Quick and Dirty Book Promotion Tips, or How to Be an Author in Today's Publishing Environment
1) Change your traffic measuring tool
- For years, I've been using something called Statcounter. It's free and a lot of us used it for our personal sites when I was at PC World. It also has a very clean, simple interface. Tech support is great. It's the little guy, the independent bookstore, of traffic measuring tools
- I recently started using Google Analytics and something called AWStats, which comes with my Network Solutions Web hosting service.
- Google and AWStats show much higher numbers for Page Views. (Google and Statcounter are comparable for Uniques.) Which numbers would you pitch to an agent or publisher?
2) Join a Facebook Like-fest or a Twitter Follow-fest.
- There are a bunch of sites and forums where members will Like you or Follow you if you follow them.
- For example: World Literary Forum, several groups on Linked In, and there are some on twitter, such as team follow back.
-The best way to find new ones is to find someone who isn't a celebrity and has a load of followers -- see who they're following. I saw some average Joe's with 30,000 followers. (Tell me a publisher isn't going to drool over those numbers.)
3) Ethical Question: Will you be able to look at your self in the mirror tomorrow morning?
When you get a fat book contract -- of course you will!
4) What will you say when you're in front of Congress, under oath?
- "I did not have sex with that girl."
- "I never took steroids."
- "I never goosed my platform numbers"
- "Everyone else is doing it."
1) Change your traffic measuring tool
- For years, I've been using something called Statcounter. It's free and a lot of us used it for our personal sites when I was at PC World. It also has a very clean, simple interface. Tech support is great. It's the little guy, the independent bookstore, of traffic measuring tools
- I recently started using Google Analytics and something called AWStats, which comes with my Network Solutions Web hosting service.
- Google and AWStats show much higher numbers for Page Views. (Google and Statcounter are comparable for Uniques.) Which numbers would you pitch to an agent or publisher?
2) Join a Facebook Like-fest or a Twitter Follow-fest.
- There are a bunch of sites and forums where members will Like you or Follow you if you follow them.
- For example: World Literary Forum, several groups on Linked In, and there are some on twitter, such as team follow back.
-The best way to find new ones is to find someone who isn't a celebrity and has a load of followers -- see who they're following. I saw some average Joe's with 30,000 followers. (Tell me a publisher isn't going to drool over those numbers.)
3) Ethical Question: Will you be able to look at your self in the mirror tomorrow morning?
When you get a fat book contract -- of course you will!
4) What will you say when you're in front of Congress, under oath?
- "I did not have sex with that girl."
- "I never took steroids."
- "I never goosed my platform numbers"
- "Everyone else is doing it."