Getting Your Book on Newsletter Lists

 

Contributed by Margot Conor

Whichever way you publish, your sales will depend on your ability to market your book. Traditional publishers will do some promotions but how much they do will depend on who you are, and how much they believe in your product.

But let’s face it, no one else cares as much as you do about your book, so it will be largely up to you to market it. It's your marketing strategy that determines how much money you can expect to make from your book.

Statistically, 80 % of readers get their next read from written word media. It is the #1-way readers find their favorite books. If you don’t know what that specifically refers to… it’s newsletters.

These newsletters are directly from authors or newsletters from organizations that promote books. Most authors today know how important it is to grow their audience through a newsletter.

Getting your book titles seen by readers, outside of your personal contacts, will be a big boost for your sales.

Here are a few ways to take advantage of these phenomenal opportunities, gain exposure to thousands of subscribers who read company newsletters, and pick up new followers for your creative works:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/

Goodreads platform has over 125 million members, it is likely the biggest database of books on the planet. I did’nt find how many subscribers they have for their newsletter. But there are other ways to utilize their site to get more visibility by using their Lists.

Here are the methods for using Goodreads to promote your book:

-The “Similar To” algorithm: connects books on similar topics, and gives you a selection to choose from. Find user lists which have books similar to yours. Use genre, theme, and other specifics. Add your title to those lists. Spread this out over time. don’t do it all in one day. Also, join as a reader and compile your own lists, and of course, add your own books to them.

-The “Listopia” Feature: a more general genre search offers Featured Lists.
These include: Best books ever, Best books of the 21st century, Best books of the decade, Best books of a specific year, Best books of a specific month and year. Users choose and rank them.

-By Book Title: Chose a title that you use as a comp for your book, (something comparable by genre, mood, style, theme). Use this feature to “look for Lists with this book title.” It gives you access to how other readers listed the book you like (your comp), and what books they feel are similar.

Add your book to the lists of comparable book titles. If those readers liked your comp, they should like your book too. Books rise on the list to the top as readers vote for them.

Even if you are a fledgling author with no book published, I recommend joining GoodReads as a reader and starting your list of books you love. If you have a book or multiple books published, begin adding those titles to various featured lists, as outlined above, to gain more visibility.

The survey information below is gleaned from Written Word Media. I include it in this article because it corroborates my point that these companies have thousands of dedicated users that welcome the information shared in their newsletters. You can benefit from that as well.

Freebooksy: https://www.freebooksy.com/
You’ve probably been told if you can offer a free book, it will get you a lot of readers. Although it is a hard choice to make. After all the time and money you put into creating your book, offering it for free, seems counterproductive. Some authors use a Novella, while others who are perhaps more prolific, bite the bullet and use their first book, or the first in a series, for promotion.

Freebboksy’s site notes 519K readers. But a more recent poll by Written Word Media says they have nearly 700K newsletter readers. Which means they are growing fast!

Seventy-five percent of subscribers use the Freebooksy newsletter to find their next read.

Here is a step-by-step process of how to get your book promoted on this site: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/best-way-to-promote-on-freebooksy/

Bargain Booksy: https://www.bargainbooksy.com/featured-books/

If you can’t make yourself give your book away, this might work for you. It is a site that sells discounted books.

Bargain Booksy Review is a promotional book-deal site that will share your book to several mailing lists they maintain. You pay a fee to have your book reviewed and promoted to one of their niche-specific mailing lists. They have 400K newsletter readers.
 
More than 70% of their subscribers use the Bargain Booksy newsletter to find their next book.

To help bring even more attention to your Booksy Profile, you can use their Boost option to increase your exposure.

The basic options are very affordable, Bargain Booksy Features range in price from $25-$240. Prices vary depending on your book's genre and promotion type. For more detailed information go to this link:
https://www.bargainbooksy.com/sell-more-books-with-bargain-booksy/

Red Feather Romance: https://www.redfeatherromance.com/
This service has 176K newsletter readers and they read more than10 books per month. More than 80 % of their subscribers use the Red Feather newsletter to find their books.

It will cost you a little to promote your book on this site, but it’s pretty reasonable.

NewInBooks: https://www.newinbooks.com/
They have 130K readers and on average their readers spend $25 per month on books. Seventy-five percent say they love the NewInBooks newsletter.

There’s a fee to get mentioned in their newsletter, it’s part of their Book Launch promo stack. Cost to the author: $299 to $499. But they have a lot of engaged subscribers, so this is not a bad way to advertise.  

