market your book better

the official blog of zeeen.com—a new marketing platform for authors

[zeeeeeen-blog]

Grab More Readers with a Stunning Book Website

 By Ashley Gallman, Client Relations and Events Manager at Wix.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleygallmanwilliams

In the age of Google and Social Media, you can safely assume your readers are online. Are you? The best way to connect your writing with your audience is an effective online presence, and the first step is building a stunning website.

  Sound terrifying? Never fear! Wix.com offers a code-free way to build a website easily and beautifully, so even tech phobic writers can get their work online. Now that you have the right tool to make it happen, you’re probably wondering what to put on this stunning site.

  Here are three rules to building a book website that grabs your readers and keeps them coming back for more.

  Content

Put the most important information front and center. The first thing your site’s visitors should see is your name and a clear and easy way to buy your book. Your bio, reviews, and blurbs, are all important, but can be placed on other pages of the site. If your main objective is to sell more books, make that option as obvious and immediate as possible.

  Alexander Oladokun

  Style

Keep it simple. You want the readers that visit your site to be able to buy your book or contact you easily. Don’t confuse them or scare them away with flashy patterns or an overwhelming number of images. Also, be sure the style of your site matches the theme of your book. Cartoony fonts don’t make sense for a serious biography, and if your book’s cover is primarily red, you shouldn’t give your site a lime green background. You want your site to visually mimic the experience of reading your book.

  Page Street Publishing

  Community

The most successful writers are those that effectively engage and connect with their readers. Social Media is one way to easily do this. If you have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or other platforms be sure to link those to your site. A social media tool bar is the easiest and most elegant way to do that. Wix also offers a number of community-focused apps: DaPulse allows you to create a community forum, Social Sweepstakes lets you create contests, Social Polls Contest gives you the option to feature polls, and there are so many more. If you have a blog, it should be integrated into your site as well. Your book website should be a hub for all the ways your readers can connect with you and your work. An open channel of communication between you and your audience will turn interested readers into eager fans.

Jody Gehrman

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Office Hours: Free Tech Support for Writers Wednesday, November 14th, 12:00-3:00pm at Grub Street headquarters

The Grub Street Office Hours Program is a recurring free service where Grubbies can meet one-on-one with team of experienced technologists who specialize in technology tools for authors. During these half-hour blocks, Grub Street members can get answers and practical advice related to topics such as web design and development, online marketing strategy, online tools and resources for authors, and newsletter best practices. Grub Street Office Hours are staffed by team from Zeeen, Inc. Zeeen is a startup based in Kendall Square’s Cambridge Innovation Center, and works as an all-in-one software marketing platform for authors and publishers, helping writers build readership and sell more books. This time is being donated to Grub Street by Zeeen, and their commitment is greatly appreciated. To make an appointment, you must contact Zeen directly at [email protected] or 781.267.9763 to schedule an appointment. When requesting an appointment, please identify the topic(s) you would like to discuss.

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Office Hours: Free Tech Support for Writers

Wednesday, October 24th, 12:00-3:00pm at Grub Street headquarters

The Grub Street Office Hours Program is a recurring free service where Grubbies can meet one-on-one with team of experienced technologists who specialize in technology tools for authors. During these half-hour blocks, Grub Street members can get answers and practical advice related to topics such as web design and development, online marketing strategy, online tools and resources for authors, and newsletter best practices. Grub Street Office Hours are staffed by team from Zeeen, Inc. Zeeen is a startup based in Kendall Square’s Cambridge Innovation Center, and works as an all-in-one software marketing platform for authors and publishers, helping writers build readership and sell more books. This time is being donated to Grub Street by Zeeen, and their commitment is greatly appreciated. To make an appointment, you must contact Zeen directly at [email protected] or 781.267.9763 to schedule an appointment. When requesting an appointment, please identify the topic(s) you would like to discuss.

