I wholeheartedly recommend that you read and study his book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. This 700 page book has more book marketing ideas than you can imagine. My copy is so full of post it notes that it looks like I stuck one on every page. It is that good.

When I interviewed John for Book Marketing Blitz, I was a bit star-struck. However, one thing he said made me fall in love with him– in a very platonic sense of course.

I asked him how much money a first time author should budget for marketing a book. He said, “Less than 100 dollars. Book Marketing is about two things: making friends and taking at least one action every day to tell people about your book.” He followed that by saying an author should love his book enough to devote 3-5 years to marketing it.

Wow!

Do you love your book that much?

Are you willing to make a long term commitment to its success?

If not, ask yourself why.

Fix whatever is stopping you. It may be doubts about your writing talent, fears that your book isn’t professionally packaged, or boredom with the topic. These concerns, either about your book or yourself, will get in the way of your success.

Then adjust your time line to market your book in a steady stream instead of a quick hit. Plan on a gradual increase in sales instead of an overnight sensation.

That old story of the tortoise and the hare is true. Slow and steady wins the book marketing race.

Go ahead, take the plunge and make a 3-5 year commitment to your book. Love it enough to give it the time it needs to achieve success. You’ll be glad you did.

There are many ways to speak about your book including:

• presentations for local business organizations or women’s groups
• teleclasses
• lunch and learn presentations at corporations
• Community Ed or Adult Ed courses in your city
• keynote or break-out presentations at conferences
• workshops or seminars

When you speak about your book, people connect with you and your message. They catch a glimpse of your passion. They can also discover the chief premise of your book, helping them decide if your book will be of interest to them or one of their contacts.

Additionally, if you offer coaching, consulting, or other professional services, your speaking appearances are excellent sources of potential clients. People do business with folks whom they like and trust. When you do a great presentation on your book, you are giving the audience a wonderful way to get to know you and your message.

However, speaking to sell books and services is not the same as appearing in a play or giving a presentation at the office. Serving up a stale power point marathon or boring your audience will hurt your sales and your reputation. You have to know what you are doing to speak with authority and clarity about your book.

A squeeze page is a simple web page that conducts a transaction. You offer visitors something they would like for fr.ee, and visitors give you their name and email address in return. If you know what you are doing, you can create a squeeze page in an afternoon.

Savvy authors put up a squeeze page very early in the life of a book. In fact, many create a squeeze page before they begin to write. A squeeze page can be creating a list of potential buyers for your book while you are writing it.

To create a squeeze page you need:

• A domain name. You can get these inexpensively at www.GoDaddy.com. You can use your book title or something closely related to it. Buy .com not .net or .org. The .com endings are the most successful.
• A web host. There are many inexpensive options here. I’ve used Net Firms for many years with great results. I’ve also heard good reviews of the Go Daddy web hosting service, although I have not used it personally.
• A way to collect email addresses automatically. You can do this via a shopping cart, auto responder service, or a ezine program like Constant Contact.
• A valuable fr.ee bonus. This bonus should be something you can create once, like a recording, audio ecourse, ebook, or special report.
• An auto responder that will automatically send people your bonus after registering.
• A simple web page with copy that shows the benefits of your book and gets people excited to learn more about it.

If you don’t want to create your own squeeze page, you can hire a webmaster to create one for you. In fact, I suggest outsourcing this task unless you love designing websites and can do it quickly. After all, you need time to write your book!

By creating a squeeze page, launching it on the internet, and collecting contact information from interested visitors, you can create a buzz about your book. You can also create a list of eager buyers who will be excited to know about your book as soon as it is available.

What a great investment from a one page website!

P.S. If you need some help with your squeeze page, call my office. Our staff can help you with all your website outsourcing.