The result of information gathering by “Sourcebooks” reveals that for paper printed books, 42.3% of sales were adult nonfiction, 25.2% were adult fiction, 7% were juvenile/children (both fiction and nonfiction) and 25.5% were calendars/audio/journals, etc.

Of the 42.3% of paper books that represented adult nonfiction, sales were broken down further into the top five largest categories: reference 15%, general nonfiction 12%, health/fitness/medicine/sports 11%, religion/Bibles 11%, and biography/autobiography/memoir 9%.

However, the pie chart representing sE-books reveals that about 82% of sales were adult fiction (narrative), while adult nonfiction was maybe 15% and children/juvenile maybe 3%.

This tells us that the strongest place for independent authors that are either self-published or published by a small indie press is to focus on adult narrative fiction, because the small, indie author’s best market is E-books.

And this is because the largest and mid-sized traditional publishers have the brick-and-mortar bookstore market pretty much locked up. When the average brick-and-mortar bookstore carries between 20 and 50 thousand titles and the average super sized brick-and-mortar bookstore carrieds about 150,000 titles while more than 3.3 million new titles were published in 2010 (over 3 million from indie authors and about 300,000 from the traditional publishing industry), we discover there isn’t enough shelf space in brick-and-mortar bookstores for indie authors.

In addition, only a limited amount of shelf space in brick-and-mortar bookstore is available for new titles. Visit a local indie brick-and-mortar bookstore or a Barnes and Noble superstore and count the new titles that are displayed on the new release shelves/tables. The rest of the book in that bookstore are mostly old titles that still sell well months/years after being released and most of them are from traditional publishers.

http://www.alexa.com/

Alexa’s Web site is built on the notion that timely and relevant information is essential to a vital web experience.

Alexa Site Information – Alexa has built an unparalleled database of information about sites that includes statistics, related links and more. All of this information can be found on Alexa’s Site Overview pages, Traffic Detail pages and Related Links pages. To access these pages, simply type the URL of any site into the Alexa Search box.

Alexa Top Sites – Alexa has lists of Top Sites available by country, language or in a category. You can download a free file of the global top million sites sorted by Alexa Traffic Rank.

Alexa Site Audit – Alexa will crawl and analyze your website to give you an in depth view of your site’s visibility to search engines, insights into optimization, monetization and overall health of your site.

2. Good Reads.com (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 1,836)
http://www.goodreads.com/

Promote your book at Goodreads, which is a large community of readers and those in the writing profession.

Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. We have more than 4,100,000 members who have added more than 110,000,000 books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in December 2006.

3. How Stuff Works (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 804)
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

If you can connect with the audience for this site you may make many connections for your work.

From car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells, and thousands of subjects in between, HowStuffWorks has it covered. No topic is too big or too small for our expert editorial staff to unmask … or for you to understand. In addition to comprehensive articles, our helpful graphics and informative videos walk you through every topic clearly, simply and objectively. Our premise is simple: Demystify the world and do it in a simple, clear-cut way that anyone can understand.

4.  Self Growth.com is a good site to connect with if you have books about topics such as self growth, self-esteem, better lifestyles, etc. (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 3,618)
http://www.selfgrowth.com/

Our company’s mission is to provide informative, quality Self Improvement and Natural Health information to help people improve their lives. We provide information ranging from Goal Setting and Stress Management to Natural Health and Alternative Medicine.

5. Prevention.com is good if you are into topics dealing with health, healthy eating, etc. (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 10,643)   http://www.prevention.com/health/

About Prevention

For 60 years, Prevention has delivered the kind of authoritative information, breaking news and energizing lifestyle advice that women can use today for a happier, healthier, stronger life tomorrow and beyond. With Prevention, she continuously discovers health, beauty, fitness and nutrition advice that makes her more inspired, more confident than ever before.

Industry acclaim, large and unwavering consumer demand and highly actionable, relevant content have changed the way these women see life: always fresh, always optimistic and always better with a dose of Prevention.

6. Huffingtonpost.com is a cool site for those “think tank” or news oriented type books or blogs

(Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 151)    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

(II) We want the Huffington Post to be home to open, transparent conversations in which people connect, discuss, share ideas, and debate the issues.

On-line Literary Communities to join and/or become active in

1. Authors Den  (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 37,157)   

http://www.authorsden.com/

AuthorsDen is focused on re-creating the historical face-to-face author and reader relationship where authors create, share, interact with each other and sell direct to their readers, but this time rather than taking place in a town square or temple it takes place online and throughout the world.

