How to Set Up Your Amazon Author Page

My Amazon Author Page at
amazon.com/author/diannebutts

In my July post I wrote:

"Don't have an Amazon author page?! We're going to talk about that next month." 

That would have been August but July got too busy and I didn't get that post done. So let's revisit that idea this month.

I touched on Amazon author pages in my January 2015 post, "25 Free Ways to Market Your Book." (See #2 in that article.) But this month let's go more in depth in how to set up your Amazon author page.

How to Know If an Author has an Amazon Page

When you are looking at books on Amazon, pay attention to the name of the author. Sometimes it's a link. Sometimes it's not. When it is a link, that indicates the author has an Amazon author page set up. Obviously when you click the link, it takes you to the author's page.

When the author's name is not a link, that author has not set up his or her Amazon author page. (Or it's possible they have but that book is not linked to it. If this is the case for you, add that book to your Amazon author page.)

You Must Have a Book on Amazon

Before you may have an Amazon author page, you must have at least one book for sale on Amazon. If you don't, this would be a great time to write an e-book and upload it. See my series of posts "How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-book on Amazon (for Free)" I posted in February, March, April, and May 2016. (Links are at the bottom of this post.) 

If you have contributed to a compilation book or anthology, such as a Chicken Soup for the Soul book or another independently published compilation, and if it is available on Amazon, that counts and you can create an Author page. (Tweet that!  ) You may need to contact Amazon and ask them how to set up your page from a compilation. Let me just say...

I set up my Amazon author page about 15 years ago so I don't remember the details of how I did it, and no doubt details have changed. But it should be fairly easy for you to figure out from AuthorCentral.com.

Amazon's Author Central

To get started, go to AuthorCentral.com. Or you can go to your book on Amazon (or other books) and find the small down-pointing arrow next to the author's name which indicates a drop-down menu. Hover over that and you'll see where it asks, "Are you an author? Learn about Author Central."

It's going to take you Amazon's Author Central. This is where you will open your Author Central account with an email address and password.

Once you do that you'll find the "Welcome to Author Central" page with instructions and links to more how-tos. Click the "Help" button in the upper right beside your name to get right to the basics.

Also on this page is "Author Central News" where Amazon posts news and updates about it's programs.

Once you're in your Amazon Author Central account, you can click on four options across the top of the page. Your:

• Author Page
• Books
• Sales Info
• Customer Reviews.

Click on "Books" to find the books you've authored and connect them to your Amazon author page. Simply click the yellow "Add more books" button, search for you book, and there you go.

The Sales Info tab has sub-menus for your:

• Sales Rank: Shows each of your books and where they rank on Amazon. This will show green and a rise when you sell a book. That's exciting!
• Author Rank: Your overall ranking on Amazon. Like a golf score, the lower the number the better. I heard a long time ago if you're under 100,000 that's good. If you're just starting out you won't be that low, but as I've published more e-books that sell regularly I've been in that zone consistently...which is really cool.
• Nielsen BookScan: Shows when a hard copy of your book sells and in which geographic location. Not all book sales are recorded here since not all bookstores are connected to the Nielsen BookScan. But it gives you a good idea of where sales are taking place. If you advertise in a certain region or hold an author event in a certain location you may see those sales reflected here.

At the Customer Reviews tab you can see all the reviews on your books on Amazon. You can sort them by title, by most recent, etc. It's an easy way to see if you have any new reviews.

Finally, you can click on Author Page and set up many options on your page.

What to Set Up on Your Amazon Author Page

It's pretty easy to figure out what you can do when you get there, but let's just go over what you can set up on your Amazon author page:

Biography

Of course you've seen author's bios on Amazon. This is where the author was able to enter that information. You probably already have a bio you've written for another project (or the back of your book). If not, write one now. 

I think shorter is better. Only a portion will show on your author page before visitors must click to read more. So put the most important info up front. (Tweet that!) Plan it as if what shows will be all that your readers ever read.

Let your personality shine through. Readers enjoy that.

Whenever you need to update your bio or wish to change it, come back to your Amazon Central account to do so.

Blogs

Are you writing a blog? You can connect it here and your latest posts will automatically show up. Pretty cool huh?

This is a great way to direct your book readers to your blog to read more of what you write. It's also a great way to increase your blog's readership. (Tweet that!) 

Events

Are you planning a booksigning? Putting together a live author event? Attending a writer's conference or book expo? You can enter the location, hours, description of the event, and which book you're featuring here. It's similar to an event on Facebook. (Tweet that!) 

I've used this several times. I have it listed on my "to do" list when setting up an author event. It's hard to gauge whether it brings in a bigger crowd to author events. I wonder how many authors actually use this feature on Amazon ... or even know it's here. If we remember to use this feature perhaps Amazon visitors will become aware of it and check it more often.

Now that I've encouraged you to use this Events feature, I want to also caution you. As authors we should think about our personal security and that of our families and homes before we tell the whole world exactly where we will be and when. (Tweet that!) Of course we want to attract as big a crowd of book buyers as we can. But we need to somehow balance that with not telling burglars we're traveling and our home is empty and waiting for their visit. Women traveling alone may not want to let the world know the details of where they'll be and when. In the current climate in our nation, if your book might be controversial, you might want to be cautious about posting the location and hours of your event.

Have you ever thought about this?

I don't know the answers to this dilemma, but part of the solution might be:

• Don't post that "we" (your whole family) will be traveling to an event. Say "I" will be there and let people think your strong, armed husband / family is at home guarding the house.



Booksignings

• Don't post your travel plans, such as when you're leaving or arriving. 
• Don't Instagram yourself in the airport or post elsewhere photos, videos, and comments until after you get back home. 

If you'd like to set up a live author event in a bookstore but don't know how, have no idea where to start, or simply want to hear my tips, experiences, and suggestions, check out my e-book Booksignings.

Author Page URL

When your Author Page is created, Amazon will give you a URL here. You can suggest a change if you want to. Make it easy to remember.  (Tweet that!) 

Copy and paste this URL into a place where it is easy for you to access, such as in a Word document or, better I think, an Excel document where you keep all your links (for each of you books, blogs, etc.).

