The Writer's Life Publications :: Free Writing and Promoting Reprint Articles

So You Wanna Write an eBook?

by Dorothy Thompson

The buzz in writing circles these days is all about self-publishing eBooks. They hear that eBooks are giving authors that added income in between getting their print books published, but they have a lot of questions before taking that next step.

"How do I make one?"

"What do I write about?"

"Does anyone even buy eBooks?"

Actually, putting together an eBook is simple. You write about something you are familiar, put it in a .pdf or .exe file and voila, instant eBook that you can sell off your website and make a few dollars, or even thousands of dollars depending on your promotional efforts, and you're all set.

Authors and entrepreneurs are doing this all the time and there's no reason why you can't either.

The first step is determining what you want to write about, of course, and what your goal is for writing your eBook.

In 2004, I became published in print format for the first time. It was for an anthology of soul mate stories. The main reason I wanted to put this book together was because I had a goal in mind. I wanted to show people who have given up on soul mates that they did indeed exist.

After it was published, I started a marketing campaign. I had heard that eBooks were all the rage and that you could make some pretty decent money off of them, so I gave it a try.

I started on another book on relationships, but while waiting on this book to be finished (which was taking an incredible amount of time due to research), I decided to try my hand at writing an eBook and selling it off of my website for added income while I waited on my print book projects to be finished.

This eBook was also centered on the soul mate relationship, which I felt would add to my expertise and would help sell my print books.

It worked.

Even though I only had the eBook up on my website and just a few online storefronts, the orders were coming in. However, I became disallusioned because I didn't just want to sell a few copies; I wanted to sell hundreds or perhaps more.

I developed a plan.

Not only did I list it with any website that would announce my book, write up press releases and send them to every free press release service out there, and a myriad of other places, but I decided I'd write another eBook and give it away free to all those who bought my paying eBook.

This eBook was shorter, but to the point.

After I became successful using this promotional device to sell my paying eBook, I found this experience very rewarding and learned quite a few things in the process:

1.) You do not need an epublisher to publish your book.

2.) Self-published eBooks DO sell and create that added income while you're waiting for your print books to sell.

3.) Writing eBooks help give you expert status.

4.) Your eBooks are 100% profit.

5.) The more you promote and make you and your eBook visible, the more income you will make.

Writing eBooks and selling them yourself without the middleman - the epublisher - is a great way to make money. Turn that "starving writer" moniker into "successful writer" and start cranking out those eBooks. Once you start, you'll wonder why you never thought of this great way of bringing added income into your household before!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dorothy Thompson is the editor and founder of The Writer's Life (http://www.thewriterslife.net), one of Writer's Digest Magazine's Top 101 Website for Writers in 2003 & 2006. She is also the editor of ROMANCING THE SOUL and the author of three self-published eBooks: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO PROMOTING & SELLING YOUR SELF-PUBLISHED EBOOK, HOW TO FIND AND KEEP YOUR SOUL MATE and 101 FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT SOUL MATES. You can visit her website at http://www.dorothythompson.net.

The #1 Promotion Method That Sells More eBooks

(and print books, too!)

by Dorothy Thompson

As an author, and someone who knows a bit about PR, book promotion is the most important thing you can do for your book.

All authors know this (and if they don’t, they better hone up on some book promotion skills), and go through various book marketing strategies, hoping they hook onto the one that will turn their book (or eBook) into a bestseller.

While we all know that appearing on Oprah is the key to becoming an overnight sensation, not all of us have that opportunity, especially those who are published in electronic format.

However, there are still other methods that authors can use to give their book (or eBook) the needed boost to get those sales they so want.

While researching my latest PR eBook, “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook,” I discovered many promotional strategies, and when implemented into a complete marketing plan, they do a bang-up job of getting your eBook recognized and sold.

Even though it’s tough work to implement all of those outlined in my eBook, they are all necessary for your own eBook to become a success.

However, there is one marketing strategy I found that worked better than all the others and helped me get the sales I needed: syndicating articles across the net, such as what I am doing with this article right now.

If you are going to write an eBook, and market it over the Internet, you have to play the Internet’s game.

The Internet’s game involves being recognized and placing in the first three pages of any search engine (preferably first, of course) in order to publicize your eBook.

In order to do this, there are several things you must do to get there, including providing key search words and phrases throughout your web site.

While this is important, there is a quicker way, and will also boost your web site’s search engine rankings a lot faster than just waiting for their spiders to find you.

