An Open Offer from The Book Snob

Hello! The whole point of writing books is to get them off the shelves and into the hands of readers, a sometimes daunting task for the self-published writer. Commercial publishers sometimes can count on newspapers, magazines and online publications to offer reviews, but these are avenues rarely open to the self publisher, no matter the quality of the book. The Book Snob will provide profiles, news and reviews from the world of self publishing, hoping to correct that inequity. But before I can launch my site, I need something to review.

That's where you come in. I believe you or someone you know are self published authors who would like the benefit of being reviewed or profiled. Here are the rules:

1. Self-published items must be at least novella length, more than 20,000 words.
   
2. Books and novellas may be fiction or non-fiction. I will not review poetry or erotica.
   
3. Review items must have been published within the past year.
   
4. Books will be reviewed fairly but honestly. If you can't handle the criticism, don't send the book. Sending your book to me is your agreement that you will accept the publication of the verdict.

When submitting your book, please, include the following: your name, address, phone number, email address, book length and genre. If you have a great story to tell about your publishing experience, send that along, too. I likely will not be able to review every book I receive, but I will try my best.

Mail submissions to: The Book Snob P.O. Box 369 Brownsburg, IN 46112 The Book Snob is a professional reviewer and self-published author with more than 20 years' experience major metropolitan newspapers and national publications.

Great Book Cover Design

An eye-catching book cover can be crucial to the sale of your book. Think of how many times you have stood before two different items and weighed the factors influencing your purchase. At some point in your consumer-life, you have made a purchase at least partially affected by how a certain product looks. Now picture yourself browsing online and combatting the myriad pop-up advertisements and links to websites competing for your attention. Every once in a while you are actually tempted to follow the link to a page based on an attractive or intriguing image. A well-designed cover for your book will have the same compelling effect when a user is browsing on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble's website. The image of your book cover may arouse curiosity and cause the reader to find out more about the book.

Mill City Press has skilled and versatile graphic designers who will provide your work with a cover design or book jacket that will complement and draw readers into the text inside.

Here are a few stunning examples of book covers done by designers for Mill City Press:

If you are looking to publish your book, take advantage of Mill City Press' publishing package which gives you the author full rights and ownership over the book cover design and layout, including the digital files. Visit www.millcitypress.net or click on the link above to take you directly to our page describing that portion of our services.

Social Networking on the Internet

MySpace, Friendster, Gather.com, Facebook, Xanga.


Chances are you have heard of at least one of these or other online networking sites. Their growing popularity is really testament to their user-friendly qualities and the proven benefits of being engaged with others over the internet.


These sites allow for a unique, multimedia way to interact with readers and fellow writers. Many of these networks, among several other amenities, provide the user space for a personal profile which you can make as specific as you wish, or even create pseudonymously.



The way the online networks are set up, users (sometimes even non-network members) may browse the members' pages with the option of actions such as commenting on a photo or entry, emailing that member, seeing who else visits that page, and creating links from that page to other members' pages.



There are many online social networks to choose from with varying drawing points to each. Let me offer a very brief survey of the biggest social networks. MySpace attracts a variety of ages, but appeals strongly to a younger audience. MySpace offers plenty of space to upload material in a varitey of ways including video clips and sound files. Friendster also seems to have a user base similar to the MySpace population (generally ages 18-35) but has a slightly more refined search engine allowing members to search the pages for interesting contacts. Xanga (xanga.com) is unique in that it offers web-rings within a site through which people can sign up by invitation to read your work. Live Journal has a large number of members who write and an even larger number of those who read. In Live Journal, you can add a "tag" to your page that aids in directing to your site users searching for your topic. Gather.com is a community of people who generally fall into the 30-60 age range with a very strong writing focus. Gather offers space for posting your writing and gaining critiques from other writers.



Social networking sites generally have members who are very active on the internet, posting in web forums and blogs often. This means heightened exposure for you. The more people visit your site, the more connections you make, which translates ultimately into others stopping at your site to look around, read an excerpt, and buy your book.

To get your help with your personal online marketing plan visit www.millcitypress.net or click on the title of this entry.

A Glossary of Helpful Terms in Marketing Online

7Search -- Advertising program that generates quality website traffic on behalf of thousands of advertisers through its pay-per-click (PPC) search engine.

Average Cost-Per-click (CPC) -- Average amount paid by advertiser each time a user clicks on his/her ad. Average CPC is determined by totaling the cost of all clicks and dividing it by the number of clicks.

Conversion -- Occurs when a click on an ad leads directly to valuable user behavior such as a purchase, sign-up, page view, or lead.

Conversion Rate -- Percentage of total people who buy your book divided by the number of people who click on an ad for your website.

Cost -- Total dollars spent on advertising.

Cost per Conversion -- Amount spent on advertising for each book sale.

Daily Budget -- Amount allotted per day for an advertising campaign.

Google Analytics -- Free service offered by Google (the largest online search engine that indexes websites) that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. *Information provided by Google Analytics can be used to optimize an ad campaign (information such as how long visitors stay on the website and their geographic location).

Impressions -- Amount of people who see a webpage with your ad displayed on it.

Keywords -- Words chosen for a given Ad Group for the purpose of targeting your ad to potential customers.

Landing Page -- Active webpage where customers "land" after clicking on your ad. The web address for this page is also referred to as a "destination URL" or a "click through URL."

Lead -- Potential customer interested in buying, reading, or learning more about your book.

Natural Search Results -- List of websites generated from a search engine when a user searches keywords/phrases.

Optimized Website -- A website that ranks high (near the number one search result) in search engines for the chosen keywords.

PPC -- Pricing structure used by some online channels to charge an advertiser each time a user clicks on an advertiser's ad. Also called cost-per-click (CPC).

Social Networking -- Benefit of a virtual community offered by some webhosts (such as Myspace, Friendster, Gather.com). People engaged in this community are drawn by a less or more specific set of interests.

For additional terms, please visit http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=29

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.

Have a Plan

As an author you spend months pouring over the computer screen perfecting every word. Every thought must be concise and directly related to the destination you want your reader to arrive at. You get ideas at the most inopportune of times and quickly jot down the contents of your mind on a cocktail napkin before rushing off to the comfort of your laptop. Nothing is calm until your thoughts are entirely spilled into the word processor! You fantasize about book sales and the distinguished "best selling author" title on your book. You are determined to create the perfect work of art.

Let me ask you this though, what good is that perfect accumulation of words and thoughts if nobody ever reads them? You need a plan.

Once your book is completed, who is going to read it? The more important question is, how are these people going to know your book even exists? The truth is that you will have to find them. You must make a name for your book and get the book "buzzed". There are several ways that you can do this simply from your own home and they include: blogs, social networking, internet advertising, and optimized websites. You can also look into submission into different online databases. The only limits are your creativity.

So you are thinking, okay, they all sound like good ideas but I am not internet savy. Maybe you have never posted a blog or have no idea how a social networking site could possibly increase your sales. I personally have no idea how to replace the spark-plugs in my car or how to perform my own knee surgery. I could certainly guess but what are the chances that I would do a good job? I choose to stick with the professionals. You could guess about how to promote your book but are you willing to live with the consequences?

I suggest consulting with a professional in the marketing industry. At the very least they can help you develop a plan to approach the sales and promotion of your book. The next task is to put this plan into action. If you choose to do this yourself or to enlist the help of a professional you will get exactly what you put into it. Time or money will be required to sell your book. The whole point is that first you need to have a plan. Then maybe you can continue your "best selling author" daydreams...

If you are interested in finding more information about where to find marketing plans or consultations please contact me at: karina@clickindustries.com or 612-455-2290 ext 204.