Instructor: Blaise Freeman

Ned Lomigora ()

Level: For Everyone Type: Event Max Capacity: 6 students

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Office Hours Series - Create Space review

Last Wednesday during our office hours at Grub Street, we met with an author who is writing her first book and who was interested in how to build a basic website. We learned that author had about five reviews of the book, a very loosely defined target market (women in the age range 35-65), and high confidence this book will sell. In addition, we learned that author already signed up with Create Space service offered by Amazon and committed to spending around $5k for their services.

Successful sale of a book is a primary product of these three variables: quality, demand, and marketing.

Neither of these needs to be outstanding but also can't be below a threshold. You can have great quality book that nobody knows about. Or you can have great marketing but no demand for such book (we don't believe in creating market, but rather discovering it). You can have great demand but your marketing is inadequate to let people know that you have product they are looking for. Adequate marketing should do the following:

* provide actionable recommendations in plain English to authors, supported by numbers

* provide tools that will help you define your target audience and focus your marketing efforts and thus precious time

* provide a set of inbound links at those outlets frequented by your target audience

* provide landing pages, calls to action (CTA), and auto-responder email system such that will guarantee conversion from visitors to leads and nurture leads into buyers of your book

Create Space (https://www.createspace.com) by Amazon market themselves as Professional Services for Every Step of Publishing Process. They have four categories of services: Publishing Solutins, Editing, Layout & Design, and Marketing.

Each category contains a-la cart selection of paid-for services based priced separately e.g. Editing Service, Editorial Advice, Copy-writing Services.

Zeeen made several observations/recommendations:

* Advertise your book through Goodreads would be easy initially to build some following

* Use Pinterest because target audience is women and Pinterest users are over 80% women

* Investigate where competing books find audience their audience and advertise there

* The model under which author is paying a large upfront cost for a new book to Create Space is unfair. There is no guarantee any of that money will produce sales for the book. Author takes all the risk and service provider (Create Space) none because they make money one way or another.

* The new book is author's first. There is no social proof that book will be successful - only five people total reviewed the book (likely family and close friends). So there is absolutely no reason to be confident in book's sales yet author is already $5k in a hole before any marketing of the book has been done (the $5k does not include marketing, not to be confused with creating video or promotional text creation, both of which are services offered by Create Space, which absolutely do nothing to attract target audience to visit the Create Space book page.)

* None of the services offered through Create Space identifies target market and effectively builds audience around the book. Create Space offers service where a professional public relations writer would do a write up a press release for $600 and distribute to "media" outlets. They offer no correlation between that and book sales.

* Create Space offers to create a professional video pitch about your book and will distribute it to sites such as YouTube for $1,200 (30 second video) or $2,200 (60 second video) and it takes 7-9 weeks to build one. You can NOT choose where you distribute your video, when and how.

* Create Space offers professional review services for $550 which takes 4 weeks to complete. The fact that everyone who can afford to pay $550 for a review can also get one so you do not stand out from your competition just because you have this review. The most powerful reviews are unsolicited ones. Plus you will need a number of them to get noticed anyway so having one is not enough.

Alternatives to Create Space are services such as BookBaby as well as sourcing same service that Create Space bundles but from several different service providers at much lower cost. The choice comes with additional leg work.

We would like to hear your comments and any if you may share any experience you had pertinent to the topic.

  Team Zeeen

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo

[vleeo-blog]

I went to one of the best meetups this week named NYC Publishing Innovators organized by Ned Lomigora and Deni Auclair. After organizing a successful group in the Boston area, they decided to do the same in NYC, after all it is the publishing capital of U.S.

There was a lively discussion put...

