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      Category : Marketing and Platforms

      • March 28, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Demystifying Amazon’s Sales Ranking System

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        In the spirit of full disclosure (because that’s what I feel Thursday’s with Amanda are all about), I figured it would be helpful to demystify Amazon’s Sales Ranking system. Well, okay…it’s AMAZON, so we can’t completely demystify it, but I think there are some clues that if every author knew them, it would make the whole thing less confusing and more do-able from a marketing perspective.

        We all know that the sales ranking is an indication of how well a book is selling on Amazon in comparison to all of the other books sold on Amazon. Okay, that part is easy enough.

        And we also know that the top 100 rankings show up on a special list. Furthermore, we know that there are lists for each category, and a book can rank in THOSE top 100 lists without ranking in the big one. And we know that a book that appears on a top 100 list (ESPECIALLY the main top 100 list), will get more attention and lead to more sales.

        Again, this is pretty basic stuff.

        What isn’t as easy to determine, is HOW MANY BOOKS DOES AN AUTHOR NEED TO SELL TO GET INTO THE TOP 100? Heck, how many do they need to sell to get into the thousands? The ten thousands?

        Here’s where I get very transparent with you, folks. So brace yourself, because I’m about to throw myself and my book out there to the wolves.

        My book, The Extroverted Writer, was e-published on March 15. I did a soft launch, because I knew I’d be

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      • March 27, 2013

        What makes a good writing workshop? (A guest blog)

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        Thinking about that first all-day writing workshop I was paid to speak at still makes me cringe. I don’t know how the organizer found out about me, but she invited me to speak, and made me sound really good in the glossy colored brochures she printed.  This workshop was going to draw a crowd.  We might have to add more chairs to the hotel’s conference room.

        What a disappointment when the day before the event, she was begging people to come, even letting them in for free.  These people had no idea who I was and the big bucks the organizer was charging was too much for those she had targeted. I know that in the end, the only big thing about the workshop was that she lost big money.

        But that experience taught me. Ten years later as I set out to conduct my own all-day writing workshops, I had that first workshop experience in mind.  I focused on what the organizer had done right and especially on what she had done wrong. They say bad experience is a good teacher— or something like that. Some thoughts on creating a good workshop…

        Plan in advance – Don’t think of an idea and then have a workshop the next Saturday.  Plan at least three to four months ahead. A Saturday far from any holiday is good. Avoid the Christmas or New Year season. Ask potential attendees to choose between two or three dates that suit them best. Spend hours working on all aspects of the workshop. Will you serve lunch? Snacks? Coffee?

        Book a choice location – This should be easily accessible. Where I live, I like the Hampton Inn and Suites in Raleigh, North Carolina, for a variety of reasons from the inviting lounge to the cushioned chairs in the conference room to the mints they place in bowls at each table to the outdoor garden where attendees can

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      • March 21, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Available Now! My Book on Building an Author Platform

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

        Alright, all of you Thursdays with Amanda fans out there! I’ve got something for you…

        Each week I try to tackle the big, bad topic of how to build an author platform. We’ve looked at Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, blogs, websites, and more, and the backlist of posts has become quite daunting and difficult to search.

        SO to put an end to the madness and help all of you navigate the tips, rules, and tricks we’ve discussed on our Thursdays get-togethers, I’ve released an ebook.

        THE EXTROVERTED WRITER: An Author’s Guide to Marketing and Building a Platform is a compilation of my Thursdays with Amanda posts PLUS a bunch of great new content (new content includes LinkedIn, strategies for building a Twitter following, how to identify your audience, and more). All in a shiny digital package! Categorized, organized, and hopefully quite navigable, this little ebook is perfect for those who have come to love my weekly blog posts.

        Here’s an excerpt from the chapter on knowing your audience:

        How to Find Your Audience

        All right, enough theory. Let’s get practical. How do you take a book that is loved by everyone and your mother and find its basic readership—those who are most inclined to shell out fifteen dollars to buy it (or those who are most inclined to get their parents to shell out fifteen dollars)?

        First, you must identify other movies or books or plays that are similar to your work. So, go to the bookstore or get online and put on your researcher jeans.

        The first similarity should be genre. Match mysteries with mysteries, cozy mysteries with cozy mysteries, police procedurals with police procedurals, and so

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      • March 19, 2013

        Does a writer need a blog as well as a website?

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        I’ve been trying to catch up on questions people sent in about writing and publishing. For example, one writer wants to know, “Do I need both a website AND a blog? Or will just a website do?”