Also keep it written and handy when you do radio interviews so you can state it easily. Keep it simple so people can remember it. The few times I've done TV interviews I've been asked for information to put at the bottom of the screen as I talk. Your Amazon author page is a one-stop shop for all your books (assuming they're all on Amazon) so let your audience know how to find it.

If you wish, create an easy-to-remember short URL on bitly.com. 

What will you want to do with this URL? If you need ideas, I'll list some below under "What Can You Do With Your Amazon Author Page?"

Photos

Add your author photo of your smiling face. A book sales expert told me a nice photo creates a "relationship" with the reader. Relationships are key to book sales. (Tweet that!) 

This is the same reason you should have your smiling face on the back cover of every print book you produce and in the back matter of your e-books.

Videos

You cannot put a YouTube video on your Amazon page. Plus, Amazon has a lot of rules for what they do not want you to include in your video. Be sure to review those guidelines before you try putting a video on your site.

To find those guidelines, click "add video." A box will open with basic guidelines including this one:

• For more guidelines, please visit our video content guidelines.

I'm thinking I shouldn't upload my book trailer videos I've made on Animoto.com because the Animoto logo is embedded at the end. Also not allowed are "comments relating to book reviews and content visible on the Author Page and detail pages" on Amazon.

Amazon states:

You can share video interviews, book signing videos, and other videos with readers. Your videos should focus on specific features of your books or your experience as an author. Uploading Videos

I never thought to take a video at an live author event. I may think about staging that (getting permission first) next time I hold one.

Right now I'm thinking we could just talk to our laptop cameras and tell potential readers interesting information about ourselves or our books, why we wrote it, that sort of thing. We could also "stage" an interview: type the question on a slide for the video then look off camera and answer as if we're answering an interviewer.

How to Create a Video for Your Amazon Page

If you want to create such a video, use your laptop camera. Upload the video to YouTube and edit it.

While you cannot upload a YouTube video to your Amazon author page, you can save it in an Amazon-supported format and then upload it! (Tweet that!) To do that go to your Video Manager on YouTube and click the drop down menu arrow next to "Edit." Choose to save your video to your computer as an MP4 file. MP4 is one of the supported files on Amazon so you can then upload your MP4 file from your computer to your Amazon author page.

(Hmm. Now that I've figured all that out, I may have to try it myself and write a whole post on this topic! Wouldn't that be fun?! I'll work on it when I have time.)

What Can You Do With Your Amazon Author Page?

Here are some ways you can use your Amazon author page URL:

• in your email signature, 
• in Tweets, 
• in an occasional Facebook post,
• in all your social media bios (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
• Link to it on your blogs and web sites. 
• Be sure to put it at the end of your book trailers.
• Include it on your business cards. 
• Put it in your guest posts on other blogs and... 
• your bio at the end of your magazine articles. 
• Include it in the back matter of every book you write. 

Anywhere you advertise yourself, your books, or your brand, you should include an easy link to your Amazon author page because your page will list all your books that you have available for sale (on Amazon). With one click visitors can go to the detail page of any of your books and purchase it. (Tweet that!)

One More Tip...

If you're writing under a pseudonym, you can also open an Amazon author page for your pseudonym. (Tweet that!) You can do so from your regular author page; you don't need a separate account. But to everyone viewing your pen name page there will be no connection to who you are unless you put it there.

You can manage up to three Author Pages this way, though they will not be associated in any way on Amazon.com.  Managing Your Bibliography

If you haven't yet set up your Amazon author page, or if there are some steps here you haven't yet completed, why not do so today?

Or if your Amazon author page has been set up for a while, why not schedule some time to update your bio, list an upcoming event, add a new photo, connect a new blog, or create a new video?

Tweetable:

Why not open or update your #AmazonAuthorPage today? Here's how.  Tweet that:  

Related Articles:

• How to Make Your Manuscript a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 1: Formatting Your Kindle Document
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 2 - Front Matter, Back Matter, and Images
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon - Part 3 - Get Your E-Book Covers Here! (Not All Free) 
• How to Make Your Manuscript Into a Kindle E-Book on Amazon (for Free) - Part 4 – Uploading Your Ebook

25 Free Ways to Market Your Book

Morguefile.com

One question I get frequently from many writers and authors is, "Now that I have my new book out [or have one coming out], what is the best way for me to market it?" As a matter of fact, I got this very question via Twitter this past month which inspired this blog post. The short answer is, "Any way you can." A better answer might be, "Any way you can that works well with your personality, your schedule, your gifts, etc." But still, we need specific ways to market our books, don't we? It's not that hard. I quickly brainstormed 25 ways to market your book online for free.

Marketing is all about getting information about your book out there -- and not just once but time after time after time. The truth is, your book is just one of millions. So you must let people -- as many as possible -- know about your book, what it's about, and why they need it. (Tweet that!) Face it, nobody can buy your book if they don't know it exists. Furthermore, most buyers need to hear of a product multiple times before they buy it. (Tweet that!)

Now, with the internet and social media, we can get our names and book titles and information about our books out there more easily than previous generations of writers. There are a lot of opinions about how much and how often we should promote. I think generally the consensus is to market as much as you can without being obnoxious. But then opinions vary widely on what's obnoxious.

I recommend you work through this list and use all the ideas here that work for you. Don't try to do them all at once. Schedule time each week to work on something here. (Tweet that!) Don't fall into the trap of thinking you must do everything. (Tweet that!) Then brainstorm your own list and work through those. Return to both this list and your own frequently because many of these can be ongoing.

Without further ado, here are 25 free ways to market your book (Tweet that!):

1. Landing Page

This may be the only thing on this list that is required. The first thing you need is a place to send people. You can Tweet links and post links on Facebook and do all sorts of stuff, but if you don't have a set place where potential book buyers can go to get more information they want and, most importantly, purchase your book, it's all for nothing. Set up a web site, a blog page, on online store, or an Amazon author page (See #2!), or all of the above, where people can purchase your book. Then with everything you do, share a one-click link to this page or site.

2. Amazon Author Page

In order to have an author page on Amazon, you must have a book available for sale on Amazon. Even if you're a contributor to a book, such as a Chicken Soup book or have contributed a chapter or a story to a collection, you can claim that and get your author page.

