Published an e-book?

With all the opportunities in self-publishing these days, it’s like every other person has written an e-book. So I thought I’d put together a quick list of marketing tips.

1. Give your e-book a title that explains what the book will do for your customers, how it will benefit them – For example, one of my favorite titles is: Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life: How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect, and Happiness.
2. Make a landing page on your website for your e-book – on this landing page, use niche SEO keywords aimed towards your target market, and give people a chapter for free when signing up for your e-newsletter. If you don’t yet have an e-newsletter, just have them sign up for the free chapter.
3. Reward your Twitter followers or newsletter subscribers with a discount code- Tweet a discount code for your book to all your Twitter followers, or include it in your next newsletter for your subscribers. Again, if you make it for a limited time, it should push people to buy.
   

   Social currency...sort of

4. Have people pay with social currency – Do what Danny Iny, AKA “the Freddy Kruger of blogging,” did with his last book, The Naked Marketing Manifesto and have people Pay with a Tweet.
5. Find a popular blogger on your topic and get your book reviewed – Offer a popular blogger a free copy of your book for him or her to review on the blog. Check out the blog’s subscriber numbers/Twitter follower numbers before you ask.
6. Announce your e-book with a press release -  This will cost some money, how much depends on what outlet (PR Web, PR Newswire, etc.) you use for distribution and if you need to hire someone to write the press release for you.
7. Make your e-book available in a variety of formats -  It’s a good idea to have your e-book available on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, etc., in addition to a PDF. It’s important to consider the various ways that people will be reading your book – smartphone, e-reader, laptop, printed page, etc. Kindle is a particularly good platform for book promotion.
8. Price Your Book Competitively – While you should always price things in terms of the benefit buyers will receive (to semi-quote Chris Guillebeau) rather than the amount of time it takes to put the product together, it’s a good idea to see how much similar books are selling for when it comes to pricing. If you really want to push the book, you can always offer a lower price to your subscribers for a limited time.
9. Be a guest blogger -Are there any popular websites where you could guest post on a topic relevant to your book? There would then be a link back to your book purchase link (this is important – DON’T just link back to your site, link to the specific purchase page).
10. Have your book be free for a limited time – You can do this on your own website, but what might be better is promoting the free copy through a site like Pixel of Ink, which promotes free or discounted Kindle books for a day on Facebook and other sites.
    

    Givin' it away for free

11. Give a talk to an organization interested in your topic – Some people are more comfortable with public speaking than others, and if you are one of those people, this could prove very useful. Bring postcards or business cards with the URL for your e-book for people to take away with them. You can also bring either a tablet computer or just a regular pad and pen for people to sign up for your e-mail list.
12. Become a source for Help a Reporter Out(HARO) – Journalists use this site to find sources for articles on a large range of subjects. By becoming a source for a journalist, you can find yourself quoted in an article as an authority on your subject, scoring some free publicity.
13. Mention your e-book in an online forum – If you’re a regular contributor or participant in a forum, post the publication of your book there with a link. (Note: Only do this if you’re a regular contributor, as people tend not to like it when you only speak up to flog your products).
14. Open an “AdWords” account with Google – AdWords can cost you anywhere between 10 cents and $1 per click through. Then write a keyword ad that promotes your eBook.
15. Submit an article on your subject to an online magazine or website- While you certainly can pitch popular online magazines that might fall in line with your subject, you can also submit articles to sites like ezinearticles.com, with a link back to the book’s sales page.

You may have noticed that a lot of these ways include giving away content for free. Before you protest, take a look at this article on Chris Brogan, who gives away enormous quantities of information for free and still can (and does) charge $22,000 per day for consulting.

photo credit: Johan Larsson via photo pin cc
photo credit: Great Beyond via photo pin cc
photo credit: kevin dooley via photo pin cc