How to promote your book like an intelligent human being and not an SEO Dweeb

Yeah, I understand about negative reviews. Like I mentioned, I don't have a lot of money for buying books. If I did a review blog, I'd be doing a lot of old favorites and the rare new book I liked. I'll probably try to figure something else worth viewing. I'm not trade published, so I wouldn't feel comfortable about giving actual writing advice. So, it won't be that. I doubt people will be interested in my review of The Shining or Christine, lol.

Dhewco said:

I'm not trade published, so I wouldn't feel comfortable about giving actual writing advice.

Click to expand...

I don't even know that it's about being trade or self-published anymore. The internet is absolutely saturated with writing blogs and publication journey diaries, and those are only relevant to writers anyway, not general readers.

So, it won't be that. I doubt people will be interested in my review of The Shining or Christine, lol.

Click to expand...

I don't know. You might be surprised. In fact, it might be a niche thing that could very well pique curiosity in people who glaze over at yet another review of the latest bestseller.

We all have books that we missed out on reading, back in the day. We got busy and swept along on the to-do and to-be-read tides. We never got back to those books we intended to read, and perhaps seeing a new review of a good older book might be just the thing to remind us of what we blew by.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization done crudely by SEO dweebs emphasizes things like key word stuffing and key word density (i.e. repeating the same key words and phrases).

It's the way search engines used to work, when all that Google and Yahoo and Bing had to go on were the words on the HTML page, and the tags and metadata that aren't usually visible to readers.

But the world has changed significantly since then.

• Readers are more savvy about online reading and searching
• Readers are using smart phones and tablets
• Corporations like Google, Microsoft and yes, Apple, have their own search functions (Hey Siri! Hey Google ! Hey Cordata!) and Web browsers, and other ways of tracking, combining and using data from social sites, etc.
• Readers are interacting and talking directly with each other, device to device, and via social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc. )

Search engines have changed as readers [users] have changed:

• Real language queries are working better and better (What's the next flight to the Bahamas? Who makes the best toaster? How do I re-index my Gmail inbox ?)
• Ranking in search engines (which sites and pages occur first) is now increasingly based on things like how long a reader spends on a page or a site, how easy a page and site are to navigate and find information on, where readers come from, where they leave to, and how fast it loads and how easy it is to use on tablets and smart phones).

This article SEO Has Evolved To Search "Experience" Optimization points out that SEO is increasingly really abut Search Experience Optimziation.

That is, it's increasingly reader-centric. It's increasingly about what you say and how you say it.

Here are some quotes, but go read the whole thing.

Instead the search engines have started to write logic and incorporate machine learning algorithms that based on vast troves of user behavior metrics, to their best estimation, is what a user experience should be on a website. Some of the criteria they are now measuring are site speed, mobile optimization, site structure, content, and dozens of other signals that should give the algorithm an idea of whether or not search engine users are getting what they expect from a website.

Click to expand...

In the context of good writing and navigation, rather than keyword repetition, see:

And this is great news for anyone that performs digital marketing correctly. It means that “gaming” the system has become less and less viable, and that groups who rely on black hat techniques are seeing their efforts become less effective.

Click to expand...

The article also emphasizes the idea that it really is about conversation, about honest, engaged interaction between real people and real readers:

After all, if you enjoy something online, what do you usually do? You talk about it. And where do a lot of people talk about things? On social media. So, it’s only logical that if you’re trying to measure whether a site is providing a great user experience, that there would also be a social footprint signaling this.

Click to expand...

And the idea of blogging as fostering conversation:

And this is also why you should be blogging, as I’ve talked about ad nauseam in previous articles. Not only do blogs provide great content to your visitors (read: user experience) they also encourage social media sharing and interaction, which leads to social signals, which is what I’ve been talking about for the last few paragraphs!

So, if you’ve been wondering how to get your website to rank well in the search engines and have been wondering what the secret sauce is, you can forget about some mystical equation that perfectly balances links, keyword density, and unicorn dust. It doesn’t exist. And that’s a good thing. Because search experience optimization is a much more common sense endeavor and anyone can figure it out with a little bit of time and effort.

Click to expand...

What the article isn't explicitly saying, but does allude to, is that part of the greater conversation has to do with readers engaging with each other, and with the site writer (i.e. you the author) via comments on blogs and forums, and, especially, via social media. Those off-to-the side conversations, like smaller groups of people at a large party, or the conversations between those at the bar and those at tables, is those side conversations are part of what creates incoming links to your content and site from elsewhere, and those links not only enhance the conversation, they enhance the reputation of your site, and of you the writer.

I have two things to add to this thread, both came to my attention today.