If you don't have any of these, get your book on Amazon. The one-time fee is not that much. (It was $25 a dozen years ago when I did it.) If your book isn't ready yet, create a Kindle e-book, publish it through Kindle Direct Publishing, and get your author page.

Every author who has a book on Amazon should have their author page set up. I'm amazed at how many don't. Go to your book's page (or any book's page) on Amazon. Hover your mouse over the author's name (that should be a link) and a box should open. The bottom line of that little box asks, "Are you an author? Learn about Author Central." That last part is a link. Click that and it will take you to Amazon's Author Central where you can open your account (you simply create a user name and password) and then you can enter information about yourself and your book including your bio, your blog and Twitter feeds, upload a book video, and more.

For an example, here's mine: Dianne's Amazon Author Page.

Grab the link to your Amazon author page and use it in Facebook and LinkedIn posts and Tweets. Post it on your web site and blog. Add it to your email signature. Use it as a landing page and send potential book buyers there.

3. Blog

A blog is a monster that needs regular, continual feedings, so make sure you can keep it up before you start one. When you do, set up a page with info about your book(s), your book covers, and links to your Landing page or Amazon author page. For an example, here is one of my book pages on one of my blogs: Dianne's Prophecy Fulfilled Books.

Blog on a topic similar to your book, but don't use material from your book. (See #20 about writing articles for more on that.)

Please make sure you enable the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ share buttons at the bottom of each blog post so visitors can share your interesting posts with their contacts. Not much is more frustrating for me than to want to support other authors by sharing their materials and they've given me no easy way to do so. Yes, I can copy the url and paste it into a Tweet, but I'm busy and I no longer have the time to do that sort of thing. Furthermore, if I'm reading your post on my phone or Kindle, doing all that is such a hassle I'm just not going to anymore. So you just lost sharing your wonderful post with all of my contacts. Bummer. Don't let that be you!

4. Facebook 

There are Facebook "profiles" for individuals and then there are "pages" for businesses and organizations. Create a "page" for yourself as an author and then ask people to "follow" your page by Liking it.

Be aware that there are new rules for promoting your book on Facebook as of January 1, 2015. Here is an article about that by agent Janet Kobobel Grant of Books & Such Literary Management: What You Need to Know about Facebook’s Latest Revamp.

5. Twitter 

If you're not on Twitter, you need to be. I get most of my interaction through Twitter. I let thousands of people know about my blog and my books via Twitter. If you need help with Twitter, check out my post "Making the Most of Using Twitter." Especially pay attention to the three parts needed for a great Tweet -- your message, a hashtag, and a link -- and make sure you have those in every Tweet! For your link you're going to need someplace to link to. (See #1!)

6. World Literary Cafe

The World Literary Cafe has an amazing number of ways authors can help each other out, including ways to build up your Twitter followers and gain Facebook page Likes. (Tweet that!) Check it out!

They also offer to send your Tweet that markets your book out to their large number of Twitter followers! That's a great way to market your book! To find that look for their "Tweet Teams" page. You'll have to learn the formula they want, write your own Tweet, and wait your turn for your Tweet to go out, but it's worth it!

7. Goodreads 

You can do a ton of stuff for your book on Goodreads, including free giveaways which gets your book on the radar of thousands of readers, send posts to your followers, and much more. Learn more in my post "Discovering Goodreads."

8. Google+

If you haven't yet, you might join Google+. I did this past year and I'll confess I don't know a bunch about using it yet, but I do post all of my blog posts to Google+ (using the share button at the bottom of my blog post) and I know that brings me more blog readers, which in turn gets my books before their eyes. And that's the whole point: getting yourself known so people will want to know more about you ... and then they'll find your books.

9. LinkedIn

I notice more traffic to my blog posts (and therefore seeing my book covers) when I post a notice to LinkedIn. Sometimes that post is a comment about one of my books (with, of course, a link such as a link to the book on Amazon). To consistently send a post to LinkedIn I use a free account with Hootsuite.com to schedule posts to post automatically in the future. I try to post something interesting once a day or at least a couple times a week.

10. Pinterest

On Pinterest you can pin your book covers from online stores, like Amazon, or wherever your books are found. Also pin any articles or guest blog posts you write, author interviews, and posts from your own blog. Create a pin anytime you or your book appears online. Also create boards on topics of your book and pin articles your readers will find interesting.

You can also pin to other people's boards if they allow it. There are boards such as Christian Authors and Christian Nonfiction and Christian Web Sites, so I also pin there whenever I have an appropriate pin.

Note that in order to pin an article with Pinterest it must have an image (photo) with it. This is why you should always, always, always use a photo with every blog post and online article you write.

11. Instagram

This past weekend I heard a tech guy on a radio show state that for the first time the number of Instagram users has now passed that of Twitter. Guess I'd better join Instagram!

I did a quick search the other day and found some articles on how authors can use Instagram to market their books. You might try the same.

I know that IG, like Pinterest, requires a photo for each post. I haven't joined yet because I just couldn't figure out what to take photos of to post, and I didn't know how to make it benefit my marketing efforts (not that it's all about marketing, but at least part of it is). Interestingly only yesterday I saw a photo on Facebook from a friend who is enduring chemotherapy. She posted a photo of her Bible open to where she had a note card with a name and the caption explained she had committed to praying for a friend during each of her 28 chemo treatments. This photo was first shared on Instagram with that awesome message and then sent to Facebook from there. Ah. Now I'm starting to get it!

12. Maximize SEO

Learn about "search engine optimization" and then optimize everything you do online. Use your book title(s) and keywords in your blog titles, your YouTube video titles, guest posts, articles, etc. You can learn more about SEO in this post: "7 Keys to (SEO-Successful) Blog Posts."

13. YouTube

I recently learned how to make and edit YouTube videos. I made a dozen of them for the Christmas Advent season for my Bible Prophecies Fulfilled blog. It's not that hard. If I can do it, you can do it. Think of the book-marketing videos you can make! From book trailers to teaching videos about the topics of your books which you can post on your web site or blog (as a vlog = video blog).

My friend author Linda Evans Shepherd makes lots of videos for her chapters in her books.

14. Make a Book Trailer 

You can use YouTube to make a book trailer and then post it on Facebook and your web site. You can embed your video on your blog in a vlog (video blog) post or in a sidebar (that stays permanently on the side of your blog). You can post a  book trailer on Goodreads. You can send the link out regularly in a Tweet.

