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Expose Yourself
by Cathi Stevenson
3 great ways to give your eBook more exposure. In about two-to- four hours you can raise your eBook's online exposure by 20 - 80 per cent, for free. While direct marketing is absolutely essential for an eBook's success, indirect marketing can also lead to sales and at the very least can "brand" the author as an authority or recognized name in his or her own genre. The more places your name and book title are listed online, the more links that will point readers and potential buyers in your direction.
1. TITLE COUNTS. The first step is to ensure you do not hide your book to begin with. How do you hide your book? Get a little too funky with the title and no one will be able to find it. I had one client recently ask me to design a cover for a book that had no actual name; it was made up of numbers and symbols. It would be pretty hard for anyone to list such a book and even more difficult for buyers to find it.
Another big mistake --- one that's very common, is putting punctuation in the title of your book. As another of "my" authors recently discovered, and was kind enough to share with me, if your book's title contains a comma or semi-colon, exclamation or question marks, then that actually becomes part of the working title on some of the larger online retailers' sites. If, for instance, you call your book "Make Oodles of Money!" with the exclamation mark, then anyone searching for "Make Oodles of Money" will not get a direct hit because the exclamation mark has been excluded from the search words.
2. WRITE ARTICLES THAT GET NOTICED. One of the most popular and least expensive ways to brand yourself and gain exposure for your book or web site is through article submission. If you go to any search engine and type in "free eZine content" or "free articles" or anything of that nature, you will be rewarded with a list of sites that give away articles for free. These articles are used extensively in newsletters and on web sites. The normal agreement is that the publisher keeps the author's information box at the bottom of the piece when it's published. This box is actually just a paragraph that would include your name, books you have written, web sites and a one or two line bio outlining your experience on the subject at hand.
Make sure you read the terms of use carefully prior to submitting to these sites. I recently offered an article to a very popular site that I'd promoted in my own eZine and was told the article would not run unless I forfeited all online rights. They were not offering to purchase these rights and explained that the honor of having my article run on their site was more than adequate payment. Needless to say, I no longer promote them.
When you're submitting articles to any online source, study the order in which they are listed. If the site has an automatic submission process, then observe how it's managed. If the articles are in alphabetical order, title yours so it gets near the top.
Some sites will allow you to submit a graphic along with an article. You can include a picture of yourself, your book's cover, or make "mini-mag covers" such as I do (see samples at http://www.authorscafe.com and go to the "New Articles" section). A visual is always a good thing and some free listing sites will give you a little camera graphic beside the title of your article (to indicate there's an image), making it stand out even more.
3. LIST, LIST, LIST. Last, but not least, list and announce your eBook on every site you can find. There are many that let you do this for free. A few of these sites do require a link back, but I usually avoid those since I have no way to control what's promoted on someone else's site and it may not be something I want to promote. Some book listing sites take only print books and some only eBooks, but if your book is offered in both formats you can work this system well. Another advantage is that you can list on UK and other foreign sites where your book may not be as easily found through regular searches.
Here are some sites I've used to promote my own best-selling eBook "How To Publish & Market Your eBook For Just $5".
eBooks 'n Bytes http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
SearchKing.com http://www.searchking.com
eBook Heaven http://www.ebookheaven.co.uk/
eBook Palace http://www.ebookpalace.com
Clay Tablet http://www.claytabletpublishing.com
Xenite (announcement service) http://www.xenite.org/internet_authors/announcebooks.html
eBooks Search King http://ebooks.searchking.com
eBook Broadcast (announcement service) http://www.ebookbroadcast.com
Author's Den http://www.authorsden.com
Mind Like Water http://www.mindlikewater.com
Even if you set aside as little as 20 minutes a day to write a few articles to submit (you can do simultaneous submission on most of these sites) and to search for sites that will list your articles or your book, you should notice a traffic increase to your book's site in less than four weeks.
About the Author
Cathi Stevenson is a former editor and journalist who has sold more than 2000 articles world-wide. Her eBook "How To Publish & Market Your eBook For Just $5" made the publisher's best sellers' list within months of its release. Learn how she did it with tips from the Author's Cafe Newsletter. Sign up at: http://www.authorscafe.com. Cathi also owns the highly successful book cover design company: Book Cover Express. http://www.bookcoverexpress.com
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