mysteries and motorcycles

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Promoting ebooks


The explosion in the ebook market has given authors some amazing opportunities... but many challenges as well. To begin with, many authors have now become first time publishers. Some of us learned a little about distribution and promotion in the old world but not all of those techniques will work with ebooks. I could always reach out to people in a face-to-face situation by doing personal appearances and presentations with a pile of my books sitting on table for the audience to purchase if they liked what I had to say. Now, the only thing on the table is the pitcher of icewater and a glass. I can hand out cards and such but it isn't the same. Maybe I'll have to schedule future appearances in a place that has Wi-Fi and tell everybody, "Bring your Kindle with you."

I need to reach people with electronic readers; Kindles, Nooks, iPads, etc. And who are they? And more importantly, Where are they? My personal observations haven't done much to pin down a demographic profile. First thoughts were that people who read ebooks are probably the younger generation who grew up with computers but I know a lot of senior citizens who just love the adjustable font size and the audio features. But where do these people gather? How can I access large groups of them?

I belong to a few writer forums on the internet and have asked if anyone knew of a publicist who specialized in self-published ebooks. So far the forums have been unable to come up with any names. I guess the publicists are challenged by the same rapid changes that we authors are. Almost every successful ebook author has their own formula and, although each is unique, there are a few common elements like developing a brand, multiple titles (the more, the merrier), attractive pricing, etc., but we still need to get noticed. And that's my dilemma.

Posted by The Unreal McCoy :: 11:14 AM :: 0 Comments:

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