If you have a print or ebook on Amazon, you are eligible to set up an author profile page.  This is accessed from the “More About the Author” section of your book sales pages.  Here’s a look at my author profile.

To set up your own profile, you must sign up at Amazon Author Central.  You’ll be prompted to identify your book(s) and respond to a verification email, then you’re ready to go.  You can upload your photo, enter your blog feed address and publicize upcoming events.  Take advantage of this great marketing tool!

Thanks to Dana Lynn Smith, author of How to Sell More Book on Amazon, for this tip.

We authors are always looking for unique ways to promote our books. One idea is to create your own holiday, or even better, link your book to a holiday someone else has already created.  For instance, did you know that the second week of January is letter-writing week?  If you’ve written a book that involves letters, why not launch a publicity campaign that week?  

Here are some others ideas for the month of January: the release of your new book could be tied to Make Your Dream Come True Day, or your recipe book could link to National Pie Day, or your children’s book could match up with Winnie the Pooh Day. 

Here’s a website with a list of unique holidays in January.  Let your imagination run wild!  

Nothing is more off-putting than a blatant plea to “buy my book.”  I see this on a number of sites I belong to along with “vote for my blog,” or “vote for my book trailer.”  My reaction – hit the delete button.  And I’m sure I’m not alone.

Authors need to be more creative in marketing their books.  You need to find a way for readers to connect with you as a person, either through your blog or by other means.  What other interests do you have besides writing?  Cooking?  Bird watching?  Tap Dancing?  My second love is fashion.  Some time ago, I began doing posts about fashion for women over fifty on a well-known blog.  The editor of my local newspaper saw them and contacted me asking if I would like to write a similar ongoing column for her paper.  I jumped at the chance.  Here’s one of my articles.  See Page 13 and check out the byline. 

My point is there are more effective ways to promote your book than begging people to buy it.  If you know anything about marketing, soft-selling works.  Think out of the box.  Use some of the creativity you used in writing your book to market it.   

Sign up with Kindlegraph and register your book.  You’ll get a notification by email when someone wants your autograph.  When you sign and send it, it gets sent to your reader’s Kindle. It won’t be your real signature, but it’s still a nice personal gesture.

In building my author platform over the last two years, I’ve learned how to blog smarter.  What does that mean?  It means focusing on where my posts will get the most exposure, which isn’t necessarily just on my own site.

One of the most valuable ways to build your name is through guest posts.  Sign up for bloggerlinkup and search their daily list of “guest posts needed,” for opportunities.  Find topics of interest to you.  Maybe you enjoy cooking or you’re an expert sky diver.  If you can, find requests for content that relates to your book.  Always add your book title to your signature line, along with your blog address.

On your own blog, link to other authors’ sites, and tell your readers why they might like those sites.  Also, link to book review sites (especially those that have reviewed your book) and recommend your favorites.   Write about a hot issue, especially one that relates to your book.  The key is to diversify your content.  Make it interesting and people will follow you.

The number of book review sites has dramatically increased over the past few years.  So much so that book bloggers had their own convention at BookExpo America earlier this month.  If you’re a published author, you need to include book blogs in your marketing campaign. Why?  Because years ago, when book buyers looked for something to read, they went to a brick and mortar bookstore or a library and browsed the shelves.  Now, they go online where they can read reviews, download excerpts, and if they like what the see, click a “Buy Now” button.

We know that social networking is the preferred method of marketing these days.  So it makes sense that readers are looking more to favorite bloggers for personalized recommendations.  For an author, connecting with reputable book bloggers – or some other trusted source for reader recommendations – will be crucial to your book’s success.

Are you a member of LinkedIn?  If not, you should be.  And if so, have to taken advance of the new “publication” section on your profile to promote your book?  The great thing is that you can list any type of publication, even free eBooks or newsletters.  Here’s a helpful how-to link.

Have a great weekend!

There’s a lot of talk these days about the importance of authors having a profile on LinkedIn.  Here’s a great article on how to attract potential book buyers.

It seems everyone in the publishing world today is giving away free content; everything from a free book excerpt on your website to an entire free ebook on Smashwords.  Why?  Because nothing sells books like word-of-mouth marketing.  But before you can get people talking about your book, you have to get it in their hands.

A great way to do this is to set up a book giveaway.  Social networking sites like Facebook and Goodreads have their own, but there’s a twitter tool that will help you run a giveaway contest.  It will even pick the winners at random and give you all the information.  Now there’s a better way for individual authors to set up and promote their own book giveaway.

In my presentation on Saturday to the Mt. Diablo Branch of the California Writers Club, I had fifteen minutes to review thirteen years worth of work.  Whew!  I did my best to hit the highlights; the lessons I learned that would help other writers.  I was gratified by the number of attendees who later told me I had inspired them to continue with their various projects.

Writing requires the three P’s: passion, persistence and patience.   As Coco Chanel once said,” Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is an option.”

Write on!