New Posts On Another Site

Just a note to say that due to the duplicate content info I am reading on the internet, I will no longer be updating my wordpress blog with my marketing tips until further notice. All new content can be found at http://marketingtipsforauthors.blogspot.com/

Tony Eldridge

Have Readers Loan Your Book Out For More Sales

Here’s something light and easy to chew on for the weekend. It’s a simple marketing tip that seems to somehow go against the very fiber of the writer, and sometimes even your fans who want to see you succeed. But if you do a good job at encouraging its practice, you will reap rewards 10 fold down the road. And best of all–it’s free!

Simply, encourage your readers to loan out their copy of your books to their friends and neighbors. In the same vein, rejoice when a library picks up a copy of your book for the hundreds or thousands of people who will check it out and read it for free.

For many authors, this sounds counter intuitive. The first thought is, “I am missing out on royalties and sales numbers. If someone wants to read my book, they should pay for it.”

I am the first to tell you that an author is due every royalty on a sold book. I also believe that you put in a lot of work on your book and you deserve to be paid for your work. I really do. I am an author too, remember?

But I am also a marketer. I am looking for ways to get my work in front of many people to get the most sales I possibly can. So I look at the lending of my book, or the borrowing of my book from a library as an investment in an inexpensive marketing plan. What better way to build up the word of mouth buzz around your book than to have actual readers talking about it to their friends and family.

How would you like to overhear this conversation at your local Starbucks:

“Man, I finished a really great book that my third cousin, twice removed loaned me last week.”

“Really, what was it?”

“It was a book written by Tony Eldridge called The Samson Effect. You have got to read it.”

Now, replace my name with yours and replace my book title with your book title. How does that sound? What would be the power of word-of-mouth exposure if everyone who bought your book loaned it out to 1 person, 2 people, 3 people? And what if 20% of those people bought it and loaned it out to 1 person, 2 people, 3 people?

The results would be amazing. If you are calculating the lost royalties on all those people who borrowed your book, then you are missing the royalties on all the people who bought your book because of the exposure those borrowers gave to you. And the truth is, if you cultivate a readership that feels safe in loaning your book out, you will walk away with more net royalties than if no one loaned out your book. Make sense?

What you are doing if you practice this tip is something bigger than selling books. You are building a brand. You are creating name recognition. You are investing into something worth more than the immediate sale now.

And if you are still hung up on the lost revenue, think of it this way. Let’s assume you are losing $3.00 per book in sales when someone borrows your book. (That’s assuming 100% of those people who borrowed your book would have bought it if they hadn’t borrowed it–highly unlikely). You can make this figure personal to you by replacing the amount you make per book. But at $3.00 per book, let’s say that a few people loan your book out 100 times. That’s $300 you are out, right? So, is $300 worth the price of an ad campaign that takes advantage of word-of-mouth advertisement? Is $300 worth the price to enhance your name recognition? I say an emphatic, “Yes!” And the great thing about it is that you get all that with no real money out of your pocket.

So encourage readers to loan those books out. Rejoice when a new library gets a copy of your book. Heck, donate one to them and get the tax write-off for it (consult your tax adviser before taking ANY tax advice from me). And be happy that more and more eyes are reading your book while you are creating more and more fans to help you tell others about it.

Tony Eldridge

Establishing an Internet Presence Part 2: Social Media

In the last article, we discussed the basics of getting set up on the Internet. In this article, we will discuss some other places you can tell others about your work. I would strongly urge you to first create a website and/or a blog before creating any of these pages. The reason: you will want to reference your website in these sites. However, if you have already created these sites, don’t worry. When you do create your web page, you can always edit these sites and add your home page info.

The following sites are referred to as social media sites or social networking sites. They share common elements, but each has a different format and in many cases, difference audiences. The nice thing about them is that the search engines love them. That means you will have more opportunities to get your book in front of people if you utilize these social media sites.

