5 Tips For Promoting Your Book(s) #3

Hi again!

1) Get a website. That sounds daunting doesn't it? Some publishers provide a website for their authors. There are people who design them. There are other companies that have website options for a monthly fee. I get mine through vistaprint.com. You can get them for any price point, but I get the delux site because I want to be able to sell my stuff on my own site, elainelittau.com . I have a paypal shopping cart on there and it is great.

2) So...you have a website. So what? You have to answer a few questions about why you have it. One fact of our day and time is that if you have a business, and your book is your business, you MUST have a website. Questions to consider:

a)Who am I selling to? You will want to say 'everybody'. That just isn't true. While many people from each demographic will read your book, you do have a dominate reader profile.

b) Once you figure out who your major buys are you need to decide if they are people who have a lot of technical/computer experience or are they people who love getting mail-outs and paper advertisements. Whether your customer is technically challenged or not, you need a simple to navigate site.

3) The FIRST page of your website needs to tell them, in plain language , what it is you want them to do. An arrow---BUY HERE pointing to the books and things you offer. A sentence in bold type AUTHOR, SPEAKER, BOOK MARKETING COACH...or POET, SPEAKER, WRITER...Make sure your customer knows your purpose on the first page.

4) Your other pages can have your bio and book details and other things you offer, as well as guestbook, book trailers, and all the bells and whistles.

5) Be sure you use good KEY WORDS in describing your website if there is that option. You will want your website to be found easily by search engines. (frugal book marketing, author, speaker, writer, fiction, historical fiction, western fiction, christian western fiction, book marketing coach....)

Until next time, why don't you work on these 5 things?

Post Holiday Blues: Surviving in this Financially Driven Society

Ok ... the holidays are behind us. Many of us spent time with family and friends, enjoying good food and traditional gifts underneath the Christmas tree.  Parties and Christmas lights all around, grabbed our attention. And for a while, there was joy.

But before all this, there was planning and preparation.  And shopping. In a world full of technological advances, we were shown over and over what was "hot" and what was not. We knew what we wanted to buy, before we even made it to the store.  Our hearts were big ... and we wanted the best for our loved ones. Ohhhh ... it's so easy! With pre-season as well as last minute sales, credit card access, lay away plans, and stores vying for our business, it's hard to resist going a bit overboard.

But now come the bills.  Now we have to pay for all that holiday cheer. The flood begins ... and it is almost overwhelming. 

I'm about to give you one of the most important, yet difficult tips for financial sanity in this financially driven society. I call it 10-10-10. This 10-10-10 principle works with any amount of income, from $.10 all the way up to any amount you can think of.  Notice I didn't say it was easy; but it does work. Persistence, endurance and determination are the keys to making this principle work for you in a world that is permeated with buying and selling. 

First, as I told you in "Survival of the Fittest; Surviving in this Financially Driven Society" (which was Part 1), we need to get our priorities straight.  We must know our Source.  Sure, it is we who get up in the morning, don our outfits, feed our faces, leave our homes and families, and walk or drive to our places of employment. But it is God who gave us the means and ability to do so. It is God who gave us the strength and talents we use to support ourselves and bring home the "bread." It is God who gives us the mental capacity to decide where all the money we have earned will be spent. So consider Him first. In His Word, God tells us  to "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse ... and prove me now, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing..." (Malachi 3: 10)

So, in obedience to His Word, our first 10 is the 10% we tithe to the Lord. Don't get all caught up in where that tithe should go, or whether that 10% should be based on your gross or net income. Just find a church or ministry that you believe is working on behalf of the Lord, or one that you believe has needs, and donate the first 10% to God through that organization. 

The second 10 is the 10% you put into savings.  If you don't put some money back for future use, you will never get ahead. 10% may seem like a small amount, especially if your dreams are big. But it's a start. It's a first step. And with persistence and determination, this amount will grow.

The third 10 is the 10% you spend on yourself. This is an important part of the plan. If you don't take some of your hard-earned income and spend in on yourself ... if you don't enjoy some of it ... you will burn out. Our financial burdens will quickly overwhelm us, if we don't take some "time-out" for fun, or new clothes, or a night out, or whatever does it for you.

Pay your bills with the balance of your income.

So the plan is ... 10% tithing, 10% saving, and 10% spending. 10-10-10. Everything gets taken care of with this plan. Nothing gets left out. And the plan can be worked with any amount of income you have. As with other issues, it's not always easy. Especially in the beginning. But it is workable. And you can start now for the next go round of holidays!  You will be the winner in the end!

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?