Write articles, making sure to include those key search words and phrases, and distribute them to as many content ezines as you can. The more articles you have out there, and the more they show up in the search engines, the more recognized your eBook becomes. Not only will people find you and your eBook, your web site rankings will increase because you had the foresight to include your web site link in your bio.

For instance, let’s say you have written an eBook on how to start a prolific home business, namely making gift baskets geared toward writers. On your home page, you’ve included those key search words and phrases “gift baskets,” and “gift baskets for writers” (there are many more you can use, but we’ll use these as examples), hoping that someone will find you in the search engines.

However, your web site just isn’t getting the hits you want, using just the key search words and phrases. So, you write articles about gift baskets, or any kind of article geared toward your business, using those same key search words or phrases.

And you submit these articles to every content ezine, including this one, that you can.

What is amazing is that when these articles appear in these content ezines, your rankings suddenly appear in the top ten rankings for those key search words of phrases in Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Cool, huh?

If you want your eBook (or print book) to become a success, this is the #1 promotion method out there. While any promotion method is good, submitting to content ezines, using those same key search words and phrases you are using on your web site to draw in buyers, works better than anything I know of. In the years since I’ve been doing this, I have figured out what will make or break an eBook. Don’t take that risk. If you want the sales, you have to make every effort to write and submit those articles!

About the Author:

Dorothy Thompson is the editor of The Writer’s Life (www.thewriterslife.net), one of Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers, and the author of the self-promoting eBook “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook,” available at www.thewriterslife.net/TheWritersLifePublications.html.

What is a Virtual Book Tour?

by Dorothy Thompson

This is one of the many questions I’ve had to answer since starting on my nationwide virtual book tour on November 1, 2006 – November 30, 2006 to promote my first self-published promoting eBook, “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook.”

A virtual book tour is simply touring “blogs” instead of bookstores. It's a wonderful way to gain exposure for your book without leaving the comfort of your home.

Because this is a wonderful way to promote your books, whether they are in print or electronic format, we need to know just what is involved so that others can benefit from this wonderful promotional venue for getting the word out that your book (or eBook) exists.

Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc (http://www.amarketingexpert.com), best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert claims the Virtual Author Tour, which is her biggest Internet program, is the single MOST effective way to promote a book because it actually works.

And, it does work.

If you want to start your own virtual book tour, you can, but there are some things you need to think about to get the most exposure.

The first thing you need to do is line up interested blogmeisters who would be willing to host you. To find them, put your topic in any known blog search engine, and pay them a visit. Don’t spring it on them all at once, but visit their blogs, comment and let them get to know you first. Build up their confidence in you.

The main thing you need to think about is to find those blogs which get a creditable amount of traffic—and hopefully, updated daily—that would be interested in hosting you. The blogs that might be interested would be, of course, those interested in your topic.

Once you get your virtual book tour established, start announcing it on all your blogs and websites. You need to get people interested, and create a buzz before the big day.

To help explain the virtual book tour better, here are a few questions and answers that better explains.

How long should my tour be?

I’ve seen tours last for an entire month, but that’s entirely up to you. It depends on how much time you want to devote to it. I chose a month-long tour, and it’s turning out to be quite successful.

Why should anyone want to do this? Should I offer incentives?

Sure, incentives really work. I offered a copy of my eBook in exchange for a review, but you have to be very careful with this. If the blog or website has low traffic, it may not be economical to do. When this happens, offer them a sampler of the eBook so at least they know what it’s about.

How are sales after something like this?

The thing is, a virtual book tour is just like any other book tour. Yes, the goal is to make sales, but that will happen. What you will want to do with this is get your selling page on as many blogs and websites as possible so the search engines will link up to you. Long after your tour is over, you’ll find people visiting your site, and buying your books (or eBooks).

Why can’t I just comment in people’s blogs about my books instead of going through all that?

Because you’ll come off as spam. No one wants to go to their comment section and see someone else promoting their books. The virtual book tour may require more effort, but people will see how much effort you are putting into this. Leaving your book information in the comment sections of blogs is a big no-no, and opens you up to being condemned from ever posting there again. Not only that, but a virtual book tour is so much more personable, and gives you a chance to answer questions that others might have questions about.

Setting up your own virtual book tour takes commitment and you need to be very organized, but once it gets going, you’ll enjoy the tour. In order to get those sales which is what the virtual book tour is all about, it’s just like any other book tour, but without having to leave the comfort of your own home.

If you would like to follow me along on my first ever virtual book tour, visit my blog at http://selfpublishedebookpromotion.blogspot.com/2006/10/virtual-book-tour.html.

Use the Internet to your advantage, and start your own virtual book tour!