Book Publishers
Book Publishers – Finding The Best Book Marketing Tips You Can Use Now
Author: Helen Hecker
Self publishers need to have a good solid marketing plan to sell books and should be written well in advance of writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book. Make sure you know you have a market for your book before you write it. If you’ve written a ‘how to’ book you’ll find people are always seeking ‘how to’ information making your book easy to sell; in fact the most sought after items on the Internet are information products. Your book selling, book marketing, and book promotion planning should begin before the manuscript is completed.
Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly. Make sure your press release spells out the ‘who, what, where, when, and why.’ Direct mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again, not just once; you can use the same release.
Your book press release should not be written as you would a sales letter or flier, it should be written for the editor and tell about your book in a factual way, no opinion or glowing remarks. Send out the same press release to the editor of your local daily newspaper every week until you are called for an interview or are written up. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories.
Send out at least ten press releases to the print and broadcast media in your area every month. When picked up by wire services, a press release can easily end up generating hundreds of mentions for your book through syndication.
Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment. Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book. When you get a nice write up or feature about you and/or your book, have it laminated and set it up on an easel at trade shows.
Book signings don’t sell many books for publishers and are often a waste of time; better to spend it elsewhere. Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline. Make sure not to overlook the Internet; get yourself interviewed or profiled for sites both about writing, publishing and about the topics covered in your book. Place free ads periodically for your book’s website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website.
Local radio shows and television appearances are good but are often forgotten within hours of the broadcast; make sure to make or get a copy of any television broadcast for future promotions. I’ve seen publishers lose a lot of money paying for expensive display ads, so beware if you do this; I don’t advise it in the beginning — get your feet wet first so you know what you’re doing.
Women buy more books then men; see how you can fit your book into the women’s market. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers. Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don’t assume it’s already listed.
Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book’s topic to drive customers to your website. Arrange to speak at local, regional and national events that relate to your book topic; bring books along and have an associate sell them at the back of the room.
Build a web site that provides another avenue for ordering, a virtual online press kit and link exchanges with sites that relate to your topic. If your book solves a problem, focus on this in your marketing.
I hope this article has provided you with helpful tips to accelerate your book marketing and book promotion efforts. The success of any book marketing effort depends on a good book and just plain hard work; it’s been done many times before and you can do it too. You can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget; be careful about your marketing dollars.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/book-publishers-finding-the-best-book-marketing-tips-you-can-use-now-119567.html
About the Author
For more information on book marketing tips and selling more books go to http://www.TwinPeaksPress.com founded in 1982, specializing in help for authors, self publishers, ebook and book publishers with tips, advice and resources, including information on media, library and other mailing lists, and press releases – online, wire service and offline distribution
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You need to do a lot of research.
Get a good book like The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook which will tell you specifics and also has listings.
However, the best thing to do is look not for a publisher but for an agent. Few publishers these days will even look at the work of authors who do not have an agent.
And approaching an agent is very much the same as for a publisher. You should never pay an agent anything, not even to read your manuscript. They’re there to get you a publishing deal, and they don’t get paid until you do.
-Look up listings of agents.
-Research them, find out other published authors they’ve represented and if any are of a similar vein to yours. See if they’re right for you.
-Prepare a submission; this must be a highly polished and professional package.
——–You’ll need to have a letter, detailing your title, word count and a brief description of your manuscript (i.e. one or two sentences, perhaps the genre and books it’s similar to), plus a little bit about yourself (list competitions you’ve won or other things you’ve had published in magazines. If you haven’t had any of these, leave it out, don’t make it up).
——–Include with it a synopsis: this is an outline of your novel from beginning to end with no secrets, and a clear ending. Cliffhangers are not for synopsi, it’s not a blurb.
——-You should then include an extract of your novel. This is usually the first two or three chapters.
But check all this out as different agencies have different submissions procedures. You usually need to include a self addressed stamped envelope to receive a reply. Some agents these days are okay with it if you instead give them an email address to reply to.
Send it through the post to several agents.
