try .org, .biz, .info, etc. but prices may vary from one designation to the next. Many of these hosting sites offer packages that include email services and a wide range of attractive templates you may use to build your website.
A website gives you the opportunity to offer a wide range of information in more than one medium to your readers and anyone else who is looking around the internet. You could choose to offer excerpts of your book or whole chapters, post pictures, or offer a bit of background information on the book's conception or your writing experience, topics that may interest your readership. Perhaps the most important feature on your site will be the opportunity to sell your books directly to the customer without having to go through another retailer, preventing any loss of profit. It is easy to set up an account using PayPal or other ecommerce sites.
Mill City Press offers book fulfillment services that can fulfill orders you receive through your website. We also employ skilled web designers that will tailor your website to your specifications, and create your website to reflect your book.
Take a look at some of the websites already online. Take a tour of each one, following the links to the features that author has chosen to include.
http://www.21st-centurypirate.com/
http://www.meanestwinter.com/
http://www.wakeoftheraven.com/
http://thegambitsite.com/
http://emenerbooks.com/
http://www.raindancebook.com/
http://www.saturn-return.com/
If you have published with us, check out the Mill City Press website to find out how to create your own website.
Showing posts with label author books publishing online marketing sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author books publishing online marketing sales. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Author Tip No. Two: Google Books
Get yourself listed on Google Book Search!
Google, one of the largest, most reputable, and most frequently used search engines on the internet, offers a search engine exclusively for books.
Google Book Search offers listings of books searchable by author and any topical keyword or phrase, just like any internet search. Submitting your book for entry into the Google Book Search database offers tons of online exposure to new readers.
In Book Search, you may choose to offer all or only portions of your book online for users to read. You may also include links to where readers can purchase your book. Photos and About the Author sections enhance your listing. Plus, having your book in Book Search heightens the chance of being found in a normal search in Google.com.
Try it. Go to http://www.books.google.com/ and enter in the words "fear of feeling loved." That search results in 1910 results (as of 6/15/2007). If you scroll down the page, you will find a book called Fear of Feeling Loved by Dr. Bill Emener. Clicking on the image directs you to a beautiful full-color representation of the book's cover, a synopsis, chapters available online, links to buy the book, even the ability to search inside the book itself using keywords that will generate specific pages containing those words.
If you would like your book to be listed in Google Book Search, click on the link above or visit http://www.millcitypress.net/.
Google, one of the largest, most reputable, and most frequently used search engines on the internet, offers a search engine exclusively for books.
Google Book Search offers listings of books searchable by author and any topical keyword or phrase, just like any internet search. Submitting your book for entry into the Google Book Search database offers tons of online exposure to new readers.
In Book Search, you may choose to offer all or only portions of your book online for users to read. You may also include links to where readers can purchase your book. Photos and About the Author sections enhance your listing. Plus, having your book in Book Search heightens the chance of being found in a normal search in Google.com.
Try it. Go to http://www.books.google.com/ and enter in the words "fear of feeling loved." That search results in 1910 results (as of 6/15/2007). If you scroll down the page, you will find a book called Fear of Feeling Loved by Dr. Bill Emener. Clicking on the image directs you to a beautiful full-color representation of the book's cover, a synopsis, chapters available online, links to buy the book, even the ability to search inside the book itself using keywords that will generate specific pages containing those words.
If you would like your book to be listed in Google Book Search, click on the link above or visit http://www.millcitypress.net/.
Monday, May 21, 2007
The New Community: The Blog
Creating a personal blog to promote your book online is one of the best ways to market yourself and your work. Not only are most blog hosting sites free, they offer so much more than just space for information on the internet.
If you create a blog, you are automatically entered into an online community, a network of people all over the globe who will see your posts, photos, and whatever else you can imagine to enhance your blog space. With a variety of blogging hosts to choose from, you could enter a community of people of all ages and interests, or you can find one that is slightly more focused in what brings its users to the network. Being connected to others offers a wealth of advantages: think job opportunities, links on their blogs to yours, international interest, perhaps even helpful pointers from people who have been where you are in the book selling or publishing process.
For blog visitors, you have many options on how to entice them and keep them coming back for more. People who have really been captivated by a book usually want to find out more about the author, the book itself, or about other writings the author has done. A blog can keep organized and archive all of this and whatever other categories of information you wish to make available to your readers. Also, blogs that are updated frequently are more likely to be found by major search engines; it is fortunate that it is easy to compose and edit your posts, so that you may contribute as often as you like. As in many well-regarded journals and magazines, you could feature excerpts from your book serially to keep yourself posting regularly and to keep readers wanting more.
Other helpful features are things like visitor counters to monitor how much traffic your blog has received; the capacity to send and receive comments about a particular post; you can also set up a PayPal account to sell books personally through your blog rather than having a chunk of your profit taken through selling with an online retailer.
Blogs are a simple and very effective way to gain exposure to a wide audience.
If you have published through us, visit www.millcitypress.net to find out how we can help you set up a blog.
If you create a blog, you are automatically entered into an online community, a network of people all over the globe who will see your posts, photos, and whatever else you can imagine to enhance your blog space. With a variety of blogging hosts to choose from, you could enter a community of people of all ages and interests, or you can find one that is slightly more focused in what brings its users to the network. Being connected to others offers a wealth of advantages: think job opportunities, links on their blogs to yours, international interest, perhaps even helpful pointers from people who have been where you are in the book selling or publishing process.
For blog visitors, you have many options on how to entice them and keep them coming back for more. People who have really been captivated by a book usually want to find out more about the author, the book itself, or about other writings the author has done. A blog can keep organized and archive all of this and whatever other categories of information you wish to make available to your readers. Also, blogs that are updated frequently are more likely to be found by major search engines; it is fortunate that it is easy to compose and edit your posts, so that you may contribute as often as you like. As in many well-regarded journals and magazines, you could feature excerpts from your book serially to keep yourself posting regularly and to keep readers wanting more.
Other helpful features are things like visitor counters to monitor how much traffic your blog has received; the capacity to send and receive comments about a particular post; you can also set up a PayPal account to sell books personally through your blog rather than having a chunk of your profit taken through selling with an online retailer.
Blogs are a simple and very effective way to gain exposure to a wide audience.
If you have published through us, visit www.millcitypress.net to find out how we can help you set up a blog.
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