        That’s like asking, “Do I need to wear black to the meeting, or is color okay?” Depends on the meeting. For an author, it depends on your book and your audience. If you’re an author covering a current topic, you probably need to have a blog where you’re sharing cutting-edge information. If you’re a novelist who just wants readers to get to know you, maybe a basic website is enough. Think of the purpose of each — a site is to introduce you and share basic information; a blog is to interact with others. So there’s a lesson here: The growth of the web offers you the chance to market your self and your book without having to rely on the old notions of “platform” — you don’t have to have a syndicated radio show, host a television talk show, or have a huge speaking schedule. Relying on social media can help you build a platform by creating a big network of online friends.

        I’d love to hear from some authors on this topic… Do you have a blog as well as a website? Which has proven most helpful to you in promoting your books?

        Another author wrote this: “Is it important for an author to be involved in Facebook and Twitter? I HATE Twitter!

        Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve rolled my eyes too many time at tweets from people telling me “We had fish for dinner!” and “Petey got a new haircut.” What you’re trying to do with social media is to expand your network of friends, so you want your interactions to be informative, interesting, and, probably, thought-provoking. But let’s face it, we talk with friends about dinners and

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      • March 18, 2013

        How can I get exposure for my book?

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        A writer got in touch and asked, “Since it seems like anyone can get a book published today through self-publishers, how do I make sure my book gets the needed exposure?”

        As I’ve noted several times on this blog, the key principle for anybody doing marketing of their own book is simple: Figure out where your potential readers are going, then go stand in front of them. If you’re doing a book on lowering cholesterol, research to find out what websites people with high cholesterol are visiting, what blogs they’re reading, what magazines and e-zines they’re checking out, what the most popular sites for information sharing are. That’s the first step. The second is to get yourself involved with those venues. That will get you started on marketing. (And be sure to read Amanda’s Thursday blog posts, which are filled with good, practical ideas to help you move forward in your marketing abilities.) 

        Now you have the tools you need to create a plan. You’ve got a list of the places people who are interested in your topic are going online, and you’ve got a list of ways you can try and get involved in those sites (by writing articles, doing reviews, creating an interview, offering a chapter of your book, etc). The next step is to start the hard work of getting your words out there.

        On a related note, someone wrote these words: “You have frequently told authors to find out where the potential readers are, then go get in front of them. How can an author find the target audience for his book?”

        Research, my friend. It will take time, but start checking out key words and topics. Find other books and sites that cover similar material and check them out. Start doing reviews on Amazon and GoodReads. Get involved with Pinterest and Flickr. Create online bookmarks. Join Facebook and Twitter. Begin researching your topic and you’ll

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      • March 14, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Book Release Marketing Timeline

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her book on author marketing, The Extroverted Writer, releases March 15.

        In the months leading up to a book release, I oftentimes find authors doing one of two things. (1) They’re sitting at home, waiting for their edits to come in or waiting to see the cover art or waiting for the ARCs. Or (2) they’re panicking, because they know they should be doing SOMETHING. They just don’t know what.

        So at the request of one of our wonderful readers, here’s a snapshot of what you should be doing as you approach your book’s release. Remember! This isn’t set in stone, and because each marketing plan is different, there needs to be lots of flex room. Also, things are bound to happen to put you off course. But don’t worry about it. Stay flexible. Stay committed, and you’ll be fine.

        BOOK RELEASE TIMELINE (FOR PRINT BOOKS)

        6-8 months before release: Write up your marketing plan and compare it to that of your publisher. You want the two plans to build off one another as opposed to going in opposite or duplicate directions. For example, you may have plans to put a media kit together only to find out that your publisher will be doing that as well. In that case, you could simply ask them to send you 25 kits or so.

        6 months before release: Begin gathering your info. Your marketing plan may include hitting up blogs, speaking at schools or businesses, launching a new website, asking for reviewers, and more. Now is the time to begin research on those things, which can include Googling reader blogs, compiling a list of potential speaking opportunities, talking with

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      • March 12, 2013

        What's the most important thing to know about book marketing?

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        Someone wrote to ask, “What is the most important thing I need to know about marketing my book?”

        To me, the most important thing for you to grasp as an author is that you are responsible for marketing your book. Not the publicist. Not the marketing manager. Not even the publishing house. YOU.

        Think of it this way: Who has the most at stake with this book, you or the publisher? (You do.) Who is more passionate about it, you or the publisher? (You are.) Who knows the message best, you or the publisher? (You.) I think an author should work with his or her publisher’s marketing department as much as possible. Make yourself available. Say “yes” to everything they ask. Express appreciation every time they do something that helps market your book. But then go do everything as though it all depended on you, because it does. Whatever the publicist does for you is gravy. YOU are responsible for marketing your own book. Don’t leave it to some young college grad who has 17 other projects to market. 