2. Red Room (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 77,741)   

http://www.redroom.com/

Many Red Room authors and members have discovered the benefits of being part of our online literary community. According to Red Room author Jessica Barksdale Inclán:

“What Red Room has done for me is remind me that writers—in slightly different ways—think about the same things. We have idea issues, editing issues, reading issues. We all must face the market out there, those who buy our work. No matter if we write children’s books or nonfiction journalism, we have to find our way to the public. We have to all sit down one morning and start.”

In addition to camaraderie, Red Room can provide you with the resources you need to grow your personal audience—whether you’re looking for an audience of readers or book buyers.

3. Authonomy (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 94,620)   

http://www.authonomy.com/

Authonomy Writing Community. Get Read. Get Noticed. Get Published.

authonomy^TM is a writing community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around – we’re glad you stopped by.

If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your writing on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published, looking to get published, or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy writing community.

And if you’re a reader, blogger publisher or agent, authonomy is for you too. The book world is kept alive by those who search out, digest and spread the word about the best new books – authonomy invites you to join our community, champion the best new writing and build a personal profile that really reflects your tastes, opinions and talent-spotting skills.

4. Amazon Author Central (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 15)   

https://authorcentral.amazon.com/

Welcome to Author Central (beta), a free service provided by Amazon to allow authors to reach more readers, promote books, and help build a better Amazon bookstore.

We love books, and books begin with authors. As an author, you are part of a special community at Amazon. At Author Central, you have the opportunity to share the most up-to-date information about yourself and your work with your readers — you can view and edit your bibliography, add a photo and biography to a personal profile, upload missing book cover images, and use a blog to connect with readers.

One example of how we share this information with customers can be seen in Author Pages. We created Author Pages as a simple way for customers to more easily find their favorite authors and discover new ones. (Take a look at Author Pages for Nora Roberts and Neil Gaiman.)

Author Central also helps you to enroll your books in programs like Search Inside the Book and Kindle so that they are readily available for any customer to browse and buy.

If you’re an author with a book listed in our catalog, you are eligible to join Author Central. You can use your Amazon.com customer account to get started (or create a new one if needed).

As you begin to use Author Central, please don’t hesitate to give us your feedback along the way. Our author service team is available to answer questions, accept suggestions and feedback, and provide any guidance you need.

5. Papercuts (Alexa Global Traffic Rank: 93)   

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/

About Paper Cuts

Paper Cuts is a blog about books and other forms of printed matter, written by the editors of the Book Review. Look here for book news and opinion, interviews with writers, regular raids on the Book Review’s archives, and other special features.

6. Scribd (60 million readers every month)

http://www.scribd.com/

Scribd is the world’s largest social reading and publishing company. We’ve made it easy to share and discover entertaining, informative and original written content across the web and mobile devices. Our vision is to liberate the written word, to connect people with the information and ideas that matter most to them.

Then there is Google Blog Search

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en

This is a search engine designed to find top ranked Blogs in your topic area. Take a look at the top five Blogs each time you conduct a search. If you find a post you like, read it and leave a comment. When you fill out the information for your comment, make sure to provide a link back to your Blog.

I suggest you leave one to five comments a day at five different Blogs.

 ______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

This way, you may avoid making the mistakes some authors make when in front of an audience.

I’ve had the opportunities to watch many authors do book readings. Here are a few examples.  The better the author presents him or herself to an audience, the more book sales there are afterwards and the more fans the author gains.

The first Author event I’ve posted here is from Amy Tan and it runs about 28 minutes.  If you watch only one, I recommend watching hers.

If you watch at least two, make sure to see Anchee Min at the National Book Festival.  Anchee often gets standing ovations when she is done and her books sell out.

Every author has his or her style. Learn from the masters.

A Reading by Amy Tan

Anchee Min at the 2010 National Book Festival

Pat Mora at the 2010 National Book Festival

Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer at the 2010 National Book Festival

Jane Smiley at the 2010 National Book Festival

Isabel Allende at the 2010 National Book Festival

Ken Follett at the 2010 National Book Festival

In fact, the workshop has cut the price from $497 to $97 and will allow you to bring a friend free.

They say they have seven spots left.  This is an “all day” workshop from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM.

 Sincerely,
Lloyd Lofthouse

_____________________

How to Be A Bestselling Author workshop, Saturday, October 23, 9am-6pm, downtown Oakland.

Because of our connection, I’m offering a special Bonus…

On this day for authors and aspiring authors you will increase your visibility to increase your sales.

In this one-day workshop you will get hands-on tools to:

• Speak directly to your target audience online to give them what they want so you can sell more books
• Gain confidence in the social media arena and get tips on how to use it to build your audience
• Establish an Powerful Online Presence
• Hone your clear and compelling message to answer “What do you write?”
• Discover the 5 keys to the bestselling author mindset

We’ll have guest speakers that I’m really excited about!

