Author Archives: Staff

In today’s fast paced online world, you need a professional looking website that assists you in establishing yourself online, increases your book sales, helps you connect with your readers and helps potential customers find you. After all, a website is your online business card and resume!

Here are 9 Author Website Must-Have Elements:

About/Bio page – This page is the most important for your author brand and usually the most neglected. If you aren’t sure what to include on your About/Bio page, look at what other authors are saying about themselves on their pages. Once you have defined your page, make sure that you keep it up-to-date.

Contact Information – Unless you really don’t want to interact with your readers (agents, publishers, media) you should have a contact form on your website and provide an email address. It is important for you to respond to all inquiries, unless it is obviously spam. Don’t play hard to get!

Blog – If your goal is to be seen by more people and drive potential book buyers to your site, you need to include a blog and add relevant content on a regular basis. Updates to your blog will increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)as well. Websites with blogs get more traffic that those without.

Email Signup – Either for a newsletter or to receive email updates when you post new content to your blog or both. There are several good email marketing platforms listed on our Author Resources page.

Social Media – There are actually two parts to social media on your site. The first, is to provide website visitors with the ability to easily find and follow you on your various social media platforms. Arkansas Authors uses the Social Media Widget which is a simple yet robust free plugin.

The second area is to make it really easy for people to share your site and your content with others. To do this add a sharing plugin and display the sharing options on every page of your site. We use SumOMe. SumoMe provides free tools you need to grow your WordPress site. This plugin will make it easy for your readers to join your email list, share your articles and optimize with analytics.

Events Calendar – Include a section or page on your site that allows you to let your fans know of your upcoming events. Include things like readings, book signings, interviews, speaking engagements, workshops, etc.

Your Books – The most professional looking and easy to use plugin that we have seen is called My Book Table by AuthorMedia. It is a bookstore plugin designed for authors to promote and sell their own work. We use the developer version on this site for book advertising and our bookstore. You can see examples in the left sidebar. Included in this plugin are the options to add a sample of your books for download by your visitors, and links to purchase your books through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible. A new feature has been added that lets you link your book reviews on Goodreads or Amazon to your book page(s) on your website. We highly recommend this plugin for self-hosted WordPress site.

Press Page/media kit -The purpose of a press page or media kit is to easily provide the media, or anyone wishing to profile you, with the information they need to feature you in their article. You should include your biography, a photo or yourself, contact information, information on your books, press release and links to reviews. You may want to create a .pdf of this information and have it available as a download.

Extras – This can include video book trailers and other media files, links to interviews, sneak peeks at works in progress, contests, and giveaways.

If adding these to your website design seems overwhelming, Southern Authors now offers WordPress website design and redesign services. You can learn more here.

Are there any other must have elements that you have included in your website/blog? Please comment below and let us know what they are.

We’ve all heard this: capture email addresses on your website so you can market to them again. So we do, we capture email addresses and then we wonder what to do with them. What if you don’t really have news? Do you mail the list anyway? How can I monetize my list, and how much is too much?

We’ve had The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter for over eight years now and the newsletter, bursting in content, is one of the best promotional tools my company has. We’ve never done a single piece of advertisement for my firm, all of it has come from word of mouth, online, and our newsletter.

The key to a good newsletter list is simple really and the biggest piece of this is you’ve got to have something useful to say. While your friends and family might enjoy hearing about your latest book signing, people who happened onto your site and subscribed to your ezine might become bored with this information and unsubscribe. If you have a list or are considering starting one, consider these tips to get you going and help you maximize your newsletter.

1. Timing: How often you send the newsletter will really depend on your crowd, but I don’t recommend anything less than once a month. I know some people who send a quarterly newsletter and that’s fine if you don’t really have much to say, but if you’re looking for content so you can send the newsletter more frequently, then read on; I have some ideas and ways of maximizing the use of content for your newsletter.

2. Distribution: How will you send your newsletter? If your plan is to email it, forget it unless you have less than 100 subscribers. Anything over that and you should consider using a service like Aweber or Constant Contact. These places will handle your subscribes and unsubscribes for you. If you start mailing to a list larger than 50 from your email service, you run the risk of getting shut down for spam.

3. Easy Opt In: Make it easy for people to sign up. Make sure there’s a sign-up on your website, preferably the home page and then a mention of it again on your most popular page which, for most of us, is our blog. The opt-in will take new subscribers to your welcome page (which we’ll talk about in a minute) and handle sending your new readers right into the mailing list.

4. Ethical Bribe: So what will you give readers to get their email? It might not be enough just to tout that you have this fabulous newsletter; in fact, often it isn’t. Have something that they’ll want, a key item: e-book, tip sheet, whatever will entice readers to sign up for your newsletter. Here’s a hint: give them something they’ll have to keep referring to again and again so that your name and book stays in front of them.