You can also make a 30 second book trailer for free at Animoto.com. Learn more about that in my post: "Make Your Own Book Trailer - Easy and Free!"

One thing you can no longer do is post your YouTube video on your Amazon page. I don't know why, but Amazon doesn't accept YouTube videos any longer. So you'll have to create a book trailer with a different program for Amazon. I know that Amazon will take a .mov file and you can make those if you're willing to pay a subscription to Animoto, but you can't make a .mov video through the free account.

15. Hold a booksigning 

This is an in-person event where you can go out and meet people and tell them about your book. I've blogged about how to set this up and what to do when you're there in these posts:

• How to Set Up an In-Store Author Event (AKA "Author Book Signing") - Part 1
• What to Do at Your In-Store Author Event (AKA "Author Book Signing" and How To Make It a Success - Part 2

Would anyone like all this information on how to hold an in-store book signing in an e-book? I'm sure I could fill an e-book with info on that!

16. Schedule a Facebook Event

Whether you have an in-person book signing event coming up or just want to create some kind of an online special event to market your book, you can post or even host the event on Facebook. On Facebook, go to your author page. Then click on "Events." Then click "Create Event" and fill in the information.

I have two events scheduled you can look at as examples. They might give you ideas. Also, I'd be pleased if you "joined" these events by clicking "Going" and then also "share" them and invite your friends.

• Solar Eclipse Virtual Watch Party! - 1st Dark Sun of 2015 will be on March 20, 2015
• Lunar Eclipse Watch Party! - 3rd of the 4 Blood Moons is on April 4, 2015

17. Create E-books

It may sound a bit crazy but another way you can market your books is to create e-books. You can create them on related topics of your existing books or entirely different topics. But you can use them to market your existing books by putting an ad about your books at the end of your e-book. On some e-book platforms, such as Amazon's Kindle, you can even include links to your other books on Amazon.

If you make your e-book exclusive to Amazon's Kindle, Amazon gives you certain privileges such as creating free book giveaways or countdown sales, as well as making your book available in the lending library (where you get paid for each library borrow).

However you can forgo those privileges and also publish your e-book on other platforms. I've been looking into Smashwords and hope to get around to trying it soon.

Speaking of e-books, have you seen the series of e-books for writers I'm publishing? The first was How to Get Published for beginning writers. A few weeks ago the second in the series released: Cutting the Passive Voice for only 99 cents. I'm thinking about my next e-book for writers and I have several I could choose from including one based on my workshop "Ten Tools for Marketing Your Book." Please visit my survey to let me know which new e-book you'd like to have next: Dianne's One-Question Survey! 

You can keep up with all my e-books for writers by visiting Dianne's Amazon Author Page. Also watch that page for when a coming book is available for pre-release sales. You can also sign up for e-mails from Amazon when I release a new book.

18. Acquire Amazon book reviews

I recently learned that if you get 100 reviews, Amazon will begin featuring your book. It doesn't seem to matter how many stars each reviewer gives, so don't worry if you get less than 5-star reviews.

While a great marketing tool for your book is reviews, I'm not sure how to get that many of them. I wish I had more reviews for all of my books. The one thing I do know is that we shouldn't solicit them. For example it's not proper to promise a free copy of your book in exchange for a review. That's like buying reviews and is frowned upon. You can give free review copies, but there should be no obligation to write a review, much less a positive or 5-star review. Perhaps the best way to accumulate reviews is to simply ask for them? If you know of a good way to get Amazon reviews, please share it with us as a comment below. Thanks.

When you do get a nice review, you can also use it elsewhere -- on your web site or blog's book page or in your email signature -- for book marketing purposes.

19. Regularly offer your expertise and help

While we are always trying to get the word out about our books so people will buy them, one way to market is to offer something to your readers without expecting anything back. I enjoy offering help to writers through this blog. And I'm pretty sure you don't mind when I occasionally mention one of my products. Build up good will with your followers and readers, and then they will champion you to their contacts. Offering something of value, like information, without always "selling" also helps us to not always sounds like we're just saying "buy my book buy my book"!

20. Write print articles

Back before internet days, pretty much all we had to read was magazines, books, and junk mail. Then it was common for writers to write articles for print magazines. Now there's so much we do online we can forget there are still print magazines out there that we can write for.

You can write an article on the same or similar topic as your book. Be careful not to use too much material in your book. Most publishing contracts restrict how much you can give away. Why would people buy your book if you're giving the same information away for free? Even if you published your book yourself you might follow the same principal for the same reason.

An example of this is my Bible Prophecies Fulfilled blog. I'm blogging on the same topic as my "Prophecies Fulfilled" series, but I'm not using any of the information from my books. If readers like what they're reading on my blog, they'll get more similar material when they buy my books.

Even if your article is on a topic completely unrelated to your book, you can still market your book through it by including your title and/or web site url (See #1!) in your bio at the end of the article (if the magazine allows or uses one).

As long as you still own the rights to your article, after it's published you can reshaped or repurpose the article as a blog post or even an e-book. My most recent e-book, Cutting the Passive Voice, was originally a magazine article from 1996. I made it into an inexpensive e-book so I could share this helpful information with many more writers for only $. 99.

As a bonus, most of the time you get paid for writing print articles.

21. Write a Guest Blog Post

Seek out other bloggers who are interested in your topic and see if they would like a guest blog post. Many bloggers take guest posts. Some just need an occasional break from blogging to take a vacation or meet a deadline. So if you have an idea for a guest post that fits the blog, let the blogger know your idea and politely ask if they would like the post from you. Most will then give you a link to your landing page (See #1!) or allow you to mention your book. Not all bloggers want guest posts so don't feel hurt if they say no.

You might also trade guest posts with other bloggers, allowing them to guest on your blog. Some bloggers create "blog hops" and other events. Doing so can gain you readers from their blog and gain them readers from your blog, which helps you both. And that's the point! Getting your name and book information out to ever more people is the name of the game.

22. Co-op with other authors

Working together to market each other's books and cross-promote each other can multiply your efforts. Some organizations are created just for this purpose. You might be able to find a group to join or gather some author friends and start your own.