• Allison Bliss, of Allison Bliss Consulting, a Marketing and Communication Agency, will talk about how to sell books in bulk to companies and organizations.

An award winning marketing & communications agency, Allison Bliss Consulting has helped clients sell bulk orders of books in quantities of 10,000 their first year. Her agency offers marketing plans, social media, design, writing, websites, SEO, internet marketing & advertising to CEO’s, business and non profit leaders, plus entrepreneurs. Clients include Apple Computers, UC Medical Center, Honda, Pepsi, hundreds of small entrepreneurial businesses. She managed (and sometimes created) over 10,000 major Hollywood films, television shows, music concerts, commercials, and live events with top talents, including Bobby McFerrin, Francis Ford Coppola, and Robin Williams. Today she helps both large corporations and small businesses with clients claiming “Incredibly, measurable results!”

• Ezra Barany of Barany Video Marketing will share about the wonders of book trailers, video promotion for your book.

Most authors – even professionals with years of experience – don’t know the techniques of using video as a way to get the excitement of their book out into the world. In a rare opportunity you will see Ezra Barany himself teach you these techniques at this workshop!

At this presentation, you’ll discover:

 * the best, free, easy-to-use software for creating your book trailer

 * how to generate captivating text for your book trailer, and

 * how to post your book trailer in a way that guarantees maximum visibility!

Ezra Barany is an avid video editor having created and edited videos for authors, musicians, athletes, and entrepreneurs for over 4 years. His mission is to help authors get those people who visit their website to become fans of their writing. Ezra has been a presenter and trainer making complex concepts easy to understand for over ten years to over a thousand people. In his free time, he works on editing his thriller novel and writes mushy love songs inspired by his wife and book coach Beth Barany.

 WE HAVE A FEW SEATS LEFT… for our workshop on Saturday…

You may have a friend or colleague who’d like to come — have them give me a call. We only have 7 spots left.

Call me at: Beth Barany 510-332-5384.

And because you’re connected to me, your friends get a special bonus!
Instead of $497, your friend can join us for $97,
AND, Bonus… They can bring a friend, for free!

Your friends, and their friends, can register here:
http://www.bethbarany.com/bestsellingauthorsnetwork/register.htm

Just put: “Bring a friend” in the notes field when you check out.

RSVP required. Thanks!

 Details
When: Saturday, October 23, 2010
Registration: 9am
Workshop: 9:30am – 6pm
Where: East Bay Community Foundation, James Irvine Foundation Conference Center

353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612

Travel & Parking: go here

12th Street BART is right near the building. I highly recommend taking BART.

Bring: Your laptop, though you don’t need one to benefit from the workshop. We’ll have wifi. A sweater. It’s a conference room.

I’ll provide the coffee!

ABOUT BETH
Author, speaker and columnist, Beth Barany, can be found raving about books, authors, and the ever-changing publishing and book marketing world online on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Beth speaks to writing groups all over the San Francisco Bay Area and across the United States.

Who Beth Barany works with authors nervous about books marketing and sales. She helps them find their own comfort zone with marketing and selling so they can have a successful author career. Beth Barany is the author of The Writer’s Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book, and Overcome Writer’s Block. She’s been a columnist at The National Networker, The San Francisco Writers Community, and a contributing author to several anthologies, including the best-seller Writing Romance (and managing editor), and Creativity Coaching Success Stories.

She is also the editor of the best-selling anthology of stories by UC Berkeley alumni, the bestseller, When I Was There: Life at Berkeley 1960-2010. Beth works with clients in the US, Canada, and Europe, and gives talk nationally and internationally. She also writes young adult fantasy novels. Beth can be contacted through her site: http://www.bethbarany.com/contact.html, and through her blog, full off resources, http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog.

To register for the
click here

Thanks for forwarding to your friends!

I look forward to seeing on Saturday!

All my best,
Beth

PS. Call me with any question about the event!

Beth Barany
Book Sales Coach | Author | Speaker
www.bethbarany.com
510-332-5384

By Neil Holley-Williams (c) 2010

Note from Lloyd Lofthouse: On Sunday, October 17, at the branch marketing meeting, I talked about the importance of linking but also warned about what this post by Neil Holley-Williams covers. I’ve read some excellent advice at Site Pro News, and they granted us permission to repost on the CWC Berkeley Branch Marketing Blog.

Read the entire post but pay attention to Holley-Williams’ last few paragraphs.  Read them more than once. If you have questions, ask me.

_________________

About The Author
Neil Holley-Williams runs HW marketing, a Chichester web design company providing very affordable websites and SEO for small and medium sized businesses. Neil has worked in the IT industry for over 25 years for companies such as IBM, Carnival UK, Invesco Perpetual, and Skandia Life.