5. Free: There are some folks in the industry who try to charge for their newsletters. Listen, I get it. A newsletter is a lot of work, but if done properly, it is a key promotional tool and therefore, should be free. Magazines can charge for subscriptions, you can’t. Make it free. Don’t even put a value on it. I know folks who do this, too. I think the value of the newsletter should be evident in its content, not in the price you chose to put on it.

6. Welcome pages: After someone signs up for your newsletter, what will they see? A simple thank you page on your website is a waste of an opportunity. Make sure there is a welcome page that shares their freebie (the ethical bribe) and tells them about one or two of your products. It’s also a great idea to offer a special on this welcome page as a “thank you” for signing up to your mailing list.

7. Check your facts: The quickest way to lose subscribers is to publish a newsletter full of factual mistakes. Do your fact and link checking prior to it going out. Seriously. It’s important not just to the credibility of your newsletter, but to you as well. I mean who wants to buy something from someone who can’t even be bothered to check their facts? Also, please get your newsletter edited. I’ve seen some newsletters with a disclaimer that they are unedited. If you aren’t an editor and can’t afford one, see if you can get it done for free and then blurb the person in your newsletter as a way to reciprocate. Remember, everything is your resume. Would you send a CV to a potential employer that was full of typos? I didn’t think so.

8. Promote: This is key because once you decide to do a newsletter you’ll want to promote it. You can do so by adding it to your signature line in email (“sign up for my newsletter and get a free …”), you should also never go to a book event without a sign-up sheet, and add your newsletter info to the byline of any article you write that gets syndicated online.

9. Collaborate: If you’re strapped for content and time, why not open up your newsletter to other collaborators? Our newsletter, The Book Marketing Expert, is a collaboration of a lot of voices. We have publishing tips, website tips, social media tips, and the main article. It’s a great way to let others have a voice in your newsletter, which helps to promote them – and the best part of this is that if you have a collaborative newsletter you can all promote it to the different people you touch in your travels. This will help increase your sign-ups exponentially because you’re hitting that many more people. Your collaborators should be in the industry, but specializing in different areas. This will give your newsletter the flavor and interest it needs. Don’t worry about sharing your newsletter space with others, we’ve done it this way for years, and it’s a great way to build lots of useful content.

10. Be generous: Give lots of good information. By giving away good information people will want to read it, and when they read it you will build a readership and loyal following, not just for your newsletter but for your books and products as well.

11. Balance: The key to a good newsletter that will not only get read, but passed along, is balance. By this I mean balance giving with selling. My general rule of thumb is 95% helpful information and 5% selling; while that number may seem low trust me, this is a great balance. Yes, you can offer specials and offers to your readers, but that’s the 5%.

12. Content creation: While it may seem daunting to have to write content for a newsletter every month or every two weeks, you can use and reuse this content because not everyone will find you in the same place. What I mean by this is that some folks will find you on your blog, others might find you on Twitter and still others will find you by searching online and happening on an article you’ve syndicated. Once I create content for The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter, that content is then redistributed and reused in places like our blog, my Twitter account (@bookgal) our Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Marketing-Experts-Inc-AME/43882181670?ref=ts) or on my page at The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri). Use and reuse your content, though not too much. I generally will use my articles in one or two other places and that’s it, but the point is that they can be used again.

The idea behind a good newsletter is one that not only brings your readers in, but keeps them interested. It’s the marketing funnel we marketing people love to talk about so much, once you get someone to sign up, stay on their radar screen with helpful content. Once you do, you’ll find not only loyal readers, but loyal buyers as well.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller, which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 24 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 11 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, The Book Marketing Expert newsletter, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2014 Penny C. Sansevieri – See more at: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/12-ways-create-mailing-list-will-sell-books-tip-33-52-ways-market-book/

Your opportunity with any interview is to bring who you are as an author to life. It is an opportunity to share your story and the story behind your books. It is an opportunity to convert prospective readers into readers, and turn fans into super-fans.

Whether your interview is on Southern Authors or another website, here are at least 9 ways you can promote your author interview and make it more discoverable:

1.      Tweet about it, often. Ask your followers to re-tweet it.

2.      Post it on Facebook. Your fan page and your personal account. Ask fans and friends to share it.

3.      Pin It to your Pinterest boards

4.      Post on Google+

5.      Post on Linked In

6.      Post the link to your interview on all forums you participate in that allow self-promotion

7.      Submit it to Stumble Upon, Delicious, and Reddit

8.      Share with your Tribes on Triberr

9.    Add a link to the interview on your social media profiles

The amount of time that you put into promoting your interview is directly related to how many people read and share your interview.

Did we miss any places where you can share your interview? Let us know by commenting below.

We hear it all the time: “Do you have a blog?” and maybe you do, or maybe you’ve thought of it and haven’t been ready to take the plunge. The biggest complaint I hear is that it takes too much time and authors don’t know what to write about. But there’s an easy way to start, grow, and manage your blog. Let’s look at a few ideas along with some tips for blog optimization and some headlines that will make readers beat a path to your virtual door.

