Author Marketing Kit Free Resources to JumpStart Your Sales By Julie Joyce ~~~ Smashwords Edition ~~~ Copyright © 2011 - 2012 - Julie Joyce/Dynamic Publishing Co. All rights are reserved. DPC, Box 760, Lansing, IL 60438. Non commercial sharing of this publication is permitted without permission. Commercial use restrictions apply. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic; mechanical; photocopy; recording; or any other, except for brief quotations in printed or online reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Smashwords Edition, License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. ~~~ Introducing You to New, Emerging & Amazing Indie Authors PHOTO CREDIT: Lightbulb in Box on Cover/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net Dynamic Publishing Co. is dedicated to helping Authors. We maintain a variety of websites and resources to help you FINISH your books, PUBLISH your books and then most importantly, SELL your books. We invite you to explore all of the websites, tools and services that we maintain to help you connect with the audience, readers and fans who will benefit from your writing creations. Book Tour Radio - This is our blog tour / book tour platform that we use to promote Indie Authors in all genres. Generally our only restrictions are that NO nudity or overtly XXX titles are accepted. We also do not include books that glamorize violence or incite prejudice or hate. Authors who are a bit nervous about the idea of doing interviews can still be featured. In fact, most of our profiles are without audio interviews. We profile your titles with links to your order pages, Facebook, Twitter, Author website, etc. We also maintain a Book Tour Radio Book Club Directory for ongoing presence to promote your book on our site. All authors are invited to receive a FREE Author Website Link in our Author Websites Directory For details on how to submit your Author Link: http://BookTourRadio.com/bonus We also help authors with the most affordable book publicity promotion. We offer $5 promotion gigs via the Fiverr.com ® website. Our offerings change from time to time. To see what we have available right now, go to: http://fiverr.com/booktourradio Table of Contents FREE Services Categories A-Email B-Websites C-Social Portals D-Email List E-Radio Show F-TeleSeminars G-Webinars H-Promote (F&G) I-Publish Paperback J-Publish eBook K-Promote (I & J) How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books Are you getting FREE Publicity to Promote YOUR Books? NOW YOU CAN! This Step by Step, Easy to Follow, Guide gives you the scoop on how and where to get unlimited FREE publicity and exposure for your book. This book is especially valuable for indie authors who are trying to launch a book marketing campaign on a shoestring budget. This book shows you 10 huge arenas where you can get FREE Publicity and exposure for YOUR book! With a little bit of creativity you can launch a successful book marketing campaign….so more people know about you and your book….more people become your fans & followers…. and most importantly…buy YOUR books! http://booktourradio.com/free-publicity-to-sell-your-books/ This valuable strategy guide features (and shows you how to use) over 250 FREE resources that can give you FREE Publicity to sell your books. CLICK HERE to Get YOUR copy of this easy Step By Step guide and start getting valuable FREE publicity to sell YOUR books! This book is delivered instantly as a PDF download. Get more Freebies for AUTHORS: Stay connected so you don't miss out on new resources we find to help authors and new options we create to help you find buyers for your books! Twitter: https://twitter.com/booktourradio Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BookTourRadio LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/booktourradio GooglePlus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114893168639272513144/posts GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/59430-book-tour-radio-fans A-Email: Even if you already have a primary email account it is a good idea to create a new email account that relates to your book title, author name, genre, etc. You will then use this email to register or request the various FREE services highlighted in this publication. It is best to keep your book business communications separate from your personal email chatter. Get a fast free email account with: Google Mail: http://mail.google.com/ Yahoo Mail: http://mail.yahoo.com B-Website: Even if you only have one book and you sell it on Amazon Kindle or any other indie platform YOU NEED AN AUTHOR WEBSITE. Any author without a website is LOSING POTENTIAL SALES. First you need to reserve a domain name. You should reserve your preferred domain names before those names are taken. You should reserve domains that include your name, or author pen name, your book titles, etc. These will be very important as your work develops and your books find a following. The best domains are ones that match your book title, author name or genre. Getting your own domain can cost as little as $8 (approx. $12 annual renewal). We use Godaddy for all of our domain registrations and website hosting. They have technical support available for FREE 24/7/365. You can't beat that! Domains currently cost about $12. We usually post Godaddy Discount coupon banners on our resource page: http://dpc123.com/domains/ Currently, you can register your domains using the above coupon for only about $8. Even if you don't have a clue about website hosting or set up, you can at least reserve your name and have Godaddy forward your domain to any free/easy website page host. That way you can use your "brand" domain name and have traffic/visitors directed to any site where you have your book details posted. If you decide to have Godaddy host your site you can still choose easy editing options by using the Wordpress blog application for easy WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing. There are tons of FREE videos available on YouTube to show you how to install and edit your Wordpress site. And again that Godaddy tech support is always there. Hosting costs about $30 to $50 a year and includes more bells and whistles than you will ever need for your author site. If it's just too soon to imagine designing a website, you can use these platforms for a FREE and usually very easy website set up. http://www.blogger.com (website