According to surveys, a little less than half of modern readers are Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This means having an e-book option is important.

Wishing you all success on your writing journey!

Please copy and paste URLs for the sites you'd like to check out that aren't hyperlinked.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margot Conor has been writing for as long as she can remember, but it wasn't until the COVID lock-down that she had enough time to dedicate to the craft and bring something to completion. Having finished her first novel, she went through the grueling two-year process of editing. Now she has jumped into the author's world with both feet. She's preparing to debut her first novel, which means learning how to promote it. The last year has been spent attending many writing retreats, seminars, and writers' events. She also listened to presentations specifically on the topic of publishing and book marketing. She will be sharing what she learns with the reader.
 You can learn more about Margot and her writing at her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/margotconor/

Hoping to Inspire You to Give Back to the Publishing Industry

Early Year Resolutions: 

Tis the Season for Supporting the Industry

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Aha! You may not not be aware of it, but it's resolution time!

It's resolution time so you don't miss an opportunity to support the book industry.

I love to give authors advice on setting goals for the New Year. Here’s the thing: I’ve done that and—in the doing of it—realize that no one author can help another set goals because each author and each title is so different. And I also realize that it's easier if we start thinking about how we can help now,

rather than on January 1st.

I gave authors a whole book of possible resolutions when I finished the second edition of TheFrugal Book Promoter. I got general and told authors to pick and choose their goals from the book. That they wouldn’t be able to do everything that is in it to help themselves and their industry--and that they shouldn’t. I mean the whole idea behind writing that book was to keep other authors from falling in the same potholes I did. I advised them to choose promotions based on their personalities, the titles of their books (different books call for different kinds of marketing campaigns!), and the health of their pocketbooks.

The same goes for your early resolutions. Each of us is different. Still, I’m tackling this subject because I do think there is one thing that almost every author could and should put on his or her resolution list. Are you ready?

Number one is: Buy books!

I often get e-mails from authors saying that their fellow authors don’t buy their books. And I do understand how that can happen. The longer we’ve been writing, the more author-friends we have and, at some point it’s impossible to support them all. Having said that, we as authors shouldn’t expect fellow authors to buy books that don’t interest them. Books they don’t have time for. Or books that aren’t published the way they want to read them (paperback or e-books, anyone?)  That’s why we promote rather than just depending on friends and relatives—which, after all, isn’t the biggest pool of buyers in the world.

Still, we authors should buy some books each year and I think we should set aside a budget for that. It’s about Zen. It’s about supporting the industry that we expect to support us. I even tell authors that they shouldn’t limit themselves to buying only my book on, say, editing or book proposals or wordtrippers or the marketing of books. Even authors who have read extensively on a particular subject may very well get new ideas from a book on a similar subject or be inspired by it.

But there are other ways to support our industry besides buying books we want to (or need to) read. Authors on strict budgets should find books make relatively inexpensive gifts for holiday giving, for hostess and thank you gifts, for birthdays, and even to give to business associates on appropriate occasions.

We all know that we tend to get lax with our resolutions. So, to make your “Buy Books” resolution work all year, go to your gift-giving list for last year and see how many people on that list could get the gift of reading in this year instead of something that will be promptly tossed in the Goodwill bin or re-gifted. Staple your gift list to your resolution list. And then make another resolution to read your resolutions and that attached list of gift-giving idea list at least once a month.

Heck, you could even give your own book to folks on that list. You are proud of it, aren’t you?

If every author gave books as gifts, I could see a bright, shiny year ahead. A year where agents take on more clients because more publishers are selling more books. And when that happens, just think! Books will be the gifts that keep giving. Books will be the gifts that give back!

Here's another, less expensive gift to the industry. Nominate a few helpful websites, blogs, and newsletters for a Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites nod. I would love it if you'd include mine among them but there are many other great ones, too.

One of my favorites is Joan Stewart’s Publicity Hound (Letting you know about it is sort of my holiday gift to you. It offers ideas from other industries that authors can easily apply to their own campaigns.) 