23. Create a newsletter

You can build up a mailing list with a newsletter. People who subscribe will be interested in you and what you have to offer, so the likelihood of them being interested in your book is increased. And of course you can always mention your book and give a link to it (See #1!) in every issue.

I've recently renewed my former newsletter from a few years ago. I'm now using MailChimp,com which is free until I reach a certain number of subscribers. You may have encountered a pop-up subscription box when you came here. If not, find the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this blog and please subscribe! I usually send out a newsletter once a month.

24. Create a survey

Create an interesting survey that will spark interest about your book or its topic or give you opportunities to talk about your book. I used Survey Monkey to create my one-question survey about which e-book writers would like me to write next: Which E-Book For Writers Would You Want Next? Would you please click there and let me know what your vote is? Thanks!

25. Create a pretty poster

A fun and creative way to let people know about your book is to create a lovely poster with an inspiring or important message or quotation from your book. Be sure to include your book's title as the source. You can also add a url in the corner of the poster. (See #1!)

You can then post your creation on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, and web site. Ask your friends to share it via their social media outlets too.

I've used Pick Monkey to create some of these. You can read more about this and find other resources for this purpose here: "Create Your Own Text on Images for Your Blogs and Marketing Your Books."


There you have it. There are 25 free ways to market your book. (Tweet that!)

Let these 25 free ways to market your book be just a starting place. Use your imagination and brainstorm more. I'm sure you can come up with many, and surely some of them will be unique for you and your personality. When you come up with an idea that can benefit others, please share it in the comments section below. Happy book marketing!

What You Need to Know about Book Publishers BEFORE Publishing Your Book

MorgueFile.com

Happy New Year! As 2014 begins, we look into the future with hopes and dreams. Perhaps your hope or dream is that this is the year you will publish your book. Whether this is the first time for that dream or you have dreamed that dream many years and continue to hope that this is the year, you need to know about Book Publishers, what types there are, and how they work BEFORE you publish your book. So let's talk about what you need to know about book publishers and book publishing before publishing your book.

I've wanted to write on this topic for a long time, but it is such a big, big, big topic that it's a lot to tackle...especially in a blog post. It's hard to know where to begin. So I'm going to give some basics here, and then I'm planning to write more on this topic elsewhere. When I have that more in-depth information prepared, I'll let you know.

There are two essential things you need to know before publishing your book:

• how publishing works, and
• the different kinds of publishers.

Here I'm giving some basic information which I hope will give you a good foundation of understanding about publishing. That foundation can then steer you in the right direction to accomplish your goals. My aim is to provide information that will:

• help you make good decisions about what kind of publishing you want to get involved in so you don't come out the other end hugely disappointed (which happens to authors all the time),
• help you avoid the worst (getting ripped off),
• help you find the success you're capable of.

I get asked about publishing books all the time.

"My husband just finished writing his book and he wants to get it published. How does he get a publisher?"

"I'm working on my life-dream of writing my book. How do I get it published?"

"I want to write a book. How do I find a publisher?"

Whenever someone asks me how to publish their book or how to get their book published, the answer they need is huge. That's because publishing is not the same as it used to be.

Publishing has changed

Publishing has changed vastly in the digital age of computers and the world wide web. The thing is, unless you've been in publishing for years and know how it used to operate, there's no way you can understand how things are different.

My expertise in publishing comes from being involved in publishing for twenty-five years and from watching it evolve during that time.

Most people seem to have an idea in their head of what "publishing" means to them, and they expect everyone else who uses that word to be thinking the exact same thing. This just isn't the case. So to get our bearings, let's first take a look at what publishing used to be, and then we can understand better what it has morphed into.

The way Publishing used to be

Years ago there were basically two types of publishing:

• Traditional Publishing, also known as Commercial Publishing or Mainstream Publishing
• and Self Publishing, also known as Vanity Publishing

Traditional Publishing

I believe "traditional publishing" is what most people think of when they want their book published. This is where a publisher wants to, and offers to, publish your book for you.

Traditional Publishers pay you an advance and, after your book sells enough copies to earn back what you have been paid in advance, the publishing company begins to pay you royalties.

A traditional publishing company takes all the financial burden of publishing your book. This includes hiring an awesome editor to take your very-good book and make it even greater, commissioning a professional to create a cover for your book, paying someone to design the interior and typeset your words, paying to copyright the work in your name, arranging for an ISBN and bar code, getting it into their catalog, and send out their sales staff to large bookstores to talk up your book and insure the stores carry it on their shelves. The traditional publisher also does a bunch of other things that need to be done that you're probably not aware of, but that's okay because they are the professionals and they know what needs to be done. And they're paying for it all.

You, as the writer, do not "hire" a traditional publisher. They "hire" (or better said: contract with) the writers they choose to publish.

Self (or Vanity) Publishing

Self Publishing is where you decide you want your book published and you set about to get that done.

You either do all the work of publishing your book yourself, or you hire people to do what you cannot or do not want to do (true "self publishing"), or you hire a company to do it for you (what I call a self-publishing company).

The big difference from traditional publishing is that you hire the people or company you need to help you publish your book. You pay all the costs. You'll also keep all the proceeds, should there be any.

Furthermore, when you self publish you can publish virtually anything.

In the old days this was called Vanity Publishing because it was believed to be done by people who couldn't get published by a traditional publisher because their work wasn't good enough. Therefore, being vain enough to only want to see their name on the cover of a book, they would hire someone to put their book together, or would do it themselves, and pay for a print run of hundreds or thousands of books. These self-published books had a reputation for being poorly written and lacking good editing, which created a lousy stigma for self- or vanity-published book. That stigma stuck for a long time. The quality of many self-published books has improved today. The stigma has lessened some, but it still lingers.

The way Publishing is Today

Traditional Publishing

Traditional Publishing remains the same as above. In order to obtain a traditional publishing contract for your book, you will need to find a publisher that publishes the type of book you are writing. Then you will need to approach them in the appropriate way, which is usually with a query letter. You can also meet publisher's representatives at writers conferences and often can "pitch" your book to them there. This "pitch" takes the place of a query letter and you may gain the opportunity to go to the next step, which is submitting a book proposal.

