Ten Tips to Help You Finish Writing Your
Novel
by: Ann Roscopf Allen
- Set aside a time to write and keep it sacred.
- Remove all distractions while you write.
- Outline your plot.
- Avoid the intimidation of a blank computer screen.
- Keep a draft mentality.
- Don't feel compelled to begin at the beginning.
- Organize your files, especially if you are not
going to write in order.
- Revise, revise, revise.
- Don't be afraid of putting yourself out there.
- Only you can determine when you are finished.
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Writing a Book
Top 5 Book Selling Tips
by: Brent Sampson
TIP # 1
Online reviews are paramount in importance when it comes
to drawing attention to your book. And the best part is,
you're in control of your own destiny!
If you haven't yet submitted your own review on sites
like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, what are you waiting
for? This should be one of the first steps for every published
author.
Encourage other family members and friends to review the
book, too. They're inclined to be more generous than perfect
strangers, but don't underestimate the effect of any honest
review. Published reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes
&Noble, and the many other sites Outskirts Press books
appear demonstrates interest in your book. And that's
a good thing! Post a review for your book today, and ask
others to do likewise.
TIP #2
Enhance your online listing with Amazon.com by participating
in their "Search Inside the Book Program."
Sign up to join this revolutionary new way to merchandise
your book on Amazon.com. When customers search for books
on Amazon.com, actual words from inside your book -- not
just the author or title -- are engaged to return the
best possible matches. With this powerful new search feature,
customers can discover books that may never have surfaced
in previous search results!
With "Search Inside the Book," customers can
also browse sample pages and do additional searches inside
a particular book to confirm that the title is just what
they're looking for. All of this helps authors like you
sell more books.
Once you sign Amazon's Publisher Participation Agreement
and are accepted into the program, you will need to provide
Amazon.com with a physical copy of each book you would
like to include in the program.
 TIP
#3
Become an "expert" in your field and book sales
will follow. It's true that promoting a book requires
a great amount of resolve, but it is also true that working
smarter, rather than harder, can help reap those rewards.
By projecting yourself as an "expert" in the
genre in which you write, you can open new doors for networking,
doors that often remain shut without that expertise status.
How does one go about making himself or herself an expert?
Easy! You already are one. The name on your published
book proves it. Now just use that book as a calling card
to line-up speaking engagements, freelance writing gigs,
and other opportunities at a variety of venues.
Two good places to begin are AOL and the ABOUT.COM information
network. Both have category-specific forums in which you
can participate, and by mentioning that you are the "Author
of such-and-such" within the scope of your communication,
you begin to label yourself as an expert to fellow participants.
Being recognized as an expert in a technical or "non-fiction"
category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective
category of "fiction expert" but even if you
have written a work of fiction, becoming a recognized
expert is conceivable.
Whether you've penned poetry, horror, or romance, there
is a forum in which to voice your opinion. The Internet
is full of chat rooms, use groups, genre-sites, and more
-- all thirsty for content from published writers. You
just have to know where to look. Start selling books tomorrow
by being an expert today.
TIP #4
"Pay For Performance" internet advertising is
making big waves lately. While most search engines feature
such sponsored links, there are currently only a number
of engines providing the back-end technology, and of those,
only one serves the majority of search engines used by
the public: Overture.
The way pay-for-performance (or p4p) works is simple.
You bid on search terms (either words or phrases or a
combination of both). Your webpage link then appears in
search engine results relative to the price of the bid.
If you're the highest bidder, your webpage appears at
the absolute TOP of many search engines. Remember the
frustration of typing in a search for your webpage and
never finding your link? No longer!
But that's not even the best part. The best part is this
-- you only pay if someone actually clicks on your link.
And since you've defined the search term, the people clicking
on your link are already predisposed toward your subject.
In essence, they're already pre-sold.
Let's look at an example. Say you've published a mystery
novel about the death of a land baron in Louisiana. Not
exactly a new plot, and yet millions of "whodunit"
readers would be anxious to read it. Your solution? Open
an Overture account and bid on search terms like "Louisiana
Mystery Novel" and "Mystery Book Plantation"
and similar terms. Counter intuitively, the more vague
the term, the better, since very specific searches deliver
very motivated buyers to your page, and since you're paying
for each click, you want those people to buy!
That brings us to the down-side. You have to be very careful
managing your bids, or it can be expensive. Do not bid
on ridiculously vague and popular words like "book"
because you will never recoup your money. Instead, focus
your search terms as specifically as possible.
If you've been clamoring for more traffic to your free
Outskirts Press webpage, Overture may be just your ticket.
To sign-up, click below. They'll even give you a $10 credit
to begin. Visit Overture at their website for more information.
Tip #5
Use ebooks to help promote and sell your paperback or
hardback edition.
Think of e-books as a teaser. With a lower purchase price
and more immediate gratification, many people are inclined
to give an e-book a try when they might pass on a traditional
paperback. Furthermore, if they like the e-book, 80% of
people end up purchasing the "real" book, too!
There are three schools of thought concerning the way
in which e-books should be sold.
1 - Some believe that e-books should have a very low purchase
price, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.00 for the
entire book.
2 - Other believe that e-books should only contain excerpts,
or sample chapters of the full book, and that they should
be provided for free.
3 - Still others believe that e-books best serve their
purpose when the entire e-book is given away. This encourages
word of mouth about the author and the book, which in
turn helps support additional book sales and really shows
dividends when a subsequent book is published by the same
author.
Whichever course you follow, there is little doubt that
e-books are beneficial to your promotion efforts. If you
don't yet have an e-book, what are you waiting for?
About the Author
Brent Sampson is the President & CEO of Outskirts
Press publishing at http://www.outskirtspress.com . He
is the author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information
for the Self-Publishing Writer (http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems)
and Self-Publishing Simplified (free ebook edition available
at http://outskirtspress.com/publishing) |
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