For more information visit www.hwmarketing.co.uk/seo

_________________

So you’ve got yourself a website and are all excited about it. You tell your friends, colleagues and business contacts and the first thing they say is ” Oooh, that’s great, you can link to mine and I’ll link to yours”… and everybody involved thinks this is a great idea because hey, the more links you have the more popular your site is with Google.

Now this is all very well if you are talking about a few links between ‘networking businesses’, but in the bigger picture, exchanging reciprocal links is not a good way to ingratiate your site with Google.

Be wary of joining Link Exchange Schemes or you could catch a nasty cold!

If reaching Page 1 were that easy, all we’d have to do is put a couple of hundred (or a thousand) links from our web pages to other pages and ask them to do the same. Websites would immediately become ‘huge link banks’ rather than sources of information which is essentially what they should be in every case, even commercial sites.

Google views 1 to 1 reciprocal linking very, very low in importance, for just that reason.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do your friends a favor and they not do the same for you, but just think about what Google thinks is important or you might just experience a long-term negative impact.

Google LIKES inbound links to your site where there is no reciprocal link back. Why? Because that scenario is a neutral (and therefore more valuable) editorial vote for your site’s content.

Google ABSOLUTELY LOVES the inbound (and not reciprocated) link where the link is from a site that is relevant and complementary to your own, ESPECIALLY if that site is regarded highly by Google already. So if you do arrange that reciprocal link with a business friend, just consider that your visitors may find their site irrelevant to what they are looking for. e.g. don’t link to your friend’s Doggie Washing Service if your site is about Commercial Property Investment—for example. Keep it relevant.

So how do you go about getting quality links?

What about Link Exchanges? You know, those people who drop an e-mail into your inbox, offering a campaign where your site offers other sites (with similar relevant content to yours) a link, and in exchange they add a link to yours.

Well, we’ve just blown reciprocal links out of the water, but schemes that promise hundreds of links are not a good idea.

Don’t take my word for it. This is what Google has to say: “..Excessive link exchanges, could “negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”

“Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or Page Rank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or ‘bad neighborhoods’ on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”

“Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”

“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.”

So ok. If you can’t use Link Exchanges, how do you go about getting quality ‘votes’ for your site?

Link exchanges used to be popular, but are the old way of getting links and although links of any type to your site are still counted, there is always the risk that you could catch a very bad cold if you actively participate in link exchanges.

Start to look at the social networking sites and get your site out there. Social networking sites such as Digg, Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, and StumbleUpon are able to drive massive traffic to your site; but only if you have unique and interesting content.

The more interesting your content, the greater the chance that someone else will find your content useful to their visitors and link to you. Always consider your outbound links as part of your content.

If you link to sites stuffed with irrelevant adverts or to a site that tells you how to Wash a Dog (and your site is about Property Investment), then visitors are going to question your motives and will not link their sites to yours.

So focus on good quality content and then look at using social networking to drive visitors to your site. If you have good content, then other sites will start to link to yours.

If you ARE involved in Link Exchanges, visit the reciprocal links as often as you can and make sure you don’t have an unhealthy neighbor and that you still have a link back.

Always remember that the risks of a Link Exchange system far outweigh the benefits.

Copyright � 2010 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.
Re-posted with permission. This post is courtesy of Site Pro News

At the top of my list is The Midwest Book Review (http://www.midwestbookreview.com/) which posts reviews on Amazon, and you may link from your Website and/or Blog to that review which gives your work credibility.

Book reviews from reputable sources like the MBR may be the deciding factor in someone buying your work.  There is no way to know what it is that helps someone decide to buy and read so as authors, we should pursue all reputable avenues and book reviews are one of them.

The Book Connector at http://www.bookconnector.com/ is one place to find literary and genre Blogs that offer to read your work and write a book review. Some Blogs charge and many don’t.  I suggest staying away from those that charge.  Some of the information at the Book Connector is free but gaining access to all of the information will cost a small fee.

The more popular the book review Blog, the more difficult it is to have them accept your work. Some Blogs may have a few followers and others have hundreds and thousands, who read the reviews and sometimes buy.

When your work receives a glowing review from a popular book review Blog, you may also link to that review from your Website and or Blog. 

The more links, the higher your search engine visibility.

The traditional publishing industry has turned to the Internet and book review Blogs too.

Another way to get reviews is to hire PR agencies that specialist in the virtual world like Pump Up Your Book Promotion at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/ or AME (Author Marketing Experts, Inc.) at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/

The Midwest Book Review also offers a list of other Book Reviewers at http://www.midwestbookreview.com/links/othr_rev.htm

You may go after reviews on your own for free or pay PR agencies (like the two mentioned in this post) to do it for you, who specialize in promotions on the Internet. 

Don’t forget, you get what you pay for.

