E-book Promotion
Effective marketing ideas

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.    —Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926), The Happy Life, 1896

I've been thinking for a while on ideas of how to promote my ebooks, and I am now at the stage where I can actually devote some time (and maybe a little bit of money) to the endeavor.

So, anyone have any promotional ideas? I know a little about reviews, chats and such ... but anyone know of good places to get bookmarks, any review sites that can't be missed (for erotic romance/erotica), and other great promo ideas? Is buying banner ad space really worth the money? If so, where do you suggest? And so on ... I'm open to considering about any ideas you care to send my way.   —Michelle Houston

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From Chandra Knight
I've written contemporary romance and am branching out into Erotic Romance because I love the genre! Michelle, here is a very short list of sites that review Erotic Romance. I'm just compiling, myself!

• Just Erotic Romance Reviews
  http://www.justeroticromancereviews.com/home.html
• The Romance Studio Blue
  http://theromancestudio.com/blue/
• Fallen Angel Reviews
  http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/

This should give you a start. And a website is a must, if you're trying to market on the Internet!

From Madeleine Oh
For promotional materials I use http://www.1800postcard.com/. Prices are pretty good, and service fast.

Promoting ebooks is always a bit dicey...best places I've found have been the online readers email loops at yahoo since these are readers already online. But a word of caution, don't just join to promote as readers tend to resent this - join in the chat first...takes time but it's a good way to woo readers.

From Jolie du Pre
It sounds small, but when people include a link to their e-books in their signature, I often click on the link.

From Michelle Houston
What's your idea of the most effective signature line? Listing one book each time (rotating them) and maybe having a small blurb about them, or a snippet? Or would listing a couple of the books together without blurbs be better?

Flip side, what's to much? What makes the signature no longer seem inviting, but merely an ego boost?

From Jolie du Pre
Post links to two or three of your most recent e-books. Leave the blurbs out. Let them click on the link to find out what the book is about. Let there be some mystery to draw them in.

Get over the "ego boost" thing. You're a good writer, correct? Then let the world know what you've written. Modesty doesn't sell books, honey. If I don't know where to find your work, then I can't buy your work. Anyone who writes consistently, and who is published in print or online, knows the value of promotion.

From Brenna Lyons
I disagree with this one. I crop my tag line on some posts but not all...but, my personal feeling on it is this. Make a bunch of tag lines...one book each. The top line should be your URL and your publisher URL OR a direct URL to the book. The rest should either be a quote from the book or review quote and the book name. That gives something to draw the reader in.

Now...set one tag line for new messages and one for messages you are answering. Switch them often to keep people reading. NOW, always try to keep the tag around 4 lines. Most lists with a cap on length, cap it there. IF all you are doing is names and URLs, what is eye-catching in that? Why should the reader care unless you just talked about the book in a post?

From Kathryn O'Halloran
Personally I'm more inclined to click on a link in a signature if there is only one link.

More than one link is too much fussing around (or maybe I'm too lazy). I usually give emails a quick read then respond and delete them. I might be curious enough to click on a single link but a list of links involves making decisions and flicking between the web browser and email... yikes!

Do you have a web site that lists your work? A link to that could be enough. Plus it's easy to bookmark a web page and go back to it later.

From Kayla Kuffs
I'm with you all the way on this one. More than one link in a sig line or a loooong sig line bugs me and I deliberately don't click on them. One link - yup - I usually at least look to see what it is and if I'm not in a hurry I'll click it.

From Morgan Hawke
Free stories is the Best way to generate reader traffic. I had 18 short stories hosted on Literotica.com long before I was published with Extasy Books. 5 of them won 'Reader's Choice' awards. They ranged between 5k (5000 words) in length and 15k. These stories (all linked to my website,) built a readership long before I put out one single e-book.

I was eventually forced to pull nearly all of my stories from Literotica, so I use juicy excerpts instead. The trick to excerpts is to deliver enough sex to build an appetite, but not enough to give the plot twist away.

Other advertising:
Webrings
toplists
applying for site awards
banner exchanges
directories

From Barbara Karmazin
Free stories are working wonders for me too. But because I don't have a supply of stories already written, what I do is create a new Erotic SF short story for each issue of my author newsletter, The Sensuous Alien.

My latest short story, Veil of Thorns, came out to 7,600 words and thirteen pages for this newsletter. It took me a week to write it and edit it properly.

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