Here are the common traits that these sites share:

1. They are free– Big plus in my book

2. The allow you to network with others

3. They allow you to update the site as often as you want with new information

4. They generally have groups you can join. In my opinion, this is one of the secret weapons for you in marketing your book. So what that a site has 20,000,000 members? If you can not connect to the ones who may be interested in your book, it may as well have 1 member. Groups allow you to search for people who are telling you that they are interested in the topic of your book. For example, Clive Cussler gave me a cover quote. When I joined MySpace, I joined all the Clive Cussler fan groups and introduced myself and my book. In the 1st three months of my book sales, Cussler fans were responsible for over 1/3 of my sales. It also led to an invitation to spotlight my book at the national Cussler Convention in Denver.

5. Many have blogs that you can update for your reader

6. Many have ways to send out a quick update to all your friends/connections.

There are also differences in each of the sites. They tend to have a different demographic. Some have young, hip members while others have more mature members. Some are easier to navigate and update. Some have a way that you can import/export info from your blogs. Chances are, you will settle into a few that you like and a few where you meet people interested in your book. That said, it is not a bad idea to start a presence on multiple sites and work them as you have opportunity.

Speaking of working them, do you remember what I said in my first article about needing a little elbow grease if you want to make the free/low cost marketing efforts work for you? well, this is what I was primarily referring to. You will need to put in the time to cultivate your social media pages. If you just open an account, put up your bio and info about your book, and that’s all you do, you will not have a lot of success in getting people to your book. You will need to find people, connect to them, and interact with them.

So, where do you find people on these sites? Here are a few suggestions:

1. I already mentioned groups. Not only can you join groups, you can contact their members and invite them to connect with you.

2. Let everyone you know that you are a member of that site. Post it on your webpage or blog and ask them to connect with you there.

3. Do a search on the site for people you know to see if they are a member.

4. Do a search on authors who writes in your genre and contact people who are friends with them. When you contact them, be respectful in your introduction. I say something like, “My name is Tony Eldridge. I write the same kind of books as James Rollins and I see that you’re one of his readers. If you have a moment, check out my site. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

5. Keep your eye out for people who let you know that they are on one of these sites.

In future articles, we will look at some of the specific social media sites and how to use the features in them to really hone your marketing on them. But for now, here are a list of some of the sites I am on. Most I have developed somewhat. Others, I am in the process of cultivating. Still others, I have just opened an account but plan on spending time developing the site more in the near future. I am also linking to other pages and blogs where you can get more info on these site.

Remember, these sites are a wonderful, free way to get your message out to those potential readers who are just waiting to meet you and your book. And the search engines are waiting to tell the rest of the world about you as well. Just continue to feed the search engines by putting out new content about you and your book, and it will share you with the world.

Sites Specifically Geared for Authors and Readers

Good Reads: Good Reads is a place for readers and authors to connect. You can apply as an author which links your book to your profile and let’s everyone on the site know that you are an author. I really like this site.

Authors Den: This is a popular service for authors. Its basic account is free but you can upgrade at a cost to add more functionality. Before you decide to pay for upgraded services, set up your free account and play with it. This is one of the sites that I have found that the search engines love. When I add new content on Author’s Den, it shows up in Search Engine results quickly. I put this at a high priority site to get on.

Amazon Connect: If you have a book listed on Amazon.com, here is a free service you can sign up for. You add info to your profile and you can communicate through it to readers. When people look at your book on Amazon.com, they can link to your profile page as well. This is a must if you have a book on Amazon.com

Shelfari: This is another site geared toward readers and writers. You can submit for an author profile and then when people find your book on it, your profile will show you as the author. It is a very visual oriented site. You can build bookshelves and add your favorite books to it. You can also export your bookshelf to your blog.

Urbis: Urbis is a hybrid site- not just a social media site, but a site where you are encouraged to submit writing to be reviewed by members. You are also encouraged to review fellow writers’ work. The reviews people have on your work will be locked until your review someone’s work and earn credit to unlock reviews on your work. However, you can set up a profile for free where you can introduce yourself and your book.

