Your book is finally in bookstores. Isn’t that enough? No, sadly, it isn’t enough. Although it’s a big plus if your publishing company has arrangements with a distributor to provide your books through stores, there’s more to the publishing game than distribution. Readers and the media will still want to find out more about you and your books than what they’ll see on the flyleaf of your book. If you’re a speaker, event coordinators will want to look at your website before they issue an invitation. And if you are published through a small press or self-published, your website will become your sales lifeline.
A website is your global storefront that is open 24/7. Your website never sleeps, making it the perfect way to introduce your books and yourself to readers and reporters. It doesn’t matter where they are located, or what their time zone is.
Maybe your book appeals to a very large potential audience. It still has to compete with hundreds of thousands of other books for the customers’ attention and wallet. A great website lets the reader “meet” you as an author and sample a few free excerpts from your books. It will also help them delve into additional information that isn’t in the book itself.
At its best, an author’s website is almost as good as meeting the author face-to-face, because it facilitates a relationship with the reader. People buy from the people with whom they have relationships, so it pays for authors to reach out to readers through their websites.
Perhaps your book appeals to a niche audience. Maybe your topic is very academic. Perhaps it is regionally-themed or highly technical. The Web makes it easy for readers who are interested in your topic to find you, no matter where they’re located.
It’s OK if there isn’t a potential readership of millions for your book. You want to reach the largest percentage possible of the readers who are interested in your topic and capture them as customers. So if you’ve written a book that is limited in its appeal to aficionados of particular sport, hobby, historic event or other narrow topic, don’t worry about creating a New York Times bestseller. Focus your efforts on creating a website that will draw the people who are interested in your subject right to your online door.
Excerpted from the new book, The Thrifty Author’s Guide to Selling and Promoting Your Book Online by Gail Z. Martin (Comfort Publishing) For a free chapter download, visit: http://tinyurl.com/7keehuz. Order your copy here: http://tinyurl.com/77ccggz or Learn more about Gail at www.GailMartinMarketing.com
Tags: Community Relations Marketing, DreamSpinner, events, Gail Martin, marketing, Media TIps, PR, small business, Small Business Owners, social media, solopreneur, start-up companies, webinars
