Podcast: Book Marketing and Promotion, Your Questions Answered

by Joanna Penn on February 5, 2010

This podcast is all about book marketing, author platform and promotion – of yourself and your books. I have learnt a lot about this over the last 2 years and actually love marketing, so this session is me answering some of your questions from the survey I ran in December.

Click here for the transcription.

Here are the questions that I answer in the show:

  • Where do I start in making myself known as an author?
  • Is having a logo important for my brand?
  • Is it necessary to have your own blog as an author? How do you create one and what should be the topic?
  • How can we promote fiction books online? What are the best giveaways to help promote books?
  • I have accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, but how do you break through mid-level success?
  • How do you promote with no money?
  • How can an unpublished writer generate a following that would impress a publisher?
  • How do you know if there is a market for your book?
  • How do you market yourself without seeming arrogant?
  • How do you put together a marketing and promotion plan for your book?
  • What is the best way to draw traffic to my site?
  • Is it a good idea to create a teaser ebook about my non fiction book?
  • How do you manage your time so Twitter does not become a time suck?
  • What programs do you recommend for submitting articles to multiple places?
  • Is cold calling necessary or is email marketing enough?
  • What are the best and cheapest ways to create a book trailer?
  • How do I do a press release and what is the most effective way to use them?

There are also promos from Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing show and Philippa Ballantine’s Digital Magic novel.

Show Notes:

Here are the links I mention:

Author 2.0 relaunch is happening soon!

Sign up to be notified when it is released – over 9 hours of audio interviews, 5 hours of video and over 400 pages of information on digital publishing, book marketing and selling your books and making money as an author. 12 modules including videos, social networking, publishing on Kindle, article marketing, blogging, ebooks and more, featuring industry leaders. For more information, check out the free Author 2.0 Blueprint here.


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{ 4 trackbacks }

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Michelle February 5, 2010 at 7:03 am

thanks Joanna, really worth while listening to.
:)

Reply

Ami Mattison February 5, 2010 at 3:34 pm

Lots of great info, Joanna! Glad I took the time to listen. The best general advice was to target my marketing efforts. I think I know how now. Thanks!

Reply

Ruth Ann Nordin February 5, 2010 at 6:42 pm

You know, my gut kept telling me that pushing my books wasn’t the way to get out there, and this podcast definitely confirmed that for me. Also, I completely agree about the websites. Pictures make a greater impression to me than the text ever does.

Reply

Joanna February 5, 2010 at 8:03 pm

@Michelle & @Ami – Thanks so much – I know it is a bit long – I got a bit carried away so glad it was useful :)

@Ruth Ann – it’s definitely about giving and relationships these days, and yes, pictures are very important – although we love words, we are still visual people.

Reply

Gwyn February 6, 2010 at 6:00 am

That was great. Thank you for taking the time – I had no idea you fitted all this around another job!

Reply

Joanna February 7, 2010 at 2:01 am

@Gwyn – yes, I just do this for the love of it :) My ebooks and Author 2.0 just pay for hosting and small costs… give it time and I will make it pro!

Reply

Alan February 7, 2010 at 7:39 pm

Ooh, I got a mention! Great podcast, Jo. Thanks.

Reply

Lovelyn February 10, 2010 at 4:31 am

Thanks so much for this very useful podcast. I’ve been struggling to figure out how to go about publishing and promoting my novel on my own and this information was very helpful.

Reply

Stas February 15, 2010 at 9:33 am

Hi Joanna,
This is a pretty good summary; as one comment says – “we are visual people” :)
I would only add that SmartSymbols for Books can track the effectiveness of all your promotional efforts in one place. Here is a quick example of determining what readers want to know.
Thank you,
-Stas

Reply

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