Popular, More General Social Media Sites

MySpace: Arguably, the biggest and most well know Social Media site. This site is geared toward musicians, but has a strong mainstream and author presence. It also has a deep offering of groups to mine.

Face Book: This is another big site with name recognition. This too, has groups and also makes updates to your connections very easy. If you write a blog, you can set Facebook up to import it for your Facebook friends to read. You set up the update once and it will automatically import your blog every time you update your blog. Many authors love Facebook because of its ease of use and breadth of features.

Gather: This site markets itself at the site for the over 30 crowd. This is also a place that the search engines seem to love. My writings and updates seem to appear in the search engines results quickly. It has an easy interface and has an active membership. I was even featured by Gather.com in one of their monthly newsletters.

Linked In: This is a place geared toward creating a professional networking tool for you. You build your resume and then invite people to be a connection. As people join your network, you can see who is in their network. You may be surprised at the people you know who are on LinkedIn.com. It has some great writing groups and members are very responsive to you and your posts. This was a site I neglected for a while when I started it, but I have been surprised at how much this has enhanced the marketing of my book.

Ning Sites: OK, I will focus a whole post on Ning sites, but I wanted to introduce them here. Ning is a company that allows you to create your own Social Media site for free where you can control the focus and invite people to join. While I don’t recommend you go out and start your own Ning networking site if this is all new to you, I do think you can find a lot of networking sites that authors and readers have created already. You can search these sites out, join them, and create a profile. Once you are on a Ning site, you can publish a blog and interact with fellow members of that Ning site. I encourage you to explore it to see what I mean. As I said earlier, I plan on devoting a whole article, or series of articles, on how to use Ning sites in your marketing plan.

Squidoo: This is a new site to me. I have a profile on it, but that’s about all. I have heard great things about Squiddoo from authors and marketers, so I wanted to make sure you knew about it. Based on what I am hearing, I plan on devoting time and elbow grease to develop this site soon.

I know there are many, many others, like Twitter for example, but I don’t have much experience with them yet. However, if there is a site you believe in that I have not listed, please leave it in a comment. I am always on the prowl for a new, free way to promote The Samson Effect.

Other Sites To Learn More About Social Media

5 Tips on Successful Social Networking

Free Social Media Marketing Tips for Authors

Quick Tips for Marketing your Title on Social Networking Sites

5 Reasons Every Writer Needs a Web Presence and Where to Start

**TIP** Is it better to have people do a search on Google or Yahoo and find your home page or find another person’s page that you are referenced on? The answer: It doesn’t matter. As long as that link will tell people about your book and how to buy it (maybe a link back to your homepage or blog), then you have scored a hit. That’s why it’s important to get your info out there as much as possible. Not only should you create your own web pages and social sites, but comment on other people’s blog, guest write a blog for someone, offer your book as a contest prize to other sites, submit your books to online reviewers. All of these things will help you get your info on the web and make it easier for people to find you. I will go into more details on these things and many more in future articles.

Tony Eldridge

Establishing an Internet Presence

In reading a blog on marketing tips, it’s only fitting that the fist tip I offer is that of establishing an internet presence. Look, marketing is all about one thing: How do I get my product in front of someone who will buy it. In the days before the internet, companies would buy ads on radio, TV, and in print media. They would hire people to go door to door to tell people how great they vacuum cleaner is. They would hire someone to stand in a chicken suit on the side of a busy road to get the attention of drivers. In fact, there are some pretty interesting, if not crazy, things people to do gain the attention of a potential buyer.

As an author, this is the side of the business you may not like, nor feel prepared to delve into. I can understand and appreciate that. But take heart. It doesn’t have to be a daunting, expensive road for you. Sure, if you had millions to spend on a Superbowl commercial, you could probably get in front of more eyes than any other way, right? But for those of us on a shoestring budget, we sometimes don’t even have the money to get our next cafe mocha at Starbucks, right, let alone hundreds or thousands of dollars for an ad campaign.