Here are Writer's Digest suggested categories for nominations, just to help you get your thinking cap on:

Agent Blogs
Writing Communities
Publishing Resources
Jobs and Markets
Creativity and Challenges
Genres/Niches
General Resources
Fun for Writers
This WritersontheMove blog

Send comments and nominations for next year’s list to writersdigest@fwmedia.com with “101 Websites” in the subject line (deadline is Jan. 1, of each year. Learn more at http://www.writersdigest.com/101-best-websites-for-writers-archive/101-best-websites-for-writers-2009

My SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com is a 101 Best Website pick and Ithank readers who support the industry for that. If you read or just love to pile sweet-smelling books on the stand near your bed, a nomination like this is one of the best gifts you can give.  Second only to reviewing a book you love or think will help others on Amazon.

Please let me know if you buy books, nominate literary websites for awards, or pass along books you love via reviews. I would like to thank you and mention your favorites in my newsletter.  It's part of the marketing fun, part of helping one another, part of the way to keep our marketing efforts rolling along. Part of our industry-aiding resolution putsch.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books, a series for writers and a series for retailers. Learn more about them at http://HowToDoItFrugally.com. You can subscribe to her #SharingwithWriters newsletter in the

window at the top right of nearly every page on the website.

And yes, she does give books for gifts. She often gives her how-to books to clients. She gives her poetry chapbooks on most any occasion, from Christmas to Valentine’s to Mother’s Day. And, she does buy others’ books for her own shelves or Kindle reader but only when she actually yearns to read them or needs to read them.

26 Reasons a Writer Should Blog - Part 4

We often here people speak of a "learning curve". 

By that we usually mean we take on a challenge which teaches us new things. 

So do writers learn anything from blogging? Once again, the answer is

 Yes!

Today we're going to take a look at some of the things we can learn when we blog and how they benefit us in other ways.

12.    L is for Learning.

• You learn about your topic. During the month of April, I wrote almost every day on the topic of Africa. I have lived on this continent since the age of four, and yet I learned so much about the countries of Africa, their cultures, flora and fauna. I compiled a “Blogging Bucket List” of places I want to visit, or revisit, over the next year or two. Many people who read my blog during the April, mentioned how much they too learned about this amazing land.

• You learn by doing research. I had to do quite a bit of research into Africa. For example, my brother and sister-in-law are currently on an epic overland adventure from Johannesburg in South Africa, up to the magical Serengeti Plains in distant Tanzania. I realized I knew nothing about Serengeti, so guess what? S is for Serengeti! And I now just wish I could have tagged along with them. 

• You learn from what you don't know. I am currently doing this series of why writers should blog. I can think of reasons why I blog, but why do other writers blog? As I ask the question and read other writers' blogs, I learn more about the technique of blogging. 

• You learn from other writers and make cyber friends. As you write about subjects that intrigue them, so they start visiting your blog, and if they leave comments this encourages you to pay them a return visit. In the process I learn about their passions, their home-towns, their hobbies, and many other fascinating information.

13.     M is for Multitasking. 

• Most blog posts lend themselves to multitasking. I make a point of thinking through any post or series of posts I want to write. Does it have any purpose apart from filling a space for the day? I've already discussed how often my blog posts end up as devotional articles either on another site, or in my weekly devotional messages, Closer Walk. (Sign up via the link at the bottom of the page if you are interested.) 

• You can share your experiences in a series format, then use it on another blog with modifications, or use them to form the skeleton of an e-book in the future. 

• Blog posts can form a good basis for teaching topics. I intend to teach my online group for South African Christian Writers about blogging. We work on a Topic of the Week, and what more relevant than to tackle blogging for writers over a period of weeks?

14.    N is for Newsletters. 

• Blogging opens an opportunity to start a newsletter. I had been blogging intermittently for years before I signed up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Within the first few days, I realized I needed a way for people to sign up to follow my blog. Oh, they could follow my website through RSS, and a few did. They could sign up for my Closer Walk weekly devotions, and some did. But to actually follow my blog every time I posted? 

• I started a simple newsletter geared only to update readers who want to know when I update the blog, and I created a sign-up form. The list started with just three names; me and two writing friends who were also doing the challenge, but it’s slowly growing. This means I have more contacts with whom to share my news in the future.

• Newsletters are fun to produce, but they can become cumbersome and difficult to keep up with. If you are simply doing one to notify your readers of a new post, it doesn't need to be long, in fact you must honour your commitment to let them know about the latest post, and not write a full-on newsletter. You soon learn the technique of producing an attractive but simple newsletter that relates to your readers.

