What this book is about ~ and what it is not!

As this is the first blog post about my book, I thought it would be a good idea to provide an overview of what my book is about, what you will learn from it, and also… what it is not.

When we set out on our journey to publish our first book, most of us have that fantasy of seeing our book become a best seller and earning us a boat load of money. We are not quite sure how that magic will happen, or what we might need to do to hasten the process, but the vision is there and it looks very real.

Somewhere along the road we realize that there are hundreds of thousands of authors with books in the Kindle store, and most of them are not getting rich from book royalties. If you’ve done your research, you’ve learned that the ‘average’ author is lucky to be selling a couple of books every month.  Consequently, there must be a whole lot more to selling books than just writing a great story.  You will need to get serious traction online. While I was writing and editing this book, I started putting the foundation in place to market my book out of the gate.

To get traction online means that we need to make a lot of noise.  Not noise in the sense of screaming fans, or interviews on Oprah (although that would be ideal), but the kind of noise that attracts the invisible Google spider.  The vast majority of people that will enjoy or benefit from your book will be searching for ideas and solutions using a search engine like Google or Bing. They may not even be searching for a book, which means they will not be browsing Amazon’s bookstore, so you must have a presence outside the realm of Amazon.

Attracting the attention of search engines will be your #1 priority. I will show you step-by-step what you need to do to make noise, get traction and curry the favor of Google and Bing and how to leverage other free online marketing resources.

What this book is about

As the title suggests, this is a ‘how-to’ book about Kindle publishing, but most importantly the primary focus is about promoting your Kindle book for maximum effectiveness and profits.  Online marketing is online marketing whether you are selling a book, a boat or a bulldozer, and I know a little something about online marketing.

Getting Google’s attention and leveraging social media is the key to selling your book. This is what I will show you how to maximize in my book. I am an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media marketing expert. As a full-time consultant, I help companies sell things online and I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years.

What my book can do for you

As I mentioned, before my book had its final edits completed or was uploaded to the Kindle bookstore, I had a framework in place to maximize exposure with minimal expense. I had launched branded accounts seeded with content on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumbler, YouTube and other online resources in addition to having this website fully operational. This post that you are reading now was published BEFORE my book was listed for sale in the Kindle bookstore (today is 5/14/2012).

What this book is not

This is NOT a book about how to write a book!  I will not be discussing dialogue, grammar, sentence structure, conflict resolution, protagonists, antagonist or any of the countless topics related to the creative writing process.  I am NOT the guy to teach you how to create a spellbinding plot or develop captivating characters. That’s what you bring to the table.

The truth is I don’t even consider myself an author in the truest sense of the word. When I think of authors, people like James A. Michener, David G. McCullough, Ken Follett, David Baldacci and others come to mind. Trust me; I am not an author in that meaning of the term.

I am a marketing guy with a twenty year record of Internet promotional expertise and I have a great understanding of technology. I am also good at implementing this knowledge and teaching others how to use it and adapt it to solve their marketing problems. Your number one problem will be attracting targeted traffic to your website or Amazon book page.  Showing you how to create awareness for your book and drive ready-to-buy prospects to your website or book is what my book is all about.

Aren’t there enough Kindle marketing books?

Unquestionably, there are numerous other books on this topic.  Some are outstanding, some are tolerable, but most do not address the critical pieces you need to know and understand. Also, I’ve yet to discover one that drills down to the levels you will discover in my book.

As an example, one of the best marketing strategy books I have found is How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, by John Locke, and I highly recommend that you have this book in your library. I do not know Mr. Locke, and this is the only book of his that I have read; mostly he writes fiction.

In his book, John outlines how he structures his marketing strategy when he launches a new book. His ideas are spot on and his success as an author is a testament to their effectiveness. The big difference in what he advises and what I painstakingly explain are the details…and the devil’s in the details.

One very important detail is that John provides excellent advice when he instructs you to include a YouTube trailer in your marketing mix. What he does not explain is how to tactically optimize your video so that it becomes search engine friendly and by itself will attract the Googlebot (spider) and drive traffic to your website or Kindle sales page.

YouTube is one of the most powerful marketing tools ever invented, but if you do not optimize your video’s title, description, tags and insert your hyperlink correctly, you will lose 90% of the benefit of having a custom YouTube Channel.

My book covers the critical details

In my book, I explain why something is important and then I show you how to execute.  Short of you hiring someone like me as a full-time consultant for a few months, there is no one book from any author that will teach you everything you need to know to leverage every marketing resource. If you are trying to market a Kindle book you need an arsenal that includes great books like John’s and THIS book.