A Home (Page) for Your Book
Consider these three pairs of businesses.
1. Netflix beat Blockbuster to the Internet, and helped put Blockbuster out of business.
2. Barnes & Noble beat Borders to the Internet, and it’s way ahead in the eReader book race as well.
3. Cody’s, Black Oak, and all the other wonderful independent bookstores we’ve lost, failed to get on the Web to compete with Amazon.
Businesses without web sites haven’t done well in this century. Neither will books. Your book needs a home of its own on the web!
Even if you plan to market through Amazon, Apple, or personal networking, a web (or blog) site is key to beating your competition, i.e., those million other books published each year in the US.
A home page or whole site will give you:
- Much more space to advertise
- Ways to promote your book even before you publish it
- A place to create a mailing list of potential customers
- A central spot for sign-up boxes to follow you on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- A chance to search engine optimize (SEO) your promotional material
- URL-email address where readers can reach you with their comments
- A link for reviewers to request for a review copy of your book
- A landing page to sell copies of your book
- More legitimacy and authority as a serious writer
- Other opportunities that wouldn’t come to you otherwise
If you offer related professional services:
- You can promote your book and services together
- You can even use your book to promote your services
Bookstores and publishers’ catalogs are good marketing tools. But they are crowded with competitors for attention from your potential customers. Your site is your book’s way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed!