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The NYC Publishing Innovators Meetup group held their inaugural roundtable in their quarterly speaker series in July. Panelists, led by the intrepid Kat Meyer as moderator, included: Ned Lomigora, co-founder of Zeeen.com; Diane Gedymin, Executive Editor at Turner Publishing; Peter Balis, Director of Online Sales, John Wiley & Sons; Linda Holliday, CEO of Semi-Linear; Jesse Potash, Founder, PubSlush, and; Michelle Toth, Founder, sixoneseven books. The thesis: What role can publishers play in supporting a direct relationship between readers and authors? The discussion was energetic, but everyone agreed on one thing: The times they are a-changin’. Key points from the full video (below) include: • Where there’s a will, there’s a way – Utilizing technology, authors with the time and will to publish and market their books can bypass traditional publishers. Technology “is the great enabler and democratizer.” [Begins at 00:13:20] • Is it good? – Quality content matters; curation is a valuable role for professionals, from freelancers to traditional publishers, but a panelist postulates that an alternate path can be found in the tools available to authors who self-publish, including community. [Begins at 00:24:05] • Should publishers worry about losing big authors to self-publishing? – If traditional publishers are going to continue to add marketing value, they need to master the new technology toolset and grow it. Publishers lag behind other industries as to what they do online. [Begins at 00:34:19] • The distance between readers and writers is shrinking – Ned Lomigora explains that whoever owns the sale owns the relationship with readers and effective marketing is key to establishing that relationship. [Begins at 00:38:05] • What is distribution in today’s world? – A spirited discussion begins with the debate around technology that enables us to distribute a book quickly. Publishers create books in multiple formats sent to multiple vendors for sale via multiple channels, with metadata included for discovery purposes. [Begins at 00:47:02] • Transparency in ePublishing – Peter Balis talks about the complex process of publishing in various formats, information that should be shared with aspiring authors who want to self-publish and self- distribute. [Begins at 00:56:00 with insightful follow-up comments starting at 1:05:40] • Our understanding of what a publisher is is changing – Jesse Potash addresses changing roles and perceptions and how experts can potentially replace certain roles publishers currently fill. [Begins at 1:00:25] • Branding – A great discussion about the role branding is playing in today’s world starts with a question from the audience. [Begins at 1:25:21]

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BrandHack Video Featuring Zeeen Co-Founders

The Brand Hack: Zeeen 5-31-12 from Daniel S. Koff on Vimeo.

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Have a great concept for a blog post but no images to accompany your original content?

Try searching the creative commons! This photo came from Fotopedia. The search is very easy to use and has good quality content. You can reach a wider pool of multimedia through search.creativecommons.org — it even includes MP3s and video search. 

Do you have any other recommendations for finding art for blog posts? Leave a comment below.

[thinkside-blog-blog]

Thursday, May 31st, will see the Brand Hack team take on their second challenge—in a single eight-hour day we’ll rebrand Zeeen, a startup based in Kendall Square’s Cambridge Innovation Center. Zeeen is an all-in-one software marketing platform for authors and publishers, helping writers...

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Free Online Tools For Publishing

Long gone are the days when being self-published meant you were a bombastic outsider or more of a marketer than a writer. These days, self-promotion is do-or-die whether you have a publisher or not. Successful self-promotion can only help entice major publishers to invest in you and your book. ~Zeeen, Inc.

This post is a continuation of our "Free Online Tools" series. If you've used or plan to use any of these tools, please share your advice in the comments below.. Amazon KDP https://kdp.amazon.com Kindle Store’s self-publishing dashboard. Your book will be offered in the largest e-book catalog, available on many devices for users in over 100 countries. Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com A true multi-channel digital publishing solution. Publish a book at Smashwords and it will be available at Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Sony eBookstore, Diesel and iBookstore. More than 40,000 books were published so far. PubIt! http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com Self-publishing platform of Barnes&Noble. iTunes Connect https://itunesconnect.apple.com Use this extended procedure to get published exclusively in Apple’s iBookstore. Lulu http://www.lulu.com An easier, more friendly alternative to get published in iBookstore. Feedbooks http://www.feedbooks.com Although you can only offer free books at Feedbooks, you can use it to check great stats feature as well as the easiest possible way to have a book published. No file is required for upload. You just copy&paste a text into an HTML editor. Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com The popular online community of readers lets authors also upload e-book files, so they can be read right after they are discovered. Scribd http://www.scribd.com Also called “YouTube for documents” – the largest reading social network lets you share book files in pdf or txt formats and send to many mobile devices. XinXii http://www.xinxii.com/en Europe based marketplace for all kinds of written work. You can upload content in 15 filetypes. More than 10,000 titles were published so far. iUniverse http://www.iuniverse.com/ "iUniverse is a self publishing company that makes it possible for writers to achieve the dream of becoming a published author.”