In this blog, I will offer you some free, or near free things you can do right now to begin your marketing campaign. These are not “the best” or “the only” things out there. These are things that I have done that have worked for me. As I run across things that work better, I will share them with you, right here.

Establishing an Internet presence is a must in today’s marketing environment. And the nice thing about getting you and your book on the net is that once you are there, you are there forever. It’s not like an ad that you buy in a magazine, and when the next issue is out, your ad is gone. The more you add info on the Internet about you and your book, the easier it will be for potential readers to find your book. And with the Internet, you are in a position where you can actually compete with the big-name authors for readers. To see what I mean, take a few moments to read a blog I guest-wrote for Fresh Fiction entitled, The Great Equalizer.

So, without further delay, here are some of the things you can do right now to establish an internet presence:

1. You need a Website. Period. This is no longer an option. And you don’t need to know HTML or Dreamweaver to put up a descent site anymore. Hosting companies like 1and1.com, Godaddy.com, or a myriad of others can get you set up in less than an hour for around $10 to $20 per month. Those hosting plans come with a simple web site builder option where you can use a predesigned template for your website and just add your text and pictures. Not bad.

2. You also need a URL. That’s the address you use for people to find your site on the internet. SamsonEffect.com is the URL for my book, The Samson Effect. It is the address for the book on the internet. My advice for you is to get your name as an internet address. I wish I had gotten TonyEldridge.com, but another person beat me to it 5 days before I realized it was something that I needed. Trust me, the bald guy with the earring and the manly pose on that site is not me. Expect to spend about $10 per year on your URL. Not bad. And my advice is, always try to get a .com URL first. Those are the most recognizable and the easiest for people to remember if you have to verbally give them your web address.

3. If you don’t have, or don’t want to spend the $10 to $15 per month on a web page, how does free sound? You can set up your own little corner of the Internet by opening a free account at Blogger.com and/or WordPress.com. These are the two biggest, most used blog providers on the Internet today. Blogger is operated by Google and WordPress is an open source platform to make it free to all who want it. Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Each has it’s supporters and critics. However, both will do a great job at getting you up on the web for free so you can start letting people know how to find you and your book. And you know what’s cool? You can register your own URL and both services will point your blog to it. Here is Blogger’s page on how to do that. Here is WordPress’s page on how to do that. And many authors are using these blogs as their sole web page for them or their books. Others, like me, have a website for my book as well as numerous blogs that I write. Be careful, with the ease of setting up your own blogs, you may become a blogaholic if you are not careful.

**Hint. I have set up Marketing Tips for Authors on Blogger and WordPress. I write this blog on Blogger and then I go to my WordPress account and click the import button. Presto- The blog, along with any comments you leave, are transferred to WordPress. Now I have two places that people can find info about me on the web. (I can even import it to my facebook page, but more about that on a later post).

This is about all I want to say about establishing a presence on the web in this post. In future posts, I will talk about how to track your traffic on your website, whether you use your own web site, Blogger, or WordPress. I will also give you some tips on how to find readers for website and blogs once you have them set up.

I will leave you with this last, offline tip that may save you money. Visit the Online Print House to compare prices for getting your full color business cards, posters, bookmarks, and postcards printed. I have used them and was blown away by their quality And no, I am not being paid to mention them. But here is what I am talking about. 1250 full color, 2 sided business cards are $59; 2500 full color, 2 sided bookmarks are $135. Click the link to see all their prices if this is something you are interested in.

Tony Eldridge

Welcome To Marketing Tips For Authors

Welcome to the first post of Marketing Tips for Authors. I am excited about this blog, which is turning into one of many blogs I am starting to create. Over the months, I am learning more and more about blogging and how it can help me market my book and get it in front of new readers.