        Someone else asked, “Since it seems like anyone can get a book published today through self-publishers, how do I make sure my book gets the needed exposure?”

        I’m one of those who thinks that many self-published books don’t really seem as if they are really “published.” They post their book on Amazon, then sit and watch it not sell. And most people who actually self-publish (that is, pay to have an ink-and-paper book, rather than just an ebook) lose money because they don’t know how to market and sell their own book. So if you want to really sell some copies, whether you are self-pubbed or published through a regular royalty-paying publisher, you’ve got to understand basic marketing principles. I suggest authors purchase some basic marketing books (such as a textbook from Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, or Frances Brassington and

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      • February 28, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: My New Marketing Book for Writers!

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

        Have you enjoyed our Thursday chats on marketing, promotions, and platform-building? I sure have! But so many times it feels as though I’m cramming info into my posts or even breezing over content. And what’s worse, is it’s become clear to me that this site doesn’t exactly make it easy to dig through my old posts!

        So, I have some exciting news! 

        I’ve written a book ALL ABOUT how to use the Internet to grow an author platform! Here’s a peek at the cover:

        From websites to Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest and more, I cover the essential topics, pulling from some of my best posts while also adding in plenty of new content. Whether you’re a social media newbie or guru, an unpublished writer or an industry veteran you’ll come away with actionable items that you can put into practice now.

        THE EXTROVERTED WRITER: An Author’s Guide to Marketing and Building a Platform releases March 15 on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and Smashwords (for ePub version or all other ebook devices). For now, it will be only available as an ebook.

        If you’d like to recieve a notice when the book is available, sign up for the newsletter here. (It’s not the fanciest newsletter provider, btw. So don’t judge me!).

        Please share this post with your friends! AND if you’ve been a fan of Thursdays with Amanda and would like to offer an endorsement, hit me up at ExtrovertedWriter@gmail.com. I’m hoping to receive testimonies from writers in all walks of life, published or unpublished, who can testify that my Thursday with Amanda tips help make their social media platforms stronger.

        Thank you all, and let me know

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      • February 21, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Social Media Critiques, Part 11

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

        Continuing with the social media critiques! Again, I’m condensing my thoughts and BOLDING content that I feel hasn’t been said before.

        1. Cindy Scinto provided her website, blog and a few Facebook sites.

        • The website is very cluttered. I didn’t realize you had a top nav at first, because there was just so much to look at…and consequently, I had a brief moment in which I feared I had stumbled on a spam site. So the main point here is the site needs to be cleaned up, the ads removed, and a clear call to action provided for the visitor.
        • For your blog, I’d say your blurb against Winepress publishing may rub new visitors the wrong way. So be careful with that. The blurb was the first thing I looked at.
        • As for the blog content itself, all of the three posts were content that I could get elsewhere…so speaking as a potential reader, this doesn’t give me a real reason to visit this blog again. I want original stuff!
        • I feel your Facebook pages could be combined. They revolve around books that are essentially the same theme, just repackaged. I feel your “heart like mine” readers are similar to your “regifted” readers, and so putting the two together would mean those who buy Regifted would maybe then buy Heart Like Mine and vice versa.

        2. Megan Sayer provided her Website/Blog

        • I like this. Clean design. Clear purpose. Solid content. and photos!!
        • Clearly, this blog is more of a personal thing than it is a promotional tool…which is okay. I think at some point the fact that it’s a well-done personal blog can make it automatically
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      • February 14, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Social Media Critiques, Part 10

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

        If you weren’t a reader last fall, I offered to do free social media critiques. Around the holidays, I took a break from them…mostly because I felt I was saying the same things over and over. But I’d like to plow through the rest if I can.

        So, we’ll be picking these up here and there, though I’ll try to offer more condensed critiques (since again…most of the social media sites I’ve looked at struggle from the same issues…and we can recap those issues once the series is finished). I’ve also BOLDED comments that I felt were newer and would appeal to those who are reading these posts in an effort to better their online efforts.

        1. Laurie A. Green shared her website

        • This is a good example of a website for an unpublished author. You highlight your awards and how you’re active in the SFR community
        • However, there’s not much to look at, while there is a lot to read. Consider including some neat SF photos and such to break up the text.
        • There is a lot competing for readers’ attention on your top nav. Consider condensing a bunch of those tabs and try to focus on what readers will be drawn to, such as a clear link to the SFR Brigade site.
        • Lastly, your author photo comes across as a bit dated…I’d consider getting new photos taken 🙂

        2. Laura Droege’s Blog is a blog by…wait for it…Laura Droege:

        • Lots of good stuff here…a writing sample, well-written posts, etc. However, I found I had to dig around to determine your genre. So consider making that more clear.
        • Also, try adding more photos to your posts.
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