Disclaimer: Zeeen does not endorse nor recommend any of these online tools. We merely intent to provide a comprehensive list of all free tools available to authors.

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If you focus on getting more fans and followers then you are not focusing on what really matters: the followers you already have.

From an interview with Peter Shankmen by Marla Tabaka in Toss Out Your Social Media Metrics for Inc. Magazine. Some more highlights include...

"You will know when what you are saying is beneficial when you see people retweeting and commenting."

"If you have an audience of five people, that's five people who you can ask how they like to get their info. And you give them the info they want in the way they want to get it, they will be so thrilled that they will tell five more people and, boom, you've just doubled your list!" he says.

Follow: @MarlaTabaka, @petershankman, @zeeenmedia

[jumpfightgo-blog]

Your goal with book promotion is to be very clear on who is most likely to buy your book, and then get your title in front of those people. There are lots of free or inexpensive tools and tactics to use. If you put all of your energy into reviews or your local media, you could be missing opportunities.

Loved this comment by Sandra Beckwith in a lively discussion about book promotion. The main article, 5 book marketing lessons from an author who is getting royalty checks, has some great advice for book promotion, definitely worth the read. (via jumpfightgo)

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Free Online Tools For Reader Engagement

In today’s publishing world, the key to successfully promoting your work is in building your readership early and owning the relationship between you and your readers.

This week we present a list of free online tools for reader engagement. We will follow up with a blog post on free online tools to create your online presence in a week or two. If you would like to be alerted when the blog comes out, please email [email protected].

RedLemonade http://redlemona.de/ Red Lemonade is a publishing community of fiction and highly narrative non-fiction. We avoid labeling what we do but it tends to be risky, socially charged, misbehaving stuff. Red Lemonade is for the writers other publishers are afraid of. ...combining the best of editorial judgment and publicity moxie with community input into acquisition and promotion, and combining the tradition publisher/retailer process with digital publishing and limited editions. For really, being published is just a means to an end, that of connecting with readers. So it is all about doing everything you can to be a part of the writing and reading community. Figment http://figment.com/ Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you're into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all here. RedRoom http://redroom.com/ On October 24th, 2011, Red Room launched a major online bookstore that’s making history by breaking down the “retail wall” between authors and readers. Red Room is a community founded around the idea that writing transforms individuals and sometimes whole societies—whether you’re a writer or a reader, you’re part of something special. It’s a platform built for the future of publishing, an ecosystem where you can have a home, find friends and colleagues, and participate in the marketplace. Red Room is a social hub, a place to discuss andbuy books in every genre, and a destination for exclusive content that will entertain and inspire you. LeanPub http://leanpub.com/ Writers - Get your work out there without a publisher or agent. Publish as you write. Technical Writers - Whether it's Ruby or recipes, get your technical content to readers fast. PollDaddy http://polldaddy.com The most powerful online survey&quiz software. Responses are collected via different channels, including your blog, Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. Free account allows for 200 survey responses per month, 10 questions per survey, basic reports for polls, surveys, and quizzes, 1 user account. Quora http://www.quora.com/ An online knowledge market and social network. You can use it not only to ask quick questions, but also give answers and this way become an expert in a field you specialize in. Kindle for the Web http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000579091 Tool to read first chapters of books sold at Amazon – without leaving a browser. No installation is needed, the preview works in almost any web browser. You can embed such a preview on your blog and earn additional money from Amazon associate referral fees. Readability https://www.readability.com/ Turns any webpage into a distraction-free reading mode. An innovative remuneration model – 70% of all subscription fees go directly to content providers. For more information read those articles. Protagonize http://www.protagonize.com/ Collaborative story and creative fiction writing community with almost 16,000 members from around the world. Great place to discover exciting narrative forms and find new readers. Audioboo http://audioboo.fm/ Mobile and web platform that effortlessly allows you to record 3-minute sound clips. Let your readers hear your voice! Broadcastr http://beta.broadcastr.com/ An exciting social media platform for location-based stories. Invite readers to your stories in a way they never experienced before.

