8 things you should stop doing right now. *Or, how to sell more than 8 books a month.HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

1. Stop making your own book covers (Hire a professional) *see LousyBookCovers.com

- Which one would you buy?

Be clear before you are clever!Does your book cover convert into a sale within one second?

A case study: The Lost King: ResistanceNo marketing, just a new cover

The numbers:

Takeaway – pay someone to design your book cover. Not your brother. A professional.

8 things you should stop doing right now. *Or, how to sell 8 books a month.HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

2. Stop over pricing your book*Fight your way out of obscurity with free and .99 pricing!

Free books are downloaded 100 times as much as paid books.

3. Stop overlooking the small details:MetadataMetadata is another key marketing tool that authors may overlook—metadata is the information an author enters about her book into her chosen distributor’s system that feeds out to the marketplace. This includes the book description, the category, the price, the author bio, blurbs, and any other data that bookstores and readers will use to find an author’s book. Incorrect or lazy data entry can make a book harder to discover, weakening its search engine optimization (SEO).

Examine the categories that you’re thinking of putting your book in, and make sure that you pick at least one category that you could potentially rank in. To assess this, look to see what the sales rank is of the 100th-ranked book in your category. Ask yourself if you could perpetually rank that number or higher in Amazon sales rank. If not, continue to look around, because having your book in one of these bestseller categories is a great way to make sure your book is getting seen. Check out David Gaughran’s:LET’S GET VISIBLE for more information on categories.

Insider tip: Kindle SamuraiNot-so-secret tools

Using tools like Kindle Samurai and KindleSpy let you do this with ease. However you find these phrases, make sure to include some of them in your book’s description to improve your chances of ranking for those keywords. Nick Stephenson’s book: SUPERCHARGE YOUR KINDLE SALES may help you go more in depth on the subject.

4. Stop Neglecting your website HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

• Make your website rock• Create a web sales page for your book• (Email capture and email marketing)

• 99 author websites you can buy right now: CreativIndie/com/99-wordpress-themes-for-indie-author-websites-that-will-actually-sell-books/

5. Stop thinking Amazon is the only place to sell your bookTo host an author event, bookstores need to offer the author’s books for sale, and for that they must be able to order (returnable) copies. This is where choosing the right distributor comes in. While authors may think of their distributor simply as “Amazon” (if they think about their distributor at all once a book is published), the fact is that if authors want their books in bookstores they need to publish with a print-on-demand service that makes books available to bookstore buyers. “Bookstores want returnable inventory, and CreateSpace PODs are not [returnable],” says author Stine.

IngramSpark is Ingram’s year-old publishing service developed specifically for indie authors. Unlike many of its competitors, it allows authors to publish in print and digital simultaneously, as well as offering distribution to bookstores. The benefit, notes Cutler, is that authors can take advantage of Ingram marketing services and “gain access to Ingram’s distribution channels that reach online and bricks-and-mortar retailers worldwide.” Every bookstore with an Ingram account can access and order books published through the service.

6. Don’t take so long producing your book(Amazon’s 90-day cliff):

90 days after you publish a book, it’s less likely to sell. Publish a book every 90 days.

Novella Short story Multi-author box set

Marketing Samurai tip:

Amazon’s algorithm rewards books that have several consistent days of sales. With regular sales for 3-5 days, your book will rank better than with a one-day sales spike.

SPREAD OUT YOUR PROMOTIONS!

On your marketing calendar, set up five straight days of equal promotion.

1st day – Facebook2nd day – Twitter and 1/3 of your mailing list3rd day – Google+ and 1/3 of your mailing list4th day – Pinterest 5th day – 1/3 of your mailing list and FREE!

Author Marketing Club http://authormarketingclub.com/members/premium-

membership/

• Reviews (Tool to find top reviewers) • Help with HTML sales description • Book Bundles with other top sellers• Tips and Tricks (trending)• Mastermind groups

7. Stop neglecting to send Email campaigns (try MailChimp)

8. Stop doing the same things. Think out of the box!Use PAY WITH A TWEET (PaywithATweet.com)

People can have one free chapter (or your book for free) if they pay for it by Tweeting your content.

Pay with a Tweet gives anyone access to your content once they tweet about it on Twitter or post about it on Facebook.

And the best part, it’s FREE!

Facebook Graph Search

Find your audience!

Search by: Pages liked by people who like xFavorite interests of people who like xGroups of people who like x(Filter by occupation) Groups of people who like xPages liked by Entrepreneurs who like x (Tim Ferriss)Pages liked by women over the age of 25

Learn how to effectively use Goodreads

Goodreads is the largest online social network for readers.

Slideshare.net/GoodreadsPresentations

Goodreads.com/author/program

Get the Add My Book on Goodreads button for your website:

Podcasting

Reach 400% more readers by creating a recurring podcast or as a guest of a podcast

Giveaways!

Encourage sharing of content (more shares = more chances to win!)

Amazon contestshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/giveaway/home/

Facebook: If someone shares your content, they will be rewarded with another entry into the contest

Win = win

Mastering social mediaHOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

85% of information should not be about you• Twitter• Facebook• Pinterest/Instagram• LinkedIn• Google+

Book launch checklistHOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

• Email your contacts (MailChimp)• Send out Advance Reader Copies• Invite your contacts to like your pages• Launch party – Local and virtual (VBT)• Don’t go on vacation during launch • GIVE YOUR BOOK AWAY to 100k readers

Supplemental marketing tacticsHOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOUR BOOK AND YOURSELF

Back matter content within your book:Your websiteYour social media handlesYour email sign up formQR codeAmazon review(s) request

Productivity Hacksfrom the 9-to-5 Escape Artist, Christy Hovey

Write another book

The best way to make more money and to sell more books is to:

Write more books!

-Christy Hovey