REVIEW and GIVEAWAY
Buzz: The Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing
by Dara Beevas and Roseanne Cheng
Buzz: The Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing by Dara Beevas and Roseanne Cheng is currently on tour with Goddess Fish Promotions. The tour stops here today for my review, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Congratulations, indie author!
You’ve finished your book - now all that’s left is to get it out into the world. Unfortunately, for many authors, it’s that step of the process that’s the hardest. Marketing is seen as something to be feared, dreaded, and outsourced as much as possible - a daunting task that will leave you drained.
But fear not! The team at Wise Ink knows a thing or two about how to sell your book. And they’re here to tell you everything.
Buzz is the indie author’s ultimate guide to marketing effectively, inexpensively, and excitingly. Within its pages, you’ll find answers to the questions on every writer’s mind:
• What does it really mean to “market” my book?
• How do I best reach my specific audience?
• What are effective ways to promote my book via social media?
• Do I really need to be a public speaker?
In addition to this, the Wise Ink marketing team has provided sample content calendars, email promotions, a marketing starter kit, and more to ensure you’re prepared to get out there and sell your book.
Marketing doesn’t have to be a horror story! Let Buzz teach you how to take your book to its maximum potential.
Excerpt
Where Do I Begin?
This certainly is the million-dollar question. The truth is that you “began” when you started writing your book, saw that process through to completion, and decided that what you’d written was worthy of being brought into the world. So congratulations! You have already begun.
Now that you can check “writing your book” off the list, your next task is to define what success means to you. Yes, “selling books” is a good goal in general, and yes, it would be nice if Bill Gates recommended your book for his summer reading list. But success as an author is more complicated than simply selling books. For many authors, being successful means leaving a lasting legacy. For others, it means winning awards in the literary world. For authors who have speaking careers, success might mean having something tangible and desirable to sell to their audience. You are guiding this journey; you get to create your goals based on your vision for your life and career.
Doing this work at the beginning will focus your marketing efforts. There are literally thousands of ways to market your book. So begin by asking yourself why your book is important, who you’ve written it for, and how you expect it to impact your audience. If your book isn’t solving a problem or offering something new and different, you’ll have a difficult time marketing it.
Next, envision the next three to five years. Are you hoping to start a business? Become a career writer? Launch an online platform based on your book’s content? Inspire activists? Is your book the start of several books you will write? If so, who are these future books for? Are you growing a robust online business where content is essential to grow and leverage your brand?
When seeking marketing opportunities, revisit your definition of success and measure whether each potential marketing effort helps meet your specific goals. What works for someone else’s book won’t always work for yours. If an opportunity does not advance you toward your vision, skip it.
What are three non-monetary definitions of success that align with your vision for your life, career, and future? Ideas include launching a business, becoming a career writer, or raising awareness for a cause.
Praise for the Book
“Buzz is a must-have resource for indie authors. Packed with a wealth of brainstorming activities and dos and don’ts resources, it helps target your thinking about the process and translate your self-reflection into action for the best marketing practices.” ~ Russell Ricard, award-nominated author of The Truth About Goodbye
“When I published my first book, I had zero experience with marketing and had no clue where to start. Thankfully, the amazing publishing team at Wise Ink took me under their wing and walked me through the entire book marketing process, step-by-step. Today, my book is a bestseller and has been read by people all around the world. [...] Buzz really is the ultimate guide to book marketing, and essential reading for all authors who want to successful in today’s marketplace.” Josie Robinson, author of The Gratitude Jar: A Simple Guide to Creating Miracles
“This book recognizes the importance of speaking to its reader in a way that offers confidence and realism in the steps needed to take to begin the marketing process, right through continued use of marketing for keeping books current and relevant. [...] Buzz creates a sense of ‘you got this’ and ‘keep going,’ matching the anxiety of the new author and the overwhelming nature of known and unknown things to come for the experienced author.” ~ Kim Kane, award-nominated author of Sparkle On: Women Aging in Gratitude
“Buzz is a fantastic resource for all authors. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or if you’re a year or two into your journey - you will learn a thing or two about marketing your book. [...] I wish we’d had this book when we started our journey, but there’s no doubt we’ll be making good use of it now.” ~ Kathy Engen and Linda Heath, founders of Shift and Spark and authors of GoL: A Curated Guide to the Modern Day Job Hunt
My Review
By Lynda Dickson
You may have heard this before: “the real work of being an author happens once the book is launched.” Well, that’s where this book comes in. According to the authors, “we chose to format this book in essential questions.” Each of the fifty chapters asks and answers their most-asked questions with space to record your notes and to get you thinking about your goals. Each chapter ends with a list of things to do. I just wish the Kindle edition could be interactive so that you could actually make notes in the spaces provided. The book includes links in the text for downloading free resources from the Wise Ink. The Appendix is also full of helpful resources, including a sample marketing calendar, sample content calendar, sample email marketing campaign, a list of 101 ways to market your book, a comprehensive glossary of marketing terms, and a full index.
Key takeaway: “We could never repeat this enough: any marketing you do for your book, especially marketing that has a large price tag, will only be effective if you are willing to promote it yourself.”
An invaluable marketing resource for both new and established indie authors.
About the Author
Dara Beevas believes that books can save lives, open doors, and build bridges. As co-founder of Wise Ink, she encourages authors to share powerful stories that ignite change, tolerance, and growth. She has been involved in the publishing community for fifteen years, acquiring manuscripts, managing projects, and creating marketing and sales strategies for authors and publishers. She’s helped more than four hundred authors publish their books. She is the author of The Indie Author Revolution and co-author of Social Media Secrets for Authors. When she’s not busy pushing the envelope in this crazy world of publishing and networking with inspiring entrepreneurs, she’s travelling and enjoying her husband Tomme’s delicious Jamaican meals with her daughter Genesis.
Roseanne Cheng is a former high school English teacher and author of two young adult books, The Take Back of Lincoln Junior High and Edge the Bare Garden, which won the gold medal for young adult fiction at the Writer’s Digest Self Published Book Awards and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. She now works as Marketing Director at Wise Ink Creative Publishing where she holds the secondary title of “Author Therapist” and has the pleasure of helping authors create plans to get their work into the world. When she’s not reading a book or practising yoga, you can probably find her hanging out with her hilarious husband of ten years and their two ridiculously awesome kids.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a 30-minute book marketing consultation with Wise Ink.
Links
Books featured in this post