If the publisher is interested in your book (a very competitive long shot), they will ask to see your "book proposal." A book proposal is a very involved sales proposal with a lot of information about your book, including what it's about, an overview, an analysis of competitive titles, a brief description of each chapter (for nonfiction) or synopsis of your story (for fiction), and some sample chapters.

It's an involved document and the sale of your book to a traditional publisher depends on it. There are plenty of resources to teach you how to write a book proposal if that's what you need to do.

I always recommend an author attempt to land a traditional publisher for their book before they self publish.

Self Publishing

Self Publishing, sometimes called Independent Publishing, has morphed into many varieties of self-publishing companies and subsidy publishing.

True "self publishing" (verses self-publishing companies) means you do everything needed to put together your own book and publish it. It's as if you are remodeling your house and you act as the Genera Contractor. You line up all the people you need from the foundation to the shingles. You hire someone to do everything you either cannot do yourself or do not want to do yourself.

You will have complete control over every decision. You will take all the risks. You will pay for everything involved in publishing your book. And you will keep 100% of the proceeds. (I did not say profits because you've a long way to go to sell enough books to recoup your money before you start earning a profit, and many self-published authors never get to the profit stage.)

Thanks to today's technology, authors no longer need to pay for large print runs. Instead there is Print On Demand (POD) technology, so you can order a much small quantity of books. While they will cost more per each, you won't have the huge outlay of money for a large print run and you won't be stuck with a basement, closet, or garage full of books if they don't sell. (Be sure to see the information about required purchases under Subsidy Publishers.)

Self Publishing Companies

In recent years what I call "self publishing companies" have sprung up until there is an incredible number of these companies...all competing for your business. (And what does that tell you? That tells us there is big money to be made by these companies, and all of them want to publish your book so you they can get your money. I'm not saying they are not reputable. But there are a lot of people wanting to publish a book right now, and willing to pay for it. And many don't know this is not the traditional way to publish a book!)

These companies either help you self-publish your book or say they are publishing your book for you. But this is still self publishing because you are paying them to do so. In this case, the company you hire is acting as your General Contractor, providing or hiring the whole team you need to get your book published. And you are still paying for all the work.

Sometimes you do not pay outright for the work. Instead, the company gets paid by keeping a large portion of the proceeds to earn back the costs and hopefully make a profit too. (This looks a lot like a traditional publisher, and it can be really hard to tell the difference. I'll tell you some ways to tell the difference below.)

Sometimes these companies have you contracted with them for several years so that they are the exclusive publisher of your book, which makes business sense and also looks like a traditional publisher.

Here are just a few of the self publishing companies. Please know I'm not endorsing or recommending any of these companies. I'm just giving some examples:

• Outskirts Press
• Author House
• Xulon (Christian books)

If you see ads for companies in writers magazines or online saying you can publish your book through them, this is not a traditional publisher. Traditional publishers acquire books through submissions and, most often these days, through literary agents. They have more than enough books to publish. They don't need to advertise for more.

Before you decide to use any publishing company, it is vitally important that you check them out to see how others have liked working with the company. Search for information (and complaints) about them online. Absolutely check with the Better Business Bureau.

Subsidy Publishing

Subsidy Publishing usually means you are paying part of the costs and the company is paying part of the costs. These companies may also be called "cooperative publishers," "book packagers," "custom publishers," or "boutique publishers."

Sometimes you have to pay money out of your pocket. Sometimes you pay nothing out of pocket, but the company keeps a larger portion of the proceeds to recoup their costs and, hopefully, make a profit. (Sometimes the fact that you are paying the cost of publishing your book is "hidden" because there little or no cash outlay.)

Some Subsidy Publishers require authors to purchase a certain number of books. I've seen the required purchase to be as many as 5,000 copies.

Most authors don't have a clear idea of how many copies of their book will actually sell. It's hard to tell until we've done it at least once. We all want to sell thousands of books. But the reality is it's more likely you'll sell hundreds at most. Reality check: Unless you speak multiple times in a year to hundreds or thousands of people per engagement, you're not going to sell 5,000 copies of your book.

If you purchase a large quantity of books, the subsidy publisher is going to make money off of you and you will most likely be stuck with thousands of books you will never sell (or recoup your investment from, let alone make a profit).

Plus, do the math: How much money is that number of books going to cost you? Even if they are only costing you $4 or $5 each, look at what a large investment that is, money that is out of your pocket until you sell to the break-even point. And look at how much money the Subsidy Publisher is making off of you!

Small Publishers Publishing on the Traditional Model

Many publishers today state they publish using the "traditional model." This usually means that they will pay the expenses of publishing your book. You won't pay any part. (Remember, if you're paying anything at all, you are not with a traditional publisher. And sometimes when you're not paying any part of the publishing costs, you're still not with a tradition publisher.)

These publishers will pay you royalties on the sales of your book. There is usually not an advance, because the publisher is too small to have funds to offer authors advances.

Small publishers often pay a larger percentage of each sale in royalties, but there will be fewer sales because of the limitations of a small company.

One of those limitations is that the books produced by small companies will most likely not be on the shelves in brick and mortar chain bookstores because small traditional publishing companies don't have a sales staff to meet with chain store buyers and convince them to elbow over some of the big boys' books to make shelf space for this smaller company's books.

Brick and mortar stores most often can and will order your book published by a small publisher in if a customer walks in and requests it (and if the publisher has its books available through a major distributor, such an Ingram), but your book won't be on the shelf where browsers might see it, pick it up, flip through it, read a few pages and decide to buy it.

Some small publishing companies use companies like CreateSpace to publish their books. CreateSpace is part of Amazon's group of companies. Many stores won't carry CreateSpace books because Amazon is their biggest competitor and they obviously don't want to be helping their competition, plus CreateSpace doesn't allow a big enough discount for the profit margin required by larger stores.

Small publishing companies usually offer virtually no traditional marketing (ads in magazines, on radio, etc.), but many do have a variety of ways of capitalizing on internet marketing and social media.

In the end, a small traditional publisher offers authors the advantages of an increased likelihood that they will publish their books. Authors often enjoy a more personal working relationship with the publisher and won't "get lost" as they might with a large traditional publisher who might give more attention to their big name authors. Drawbacks are the limited marketing help (much of which the author is expected to do anyway, even when published by a large traditional publisher), not being on the shelves in brick and mortar stores, and no advances.