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

In an economically challenged climate guess what starts to soar? Libraries. The library market is strong and getting stronger. If you haven’t made libraries part of your target market you should. And despite all the book buzz online, it’s still nice to get your book onto a library shelf. For most of us, this seems like an exclusive right devoted to an exclusive group of best-selling authors. While some piece of this is true, the reality is that if you have a good book, you can get into the library system. Here’s how.

First, why would you care about hitting the library market? Because in a slow book sales season, as we’ve seen in the past few months, libraries are a great way to get to your reader.

 1. What they buy: Each library gets a budget and they can spend it any way they want. Unlike Barnes and Noble, where their book purchases are often dictated by publishers or a sales order from their corporate office, libraries operate independently of each other. Libraries will generally buy hardback and trade books and tend to shy away from mass market paperbacks, but if you’re in the latter category, don’t let this deter you. There’s still a lot of wiggle room when it comes to library orders and a few creative ways to get into their system.

2. Getting to know your local library: If you want to get into your local library it’s important to get to know them, so dust off your library card, stop by and introduce yourself. Get to know who you’re selling to.

3. Library websites: If your local library has a website, see if there’s a place to make book recommendations. If you have local fans, encourage them to do the same on their library websites.

4. Library events: If you’ve been trying to get into your local bookstore to do an event but haven’t gotten much traction, why not consider doing a library event (or two)? It’s a great way to get “into” your local library, become acquainted with them, meet your local readers, and well, you know – get more exposure for your book. Many libraries also have reading groups that you might be able to participate in.

5. Reviews: Most libraries look to review sources for their selections as well. Consider submitting your book to the following publications for review: Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Forecast. These publications are largely ready by libraries and often librarians will buy based on a good review in one of these publications. You don’t need to get reviews in all of them (though wouldn’t that be great?) – getting a review in one of them should be more than sufficient to catch the eye of a ready-to-buy librarian.

6. Popularity: Librarians like to stock what’s popular, even locally. So if you’re doing a lot of local events, talks, or speaking gigs, make sure and let your local libraries know. Also, if you’re going to do TV or radio be sure and alert your library, thus giving them sufficient time to order the book.

7. Distribution: It’s important to know how libraries get the titles they stock. First off you’ll need to get the right distributor for your book. Both Quality Books and Unique Books have programs that can help you access the library market.

Quality Books Inc. http://www.quality-books.com/

Unique Books Inc. http://www.uniquebooksinc.com/

Baker & Taylor: http://www.baker-taylor.com/ (technically they are a wholesaler but can also help you access the library market)

There’s also a nifty little site that will help you locate libraries in your neighborhood and around the world: http://www.libdex.com (libraries worldwide)

Libraries might not seem as “glamorous” as the store window of Barnes and Noble, but libraries have considerably more staying power. Once your book is in their system it’s in there for as long as your book is in print and the library sees there are readers for it. Also, consider the reorders as your local library will (hopefully) bring in more than one copy. Libraries are a not-to-be-overlooked part of your marketing campaign, and if you missed the review window, don’t fret. You might still be able to gain some interest via events and local popularity!

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Overview

Independently-published and POD authors have come to rely on a number of free online marketing tools to generate exposure and, in turn, sales of our books. Chief amongst such tools is blogging. Blogs are indisputable in terms of attracting potential customers to your book. I needn’t extol the virtues of blogging because, really, it’s obvious: every indie author should own a blog and be posting at least once daily.  Kind of like how children ought to drink milk every day so that they grow up strong, consistent blogging is a requisite to your book’s success.

Perhaps some of you reading this have personal reasons for not updating your blog on a daily bases, such as time constraints or writer’s block, yet you still want to promote your book.  If so, keep reading, because I am in a similar position. 

I myself am unable to maintain a blog for two pretty darn good excuses.  1) I am a travel photographer and am often on the road, and 2) I have been based out of China for over 5 years, where blogs are, for all intents and purposes, illegal and blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

As the author of a new book that will debut in America this summer, I have been using my downtime to generate online interest and exposure for my book. I do not have an agent to help me attract publicity, nor has one penny been spent on marketing for my book; I am left completely alone to discover and utilize those free online tools that I still have access to.

The list of these promotional devices is endless, and have already been covered at length by no small number of SEO (search engine optimization) experts. Some of these tools work wonders, some require substantial financial or time investments and the rest are duds.  What’s an indie author to do, then, if we want to sell books to people other than our family members and neighbors?

I certainly do not have the answer lest I write a whole book about it and get rich. However I do have a few newfound secrets to personally share with members of the California Writers Club Berkeley Branch – secrets that were right in front of me the whole time I was trying to figure out how to promote my book’s Amazon product page.