Why Blogging (still) Matters

First off, does blogging even matter? Yes, it does. In fact, many SEO experts cite that a blog (when used regularly) can increase website traffic by 25%. Yes, blogging still matters. So if you haven’t jumped on the blog bandwagon, now is the time.

Blogging Brainstorm

The following is a list of post ideas that should help you get and keep the momentum going. Also, you’ll note that I have given special consideration to our fiction authors. Being a fiction and non-fiction author myself I know that when fiction is your primary focus, it can be a tough topic to blog on:

1) Plan your blog posts: if you’re looking for a month by month analysis of what to blog on, check out the following posts, broken down by month (with more scheduled for the months not currently listed) and packed with ideas on what to blog about. Trust me, it will really make a huge difference if you plan ahead:

http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-march/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-april/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-may/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-june/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-july/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-august/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-september/
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/blogging-ideas-for-october/

2) Time yourself: allocate 15 minutes a day to blogging. Once you have the ideas down pat, it should be much easier to sit down and write a post. The key is to plan, plan, plan. Once you know what you’re writing about, the rest is easy.

3) Don’t worry about long posts: you don’t have to post long blog posts. If it’s a relevant message it doesn’t have to be long. In fact, I’ve posted blogs that are 50 words in length and gotten great results!

4) Have topic ideas ready to go: I keep a file on my computer that has a list of blogging ideas or prompts if I get stuck. Here are a few of them to consider, you can use one or all of these to blog on: Industry trends, Industry news, Writing tips, Personal stories of your success, Review a book

5) How-to: never underestimate the power of a how-to blog post. Develop a series of how-to posts. Even if you’re a fiction writer, remember that 83% of Americans want to write a book so it’s likely someone reading your books (or a potential reader) is interested in this topic, too.

6) Ask questions: ask your readers questions, grab some of the top-of-mind issues that are relevant to your market and address them on your blog.

7) What sparks your creativity? I mean really, really sparks your creativity? It could be sitting in a coffee house or watching it snow. Whatever it is, share it!

8) What book have you just read that inspired you? Or perhaps you would like to do a review of a book you just read…

9) What’s the worst writing mistake you’ve ever made?

10) If you could pick one ideal spot to write, where would it be and why?

Optimizing your blog

It seems that optimization is the “word du jour” that everyone seems to be throwing around. But when it comes to blogging what does it really mean? Well, it’s actually easier than it seems. Check out our tips below to quickly, and easily, optimize your blog!

1) Create great headlines (see below for headline tips)

2) Make sure that your blog is sharable on Facebook and Twitter! If you don’t know what this is, ask your webmaster for “share this” buttons on your blog.

3) Create PowerPoint presentations, add them to SlideShare and then add the embedded links from SlideShare to your blog.

4) Always make sure and promote each blog post you write through your Facebook Fan Page and Twitter.

5) Add photos to your blog. Not only are visuals a great way to capture and keep the interest of your reader, but they will also show up in Google image searches, which will get you an additional way to capture more traffic!

6) If you’re using WordPress, make sure that the SEO pack has been installed on your blog (ask your web person)

7) Comment on other blogs in your market, with links back to your own site. This is a great way to network and get to know other bloggers in your market. Not sure how to do this? Here is my article called Social Networking on Blogs (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/social-networking-on-blog_b_408165.html)

Headlines that Pop

So, what about a great headline? Is it important? You bet. Since most of your readers will see your blog through an RSS feed, you’ll want to pay special attention to your blog headlines. Check out the following idea generators to see if it doesn’t spark something!

• 10 Secrets to…
• 7 Myths Exposed
• 10 Inspiring Ways to…
• 10 Funny Things That Happened to Me on the Way to Publishing My Book
• 7 Cool ways to…
• 10 Tips for the best…
• 10 Shocking reasons
• 5 Amazing Blog Sites You Must Read, and Why
• How to increase your success
• 10 Simple things you can do right now to…

See? You get the idea. Pique your reader’s curiosity with a tight and highly benefit-driven headline. You don’t have to use these headlines all the time, but every once in a while it’s great to throw one of these in there.

The point is that it’s more than just having a blog. You have to work the blog, and work the audience to help them find you. The problem with blogging has always been that it seems like it is so much work to first just create a blog, let alone market your blog so people will find you. However, I hope I’ve made it clear that a) it’s not that hard to blog at all, and b) it’s even easier to market your blog. All you need is a staple of ideas, a few hours a week, and the willingness to promote yourself. Regardless of who you hire to help you promote your book, and your message, you should still be engaged in your own success. You can be engaged by getting on your blog and talking to your market.

I hope you found this article helpful, and I wish you much success in your blog and all the benefits it will reap for your campaign!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller, which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. In the past 24 months their creative marketing strategies have helped land 11 books on the New York Times Bestseller list. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, The Book Marketing Expert newsletter, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2014 Penny C. Sansevieri – See more at: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/12-ways-create-mailing-list-will-sell-books-tip-33-52-ways-market-book/