First, I was directed to an article in The Observer (the New York one, not the subsection of The Guardian) titled "Behind the Scam: What Does It Take to Be a ‘Best-Selling Author’? $3 and 5 Minutes." I'll preface my comments by saying it was written by a partner at a marketing company with an expertise in book marketing. He discloses that. Also, he doesn't do anything people who have paid attention to this thread don't already know, so there's no new information. It was simply illustrative in a kind of entertaining--if depressing--way. Basically, he uploaded an empty book to Amazon, let Amazon create the cover, chose niche categories and VOILA! He's a bestseller with the orange banner and everything. Sold 3 books.

Second, and this is slightly OT for the thread and if it's WAY too OT, I apologize. I received a marketing tweet today from a romance author I follow linking her cover reveal. The link was to www. cancersucksuk[somethingorother]. I paused a minute, trying to figure out why a cancer sucks site would be doing a cover reveal. I assumed good intentions...maybe some of the book's proceeds were going to cancer research or something. The author had RT'd the link without explanation, but I guess I'm wasn't jaded enough this morning to assume foul play.

Anyway, I clicked on the link. Stupid, I know (Curious Puppy and all that). It's a book review site, and book promotion site. There are 10 or so links to pages at the top (blog, new reviews, archives, etc) and one that names a type of cancer. O_O There are box-type ads all over the page linking to book-promotion services. Lemme tell you, I was PISSED. Pissed at the site, pissed at the author, pissed at myself for giving them traffic. This, my friends, was below low. This was bottom fishing in the most polluted harbor. Using CANCERSUCKS as your website name only in your link?? The actual site name has nothing to do with cancer. It's the "reviewer's" name.

Naturally, I unfollowed the author. Truly, this sort of association can only harm an author. Be careful who you get in bed with in your quest for sales. If you have a legit reason for pairing with an otherwise shady-sounding operator, explain, don't just RT. Maybe this author has a family member with the cancer referenced on the reviewer's page. If so, say so, because I don't know you. Leaving people to guess isn't smart, and of course now I'm guessing the worst of intentions. Sorry, author. You lost a potential reader, and a potential ally over this one.

While this is all very good advice, I find myself in what is probably a rather unusual dilemma. I have a small handful of books out, and more just awaiting cover arts, but I'm in a situation where I have no money to advertise and very limited online access (maybe three times a week). Any advice that might help?

I should add that my most popular book was reviewed by one of Amazon's top 100 reviewers, and was given a four out of five stars, however I have no idea whatsoever how to utilize that review. With my limited time, it's difficult at best to try to research various methods, and as all of us know there are a million ways on the internet to advertise and only a handful of those ways that actually work. Any advice or suggestions that could help would be very appreciated.

So, today's advice from Twitter is to grow my "audience" then "advertise to them indefinitely". Um, no thanks. I'd like people to actually not want to burn my house down.

Last night I had a dream that I was lost in a multi-floor parking garage. Not only couldn't I find my car, but when I searched my pockets for my keys I found that I had several sets, but none belonged to me. I wandered up and down that spiraling concrete structure, hazards around every bend, the human kind. One tried to lure me into an area that was lit only by scattered bonfires, one in an attendant's uniform stole my parking ticket, jumped into a passing car and made a getaway with me hanging on to the steering wheel. People tucked into the shadows, drinking out of paper bags, engaging in threesomes, applying a needle to an arm.

I can only believe that it was the result of about two months of trying to navigate the book-marketing world on my own.

Perks said:

So, today's advice from Twitter is to grow my "audience" then "advertise to them indefinitely". Um, no thanks. I'd like people to actually not want to burn my house down.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. Most of the people I've talked to who have made it on their own in the world of self-publishing have agreed on that one point; constantly advertising your fan base is the absolute worst thing you could possibly do. Of course, none of them seem to agree on what you should do, but that's definitively something that you shouldn't it appears. It might be best to avoid taking your advice from twitter, just as you said.

Unfortunately most have suggested "tweeting" at least once a day, and I don't have online access that often. It's put a damper on many of the things I would have done otherwise.

Perks said:

So, today's advice from Twitter is to grow my "audience" then "advertise to them indefinitely". Um, no thanks. I'd like people to actually not want to burn my house down.

Click to expand...

A huge percentage of the advice I've read for writers is total crap. Especially when it comes to marketing. A lot of people are attempting to sound authoritative just so they can get more views on their blogs and sell more ads.

andiwrite said:

A huge percentage of the advice I've read for writers is total crap. Especially when it comes to marketing. A lot of people are attempting to sound authoritative just so they can get more views on their blogs and sell more ads.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's why I started this thread. I was helping a lot of writers, mostly AW members, with creating simple web sites about their books/writing because Way Back then there were a lot of people charging hundreds of dollars for a template-based WordPress site. And doing really unethical things, like registering a writer's domain in the web sites creator's name, and then holding it hostage, and selling them ridiculous SEO services regarding key word stuffing and fake links.