15.   O is for Opportunity.

• Blogging gives you the opportunity to find out how much material you have on a topic. Periodically, I have an Ah-Hah! moment. “I could write a book about that!” But could I? Blogging gives me the opportunity to find out. How much do I actually know about the topic? How much information is available on Google or in books that I own? Will I need personal illustrations and anecdotes? Do I have enough?

• Blogging offers the opportunity to gather information for a forthcoming project. By asking questions of my readers, I can gain further insight into the subject. So a good way to end a blog post is to ask a question. See if you can encourage interaction. I once wrote a series of articles on International English. In my final post, I asked my readers if any of them had funny stories to share. The result was another post.

• Blogging can attract attention to your work. I have heard of writers gaining the attention of an agent or a publisher who has read their blog material and offered them the opportunity to write it up as a book or as an article.

 Do you have a topic you feel would make a book? Is there a way you could explore it through some blog articles? Does the idea excite you? Or does it make you nervous? Why? Share with us in a comment below.  

MORE ON THIS TOPIC: 

26 Reasons to blog - part 1: A - C
26 Reasons to blog - part 2: D - G
26 Reasons to blog - part 3: H - K

Write More Often - Blog Faster

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer, has brought encouragement and inspiration to a multitude of friends and contacts across the world.

Visit Shirley at her writing home, ShirleyCorder.com where she encourages writers, or at RiseAndSoar.com where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or Facebook.

Sign up to receive a short devotional message (bottom right) from Shirley in your inbox once a week. 

Marketing with Newsletters and Blogs: Your Own and Others

 

Contributed by  Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I don't think using others' newsletters and blogs a panacea for easy promoting. Newsletters and blogs that belong to other people are a great way of promoting but they do lack some of the benefits that you have if you run your own. That would be:

1.   The independence you have with your own.

2.   Using your own as mini way to reward those who do something nice in terms of publicity for you. See the Thank You section in my SharingwithWriters newletter for examples of this.

3.   Networking by offering guest features, guest posts, and other ways to link to people who—if they're savvy marketers—will reciprocate. If not today, then later.

4.   The ability to drive traffic to your Web site, online bookstore page, of anywhere your little heart desires.

Having a newsletter and blog of your own is a lovely way to share what you know. And having one doesn't discourage doing that in others' newsletters and blogs, anyway!

Here's an example of a tip I submitted to Penny Sansevieri's "A Marketing Expert" newsletter.

Reader Tip: Include Action Shots on Your Website

When you're updating your website as suggested by this Book Marketing Expert newsletter, be sure to include at least one action shot of you doing something. Many bloggers and online folks like plain old generic headshots but print media still need a whole lot more than someone holding his or her book or accepting an award. And TV producers need to see some possibilities for action in the still photos or videos you offer. Use my media room as a very basic example (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/media_room.htm) and Penny's as an example of what you're aiming for: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/media.html. And read more on why you need to relate to the media and how to do it in The Frugal Book Promoter at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo.

Tip offered by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of how-to books for writers. 

 

Here's an action shot like the one I suggested (see left). You just have to think of shot that is somehow associated with your book.

 

Having said that, any image is better than none at all. So a picture of you with your book at a book fair works, even though it may not qualify as a real action shot. Grab your book before the shutter snaps and take a picture anyway. But grab a fellow book fair participant to be in your shot with you because he or she may be willing to help you promote. Two marketers/publicists are better than one.

 

For more information on newsletters and blogging use the index of your Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to find help, ideas, and tons more references.

Providing tips for others is a great way to extend your reach. But it's limited. You own blog and newsletter issn't. That's why I can include this additional tip in this blog post without considering word count (or just being a real pest to the newsletter editor!).  Here it is:

 

Re-use your action photo. Repetition is good for sales. That's why you have a book cover. I use this one in the image feature of my marketing books on my Amazon buy pages (see the images I posted on my Buy Page on my Frugal Book Promoter page), on my Web site, and sometimes send it to feature editors after I've been interviewed. Especially if they don't mention sending a photographer to take a picture. It's part of our jobs to make it easy for editors to do their jobs easily and well.

 

If you'd like to be sure you see all my favorite marketing and writing tips subscribe to my SharingwithWriters newsletter at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscribe button is in the right of almost every page. And you'll get a free little e-booklet on wordtrippers when you do it. And, yes. I encourage you to submit your own favorite tips to that newsletter and to include credit lines with links to your book's sales page.   

 

MORE FROM CAROLYN

 

Good Things Come in Fives

Making Your Book Into a Classic