Prepare to be rejected, but keep trying and don’t give up!
publishers care about two things: do you have talent and is the proposed book marketable. Publishers are concerned about book sales, nothing else. Even if you have no talent but have a great story to tell about a personal experience that could end up selling tons of books, publishers would be interested. It’s about sales, and talented writers usually sell well.
1.) KNOW HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
The main goal of anyone who wants to publish a book is to land a literary agent, before spending years writing something nobody wants to read.
The system has established filters to weed out most of the garbage. You need to learn what the filters are and how to get through them. Namely, AGENTS.
Agents — what do they do, exactly?
You most certainly don’t want to send a manuscript directly to a publishing house. They won’t read it. They consider pieces only if they come recommended by an agent.
Agents read manuscripts, or ideas for manuscripts (known as queries and proposals), and decide whether a project has promise. They don’t like reading much more than 1 page. So the first step to getting an agent to even pay attention to you is to send them A QUERY LETTER.
A query letter is essentially a short summary of your idea, who you are, and why you are qualified to write this project.
2.) CONTACT AGENTS / QUERY LETTER
When you attempt to contact agents, be aware that they divide themselves into fiction and non-fiction camps. Keep it short and to the point, and use the following structure:
– The Teaser: In the first paragraph, toss out a teaser. Come up with a first sentence that really grabs the agent’s attention.
– Expanding the Idea: Next, write 3 or 4 sentences about what you will write
– All About You: The third paragraph should contain more information about yourself.
– The Closer: Mention why you have decided to send it to them.
3.) THE CONTRACT
Once you sign the contract they send you, make any changes to your proposal they suggest. They want to hone your piece into a selling machine. Once it’s ready, they’ll start making your pitch to publishing companies.
Getting the publishers to fork over cash for mere ideas is not an easy task, so be ready for your agent to forward you a number of negs from some of America’s finer publishing houses.
I’ve listed several articles that will really help you, explaining things step-by-step and in a lot of detail:
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/publishbook/publishbook.html
http://books.eserver.org/nonfiction/how-to-publish.html
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/book-publishing/how-to-publish-a-book.html
http://www.goodexperience.com/2008/07/following-up-on-these.php
TOR books and FORGE books publish fantasy. If you look at your fantasy books, you will see who the publishers are. One of these book publishers is a subsidiary of HarperCollins. The other one is by some publisher named something ‘Doherty Associates’ I believe.You can check in on the Tor & Forge websites. Good luck.
There is no simple answer to that question – no special list for first time authors. You have to advocate for yourself and put in the leg work like everyone else. And those willing to do the work have the best shot.
Go to the library and use Literary Marketplace – the Author’s Bible. Search for publishers who are currently reading work in your genre. Make sure you apply to them in the correct format – following submission guidelines to the letter. When one rejects you, try another.
It is not an easy thing. Nothing is going to happen overnight. There are no magical secrets. It is all about how good your query letter and synopsis are so that it attracts attention. If it doesn’t, it heads to the slushroom for rejection.
The best shot you have is learning how to write an outstanding query letter and having a great book that reads well in synopsis form.
And you need to develop a skin thicker than steel belted radials because you will need it. Rejection comes with the territory.
Hope that helps. Pax-C
DO you know any fantasy book publishers any place in the world?
I have been struggling to get my book published and so few publishers accept fantasy. Do you know any? Please, you could save my dream by just writing down some names or websites. I have looked almost everywhere possible.
Can anyone name a few reputable book publishers that publish first time authors?
I am interested in finding a few good book publishers that encourage new authors to publish .
book publishers?
how do you contact book publishers? is it difficult? does it cost anything? how long does it take to get your book published?
How can i publish my book when i havent got any book publishers around?
iv written a novel and everyone around me things i should publish it. But the problem is that i havent got any book publishers around me. Im not even sure how the publishing process works. Is there any way, i could send my work via email to the publishers or something?
Does your nationality and homeland matter to book publishers?
I’m planning on publishing my first book and am putting all the effort i have. Problem is my book is written in English and i don’t think it’ll be much of a success if i publish it in my country [majority are very attached to their native tongue].
So I’m looking for book publishers abroad who might be interested. Will they care about my nationality or where i’m from?