I'm on sabbatical this week so I'm running a few of my favorite tips selected from my SharingwithWriters newsletters. Subscribe so you never miss a single one at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. There's a subscription form in the upper right column of every page of the site including all the Writers' Resources pages, just as I suggest in my The Frugal Book Promoter. You'll get a freebie e-booklet, Great Little Last Minute Edits, too.
Tip: Thanks to Amazon guru Aaron Shepherd for this
tip: When a bookstore or library tries to order your book from B&T's (Baker
& Taylor) catalog, it may not be visible and they may tell you that it's "unorderable," but that doesn't mean it is
really unavailable. Press a little. B&T does special orders for libraries all the time. If they
can locate a supplier, they'll order it. (Not to mention that libraries are not
restricted to ordering from B&T.) Find Aaron's books for writers--some as low at 99c by searching on his name at Amazon.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .
Showing posts with label baker and taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baker and taylor. Show all posts
Friday, November 22, 2013
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Your Book's Subtitle: Or How to Get Free Ad Space on Amazon
In Aaron Shepherd's book, Aiming at Amazon, he recommends a two-tiered subtitle. It's something I suggest in The Frugal Book Promoter, too. In that book, I suggest having two different subtitles because it gives a book a marketing edge in a bookstore where people turn books over to read the blurbs on the back. An additional subtitle header on that back cover is a second chance at letting a prospective reader know what is inside the book or how the book might fit their needs.
When Aaron makes that suggestion, though, he is thinking more about how to get enough keywords into online bookstore's search engines to benefit that book's sales. In fact, he advocates getting the right keywords in at the expense of a literate or extremely memorable title, if it comes down to that kind of a choice for the author. As an example, if the book is about writing, he'd like to see the title and subtitle include the different forms of that word. "Write." "Writer." "Publish." "Publishing." Maybe even "Publisher" if that version of the word applies. If the book is for children, one might try to include both the search words "children" and "kids" so the book will come up regardless of which the prospective book buyer searches for.
He tells us Amazon's computers will "accept subtitles of up to 300 characters, including all letters, punctuation, and spaces. But Amazon will truncate the title if the main title and subtitle together come to over 200 characters and the characters won't get cut off the end but out of the middle, replaced by an ellipsis!" That means that authors will want to limit the complete title to 200 characters, if possible. He also notes that longer titles take up more space in the prime field of visitors' vision when they are on the book's sales page and other places on Amazon. So, with a great title and one that is long, too, an author has literally "purchased" a great ad online without spending an extra penny to do so. Very frugal, no?
Aaron also advises that other listings have shorter limits. Ingram and Lightning Source won't accept more than 116 characters in the subtitle. Baker & Taylor will take only about 113. So, authors might want to decide on two versions of the subtitle. A big one for Amazon and a smaller one with about 110 characters when the full one won't fit. Or, you could do a shorter one for wherever you need one that is more literate or jazzier. You would just decide which one to submit for each specific venue.
In any case, most authors will see that having some well-considered choices will be an advantage in marketing their book both online and in bookstores.
CHJ
PS: You'll find more resources on publishing at Aaron's publishing page at www.aaronshep.com/publishing and more resources on promotion on the Resources for Writers pages at my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
Technorati Tags:
aaron shephard, aiming at amazon, subtitles, subtitle guidelines, baker and taylor, ingram, lightning source, marketing on amazon, book promotion, book marketing, publishing, book cover design, the frugal book promoter, online bookstores, title guidelines, subtitle guidlines,
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.
When Aaron makes that suggestion, though, he is thinking more about how to get enough keywords into online bookstore's search engines to benefit that book's sales. In fact, he advocates getting the right keywords in at the expense of a literate or extremely memorable title, if it comes down to that kind of a choice for the author. As an example, if the book is about writing, he'd like to see the title and subtitle include the different forms of that word. "Write." "Writer." "Publish." "Publishing." Maybe even "Publisher" if that version of the word applies. If the book is for children, one might try to include both the search words "children" and "kids" so the book will come up regardless of which the prospective book buyer searches for.
He tells us Amazon's computers will "accept subtitles of up to 300 characters, including all letters, punctuation, and spaces. But Amazon will truncate the title if the main title and subtitle together come to over 200 characters and the characters won't get cut off the end but out of the middle, replaced by an ellipsis!" That means that authors will want to limit the complete title to 200 characters, if possible. He also notes that longer titles take up more space in the prime field of visitors' vision when they are on the book's sales page and other places on Amazon. So, with a great title and one that is long, too, an author has literally "purchased" a great ad online without spending an extra penny to do so. Very frugal, no?
Aaron also advises that other listings have shorter limits. Ingram and Lightning Source won't accept more than 116 characters in the subtitle. Baker & Taylor will take only about 113. So, authors might want to decide on two versions of the subtitle. A big one for Amazon and a smaller one with about 110 characters when the full one won't fit. Or, you could do a shorter one for wherever you need one that is more literate or jazzier. You would just decide which one to submit for each specific venue.
In any case, most authors will see that having some well-considered choices will be an advantage in marketing their book both online and in bookstores.
CHJ
PS: You'll find more resources on publishing at Aaron's publishing page at www.aaronshep.com/publishing and more resources on promotion on the Resources for Writers pages at my website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
Technorati Tags:
aaron shephard, aiming at amazon, subtitles, subtitle guidelines, baker and taylor, ingram, lightning source, marketing on amazon, book promotion, book marketing, publishing, book cover design, the frugal book promoter, online bookstores, title guidelines, subtitle guidlines,
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.
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