Sell More Books by Giving Away Your Content- By Cathy Stucker

I am excited to finally be getting back into the groove of things. Today's post is done on my brand-spanking new computer. Because the article is getting posted later than I normally like, and because I am still migrating settings and programs to my new computer, I am running this guest post for two days. On Thursday, I will get back to posting daily on the blog. One day, I am going to blog about the errors I made that led led to this disruption of my blog (errors I fully knew to protect myself from, but was to lazy to enact). The "It-Will-Never-Happen-To-Me" lie is one that marketers should be on the guard against. Technology is a fickle mistress--It will make you look like a genius one moment and smash that image in the next moment.

But more about that later. Today's post is from Cathy Stucker, a book marketing professional, author, and a fountain of must-read information. She has graciously agreed to share her knowledge with Marketing Tips For Authors readers. In today's post, she discusses a concept that sounds counter-intuitive to many authors and new marketers, but one that will pay big dividends if done right. In fact, in my previous role as a director of Sales and Marketing, I utilized her principles heavily and it help our company move into multi-million dollars sales as well as help us find over 400,000 qualified prospects in a couple of years. Needless to say, this is one post that I am eager for you to read. Read it, tweet it, print it, and share it with others. This is good stuff.


Sell More Books by Giving Away Your Content
By Cathy Stucker

Authors get paid to write. So why would any author want to give away what they have written? To sell more books, and make more money, of course!

Many businesses have learned that content marketing is an inexpensive and effective way to attract new customers. Content marketing simply means distributing useful information to attract your perfect customers. Who better to do that than authors and publishers?

Content marketing is not hype or advertising. Done properly, content marketing is not about you and it does not pound customers with relentless sales messages. When you market with content, you provide content that engages readers. You build your expert reputation and create fans who can’t wait to read your next book.

Here are some effective ways to use content marketing online to sell more books:

Start a blog. You can expand on the topics covered in your book, offer additional tips and resources, get into a conversation with your readers, and even start working on your next book. Blogging works for fiction writers, too. You may share things you learned while researching your latest novel, write about how you write, or even blog in the voice of your character(s).

Publish guest posts on other blogs. Identify blogs that are read by the same kind of people who would be interested in your book, then offer to provide a guest post. Bloggers love getting quality content that their readers will enjoy, and you get to be read by a new audience who may become fans. A great free resource for finding guest posting opportunities (or finding free blog content) is http://BloggerLinkUp.com.

Do a virtual book tour. This is a variation on doing guest blog posts. Most virtual book tours take place over a defined period, such as one or two weeks. In the weeks leading up to your blog tour, work with bloggers to create and schedule the content that will appear. For example, on day one there might be an excerpt from your book on one blog, the next day another blog features a Q & A with you, and subsequent days on other blogs might feature additional interviews, articles, podcasts, and more.

Write articles about the subject of your book, and post them in article directories. Online article directories have been around for a while, and they still work. Offering your articles to directories can bring visitors to your website or blog for months or years to come. I get traffic every day from articles I published in directories years ago. One of my favorite directories is http://EzineArticles.com.

Publish an online newsletter. Keep in touch with your readers, and turn them into raving fans, by publishing a newsletter. Provide engaging content, and keep them up to date on your activities.

Offer the first chapter of your book as a download from your website. Think of this as giving out a free sample. Grab them with a great beginning, and they will buy the book to read the rest.

Give away the entire book as a download. The theory is that many of the people who download the book will not want to read the whole thing on the screen, and they will buy a print copy. Does it work? It can. It depends on the type of book and the market.

Tweet your book. Send out one-liners and short tips from your book to your Twitter followers. When your tweets are informative and/or entertaining, you will gain lots of followers who will hang on your every word.

Put your book in an autoresponder. Autoresponders are automated emails. When someone signs up to receive the autoresponder series, they get one email a time on a pre-determined schedule. It might be one a day, one every three days, weekly or however you choose. Put pieces of your book in each autoresponder message and send your entire book (or a large portion of it) out over the course of several months. After getting several messages, many readers will decide they can’t wait for the rest, and will order your book so they can read all of it now.

There are many other ways to use content marketing to sell more books, but these ideas should get you started. Giving away some of your work can help you to build your reputation, create a fan base and sell more books.




As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals with creative strategies to attract customers and make themselves famous. Get lots of great ideas at http://IdeaLady.com/, and be sure to sign up for her free newsletter for even more. Cathy also publishes http://BloggerLinkUp.com/ to help bloggers get free content and links, and http://SellingBooks.com/ to show authors and publishers how to sell more books.