Disclaimer: Zeeen does not endorse nor recommend any of these online tools. We merely intent to provide a comprehensive list of all free tools available to authors.

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In 2012, readers are the gatekeepers not publishers. If you can build readership then your book can be published successfully.

From the "You're the Boss: The Writer As Entrepreneur" panel discussion at Muse & the Marketplace Conference 2012. Really fantastic group of panelists including: Eve Bridburg of Grub Street, Dan Blank of We Grow Media, Jason Allen Ashlocknow of Movable Type Management and April Eberhardt or April Eberhardt Literary.

Some nuggets of wisdom...

Make a personal connection with readers whenever possible. This is the real value of social media. Try skyping with book clubs, attending live events and participating in online communities.

Learn your target audience. You may think your book will appeal to every reader, but you have to start somewhere. Focus on a specific community and identify specific channels for reaching them. Start with your book's theme, for example, and see if there are organizations that may want to share your book with their members.

Don't be afraid to experiment. There's no silver bullet to writing a book or marketing it. Be creative, get ideas from other people and don't be afraid to make a few mistakes along the way.

Building a following is half of sales. In the traditional, brick-and-mortar model making a sale is really, really hard. The book has to convince someone in 30 seconds that the book's content is relevant AND that it's worth the cover price. Online, you can cultivate a following of individuals who have already decided that you are worth listening to. When your book is finally published it is much easier to convince this group to actually purchase your book. That's why having a newsletter and a decent twitter following matters. These people have opted-in already. They care about what you have to say—that's half the battle.

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Minimum Viable Product Model Applied To Writing A Non-Fiction Book

What if writers could predict how well their book would sell? Or even just predict if their book has a market?

Companies of all sizes worry about how real consumers will respond to a finished product. Consequently, product developers employ a range of techniques to measure and predict what their audience will actually buy and what they'll ignore. Many of these techniques can be applied to a non-fiction book in order to...

improve quality

decrease costs (time & money)

improve sales, because the book is based on what readers actually want to read

Authors can achieve these goals by progressing incrementally and leveraging market feedback at each step. This is described in the definition of MVP, or Minimal Viable Product.

When an innovative company is started all good entrepreneurs will first talk to others in the field to "vet" his/her idea. Based on initial responses the entrepreneur may develop prototypes and do market research. But the really important part is when the entrepreneur starts talking with future customers. By gathering feedback from real customers (not just "industry experts") the company can develop their product around real customer needs.

The core principal here is that market feedback drives product iterations. Every time a new version is developed it is released to early customers (also called Beta customers) for more feedback until a broader market accepts the product. This process of working incrementally based one user feedback is at the heart of the Minimum Viable Product.

The alternative is to work in isolation and just see what happens when the "final" version of product is completed. With very few exceptions the product doesn't fit the market and it's too late to make changes (or at least, making changes will be very expensive because so much time was spent perfecting a product that too few people wanted).

The Non-Fiction Writer's MVP

First, start with a book proposal. Share what you would like to write about and give reasons why you believe readers have a need for that type of content. Then invite readers to give you feedback, ideally people closest to your target audience. The goal is to learn whether to pursue the book as you envision it, abandon the project entirely or modify your vision to better fit your audience.

If you move forward, continue to get feedback along the way. When you have several edited chapters of your book and an outline for the rest you're ready for beta readers. Share it with people you think best reflect your target audience and ask for honest, constructive criticism. Don't look for back patting or empty praise. Try to find out what they DON'T like. You want feedback that will help you fix or avoid problems, not give you a false sense of security.

Even better, ask your beta readers to contribute their own content, references, and personal examples related to the topics of the book. You could provide an incentive by offering them an acknowledgement or discount off the price of the finished book.

In the best case scenario, by following MVP model, you will build your audience before your book is published and get a sense how will it sell once published. You will also take less time to write it because you received help. Plus, whether you decide to self-publish or not you've already set the stage for effective publicity and marketing.

The best part is that there's very little risk in trying. You're going to hear from people one way or another, you might as well start listening early-on.

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." Michael Jordan

~Ned Lomigora, Co-Founder, Zeeen.com