You see, for the past few months I have become slightly obsessed with creating Listmania lists on Amazon. The exposure Listmania provides each book on a list is invaluable. I didn’t know this at first; I was just making lists of my favorite books for fun. But after I saw how often my lists started popping up all over Amazon, and how my book was now appearing under “suggested reading” on other books’ product pages, I realized that Listmania was an untapped goldmine of free and effective book promotion.

Creating a list is not as simple or trivial as throwing a bunch of books together. Your list needs to be OPTIMIZED, and correctly at that; this is what I will be showing you how to do.  Additionally, Amazon’s promotional tools are not limited to “lists.” They also include “tagging”, “voting”, “communities,” “images” and “Author Central”, each which I will explain in more detail.

By using Amazon’s free promotional tools in conjunction with daily blogging, I have no doubt of the possibility that your book will rise in sales rank. But even if you only have time to create a few lists, your book’s product page will, at the very least, begin to see increased traffic.

Next, I will introduce you to the wonderful world of “Listmania.”

Amazon’s “Listmania lists”

Listmania lists on Amazon were originally intended as an interactive tool for fans to tell other Amazon shoppers about their favorite books, movies, products, etc. But as I have discovered, lists can also be a great device for new authors to promote their own books. Lists appear at the side of Amazon’s search results, at the bottom of every product page, in Amazon’s customer communities (more on those later) and customer profiles (also later). Additionally, Listmania lists very often appear at the very top of Google’s search results for the categories it is listed under. This equates to massive (and totally free!) exposure for any book on a list.

Let’s make your first Lismania list:

1) Spend some time browsing Amazon, making note of 40 of your favorite books that are in the SAME genre as your own book. Use one of my lists as an example:

http://www.amazon.com/CHINA-Photography-Books-The-Definitive-List/lm/R32G9C44K0K6F7/

Many if not all of these books on my list are my book’s commercial competition. Why would I help my competitors get free exposure? Because I calculated it was better for me to take the lead in grouping our genre together and including my book in the bunch, than for someone else to make a similar list, but without my book. Plus, I actually like most of these books and don’t begrudge any of them their success.

2) As I either already own or am familiar with most of these books, it wasn’t hard for me to write a 200 character synopsis for each. You don’t HAVE to write anything for your lists, but your list will get more votes if it’s useful to other customers, so I urge you to write something. You will also have to think up a catchy title and list introduction.

3) To set up your own list, go here http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/toplists and click “Create Your Own List” at the top right corner. You MUST have an active Amazon account (meaning a registered credit card) to make lists, write reviews, etc.on Amazon. Type each of your 40 favorite books’ titles or ISBN numbers into the box. Write a synopsis and then click “Add another” until you are done. Be sure to include your own book somewhere in the list if you want to reap the benefits.

Should you want to change the order of the books, it’s easy to do with the arrows. 40 is the maximum items allowed per list. I don’t suggest making a list with under 20 items as it may get voted down by other members. Moreover, a list’s strength is multiplied by however many items appear on it. 40 items gets your list in 40 different search results. It’s simple math.

4) Press the “Publish” button and there you have your completed list. Congratulations. You will now see some “tag” categories. Click the relevant ones, or add your own unique tags. You get 15 total tags, and I highly suggest you use them all, as each tag is directly linked to Amazon’s customer communities (more on “tags” and “communities” in the following posts).

5) Herein is the most important point of making a Listmania list: VOTES! Your list will only be as popular as the number of votes on it. Lists with more votes are ranked higher by Amazon’s algorithms and will appear above other lists with less votes. Of course you want people to find your list, so go get votes! I’d say that even with 1,000 views, the average number of actual votes a list will see in its lifespan is less than 20. Not too many people go through the trouble of voting. That is why you should take advantage of getting votes from your friends at the California Writers Club Berkeley Branch book club. How to vote? Easy, though many people tend to overlook it:

List voting instructions:

At the top right of any list it says this:

List Stats

Last updated: (date)

Read: X times

Rated: X out of X helpful

Rate it! Do you find this list helpful?

YES or NO

Obviously you will want to click YES. Then you will get a message that says: “Thank you for your feedback.”

HOWEVER – and this is important – leave the page OPEN for several minutes AFTER you vote so that your vote “sticks”!!! Then refresh the page to see that the “Rated” # has increased with your vote. Amazon doesn’t like voting and running, and lots of times your vote will disappear if you leave the page immediately after voting.

6) You also might want to promote your list by linking it to your blog, and to social bookmarking sites like http://digg.com/, http://www.reddit.com/, http://buzz.yahoo.com/ and http://www.propeller.com/. There are hundreds more (I use about 30 each time I make a new list), but those are the main ones that will help get your lists increased traffic, and also ensure it gets onto Google.

