Help Them Find You!

A few years ago, I met a remarkable woman with an amazing life story. I was delighted to learn that she was writing a book, and so were several of my friends who knew her.

Last week I had some great news: she’d published her book! But when I went online to buy a copy, I came up empty. It isn’t listed on Amazon, and she doesn’t have a blog.

LinkedIn was another dead end. I know she’s a member, but I couldn’t find anything about her book – not even the title. In fact it looked as if she hadn’t been active on LinkedIn for a long time.

My guess is that she had her book privately printed and hopes to sell it at book signing events…which means that she’ll probably make very little money for all her hard work.

This ambitious but unwise friend is one of many writers I’ve known who failed to heed the most basic (and most important) principle in book marketing: Make sure readers can find you.

How do you accomplish that? Every writer should follow these steps:

  • Have a headshot done by a professional photographer, and ask someone (it doesn’t have to be a celebrity) to write a brief endorsement of your book
  • Create a free sales page on Amazon that includes a description of your book, the endorsement and headshot, and a bio
  • Join LinkedIn.com, and use the resources there to showcase yourself 

Of course these are only the first steps in marketing your book! You can find many more suggestions by clicking here.

         

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