It is an exciting time to be an author! New technologies in digital printing and distribution are enabling authors to publish online with print-on-demand and ebooks. Technology is also changing the way you can market your book.
Book marketing used to involve sending out physical copies to reviewers and journalists. You were generally marketing only to a local or country wide audience. You used a publicist because they had the relationships with people. The author was quite removed from the reviewer, the journalist or the reader.
Web 2.0 changes that. It enables relationships with people through social networking, blogging and instant messaging. You can now talk to journalists, reviewers and your readers directly.
If you build a relationship with someone, they are more likely to promote you, buy your book or want to interview you for a story. You can now promote to a global audience and sell globally through ebook retailers and online bookstores. Book marketing is still about relationships – but those relationships can now be online, and global.
Here are some Web 2.0 tools that you can use to promote your book (and the bonus is they are free!):
1. Use Twitter to find a journalist to target for your book/niche. Search for journalists on WeFollow and search.twitter.com. Listen to what they are tweeting about, Retweet them and get noticed. Build a relationship and then pitch. You can also set up a Twilert for your niche topic and you will receive a daily email with who is talking about it. Join the conversation and get noticed.
2. Pitch a targeted blogger for a book review. Don't just use book review sites as they are overcrowded. Pick a blogger in your genre who doesn't review books normally. Comment on their blog and get noticed. Get them some traffic by promoting them somehow. Build the relationship and then introduce your book.
3. Use your press release in multiple ways. Send it to the targeted journalist, but also post it on your blog/website media page. Then turn it into a .PDF and post it on Scribd and Docstoc, both of which are great for document search traffic. Put your website and free offer details on the bottom of the page and include keywords in the search terms. Then turn it into an article and post it on EzineArticles.com with your resource box for more traffic.
4. Use HARO to get notified of journalists looking for a story. This “Help a Reporter Out” service will sent you an email daily with all the stories that journalists are looking for. Have your press release ready to go. Research the journalist and story online as soon as you receive the email. Tweak the press release so it fits the requirements and you have a direct line to that journalist.
5. Record your book and submit it on Podiobooks.com. You can record your book with a basic plug-in microphone and free software Audacity. At the beginning and end of every podcast you can mention your website and where people can buy the print book. You can use the audio on your blog as a giveaway and network with other podcasters in your niche to get segments on their shows. If you can get people's attention for the hours it will take to listen your book, then you have definitely built a fan base!
These are just some of the tools available to you online for book marketing. Web 2.0 gives the power to the author, but you have to actually use the tools to get the exposure.
You have your book – now let people know about it!
There are many more ideas in the Author 2.0 Blueprint: How to use Web 2.0 tools to write, publish, sell and promote your book: http://budurl.com/tzz8.