7) For any of you who are still skeptical of the significant effects of list building, let me show you something profound on my Amazon profile:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A24S41QQXG9JV1

Click on the list that says:

“Breakout Books by Independently-Published Authors : A list of 40 items”

This is a list I recently made of books by fellow indie authors I have befriended on various internet forums. I compiled their works, then asked each of them to vote on the list, and also get others to vote on it as well. In just a few days this list has received almost 100 votes!!! and is now one of the highest rated lists on all of Amazon. This is a remarkable feat for a bunch of heretofore unknown POD books.

As such, every book on this list is presently receiving maximum exposure on Amazon. I can’t promise this exposure will translate into actual sales, but at the very least, now Amazon customers will know about these books. So I suggest anybody reading this go make a single list with books from all the authors at the California Writers Club Berkeley Branch book club and have everyone vote on it.

That’s it for Listmania. Wasn’t that easy?

Now for Amazon “tagging”

This post we will cover why “tagging” is also critical to your book’s success on Amazon.

Trade books released by big publishers have tens of thousands of dollars (minimum) behind them in promotions and advertising. Those books are instantly reviewed by Publishers Weekly and The New York Times and thusly have no need for further “grassroots” promotion by the authors themselves.

I am assuming that if you are reading this, you are an author without a “Big 6” publishing house marketing your book for you, and thusly will appreciate the tools that Amazon has graciously made available to us to give us a fighting chance against best sellers. Tagging is another such advantage.

Tags are like individual search categories that Amazon places a book into. Tags used to have a higher importance on Amazon than they do these days, but they are still quite valuable to books that do not have a high sales rank or many customer reviews. Why? Because the more tags a book has, the higher ranked it is by Amazon’s search algorithms. Moreover, tags link directly with Amazon “customer communities” (more on “communities” later). The book with the highest number of tags in that community gets placed at the top of the community. Also, Amazon tags are utilized by Google for their search results, which help get your book found online. And equally cool, your book will also start showing up under “suggested reading” on other book’s product pages.

1) Use my book as an example of successful tagging:

http://www.amazon.com/CHINA-Portrait-People-Tom-Carter/dp/9889979942

Scroll halfway down the page till you see:

“Tags Customers Associate with This Product”

The second tag is “Chinese Culture” (presently 119 votes).

Click on “Chinese Culture,” and it will take you to the “Chinese Culture” customer community.  You can see four books: #s 1, 3 and 4 are written by Lisa See, a best-selling authoress. But who is #2? Lil’ ol’ me, ranked along side the famous Lisa See, how cool is that? And if I can get 35 more votes, I’ll be first! How to vote? How to get YOUR book tagged? Keep reading:

2) Go back to my book’s product page. You will see the first 10 tags. However each customer is allowed to “vote” a total of 15 tags per product. Check the little box next to 15 of them and that’s that.  Now go to YOUR book’s page and add 15 tags that best fit its story and genre. Be sure to add a mixture of popular tags (like “Fiction” or “Romance”) with less-popular ones, like your name “Susan Smith” or something unique about your book, like “Purple Dogs”. Your original 15 tags can be deleted/changed by you at any time by simply by un-clicking the check mark.

3) If you want hundreds of votes on your book’s tags, you will have to start trading tags with other authors. It IS time consuming, but 10 minutes of voting per day for a month should get you a decent amount. Where will you find these kindly fellow authors, you now ask?

In addition to swapping tags with other authors at the California Writers Club Berkeley Branch book club, there are a number of “tag exchange” blogs and forums online. Some of them have become too large for their own good, such as:

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com/

which is free and includes a great deal of helpful info about tagging.  It wouldn’t hurt to submit your book to them, though honestly I am just not seeing much reciprocation there anymore.

I personally prefer:

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/thread/7024?tstart=0

and

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/66551-how-to-hit-1-on-amazon

which are where I have received 95% of my tags.

4) The key to successful tagging is RECIPROCATION! If you add your book to an online forum of books to be tagged, you really need to play fair and tag all those other books. It can be over a period of weeks, but if those authors aren’t getting their tags, then they will complain and you will be outted as a freeloader. So be sure to tag back.

Tagging is quite simple, it just takes time to build them up. But once you do, it will increase your book’s exposure across Amazon by however many tags you have received, so don’t ignore this tool. And every time you get a customer review on Amazon, be sure to remind that customer to also “tag” your book (a prompt will show up after they submit their review). Most customers tend to ignore tags, which is why they are all the more valuable for indie authors like us.

Next post, I will explain in further detail the advantages of Amazon’s “customer communities.”

Amazon’s “customer communities”

We just learned about tagging, and if you remember, tags are directly linked to customer communities for each of those tag categories.

