Write a book? Get a website
One of the best ways to promote a book is to create a website for it. A website can expose your book to millions of potential buyers who may not ever come across your work by other, more traditional means of promotion.
An important step in creating a website for your book is to pick the domain 
name. Unless you’re a famous author like James Patterson (www.jamespatterson.com) or Nicholas Sparks (www.nicholassparks.com), you probably don’t want to use your own name for the domain name. Rather, use descriptive keywords for your domain name. For example, author Thomas Lawson recently wrote a book titled Carl Jung: Darwin of the Mind. Rather than using his own website to publicize the book (the rather mundane www.ttlawson.com), he chose www.jungdarwinbook.com. This name is ideal because not only is it unique, but it will show up well in many search engines, and automatically lets the viewer know what the site is all about.
What should your website include? Here is a list of features that will interest potential book buyers and encourage them to click “add to cart”:
- Pictures of the front and back covers
- Excerpts from the book
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Blog
- Information about the author
- Reviews and press coverage
- Information on other books you may have written
- Links to order the book, either from your site directly, or from an online bookstore
- Podcasts or videos of you talking about or reading from the book
Your website tells your fans what you’re up to, where you’ll be signing books next, or answers questions from fans and followers. You can discuss the details of your manuscript, your career, new projects and other interesting ideas.
A Facebook presence is a must too and can tie in neatly to your website. It’s just one more way to interest more people in your book.
Remember, the goal is to sell your book! Tell your potential readers why your book is different, new, newsworthy, unique, fun, entertaining and/or informative. Use a theme that sets the mood: if your book is about 18th-century colonial America, think sepia-tone, parchment, calligraphy and quill pens. If it’s a cutting-edge business self-help book, think the colors of business (whites, blacks, blues, greens), bold lines, thick, solid text and successful-looking, smiling faces. A murder mystery? Dark! Blacks, blood reds, icey blues and bone whites.
While no website can sell very many copies of a so-so book, a great website paired with an engaging read can make the difference between ho-hum sales and a chart topper. Want to learn more? Call or e-mail Trade Press Services today.
The Death of Reading?
The popular PBS children’s show Reading Rainbow was canceled recently due to a lack of funding. It ended a 26-year run with host LeVar Burton (you may know him as Star Trek’s Geordi LaForge or Roots’ Kunta Kinte) during which the show taught children that reading could be a lot of fun.
A recent AP/Ipsos poll found that in 2007, one in four Americans didn’t even crack a book.
Around the country, newspapers are going under as subscribership drops and advertising revenues dry up.
Is the evidence overwhelming? Is reading…dead? And perhaps a more important question for you, the business leader: Is it worth spending your advertising dollars on print media? In short, yes.
Reading isn’t dead—not even close. Information is as important as ever. Today, the ability to rapidly consume, digest, and act on information is perhaps the most important skill an executive can possess.
Reading Rainbow wasn’t canceled because reading isn’t important. It was canceled because the Dept. of Education wanted to focus their funding on the how of reading—spelling, phonetics, grammar—and not so much on the why. Americans’ reading habits have bounced all over the charts over the years. And while newspapers are going away, real-time information sources on the Internet are exploding.
How do trade publications fit into this mix? For most industries, trade journals are still the top source of industry-specific news. Increasingly, print is being supplemented with the web, which can serve as an online archive for printed journals, a way to expand and enhance printed content, and a convenient way to provide timely, brief news updates.
But in the end, it’s the content that matters, regardless of how it’s delivered to your brain. Trade Press Services can help you position yourself and your company as subject matter experts whatever the media type. Call or e-mail us today to learn more.