And the numbers of people still selling books that are thinly veiled "Get rich on self publishing by selling a book about self-publishing" used to be much, much worse.

It's marginally better now. Authors realize that they can really create a basic site on their own, with a little help regarding priorities.

And people are being better about not spending money until they're making money, too.

There's a thing in retail stores called hand selling.

It means someone interacting directly with a customer; it happens in all kinds of stores, from department stores to feed stores and yes, bookstores.

That's when someone who works for the store has a conversation with a customer. It may be as simple as this:

fictitious customer based on real life said:

"I was looking for a book to read on the plane. I've got a 12 hour flight."

"What was the last book you really like?"

"I loved Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams."

"Have you read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum? It's hard core horror, and really good. It's the kind of book you can't put down until you've finished."

"That sounds great!"

Click to expand...

That's hand-selling. You sell the customer something they want; not something you are desperate to sell. You find out what they want.

And that's where marketing comes in, when you're trying to hand-sell on a website to strangers. You need to help readers find your books.

You need to find the readers who are most likely to like your books.

That's partly about establishing your books in the context of other books and writers. So you have samples of your books, you post review links with excerpts, and you talk about books in your genre that you like.

Which really, is a large part of hand-selling.

Travis Kerr said:

Unfortunately most have suggested "tweeting" at least once a day, and I don't have online access that often. It's put a damper on many of the things I would have done otherwise.

Click to expand...

I don't know that that's crucial. There are ways to do that.

You can use things like a blogpost that you schedule in advance.

You then connect your blog to Twitter (there are widgets for blogger to do this, and a number of plugins for wordpress, including JetPack).

Then when the post publishes, the blog sends an automatic link to Twitter (and Facebook, if you want).

I'd likely prioritized other things first; like book reviews of other people's books you like. Sure, connect that to Twitter and Facebook, so when you publish the review, it automatically posts links to Twitter and Facebook.

The goal is to:

• Write interesting things that will engage the reader, so they'll want to read more.
• Write about things that tell readers something about you, about what you like, about what interests you.
• And yes, you can also allude to your own writing. Just don't beat the buy my book drum constantly.

The long term goal is to have regular return readers, readers who will want more, readers who will recognize your name (and maybe, your book cover)

Readers who will want to read and buy your books.

I've used JetPack to link my blog to Tumblr and Twitter, so new posts get broadcast that way, too. Mostly, I just write about stuff that interests me, with a little selling thrown in. It gets enough eyeballs that I still do it.

Thank you very much. Those are exactly the type of suggestions I've needed. I never considered that I could link a single blog to show on multiple sites at once. Sadly I've spent far too little time online. Most people know this from school, but I didn't have that back when I was in school. Many of the instructions are in terminology that someone not greatly computer literate wouldn't know. It's rather sad that I can turn a piece of steel into a sword and have been trained to use the weapon as well, but has trouble navigating the internet. At least I can type quickly.

Filigree said:

I've used JetPack to link my blog to Tumblr and Twitter, so new posts get broadcast that way, too. Mostly, I just write about stuff that interests me, with a little selling thrown in. It gets enough eyeballs that I still do it.

Click to expand...

That's exactly the way to approach it!

Also, I think it's important for every writer to find their own personal balance and comfort between

• Writing time (the next book is the most effective way to sell previous books)
• How much PR / Marketing time they have and can spare
• How much PR / Marketing / outreach they can not just tolerate but enjoy.

If you're engaging in work you hate and that makes you uncomfortable, that will come across. So find your comfort zone and balance.

Travis Kerr said:

It's rather sad that I can turn a piece of steel into a sword and have been trained to use the weapon as well, but has trouble navigating the internet. At least I can type quickly.

Click to expand...

That's a great example of something to write about.

How to take a piece of steel (with pictures, even cell phone pictures) and make it into a sword.

• Short posts over a series of weeks would be ideal. One a week, even. Aim for a length per post of 300 to 500 words; 750 tops.
• Try to have an image in each post, if you can.
• Have an image of your book and a link to a page about it and how to buy it in the sidebar of each post.

Please please please do the sword thing, Travis. You can forge and fight? Instant blog resource!

Filigree said:

Please please please do the sword thing, Travis. You can forge and fight? Instant blog resource!

Click to expand...

Exactly. And it has the potential to gain a wider audience, too.