 Let’s go back to the “Chinese Culture” customer community:

http://www.amazon.com/tag/chinese%20culture

What the heck are we supposed to do here, you are wondering? Well for starters:

1) Communities are places to have discussions about any topic you want, though in my opinion most people don’t participate in Amazon discussions (except in places like the “photography” community where customers need actual technical advice for shopping). Still, any discussion you start from your book’s product page will be linked to a customer community, thereby giving your book added exposure. So, if you wanted, you could start a discussion for your book, e.g. “What’s the significance of Jane’s green shirt in Chapter 4, and how does that symbolism convey the author’s blahblahblah…”

2) You can also upload images of your book (or yourself or your pet cat or your sister’s new baby) onto a specific community. This helps ever so slightly in getting exposure for your book. Take a look at my images so you can see how I optimized them:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/customer-gallery/A24S41QQXG9JV1

I have 4 images now, each one linked to a DIFFERENT customer community. Furthermore, I can write a description of each photo and link a product(s) to the photo (put your mouse cursor over the image to see the “product box”). This product box inextricably links my book even deeper into the Amazon algorithm, and as algorithms are all relative, every little bit counts towards something greater. You will also notice at the top right corner that customers can vote on each image. Once my book goes live on Amazon (debuts August 2010) I will upload images from the book directly onto the book’s product page.

3) And finally, you will want to fix up your Amazon profile page. Check out mine:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A24S41QQXG9JV1

I’ve got a picture of my book, I’ve got a link to my official homepage, I’ve linked my book to a “wish list” and “favorites” category (at the bottom of the page). It’s all designed to generate max exposure for my book, just in the off chance that a customer stumbles upon my profile. Also note how I have a “real name” badge below my user id to authentic my profile. You can get that badge by pressing “edit my profile” and then “edit my name”.

Amazon’s “Author Central”

This topic should be obvious, but I am surprised how many indie authors neglect their author profiles on Amazon. Author Central is different than your Amazon customer profile. Author Central appears directly on your product page and gives you a chance to blog, mention in-store appearances, and upload a book trailer video. Maintaining your Author Central profile is vital to your book’s Amazon product page.

Check out my Author Central by starting at my product page:

http://www.amazon.com/CHINA-Portrait-People-Tom-Carter/dp/9889979942/

Scroll down the page till you see my mug shot. Above it says “More About the Author.”  Click.

Here we have the bio of Tom Carter, an enlarged picture and a one-book bibliography. Scroll down and you’ll see my video and my blog.

1) Blog: Amazon only allows 3 posts at a time. Older posts vanish forever when you update. You can either link your own blog’s RSS feed here, or write entirely new original blog posts. I am not much of a blogger, so what I did was reposted 3 of my favorite previously-published travel articles, which gives the viewer a general idea of what me and my book are about, along with embedded links to my homepage, etc. I’m going to leave these 3 posts here permanently.  But if you already have a blog, simply link your RSS feed to your Author Central blog so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. An RSS feed will update your blog automatically for you.

2) Video: you can create your own book trailer using Windows Movie Maker (comes on all computers). My book is photo-intense, so naturally I used a collage of photos and mixed in some snappy Chinese pop music. My video is also on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyNeGJEpDjw

I highly suggest you make a book trailer for your novel, upload it onto YouTube and also Amazon Central. If it’s too technical and complicated for you, there are services that can help; Google search “book trailer” or ask a fellow California Writers Club Berkeley Branch book club author for assistance.

3) How to set up your Amazon Author Central profile? Easy breezy. Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and follow the prompt. It will take about a week for them to set it up, so get started today. After that, they outline clear instructions on how to upload a video, blog, photo, etc.

Amazon.com has become more than just a place to buy and sell stuff; they are emerging as an increasingly powerful player in the publishing industry, and there are even rumors that they may buy out one of the “Big 6” publishing pillars. They are involved with POD via CreateSpace and AmazonEncore, and their Kindle product is revolutionizing ebooks.  Amazon.com is here to stay, so why not take advantage of the promotional tools they have provided us?

There is no guarantee that any of this will generate into actual sales, but I for one am convinced that a combination of active blogging + Amazon’s promotional tools will maximize your book’s exposure online.

I would appreciate hearing your comments or questions about anything I have written here. I’m learning as I go, just like you, so your feedback and advice are important.

_______________________________

Tom Carter, a San Francisco City native, is not an SEO expert nor is he selling any kind of how-to service. He is just an indie author trying to publicize his new photo book using the free promotional tools available to him online, and he felt compelled to share some of his new-found marketing secrets with his fellow Bay Area authors at the California Writers Club Berkeley Branch.

Travel photographer Tom Carter is the author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, a 600-page book of photography from the 33 provinces of China, which may be found on Amazon.com.