I have spoken at the Writer’s Guild of Texas, of which I am a member, and the Dallas Self Publishing Support Group about guerrilla marketing for authors. I was a Marketing Director for a local company and took that experience to help me get the word out about my new novel. But I didn’t have the mega budget from a doting publisher that authors dream of, so I decided to work smart to get the biggest bang for my buck.

There are a lot of people out there who will sell their services to help you market your book. My belief is, if you have the money, the right one can help you tremendously. But if you don’t have the money, there are some simple things you can do to help you get your book and your name in front of potential readers.

That’s what this blog is about. It’s a series of tips that I have learned which can help the author, who may not know where to start, find their place in the online marketing world. It is not meant to be a 5 star marketing plan to ultimately get you on Oprah, but it can help you get your book in front of many readers who probably never would have heard of your or your book had you not followed these tips.

It will be geared toward the novice, so admittedly, it will be presented in the simplest of terms. If you are an experienced author/marketer, then I invite you to leave comments to document your experiences. In fact, if you feel you have something valuable to share with authors who are struggling with marketing their book, then feel free to contact me about being a guest blogger. While I wholeheartedly support people offering their services for a fee, these guest spots must offer practical advice for anyone reading. In return for that content, I will happily let you mention your services and contact info for authors who may be interested.

Remember, there are usually a dozen ways to accomplish something and the same is true for marketing your book. I may touch on one or two of my favorite; that doesn’t mean that there are not other ways out there with no merit. I will fight to not be guilty of data-dumping but I will also try to present options when I see them.

So, here’s where we are. I am forwarding this blog to the members of the two groups I mentioned earlier. For those who are interested, please add a comment with any questions you may wish me to address in this blog. And you can help me by forwarding this to other authors you know. The more people we have commenting, asking and answering questions, the more valuable and rich this blog can be.

And for those in the Dallas area, I will be conducting a workshop at the Richardson Public Library on Saturday March 28th, free of charge, from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm on this very topic. This is sponsored by the Writer’s Guild of Texas as part of their educational programs for local writers. I will paste the blurb I wrote for the workshop/seminar at the end of this post.

Thank you for taking the first steps of this journey with me. Together, I believe we can learn better, cost effect ways to do the dirty side of writing: marketing. Hopefully, it won’t take too long before you come to learn that it’s not as hard as it may sound. And you may even find it rather enjoyable. But ultimately, it will lead to new people who find your book and become your fan, eagerly awaiting you next book to come out.

Let me hear your questions and what you are looking for. My goal is to post daily tips on this site, so check back often. Some may be short and sweet; others will be what they call “Pillar Post.” Pillar Post are longer, more in-depth posts that you can sink your teeth into.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Expect this blog to get rolling at full speed by the beginning of next week.

Tony

–Blurb for the upcoming marketing workshop/seminar in Richardson, TX. on March 28th–

Whether you are a seasoned writer or a novice writer with your first book in hand, one of the toughest things you may find yourself doing is getting your book in front of readers. Unless you are fortunate enough to have an agent secure a marketing budget from the publisher when you sign, you will find that most of the marketing work is up to you.

The Samson Effect author, Tony Eldridge, shares his ideas and experiences about his journey of marketing The Samson Effect. He put his experience as a Marketing Director for a growing company to use to help promote his book. Now, he will share that knowledge with you. Here is a taste of the topics he will cover:

How to create a growing mailing list
How to find other mailing lists worth thousands of dollars that you can send your message to for free
How to recruit an army of soldiers to go forth and spread the message about your book (and not have to pay them a dime)
Ideas for getting in the newspapers without buying an ad
Navigating the currents of the Social Media (MySpace, Facebook, and a few more you may not have heard of before)
Blogging—finding readers and keeping them coming back for more
and much more….

This self-proclaimed frugal writer will show you ways you can create impactful marketing plans without breaking your budget. If you don’t mind rolling up your sleeves and applying a little elbow grease, then you may pick up a tip or two that just may help you find a whole new readership dying to read your work.