Publishing's Transition to Online Marketing

I found this lengthy article on online marketing strategies by major publishers http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6417182.html?q=unique+marketing. The article focuses on YA and children's books titles, but I think it can be applied to virtually every genre. It focuses on the transition by many mainstream publishers to online marketing techniques as more and more transactions are taking place through online channels. I would read through the article and see if some of the strategies might work for your book. It is also a good indicator that even traditional publishers are seeing more of a shift to online sales and developing an online presence.

The highlights: Over the past 12-18 months (article was posted in Feb) - there has been a major shift by trad publishers to online marketing. A recent Pew Internet and American Life Project poll discovered that 21 million teens are spending their afternoons after school online. Some publishers are devoting as much as 70% of their over-all marketing budget for a title to online strategies. Those strategies include: "re-energizing a Web site (or developing a new one) or ramping up tech knowledge to create campaigns utilizing blogs, podcasts, instant messaging, viral marketing campaigns, video sharing, ads on third-party URLs, video book trailers and social networking sites like MySpace"

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Success Story

This author had a writer see her book on a local events list in her area, and was contacted about an interview. In her words, "The free lance writer was referred to me by Booksurge. He saw the booktitle on an events list somewhere in San Diego; so he contacted Booksurge, who gave him my name and info...When he e-mailed me, I sent him a copy of the book, and a few days later, he called me for the phone interview."

Here is the link where you can see her interview: http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/current/mariachi.htm

Here is her book on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Fiesta-y-el-Mariachi/dp/1419663399/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7613588-2714267?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184765769&sr=8-1

New Online Marketing Tool

A co-worker and I have been researching a new marketing opportunity and he has had some success in using it to promote his book so I wanted to let everyone know about it. Essentially you would need to setup an account, which is free to do, with the website www.Shelfari.com. This is a site where many book lovers have set up their profiles and placed their favorite books in these profiles. They then find people with similar tastes with which to connect. They connect in the form of discussions and forming groups around various ideas. You can see my personal page on this site from the following link: http://www.shelfari.com/Jmark333. The more active you are with the site the more connections you will make for you and your book. You would use it similar to a MySpace account and the more groups, discussions, etc. that you take part in the more contacts you will build. When you join a group you can add your book to their shelf thereby including it in the catalog of that particular group. When a new member joins they see all the books that belong to that group and so this would be a way to generate sales to your title. You would also want to place your book as one of the things showing when people click on your profile as another way of promoting your book.

I hope you find it useful and are able to connect with some people who may be interested in your type of book!

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marketing help for my book, help me market my book, online book marketing tools