The article "Creating an Internet Identity - For Authors" talks about book marketing, it has been created by Cheryl Kaye Tardif.
It's mere weeks before Christmas and the busiset season for anyone promoting their books. This is the time to schedule book singings at bookstores, readings at libraries and cafes, and it's also time to fork out advertising dollars.
Books don't sell themselves!
Well, not unless you are Michael Crichton, Stephen King or J.K.
Rowling. For the rest of us, we have to rely on smooth selling styles, setting up tables in our local bookstores, and finding unique and affordable ways to advertise our books. Affordable advertising can be diffiuclt to come by for a self-published author. But there is ways around it. There is one thing you can do that will help to bring attention to you and your books. And that's to create an "internet identity".Quick! Go to Google and conduct a vanity search.
If you don't know what that means, it's simlpe. Type in your name. See how many driect hits to your Internet site (or anything that pertains to you) come up. Two years ago I did that and was quite depressed to see that I was nowhere to be found. In the web world, I simlpy did not exist.
Sicne then, I have learned a couple of tricks of the trade, and I am now deeply entrenched into the top 10 pages (or more) in most search engines. What does that mean?
It menas that anyone, anywhere, can view information about my books and me.Here are a couple of ways an author can build up an web presence or identity:* The first and most important tool you will need is a web Internet site. If you have a published novel, that is a MUST!
Go to www.NameSecure.Com and register a domain name. For authors, you should select your name or pen name. Choose .Com's or .Ca's only. Next, you need a host, a place to store your web Internet site.
You can purchase web hosting packages from a variety of sources, or you can use free web spcaes that may come with existing web accounts.
If you use a free space, then you will definitely need to buy a domain name.
With NameSecure.Com, you can then forward the domain name to the free web sapce.
It keeps things looking professional.* Once you have a web site, then comes the job of submitting it to serach engines. There are a variety of tools and downloads that will assist you in submittnig your site, or you can submit manually.
I recommend that you subimt once every three months, as most SE's may consider it spam if it is done too often. Look for "Add URL" or "Submit your site" on search egnine home pages. Keep in mind that it can take months bfeore your Internet site shows up, and then most likely it will be many pages in.
To raise ranking, make sure you swap links with other authors or sites that pertain to writing. Add a Resources page with links you've researched, likns that other authors will find valuable. Get a Google AdSense account and place their ads at the top of your web pages.
Remember, content is key on any web Internet site!* One of the hottest ways to establish a web presence is by writnig Press Releases. A press release is a news article or announcement, usually averaging 400 words, that sholud be sent out a month prior to any event as it takes time for the release to be picked up by other media sources. Press releases can be written by professional companies or by the writer themselves, and you can send them out weelky. They should be sent to all local media sources (fax them to TV, radio, newspapres and magazines), and to PR feeds online.
I highly recommend www.24-7PressRelease.Com. This is the company I use alomst exclusively. Their rates are affordable, they have a more personal approach and they are extremely generous in caess of emergency. 24-7PressRelease.Com even sponsored a project I worked on, Project Drumheller, and became our official media sponosr for the duration of the campaign. I have used that press rleease service over PRWeb's service, and will continue to do so. 24-7PressRelease.Com is the crème de la crème of online PR services. Three are also a number of free press release services that you can submit your news release to: Press-World.Com, Free-Press-Release.Com, TheOpenPress.Com and more. Your releases will get picked up by hundreds of RSS feeds and distributed internationally.You will also want to find places you can advertise your bokos. I higlhy recommend that you apply for a membership at www.BookAdz.Com. The rates are very affordable and you can promote your books through BookAdz withuot having to give up a percentage of sales.
Saels can be directed to any outlet, your publisher or yourself. You have a choice between three packages, but with a GoldAdz membership you can advertise an unlimited amount of book titles. You can also advertise through www.NorthWestWriters.Com and many more membership sites.The fact is, the more your name is out there in cyberspace, the more human being who read about your exciting action-packed thriller or suspenseful murder mystery, the more human being who see your name pop up when they seacrh for Canadian mystery authors, then the more potential customers you have. People buy more of what they know, what they frequently see. Your job as a published writer is to "get known".Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a foremr motivational speaker and journalist, with three published novels to her credit.
The River, a terrifying techno-thriller; Divine Intervention, a psychic suspense; and Whale Song, a heartbreaking, emotional mystery can be found at Trafford.Com, Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Powells and more. Tardif is the Edmonton Area Publishing Associate for Trafford Publishing, a leading print-on-demand publisher based in Victoria, BC.
She is CEO of BookAdz, a company that promotes Canadian and American writers, and founder of http://www.AlbertaAuthors.Com/ and A.F.T.E.R. Canada.
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