in blog format) http://wordpress.com/ (website in blog format/ this is the free version hosted by wordpress itself. There are limitations to using a wordpress hosted blog.) http://weebly.com (easy templates to create a free site) http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html (easy templates to build an author profile page. C-Social Networking Portals: Now that you have your email and profile/book websites you need to reach out to build your fan base and make connections with other writers, authors, bloggers, book reviewers, readers, raving fans and the media. Social platforms that will serve you well are: FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/ (Create a FB page for you –the author. Do not use your personal FB page for this purpose. You can always promote your book on your personal page. But you do not want your book readers/fans to have access to your personal family matters unless you choose to share that on the Author FB page.) Twitter http://twitter.com/ Twitter can probably be the easiest tool to help you start connecting with like-minded people and potential fans. For example: Let’s say you write books about Home Schooling. You can do a Twitter search for Home School and see other twitter accounts that are about Home Schooling. You can “follow” the followers of those lists. It is then highly likely that those followers will then follow you. They will see a link to your website and may choose to further engage with you. If the people you follow do not follow you back after a reasonable period of time…you can unfollow them and then follow others. Twitter will allow you to follow up to 2000 people with minimal restriction. After 2000 some follow limits apply. You can usually follow about 100 a day without issue. You can use a free application such as http://hootsuite.com/ to help you manage your various social media accounts. LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ LinkedIn is a more professional oriented platform for networking and social interaction. You can also create your own group to target the group of people that you want to interact with such as: teachers, cancer survivors, authors, entrepreneurs, etc. You can also link to your blog and post books you have published. We recommend an extra resource if you decide to maximize your potential on LinkedIn. It costs a few $ but the marketing value is enormous: http://dpc123.com/linkedin. But you can get started and make some valuable connections on LinkedIn for FREE. MySpace http://www.myspace.com/ Myspace seems to work well in genres that attract a fan base. So this would be especially helpful to fiction writers. Pinterest This is the hottest new social platform. As you can see from our Pinterest page we are still trying to figure out the best way to interact with Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/booktourradio/ This is a great platform for authors who love to find cool resources and share them. Once you have these accounts set up, post widgets, linking buttons, etc. on your website & blogs so that your visitors can find your social pages. Also post your website address (URL) on social pages so your friends/followers can find your website. D-Email List: Once you are starting to get visitors to your website, you need to start building an opt-in email list. You can let these “fans” know when you publish your works, when you are at events or book signings, when you are in the media, when you are offering free sample chapters etc. In fact offering a “free sample chapter” or mini report will help to encourage your visitors to subscribe to your email list. Several mail list services offer FREE options or free trials. But the best deal is with MailChimp will allow you to have up to 2000 subscribers with a “Forever Free” Plan. Get your FREE account: http://eepurl.com/N1Aj Another option is TinyLetter which is now owned by Mailchimp. Tinyletter has fewer bells and whistles but is much easier for newbies and allows up to 5000 followers for free list hosting. https://tinyletter.com/ And for an even easier and quicker set-up there is always the option of setting up a FREE Yahoo group that can be used as a moderator only newsletter. There are no limits to followers for free on this ad supported platform. Make sure you are part of our Yahoo Group: Author News: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AuthorNews/ In the upper right hand corner you will see: "start a group." E-Your Own Radio Show: Even if you haven’t finished your book yet, you need to start building connections with your fan base. Start your own internet radio program. Technically, internet radio is referred to as podcasting. Regardless, it is a way for you to start “talking” to the people who will be interested in hearing about your books and other activities. So if your book subject is parenting, then create a show for parents. If it’s about auto repair, then talk cars. If you are a fiction writer and write romance novels then have a show about relationships or romantic experiences. You can also invite guests (other romance authors) to be on your program to help entertain and inform your audience. Non-fiction authors are wonderful about supporting and co-promoting each other in similar genres. A free and easy platform/service to produce an, internet radio program is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ You can promote your show and find potential guests at: http://www.radioguestlist.com/ F-TeleSeminars: You can also start to nurture your fan base by offering educational teleseminars. These can be interviews with specialists, you giving an Introductory lesson on the subject matter you cover in your book or any topic that the potential buyers of your book would be interested in. You can also just record a presentation that can be a FREE giveaway mp3 for new subscribers. Fiction writers can use this to record FREE sample chapters. Our favorite FREE service is: http://freeconferencecallhd.com/ and http://www.freeconferencing.com/. Of all of the FREE services we have reviewed….these companies allow the most call in listeners. Once your recording is done, you can access the mp3 file. You can post this on your website, social sites and send to your email list. Or use it as a gift to reward subscribers. G-Webinars: If your subject matter or topic would be enhanced with visuals, then do a webinar presentation. Use this free