Muddying the Waters

Book publishing can get very confusing because self publishing companies and subsidy publishers now use terms that have long been used in traditional publishing. They often call themselves "traditional publishers," sending you an "acceptance letter," say they will "publish your book" for you, and pay you "royalties."

Many of these companies will also tell you that they offer "distribution." They promise they will get your book on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and other outlets. Many new authors think this means their book will be in bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

There is a huge difference between:

• having your book in a Barnes & Noble store
• and being on BarnesandNoble.com.

The language is so close that many authors don't notice the difference...until it's too late.

You can get your own book on Amazon.com for a minimal fee (it was a one-time fee of $25 a dozen years ago when I put my first book, Dear America, on Amazon).

My self-published book, Deliver Me, is also on BarnesandNoble.com because it is distributed by Ingram (because I printed it through LightningSource.com, which is owned by Ingram). So there are ways to do this yourself. You do not need to pay anyone to do this for you. (Getting your  book published as a Kindle, Nook, or other e-book is a whole different animal. But you can also do this yourself, or hire it done. Google it to learn how.)

These companies have muddied the water by using the same terminology as true traditional publishers. We're using the same words but we're not speaking the same language. This is why you have to get savvy before publishing your book!

As if all this hasn't muddied the waters enough, you also need to be aware of a newer entry to publishing in recent years. That is, self-publishing companies that are owned by either larger traditional companies or big name authors or other organizations. Two examples are:

• Thomas Nelson (a traditional Christian publishing company) owns the self- or subsidy-publishing company WestBow Press.
• Author Jerry Jenkins, owner of the Christian Writers Guild, opened a company formerly called Christian Writers Guild Publishing. That company has now merged with Bethany Press (not the same as the large traditional Christian publisher, Bethany House), Believers Press and more to form what is now called 1Source.

Being published by WestBow Press is not the same as being published by the traditional publisher Thomas Nelson, which owns WestBow. (For more on this you may want to read literary agent Chip MacGregor's blog post "Thomas Nelson and Self-Publishing" and "Responding to Self-Publishing." )

See how confusing this can get? This is why you need to know what you're doing and who you're working with before you publish your book.

An Analogy

In order to communicate to you the difference between Traditional Publishing and all other types of publishing, let's say instead of publishing a book, your big dream has always been to play baseball.

You've learned to play and you're fairly good at it. But there are only so many spots available on all the Major League teams combined, and there's a ton of really stiff competition because lots of other people want to win one of the relatively few spots available on a major league team, too. So you try out.

What happens if you do win a place on a Major League Baseball team's roster? Congratulations! You get to play with the big boys! More than that, you get to play in front of a huge audience. Your name will be announced by the game announcers and people will hear your name and get to know your name and will get to see you play. You'll get to play in the big baseball stadiums all around America. You've made it to the big times!

But what if you don't win one of those relatively few spots on a Major League team?

Well, you have some choices. You can continue to try, and thank goodness in publishing, unlike baseball, age and gender don't matter. The playing field is pretty level and you can keep trying to win a spot with the big boys as long as you breathe. But you also can make some other moves.

You can play baseball on other teams, in other leagues, and on other fields. You can join a team in a city league. There's still some competition but there are enough teams that you can probably find one that will let you play. Or you can form your own team, or even your own league if you have the resources to do that. And then you play all you want.

You might be playing because you love the game and you're out to have fun. Or you might be taking it all more seriously than just having fun. But the point is, if you want to play baseball badly enough, and if you can't win a spot on a Major League team, then there are still some things you can do to make your dream of playing baseball come true.

Even so, there are obviously some really big differences between playing in your local league and playing for the Major Leagues:

• You won't be paid as much as a major league player
• Chances are you won't get paid much at all, if anything. And chances are even better that you're going to have to fork out some money because you're going to be paying your own way and paying for all your equipment, your travel expenses, etc.
• You won't be playing in the big stadiums, unless you can make some kind of special arrangement for a special event. (Think stadium = brick and mortar stores here.)
• While you may be playing for fun or for fulfillment or even to make a bit of money or for another reason, there are people who will never see you as a "real" baseball player because you're not in the Major Leagues.

I think you can see the similarities between the baseball analogy and publishing.

How can you tell which League a Publisher is in?

You probably know names of some of the large, long-existing truly-traditional publishers, such as Simon and Schuster, Random House, Bantam, Dell, Double Day, and Putnam.

In the arena of Christian book publishing, names of big traditional publishers include Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, and Bethany House.

But if you can't tell by the name, how do you tell whether a publisher is a traditional publisher or not? Here are some hints:

Walk into any brick and mortar chain bookstore such as Barnes & Noble, and the books on their shelves will most likely be from traditional publishers. Looking to see if a particular book or publisher is carried by Amazon.com does you no good at all because Amazon, God bless them, will carry just about anybody's book.

In the Christian book publishing arena, Christianbook.com pretty much carries only books from the large traditional publishers. They do not carry self-published books nor even many smaller publishers.

Conclusions

I hope this information has been, and will be, helpful to you as you seek publication for your book. I know it can be complicated and confusing, which is why I want to write more on this topic via another venue. I'm working on that now and will let you know when it's ready.

Before you publish your book, be sure to ask good questions, including:

• How is this company making their money? Off of you? Or off of selling copies of your book?
• Are this company's books sold in brick and mortar chain bookstores? (Independent stores have the decision making and bookkeeping to carry anything, including self-published books.)
• Are you required to purchase books?
• Are you required to pay any part of the publishing costs?
• What will the company really do for you? Can you do it yourself for much less?

These questions will help you determine what type of publishing company you're looking into, and what your publishing experience will look like when it's done.

Educate yourself about publishing. Know what your getting into. Discover all your options, and chose the best one for you. Learn what you need to know about book publishers and book publishing before publishing your book. Then when it's done, you won't be disappointed and you'll be able to create your own success.

Tweetables:

How do I publish my book? http://ow.ly/s9MJF @DianneEButts   Tweet this

How do I get my book published? http://ow.ly/s9MJF @DianneEButts   Tweet this


NEXT MONTH: I feel we've been neglecting beginning writers and have been talking about book publishing a lot. So next month we'll talk about the basics of how to get started in publishing, whether you want to write for magazines or books.

