As most new authors realize all too soon, working out how to sell your eBook in a highly competitive market, may well be even more intimidating than the book writing itself.
Of course the Internet contains a seemingly endless array of free information, not to mention a surplus of “must do” advice. The problem is a lot of time can be wasted attempting to work your way through that information, determining what’s relevant and what’s not, and then creating some sort of organized system to use it all.
For example, it’s not hard to run a search on Google and come up with listings for sites taking submissions for a variety of sales and promotions. These same lists are passed around from author to author, posted in forums and used in blog posts.
The problem is, once you actually begin to work on listing your book, here’s what you’ll find:
* Many of those listings will be duplicates, others obsolete.
* You’ll still need to take the time to poke around in each site to locate the submission page and review the guidelines.
* Some sites require a minimum 2 week notice; others only take submissions once your book is free, a few require you to email the administrator for permission to submit your book.
* Some sites require a minimum number of reviews, and a 4* or better ranking.
* Many allow free submissions, others require a donation, and still others charge promotional fees.
And that’s just one submission, so you are potentially looking at having to go through this process again and again.
Of course, there are authors who will choose to do nothing at all, because they are under the mistaken impression that all they need to do is get through the process of converting and uploading their book, say to Kindle for example, and Amazon will do the rest.
And, then there are those who will use every marketing tool they can find, only to end up burning valuable time and energy, ending up with minimal results, because they had no real plan or strategy for all their efforts.
Becoming a successful self-published author is more demanding than ever, and requires authors to embrace a new entrepreneurial mindset.
Artist to Entrepreneur
Consider also that, as fundamental is your writing is to your author "business," how you communicate and market your books will play a key role in the development of your author brand. Your brand identity is what sets you apart from masses; it will influence whether people read your books or not, whether they review your books, whether they share your social media streams, or recommend you to their friends. Today, everything we do as authors reflects on our brand.
Boost Your eBook Sales Success contains a wealth of tools and resources, including "hot" links to over a hundred sites ready to promote your eBook, and a "no fluff" roadmap to help authors achieve greater personal satisfaction and long term success, by learning how to cross the bridge from Artist to Entrepreneur.
Marquita Herald is a personal growth specialist, a "Top 50 Personal Development Blog Award" recipient for her life design blog IGG-Tips, Tools & Tantalizing Ideas, and the published author of 4 books on the art of living your life by design.
Her latest publication - Boost Your eBook Sales Success is on sale at Amazon or with a special offer of free updates from her blog at http://www.inspiredgiftgiving.com
Marquita's professional background includes a successful 20 year career in global sales and marketing, followed by a decade as a life and small business coach, working primarily with new and emerging entrepreneurs.