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How to Reach Out to Reviewers: a Publicist’s Guide

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Book publicist Ben Cameron has been in the game for twenty years, working with both traditional and self-published authors.

But he’s noticed a bigger change in the publishing world in the last five years than he has in the last fifteen. 

“That’s come down to the self-publishing revolution, and the revolution in ebooks,” Ben observes.

He recently talked to us about these changes — and what they might mean for self-publishing authors’ publicity games.

In this article, he offers his professional insights on what kinds of reviews are out there, how to find them, and how to get them. Let’s take a look at what he has to say.

TYPES OF REVIEWS

First up: the types of reviews out there that you can secure. As you might expect, the Internet’s revolutionized this quite dramatically, such that Ben now divides them into two categories: professional reviews, and “real people” reviews.

Professional reviews 

Professional reviews are reviewers paid by media companies to review books. Places like Kirkus Reviews, The New Yorker, and The Guardian are a few examples.

These tend to work best for literary or academic books — but their standing in the industry is so great that even just one of this type of review can make a big difference for any book.

[Read more…]

Using Audiobooks As Part Of Your Author Marketing Strategy

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Using Audiobooks As Part of Your Author Marketing Strategy | YourWriterPlatform.com

In this guest post, professional editor, Ashley Halsey, walks us through some of the benefits of adding audiobooks to your marketing mix. If you’re ready to take your author business to the next level, adding audiobooks to your marketing strategy may be the next logical step.

Many of us love audiobooks. They are a great innovation, can save time, and are a desirable option for those who would not normally be inclined to pick up a print book.

They’re also immensely helpful for people with certain disabilities, getting kids engaged with literature from a young age, and increasing comprehension and focus.

So if you’re considering using audiobooks as a means of getting your work to a broader audience, you may be on the right track.

The audiobook industry is growing rapidly. Audiobook sales rocketed by 43% in 2018, while those of print books declined (by 5%) for the first time in five years.

If you choose to take the plunge, you’ll be tapping into the fastest-growing segment in the publishing industry.

[Read more…]

Audience Engagement: How to Establish a Genuine Connection with Your Readers

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Audience Engagement How to Establish a Genuine Connection with Your Readers | YourWriterPlatform.com

In part 1 of this book marketing series, we talked about how to find your ideal audience—what steps you can take to figure out who your dream reader is, where they hang out, and how you can reach out to them.

Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to put a few of those tips into action, starting to reach out to potential new fans and attract them to your writing.

But there’s a difference between knowing where your audience hangs out, reaching out to them, and actually engaging with them.

Think of it this way: the people who put take-out menus in your mailbox know where you live, and they have reached out to you. But do you save and cherish those menus, relying on them for comfort or support, telling friends about them, and writing raving reviews about them online?

Probably not.

The menus reach you, but they don’t engage you. They don’t make you a fan.

The real secret to building a lasting author platform is to connect.

Let’s take a deep dive into how to make that happen. [Read more…]

Finding Your Ideal Audience: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Finding Your Ideal Audience A Step-by-Step Guide | YourWriterPlatform.com

Readers of this site already know the biggest secret in publishing: writing your book is only the start.

It’s an amazing start—you’ve done something most people only dream about!—and it’s essential to creating a career as a writer, but it really is only the beginning.

Once you’ve written the book, you need to find readers for it. And as tough as the writing process may have been, figuring out how to attract, connect with, and convert potential readers into adoring fans can seem intimidating.

Take a deep breath.

We’re here to help.

Finding your ideal reader and turning them into a loyal fan isn’t as hard as you think. It takes some solid research, dedication, persistence, and a willingness to experiment, but once you get the hang of a few simple strategies, it’ll stop being a chore and become part of your daily routine as a working writer.

In part 1 of this book marketing series, we’ll explore how you can build your audience step-by-step, starting with figuring out who that ideal audience is in the first place!

Let’s get started. [Read more…]

Launch Higher: How to Get Book Reviews Before Your Launch Date

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Launch Higher_ How to Get Book Reviews Before Your Launch Date _ YourWriterPlatform.com

We all know that reviews sell stuff. After all, when’s the last time you took a chance on buying something online, sight unseen, without checking the reviews? You want to know what other people who’ve already bought it think so that you can be sure you’re making the right choice.

That’s called social proof—when seeing that other people like something encourages you to try it yourself. And social proof isn’t just useful when buying a phone or a new pair of shoes. It sells books, too!

But reviews can feel like a chicken-and-egg situation sometimes. You need reviews to sell books…but you need people to buy your book in order to read and review it!

What’s a new author to do?

Get reviews before the book even comes out, of course!

You can get reviews even before your book launches—and doing so can help you launch your book higher, faster, because that social proof helps to snowball your exposure and your sales.

Let’s take a look at a few ways to start getting reviews to flood in before your book launches! [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

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