5 Ways to Get the Word Out About Your Author Event

Ready or not, here we are again at the beginning of another year. Amazing, isn't it?! We could talk New Year's resolutions or annual goals, but that's so... so... last year. So why don't we let everyone else talk about that stuff and we'll just ... not. Instead, I hope you're planning some great events this coming year whether it is finally getting that book written or releasing a new one, or maybe writing for a new magazine, more magazines, or simply breaking into publishing for the first time. Once you have something written, you'll soon discover (if you haven't already) writers face a constant problem: getting the word out about our writing.

Let's face it: most of us who write do so with the intention that someone else will read what we write. (If you write just for the pleasure of it, that's fine. But you're not intending to gain readers...or buyers. Professional writers must gain both readers and buyers or we won't stay in business long enough to write the next thing!) As writers, we can write all the projects we want, but if readers don't somehow know they exist, well...they can't read them. Or buy them. Or learn from them. Or enjoy them. Or be helped by them.

Like it or not, writers have to be marketers.

Now before you go off thinking we shouldn't market or promote our writings, let me assure you I've heard a lot over the years I've been in publishing about how we (especially Christians!) shouldn't promote ourselves. That's meadow muffins. Of course we need to promote ourselves, or at least our products. Every business person needs to promote her/his business or products. As stated above, how can anyone benefit from our work if they don't read it? And how can any read it if they don't know where to find it? How can they find it if they don't know where to look? And, most basically, how can they possibly know to look for it if they don't know it exists?

This is a basic mistake beginning writers make: They think they can write a book, stick it on Amazon, and the copies will begin to go out and the money will begin to come in. Uh...nope. There are more than 8,000,000 books on Amazon. Before you make a single sale on Amazon, somebody has to look for your book, find it, and then be willing to take the steps to get it.

The same goes for your book on BarnesandNoble.com, or even in a brick and mortar store. If your book is in a brick and mortar store, someone might happen to see it there on the shelf, pick it up, read the back cover, flip through it, and possibly even buy it. But in the real world you have two chances of that happening: slim and none. Most of the time you're going to have to do some work to let people know your book (or magazine article, blog, or guest post on someone else's blog) exists. Only then will some of them go find it. Then some of those will buy it.

There are lots of ways to let people know about your writings, but let's talk about Author Events this month.
If you follow my other blog at www.DeliverMe.blogspot.com, you already know I did several In-Store Author Events in December with my new Christmas book.

"Author Event" is what I now call what we used to call "book signings." If you tell someone you're having a book signing, in my experience the reaction you'll get is a yawn if you get any reaction at all. Book signings are so last century. Booooring.

An Author Event, on the other hand, gets a bit more attention. And often I'll call mine an "in-store author event." We could talk a lot about how to set one up ad what to do once you get there, but today let's keep it simple and talk about how to get the word out your Author Event that you've got all set up with the manager of a bookstore.

First, list for your event the who (that's you!), what (your event), when (date and times), where (name of the store or other location, address, city, state, zip, web site), why (why should anyone come? What's happening there?), and how (how to get there, how to get more information, etc.). Then let your friends, acquaintances, business associates, and the community know through these 5 ways to get the word out about your author event:

1.  Facebook On your Facebook, create an "Event." Go to your home page and click on "Update Info." Then click on "About." On the screen that comes up you'll seen another "About" drop down menu next to your name. Drop that menu down and you'll see "Events" on the list. Click on that and other events will show. In the upper right corner is a "Create an Event" box. There are other places on Facebook where you'll see "Create an Event" too. Click it and you can then enter the information for your Event. Once it's created you can send notices out and invite your friends. Your Friends can also share your Event.
2. Goodreads   After you've created your Facebook event, you should hop over to Goodreads and create an event there also. If you're not already a member of Goodreads, yes, you need to be. The advantages to being on Goodreads is enough for another month's discussion! When you log onto Goodreads, click the drop down menu called "Explore." At the bottom you'll see "Events." Click that and in the upper right side you'll have the option to "Add an Event." You can invite friends here, too, and Goodreads will send out a reminder before your event.
3. Blog it and of course add the location. After you've written your blog post about the who, what, when, why, and how of your event, add the "where" by finding your event's location on either the store's web site or on Mapquest.com. Grab the "embed" code. Paste that code into the HTML of your blog post. On Blogspot you do that by clicking the HTML box in the upper left next to "Compose." First, put your cursor where you want your map to appear, then click the HTML box and paste in the code right where your cursor was. Click back to "Compose" and your map should appear.
4. Tweet it. Now that you have it on your blog, be sure to Tweet your blog post regularly. I also set up regular Tweets to go out via Hootsuite.com. If you got my tweets in December that said "I'm here at Mardel signing my new book Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus http://delivermebook.blogspot.com/2012/12/in-store-author-event-mardel-in.html " then you can bet I wasn't at my computer (or phone) sending that out. Days earlier I scheduled that Tweet to go out via Hootsuite.com. I set up at least one Tweet to go out every hour I was at the signing...er, um, I mean in-store author event. (You can also schedule posts on Facebook, too.)
5. Newspapers and Radio.  Write one or two sentences with the who, what, when, where, why, and how  of event. Keep it brief. Then search out the web sites of all the newspapers and radio stations in the area of your event. Look for the "contact" page. Some will give e-mail addresses but most will have web forms. Paste your brief notice into an e-mail or their web form and send them the information. You never know when you might get a mention on radio or in newspapers. While you're at it, search for community calendars in your community. I did and got listed on the Colorado Springs' Gazette's events calendar. You can see my brief two sentences there and model yours after them. When you e-mail, always give your contact information so they can get in touch if they'd like more information or wish to interview you in print or on radio. Don't give your contact info on web forms or it might end up on the internet.

You've put a lot of work into your writing, but your work is not done. In order for your writing to accomplish the purpose for which you created it, for it to help the readers you wrote it for, they have to know it exists. So put a little effort into setting up some author events and then get the word out about where you'll be and when people can meet you. It's great fun. It gets you in touch with your readers. And you may even sell a few books.

What are some other ways you've gotten the word out about your Writer's or Author's Events?

What questions do you have about setting up or hosting an Author Event?