Tout Your Expertise

Last week during John Kremer’s teleseminar for novelist, he offered a free chapter from the forthcoming 6th edition of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. The chapter was about different ways authors can take advantage of the various marketing opportunities at Amazon.com or the largest online bookstore in the world.

Until today, I had never tried the first method, Kremer mentioned called So You’d Like to Guide. I never focused on these guides but they provide another way for authors to promote their expertise in a particular area and connect with readers.  In a short amount of time, I pulled together a guide called Publish A Book. Get Insight From An Editor.  I have written on this topic a great deal over the years so it was easy to rework some of this information into a guide. They have a maximum of 1,500 words so my drafted article was almost to the limit. In fact, it was too close to the limitations. I’m unsure how Amazon.com counts words but if the guide is too long, they do not let you publish it.  Also the guide has to be in plain text or the type will look weird.

When you look at my guide, you may notice I include a number of other books besides Book Proposals That Sell. Why? According to John Kremer, Amazon.com will list your guide on the pages of the books which you mention. It’s required to mention a minimum of three books and a maximum of 50 books. It’s one more way to get your book in front of customers who are making buying decisions about your book. I added a number of titles because I figure it will get my guide into more places within the Amazon.com system.

I hope you will read this guide and email it to others. Many people need this information and I see the constant flow of submissions from these people who lack this important information. Some of these guides have been read thousands of times. What expertise do you have which you could tout and write a short guide? I hope So You’d Like to Guide will be another tool you can add to your own writing life and marketing plans.

Also I’ve added some new entries to my Amazon.com blog. It’s another resource to check.