I know scads of other Medievalists, as well as archaeologists and historians and SCA folk who'd be interested, as well as all manner of writers.

And these are all communities who read.

Thank you! I really appreciate these tips. There are a lot of people out there giving "advice", but I was skeptical. These suggestions make sense. I can use them all and not feel like I've lost my integrity. It's been a while since I've visited this site. Took some time away from writing following some personal events. It's good to be back. Thanks again.

Filigree said:

Please please please do the sword thing, Travis. You can forge and fight? Instant blog resource!

Click to expand...

I wish I still could, but I haven't had a working forge in almost ten years. Still, the knowledge is there, so it's something that I can use as information in my books (and have to some extent, though not as deeply as I could). Hopefully in the future I can get something running again, but right now i'm in a tiny apartment building on the third floor, and I'm fairly certain that the neighbors (not to mention the landlord) would not be at all happy about that. Right now I'm still trying to figure out a way to get a blog started with an average of two hours online a week. I haven't even been able to get back on here until today (sad, isn't it lol). The only good thing out of it all is that I don't have to be online to write, and without easy access to online resources I have all the time in the world to keep writing (and not much else to do for that matter). Everything suggested above are things I'm looking into as I go, save for the forge, which will have to be a while before I get that option started again. I might be able to talk to some friends in New York who likely still have something running. I can't get up there right now, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind sending me pictures of some of their ongoing work. That was where I learned, and I would be shocked should I find that they are not still working metal, particularly working on armor.

Travis Kerr said:

Right now I'm still trying to figure out a way to get a blog started with an average of two hours online a week. I haven't even been able to get back on here until today (sad, isn't it lol). The only good thing out of it all is that I don't have to be online to write, and without easy access to online resources I have all the time in the world to keep writing (and not much else to do for that matter).

Click to expand...

Travis, go ahead and write with pen and paper.

Write ideas.

Write fiction

Write drafts of blogposts. Keep in mind that when you do get online, you can always set the date on a post to the future.

We'll be hear and happy to hear from you when you can post.

I have a computer that I write on (thankfully, as my handwriting is atrocious). It just doesn't have internet access, so right now I'm stuck with my local library connection, and do to some physical issues I can't get here (at the library that is) nearly as often as I would like. I'm in the process now of figuring out how to start and work a blog, though what to write in it was not quite as easy. I'm considering starting it off with a short story based on the characters in my main series, the only difficult being keeping each edition under 750 words as was suggested above. I've written a few short stories, but so far the shortest one was still over a thousand, larger than the suggested limit, and this short will be considerably longer, probably closer to 10K. While I can chop it into sections, keeping each section small enough is a bit of a challenge. With a little luck (and a prayer that my foot lets me walk back this far on Friday) I'll be able to get the blog started before the end of the week. I average about 5 or 6 thousand words a day on the days I can write, so I undoubtedly will have more each internet session than I can post in a single blog. Would you recommend putting up more than one blog in a single session, or should I just post date it to appear on a day I'm not able to get here?

AW Admin said:

Exactly. And it has the potential to gain a wider audience, too.

I know scads of other Medievalists, as well as archaeologists and historians and SCA folk who'd be interested, as well as all manner of writers.

Click to expand...

It's interesting that you mention the SCA, as this was where I learned metalworking, armor building, a several of the sword techniques that my characters use in my main book series. I first joined about 19 years ago, and though I haven't been able to fight in a while do to medical issues, I still keep in touch with my household, and fully plan on returning to the battlefield as soon as I'm physically able to do so again. In all likelihood I'll have several books to put up for sale by the time I can appear at another event, and as you said, there are a lot of readers in the ranks of the society. Just getting there could go a long way to furthering my career. So far I have only the three books, well, plus two more waiting for cover arts, but that's a story in and of itself.

AW Admin said:

That's exactly the way to approach it!

Also, I think it's important for every writer to find their own personal balance and comfort between

• Writing time (the next book is the most effective way to sell previous books)
• How much PR / Marketing time they have and can spare
• How much PR / Marketing / outreach they can not just tolerate but enjoy.

If you're engaging in work you hate and that makes you uncomfortable, that will come across. So find your comfort zone and balance.

Click to expand...

I love this advice! When I started the blog, I planned to post every Thursday. It soon became overwhelming. I used to stress out all day on Wednesday over not having a post ready. It was hurting time dedicated to writing the next book, so I stopped. Now I don't stress about when to post, but still end up with two or three posts a month.

This has already happened three times in two days and it's pissing me off - new Facebook "friends" posting links to and descriptions of their books on my timeline within minutes of being friended. I'm blocking without hesitation and they can fuck right off.

Rude, ham-handed hack assholes. I am so over it.