How do I promote my book?

Question

Please help. No one is buying it. How do I promote it better?

Answer 1

That's a great question with a complex answer. I am currently working with a doctor who has written a great book on living a long and healthy life. He has created a web page and done many of the standard publicity items, including being listed on Amazon.com and paying for Google Adwords.

My focus of this article will be how to promote your book using the web since it is the largest medium in which to communicate with prospective buyers.

The first place I start in many cases is the website. In this case: http://www.drricksguide.com/

Site design is not my primary concern, although that does reflect the quality of your product, but my first concern is how well the site has been key worded. Many web developers will set meta tags, which are hidden site descriptions or words describing your site that some search engines will use when indexing a site. Meta tags alone will not get you very far. Therefore, it is important to find a few keywords that you want to focus on. Also, the site name can also make a great impact on its visibility on the web.

In my case promoting, “Dr. Rick’s Guide to a Healthy Life”, is a bit of a challenge because the URL http://www.drricksguide.com does not have a direct relationship to its content. A very rudimentary and short synopsis of Dr. Rick’s Guide to a Healthy Life might be the following:

This book is an excellent resource for understanding how to live a long and healthy life by bringing your attention to numerous studies concerning the 10 leading causes of death. Dr. Rick places actual numbers on deaths that could be avoided each year through lifestyle changes. His astonishing presentation is met with a simplicity that even younger readers are able to digest. It would be a great resource for schools, universities and health professionals. In many cases, doctors may find this resource to be a great reading material for their patients.

So, how do I narrow this down to 3 to 4 words to key off of? Ask yourself the following:

Who is most likely to buy this book?
If searching for my product, what are the prospective buyers most likely to enter into a search?
What words clearly describe this book?

Here are a few potential key words:

Living
Life
Death
Long Life
Healthy Life
Causes of Death
Quality of Life
Living Longer
Medical Doctor
Medical Research
Health Professionals
Rick Selvaggi
Health Resource

Reflecting on these key words we see that living, life and longer are repeated most often. This is going to make it a challenge because there is not much in the way of uniqueness about any of these words. That means more competition in not only books but unrelated items such as pills that promise to help you live a longer life or maybe even yoga classes that do the same.

When someone is searching to buy a book or find information about living longer or avoiding premature death how might they search?

How can I live longer?
What must I do to live a longer life?
How can I extend my life?
What are the leading causes of death?

Okay, now to put things together. Why would we go through all of this? Because, you can select 3 or 4 words to key off of in your site and then select supporting key words to drive in quality site views. You want to avoid spending time, money or resources to increase traffic by consumers that have no desire to purchase the product and quickly click away from your site.

How to Key Off of Your Selected Key Words

1.Use them in your page title. Do not title your site, Home Page. In this example we would not want to say, Dr. Rick’s Guide because we are missing a valuable opportunity to key off of living a longer life. So the new title would be: Living a Longer Life: Dr. Rick’s Guide to a Long Healthy Life. Don’t worry, the title may seem lengthy but it describes your site content and provides great search engine availability. It also will be displayed as the link to your site in many search engines.
2.Use

Answer 2

Well, asking here was a pretty smart way of opening the channels!

Do you have a website for the book? (That may sound silly, but it's amazing how many people don't have one!) Have you tried to get coverage from local media? Contacted reviewers? Met with relevant organisations that are related to your book's content? Arranged with your publisher to do a book signing at local/trade show bookstores?

I've added some links below - I hope they help.

Answer 3

Your publisher has a vested interest in this, no sales means a loss of revenue, they may give you some promotional money or personnel. Go to book stores offering free copies of your book. Plaster posters in grocery stores, and lastly give a free copy to everyone you know, word of mouth is the best means of advertising.

Answer 4

Your publisher should help you with this process. You can put out press releases, do radio appearances, contact local bookstores to set up signings....create bookmarks, and business cards and get people talking about it. Local papers love to write articles about local authors. Start with small bookstores in your neighborhood. Enlist the help of friends by throwing a book signing party to get your book in the hands of some supportive people. Check www.lulu.com and see some of the services they have available to help authors promote.

Answer 5

advertising it is the best way to promote anything...do you have an web page? or at least paying an advertising in any web...tv....news paper...ebay.....or maybe here you should have take advantage and say something about it ...open a Blog in yahoo 360 and talk about your book promote it there...go in in any web page that you can have it for free and advertise your book try other countries ...you must be positive going to chat rooms and there;s sites you can open your own chat room and you can name it with your book name ....use your imagination

Answer 6

Check out this site

Http://Bookpraiser.com

That would help you a lot

Answer 7

by asking this question on yahoo answers! lol

Answer 8

Give it away.