Promoting Your New eBook
It’s a brave new world of publishing. The advent of eBooks gives us the opportunity to
skip the publisher, sell our book for less and make more per book in royalties. But it also
leaves us the responsibility to be our own publicist. I’ve read quite a few very helpful
blogs on how to promote your eBook. Here are a few things I’ve found through personal
experience to be helpful.
Blog
I consider this essential if you are a non-fiction writer and very important if you write fiction. If you are writing a book on the Civil War, do you have a blog that already features your work on the Civil War? What better way to get readers familiar with your work than to have a number of posting already on your blog.
A few years ago I wrote a story on my Metroplexing blog about a Dallas homeowner being swindled out of her mansion on 4949 Swiss Avenue. Little did I know that 20/20 was going to do a story about the house. I’ve had over 6,000 people read that post alone and over 80,000 read other stories on my blog.
While I enjoy writing about local history, I’ve discovered that my blog is a great way to promote my new book. Every post, past, present and future, now ends with a link to my book and the trailer. It costs me nothing and it reaches people who already enjoy my writing.
A great blog post can introduce the masses to your writing for years. Starting in 2009 with zero readers, I now average 3,000 readers a month on older posts alone. And every post is now an advertisement for my book, The Travis Club.
Make sure every story you post is tagged. Is your story about General Lee’s home becoming the Arlington National Cemetery? Then tag your story with the important points. People who’ve never heard of your blog will find your post based on those tags, who in turn will find out about your book.
Consider that you will be marketing your book for at least a year, if not forever. A blog that continues to grow in readership can be a continuing source of publicity for your book.
Business Cards
Yes, old fashioned business cards, with the book cover art on one side and the book info on the other.
Last week, a coworker asked about my book. The next day, he asked again because he couldn’t remember the title or how to spell my last name.
Blog
I consider this essential if you are a non-fiction writer and very important if you write fiction. If you are writing a book on the Civil War, do you have a blog that already features your work on the Civil War? What better way to get readers familiar with your work than to have a number of posting already on your blog.
A few years ago I wrote a story on my Metroplexing blog about a Dallas homeowner being swindled out of her mansion on 4949 Swiss Avenue. Little did I know that 20/20 was going to do a story about the house. I’ve had over 6,000 people read that post alone and over 80,000 read other stories on my blog.
While I enjoy writing about local history, I’ve discovered that my blog is a great way to promote my new book. Every post, past, present and future, now ends with a link to my book and the trailer. It costs me nothing and it reaches people who already enjoy my writing.
A great blog post can introduce the masses to your writing for years. Starting in 2009 with zero readers, I now average 3,000 readers a month on older posts alone. And every post is now an advertisement for my book, The Travis Club.
Make sure every story you post is tagged. Is your story about General Lee’s home becoming the Arlington National Cemetery? Then tag your story with the important points. People who’ve never heard of your blog will find your post based on those tags, who in turn will find out about your book.
Consider that you will be marketing your book for at least a year, if not forever. A blog that continues to grow in readership can be a continuing source of publicity for your book.
Business Cards
Yes, old fashioned business cards, with the book cover art on one side and the book info on the other.
Last week, a coworker asked about my book. The next day, he asked again because he couldn’t remember the title or how to spell my last name.
Promoting Your New eBook
I had the cards printed that afternoon. Now when someone asks about my book, I hand
them a card. When I meet someone with a Kindle, I hand them a card. When I sit next
to someone on a plane reading an eBook, I hand them a card.
Who doesn’t want to at least check out a book when they personally sat next to the author on a plane?
Link, Link, Link
Does your book have a webpage? Make sure you link your blog to your website.
Do you have a Twitter account? Make sure your blog and your website are linked to your Twitter account.
Do you have a LinkedIn Account? Make sure your website, blog and Twitter account are linked to that account too.
Everything on the internet that mentions you, Facebook, work bio page, etc., should mention your book and your book’s website.
By the way, the website for my book is www.TheTravisClub.com. My blog is http:// metroplexing.blogspot.com. And my social media accounts are:
Who doesn’t want to at least check out a book when they personally sat next to the author on a plane?
Link, Link, Link
Does your book have a webpage? Make sure you link your blog to your website.
Do you have a Twitter account? Make sure your blog and your website are linked to your Twitter account.
Do you have a LinkedIn Account? Make sure your website, blog and Twitter account are linked to that account too.
Everything on the internet that mentions you, Facebook, work bio page, etc., should mention your book and your book’s website.
By the way, the website for my book is www.TheTravisClub.com. My blog is http:// metroplexing.blogspot.com. And my social media accounts are:
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/HawkeyeOnAir.
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HawkeyeOnAIr
I think I may have just handed you my virtual card.
Radio
listeners in Dallas/Fort Worth may know Mark Louis Rybczyk better as
'Hawkeye,' the long time morning host on heritage country station,
96.3 FM KSCS. An award-winning disc jockey, Mark, along with his
partner Terry Dorsey, have the longest-running morning show in
Dallas. Mark is an avid skier, windsurfer and traveler. He is also
the host of 'Travel With Hawkeye' a radio and television adventure
feature that airs across the country. The Travis Club is the third
book from Mark Louis Rybczyk.
Publisher:
Self Published
Genre:
Mystery
Release
Date: June 17, 2013
In
a cathedral in downtown San Antonio, just a few blocks from the
Alamo, sits the tomb of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and the other Alamo
Defenders. Or so we have been led to believe. What secrets really lie
inside the tomb and what has a group of misguided activists known as
The Travis Club stumbled upon? How far will the city's power brokers
go to protect those secrets?
What would happen if a group of slackers discovered San Antonio's DaVinci Code? Find out in the new book by Mark Louis Rybczyk, The Travis Club.
Excerpt
One Short:
Chapter
1
Noel
Black sharpened a pencil and placed it neatly back in the top drawer
of his glass-topped
desk,
right next to the other sharpened pencils. He glanced at the clock
then straightened a few
paper
clips and a calculator on the stark, polished surface.
11:08
p.m.
He
knew he’d be leaving soon. So important to stay on schedule.
Especially on a night like
tonight,
when a life would come to an end.
Among
the abstract paintings of his office was one unframed black and white
print. A picture
of
her. Not a picture of sentiment, but simply of record. A photo that
would soon belong in a file.
Black
fingered the yellowed photograph and could not help but think of
childhood visits to
his
mother’s father, his abuelo.
He remembered spending the hot San Antonio summers at a
rickety
west-side duplex much different than his parents’ ranch house in
Dallas. Abuelo’s home
was
filled with people, music, food and love.
As
a child, Black would spend summer afternoons within earshot of the
front window,
waiting
for the rumble of his grandfather’s old diesel engine. Then the
home would fill with
other
workers, workers who were grateful to the old lady. All immigrants,
they had left Mexico
hoping
for a better life. The old lady offered them higher wages than the
pecan shellers received.
With
the promise of steady income came the chance to move into a house
with plumbing, to send money
home, and to send for other relatives. His grandfather loved the old
lady and he did too.
More
recently, Noel Black’s feelings about her had changed. She was a
relic, an icon of a
past
era. Now in her final years of the 20th century, the old lady had
outlived her usefulness and
had
no place in the modern San Antonio that he envisioned. She was in his
way. She needed to be
eliminated.
Of
course, this kind of work had to be contracted out. He usually relied
on a local contact
who
understood the procedures. Anytime a life was extinguished, it must
be done with precision in
Noel Black’s world.