service: http://www.anymeeting.com/. You can also use: http://www.slideshare.net/ to teach or demonstrate something to your audience. H-Promote your TeleSeminars & Webinars: You can post your “event” for FREE at: http://www.eventbrite.com/ You can also promote your TeleCalls and Webinars at: http://www.freeteleseminarlist.com/ I-Ready to Publish your book: There is nothing to stop you from being a published author. There are now many publishing on demand (POD) platforms to choose from. Most will offer premium services for extra $ but you can design a FREE book cover and create a paperback book AND have it for sale on Amazon for free with Amazon’s own POD service: https://www.createspace.com/ The only unavoidable charge is that you need to buy a proof copy to review and approve before your paperback can be listed for sale. This usually runs about $3 to $7. J-Creating an eBook: Once you have written your book in Microsoft Word, you can also submit it to the Amazon Kindle store and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Store. This is easily done online. Both Websites will post your book in their stores for free and will automatically convert your Word DOC into the eBook format they use. Smashwords also gives you access to several digital publishing platforms, for free. Kindle Direct Publishing: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin B&N’s Pub It! Site: http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/ Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/ You can also convert your word doc into a PDF file for FREE: PDF Converters: http://www.doc2pdf.net/ http://www.freepdfconvert.com/ http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf/ Once you have a PDF file you can sell the PDF version of your book as well. The least expensive download delivery service we found is: http://www.tradebit.com/ They will host your document and give you order buttons to put on your web site. Your customers will click on the link, buy your ebook, Tradebit will collect payment, send the digital file to your customer and then send your 70% royalty to your Paypal account. The only thing they charge is a $5 set-up fee to validate & verify your paypal account. If you have no sales, then there are no additional fees. K-Now let’s promote your book: First get a FREE Google Voice phone number at: http://voice.google.com Your Google Voice phone number can forward calls to your cell phone or any land line. This keeps your actual phone number private, lets you know who is calling, and helps people (especially the media) to find you wherever you are. Post this number on your website, press releases and on all book promotion correspondence. Now post your Author Profile at: http://expertclick.com/ This is one resource to help you to connect with journalists, book review bloggers and media outlets. Send out Press Releases about your book, tours, teleseminars, readings, etc. Free-Press-Release: http://free-press-release.com/ PR (Press Release) Log: PRlog http://www.prlog.org/ Create a FREE channel on http://www.youtube.com/ to post videos of you talking about your book, of you speaking at author events, of book readings, etc. You can also post these videos to your website. Stay Organized with: Tungle.me http://www.tungle.me/Home/ where you can maintain your calendar for your book tour, teleseminars, media appearances and radio shows, etc all online. And if you will be aggressively prospecting and calling various networking sources to promote your book/business then you can use this online customer database management software: Zoho Creator: https://www.zoho.com/creator/ They offer a “free forever” account. And for about the cost of a good cup of coffee you can get our extensive resource: How To Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books. (next page) [...]...How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books Are you getting FREE Publicity to Promote YOUR Books? NOW YOU CAN! This Step by Step, Easy to Follow, Guide…….gives you the scoop on how and where to get unlimited FREE publicity and exposure for your book This book is especially valuable for indie authors who are trying to launch a book marketing campaign on a shoestring budget... get FREE Publicity and exposure for YOUR book! With a little bit of creativity you can launch a successful book marketing campaign….so more people know about you and your book….more people become your fans & followers… and most importantly… buy YOUR books! http://booktourradio.com /free- publicity -to- sell -your- books/ This valuable strategy guide features (and shows you how to use) over 250 FREE resources. .. you FREE Publicity to sell your books CLICK HERE to Get YOUR copy of this easy Step By Step guide and start getting valuable FREE publicity to sell YOUR books! This book is delivered instantly as a PDF download So there you go Even if you are just getting started and are working with a shoe string budget there are still many FREE services available to help you to establish a presence on the net, to. .. on the net, to build a fan base and to promote your books Get more Freebies for AUTHORS: Stay connected so you don't miss out on new resources we find to help authors and new options we create to help you find buyers for your books! Twitter: https://twitter.com/booktourradio Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BookTourRadio LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/booktourradio GooglePlus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114893168639272513144/posts... LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/booktourradio GooglePlus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114893168639272513144/posts GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/59430-book-tour-radio-fans We hope to see you on: http://booktourradio.com/ . J) How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books Are you getting FREE Publicity to Promote YOUR Books? NOW YOU CAN! This Step by Step, Easy to Follow,. extensive resource: How To Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books. (next page) How to Get Free Publicity to Sell Your Books Are you getting FREE Publicity to Promote YOUR Books? NOW YOU CAN! This. over 250 FREE resources that can give you FREE Publicity to sell your books. CLICK HERE to Get YOUR copy of this easy Step By Step guide and start getting valuable FREE publicity to sell YOUR books!