When shopping for the right online publishing company, the first item to consider in addition to quality products and services, is marketing.
How can that company support your marketing and promotion efforts?
Possibly before now you’ve been so focused on getting your book published, you haven’t given much thought to how you it will be marketed.
It’s also possible that the online publishing companies you’re considering are not concerned about what happens to your book after they’ve completed the production work. They may tell you at the outset that their sole responsibility is to produce your hard copy or ebook. Marketing is an area where they do not claim to have any experience.
I’ve met several publishers who have candidly declared, “Not for anything in the world would we want to be involved in the marketing process of the books we publish!”
There’s nothing wrong with this approach to business as long as everyone is honest about their responsibilities and your online publishing company does not make promises it will not deliver.
However, I have yet to meet an author who invests in publishing their books who doesn’t want to sell as many books as possible, and my experience as a professional writer, publisher and former PR exec has taught me that every author wants to publish with a company that offers expert marketing.
If the product is an ebook, I can’t imagine working with a publishing company that doesn’t have a full understanding of online marketing and promotion and that doesn’t offer it as in integral part of its production package.
If a publisher does offer marketing, it doesn’t mean that the publisher is responsible for getting sales. By this time you’ve probably learned if the experts haven’t told you, that authors are the best marketers and promoters of their books.
What it does mean is that your publisher has already done considerable research for you. They care enough about you and your mission to make certain they will be able to provide this service as an integral part of their publishing package or as a viable add-on.
They already know you will want all the help you can get from people like themselves who have been in the publishing business long enough to have taken some of those falls they can help you avoid. They may also know how you can get the best bang for your buck.
Your goal is to create a loyal readership that will be there for you when you’re ready to publish the next book—and the next one after that.
Before the internet and its proliferation of websites, blogs and social networks, book marketing and promotion were costly and often prohibitive for a self-publishing author. They were also relatively ineffective, since self-publishing authors were barred from selling their books in brick and mortar stores, getting reviews from the most prestigious journals, and being interviewed by mainstream media.
Now, however, the tables have turned. By learning how to be an expert online marketer and social networker (assuming you have an outstanding book to start with), every writer has an opportunity to become a best-selling author. And if your online publisher can lead you to a marketing company that offers this potential, you’ll be one more step ahead of the rest.
Introducing SiteSell
Recently, Dandelion Books has added what I believe to be the most exciting, innovative and successful online marketing program on the internet to its publishing package. The name of the program or package is SiteSell!, also known as SiteBuildIt! We even offer a special rate for our clients who build their marketing websites through SiteBuiltIt! and use their unique marketing and support tools.
To date, I can attest that SiteSell! is the only company that has easy affordable solutions for building websites that are structured from Day One for becoming traffic magnets. No time, energy or money is wasted building a site that is not integrally linked to the search engines or to pre-selling visitors at the same time it creates that all-important traffic “snowball.”
The founder of the company, Dr. Ken Evoy, is one of the geniuses of internet marketing. I’ve seldom encountered a person who is so dedicated to helping internet marketers succeed. Although I’m a fast reader and dedicated web marketer, I have yet to wade through all of his support material, keep up with his newsletters and absorb all the material in the helpful “pay it forward” forums run by caring SiteSell customers.
Dr. Evoy also avoids hype like the plague. Perhaps that’s what I like most about him; his approach to internet marketing is honest and straightforward. SiteSell! also provides coaching and mentoring from a team of certified SiteSell! web builders.
Both the Dandelion and Write to Publish for Profit websites are SiteSell! products and even though I’m still green around the gills when it comes to IT, html and web building, the SiteSell system is so easy to learn and use, I found myself enjoying a process that ordinarily I would have considered tedious.
If you wish to know more about this amazing program, feel free to contact me and I’ll put you in touch with some of the friendliest and most caring marketing people on the Internet.
Dandelion also offers a special ebook marketing package that can be integrally linked to a SiteSell! website for creating a supercharged strategically targeted campaign.
Since both of these are contracted services for which my own profits are minimal, it gives me even greater pleasure to offer them to you because you will know that my motives are not self-serving. I simply want you to succeed and I—and Dandelion Books--want to give you the best head start that I possibly can!
Carol Adler, MFA’s first ghost-written book listing her name as co-editor, Why Am I Still Addicted? A Holistic Approach to Recovery, was endorsed by Deepak Chopra, M.D., and published by McGraw-Hill. Other publications include three novels, four books of poetry, and well over 200 poems in literary journals. She has ghostwritten over 40 non-fiction and fiction works for a number of professionals in the education, health care and human potential industries.
Carol is President of Dandelion Books, LLC of Tempe, Arizona; a full service publishing company. She is also President and CEO of Dandelion Enterprises, Inc., Write to Publish for Profit and President of the International Arts & Media Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of Dandelion Enterprises, Inc.
Her business experience includes co-ownership of a Palm Beach, FL public relations company and executive management positions in two U.S. rejuvenation and mind/body wellness corporations, for which she founded publishing divisions.
Carol has served as editor of several poetry and literary magazines. Her career experience includes extensive teaching of college-level creative and business writing, and conducting of writing workshops in prisons, libraries, elementary, junior and high schools, and senior citizen centers.
Additional Resources on Publishing can be found at:
Website Directory for Publishing
Articles on Publishing
Products for Publishing
Discussion Board
Carol Adler, The Official Guide to Publishing
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