Your e-book is out and you need to spread the word? How do you do it? Now that e-book publishing is easier than ever, you’re up against expanding competition and a saturated market. But, never fear. New and innovative tools are being created as we speak. All you need is a thorough and realistic understanding of your audience, a well-written book, and the patience to market your e-book consistently.
Here’s a recap on our e-book philosophy:
- Quality is just as important with e-books as a printed book
- E-books are just as important to market as printed books
- Live events to promote your e-book are essential (create an account on Authorgraph to allow you to sign e-books for your readers)
- Invest in a top-notch cover
Now that we’ve addressed that, here are fresh ideas for your e-book that you might not have come across:
1. Awesome Indies
The Awesome Indies‘ site is like a co-op for indie fiction authors, including e-book authors. In order to be listed on the site, you’ll need a 4 or 5-star review from a qualified reviewer. You’ll also need to meet their criteria, which includes a “well-structured plot.”
Why we like Awesome Indies? Because their number one priority is gathering and promoting indie authors who’ve done the hard work to ensure their work of fiction is high quality. The reviewers on the site are notable and respected writers who seek indie authors who “are committed to the highest excellence in their craft.” Pretty awesome indeed. We’ll definitely be watching them closely this year.
2. E-Junkie
Wondering if you should create a website as an e-book author? The answer is yes. Once your website is up and running, use E-Junkie to help you sell your e-book directly from it. E–junkie provides a shopping cart and buy now buttons that allow you to sell your e-book downloads.
The pricing is reasonable and the ability to use it without help from a techie are both huge bonuses. The site also provides affiliate options, which could create an additional revenue stream for you. Don’t let the lackluster (read outdated) design of their website distract you from the benefit of having a reliable and recommended e-commerce solution for your e-book.
3. Indie Sales Tracking
If you’re tired of wading through spreadsheets and tiresome data from Amazon or the other e-book retailers, Indie Sales Tracking is for you. Download the Indie Tracking software (currently selling for $49.95) and it allows you to upload your spreadsheets and reports from all the sites that sell your e-book. It then processes that data and provides reports and graphs by month, book, and sales outlet. Tip: The site currently offers free licenses to writers with blogs willing to post a review (good or bad).
4. Togather
We’ve only recently been introduced to Togather and we’re so glad we were. Imagine a site that takes the headache out of arranging book signings and appearances. Togather users are authors and fans of authors. According to their site, you tell them when you’re available and how many people you want at your events. and they walk your fans and potential hosts through creating, managing and promoting events for you. They call it fansourcing. We call it genius.
There’s our list. What tools are you using in 2013?
I think your choices are really great, but am surprised that you missed Bublish. I find this site brilliant, they have a unique idea. This tool gives us authors the chance to publish a “type of trailer” for our novels.
I would encourage you to take a close look at this innovative site. I know that I appreciate them, I post with them every morning.
Thank you for your time,
C. Michaels
Thank you for the post and the information. I believe you’ve left out a crucial player though. One of the very best tools I’ve found is Bublish. If what you want is a fresh approach to getting information out to a whole new wave of readers, Bublish is a platform you’ll love. Kathy Meis and the team are very helpful and the website (http://bublish.com) is easy to use and informative. All it takes is uploading your manuscript to the site and highlighting a section. You are able to create a “book bubble” which you can then share on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. The Bublish team tweets the bubbles for you to their followers. I have received an incredible amount of free publicity from this site and it allows anyone interested in seeing more to go to the Bublish webpage and see the highlighted post(s) and your explanation of what is happening in that particular excerpt. I love this concept and the excellent help I have received from the team. Check them out if you haven’t already!
How have we not known about Bubplish! Just went to their site. It seems very cool indeed. Thanks to both of you for sharing this info with our readers!