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The Book Coach Says - August 2005
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FEATURE ARTICLE:
"Top Ten Getting Started Tips to Market Your Book and Business"
Judy Cullins c. 2005
Want to sell a lot more books? Want clients calling every
day to find out more about your service? Most emerging
businesses forget the #1 way to promote anything--the
Internet. Specifically, writing and submitting articles.
These 10 Tips will help you write a winning article that top
ezines and Web sites will want to publish.
1. Include your non-fiction book's chapter how to's or your
fiction's juicy chapter excerpts in your articles. Your book
coach encourages novelists as well as self-help authors.
2. Keep your articles around 200-800 words each. Remember
today's audience likes short copy. They want it one, two,
three.
Online writing is so different from what print magazines
want.
3. Keep your article focused on just one thesis or point.
That means mindmap your article or make a linear outline
what points to keep before your write it. A plan helps.
4. Create a hook for your two or three-sentence
introduction. Notice this one asked you a few questions to
engage you.
5. Forget the old school of writing for print magazines and
getting paid. Follow the Internet way-- give your article
away like Mrs. Field cookie samples, so people who read them
and notice your signature file will want to visit the site
where you sell your book.
6. Keep yourself out of it. Your audience wants to know what
you can do for them. Replace those "I" constructions with
"you." "If you are like me...."
7. Number the main points for clarity. People love easy to
read tips. Remember tips have a format that pros know. Start
with a command, follow it with a benefit for doing it, and
follow that with examples of how.
8. Collect ten well-edited articles before you blast off.
Online readers will look at you more seriously when they see
you offer more than one quick thing. They will see you as
the savvy expert and click to where you sell your book.
9. Leverage one article into five. Change your audience.
Change your number of how to's. Three Tips to... or Five
Tips... or The Two Best Ways to....
10. Remember free information is the reason people go to
Web sites, so put your articles there as well as in a blog.
Once you get dozens of short articles or fiction excerpts
out to no spam ezines or top web sites in your field, you
will notice the search engines optimizing your site because
they see your important key words that link you, your book,
or your service together. Your submitted articles lead to
the magic of "viral marketing." The thing is that this is
attraction, natural marketing at its best. Your coach's URL
and signature file is now on over 33,000 Web sites.
COACH'S CORNER:
Take a Break From Work
Most months, like you I work steadily on various book and
marketing projects. I love this work, and at the same time,
I need a recess from the computer and my left brain.
Every year I take at least one month and vacation--I mean
vacate San Diego! and go to various places in nature to
retreat and renew. This summer to a hot springs and lodge
near Lake Tahoe and also some tent camping. Listening to the
birds, gazing into some body of water, and just feeling the
breezes on my face gets me relaxed. I want you to take a
little time away from your bookwork too--reset your clock to
relax, and then be ready to go full ahead in September. Have
a wonderful August.
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