Write a Short Article to Promote Your Book Online
Dissatisfied with your book sales? With book signings, press
releases, book store sales?
So many authors spend a lot of time and money on promotion that
doesn't work. It's time to do what authors do best--write a
short article. Follow these ten steps to write an article top
web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is
sold.
Apply these Ten Steps
1. Choose a topic that relates to your book. Make sure this
how-to article has useful, needed information. One site who
markets to professional speakers just published my article "What
Makes One Book Out Sell Another."
2. Know your article's thesis. The thesis is what your article
will prove. In the introduction above, the thesis is stated in
the last line, "Use these ways to write an article top web sites
will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold."
3. Know your preferred audience. Just as your book has a target
audience, so should your article. My book, "How to Write Your
E-Book or Other Book Fast! is a short, easy-to-read,
step-by-step guide to assist professionals with writing and
selling their book.
4. Write a sparkling opening. Like a headline in a press release
or on your book's back cover, your first sentence should grab
your readers by the collar so they will keep reading. The
opening could use a shocking fact, a question, a benefit, or a
compelling story right out of your book. Make the opening a
short paragraph, even a single line. Readers want short,
concise, digestible information, especially on the Internet.
5. Illustrate a need. Whatever your topic, show your readers why
they need your information. If you have written a book on
listening, then in your short article discuss how much is at
stake for not listening such as divorce or lost business.
6. Give a brief background of the problem or situation you will
solve. One of my book coaching clients wrote a book, "The Cure
for Multiple Sclerosis." She shares that over 2 million people
worldwide with Multiple Sclerosis are diagnosed incurable, that
doctors are pressured to use pharmaceuticals, and that the
health industry is not about getting people well, but about
making money.
7. Share the problems that result. In "The Cure for Multiple
Sclerosis," the problem is that most people rely on western
medicine which does not have the answers. Big money is not spent
on alternative or complementary ways to prevent and cure chronic
diseases, so people with problems get drugs that deplete the
immune system.
8. Give the solution. Your book offers solutions to problems. So
must your article. Show your readers how to get excellent
health, how they can write a book, make more money, or have
better relationships.
9. Show them where to get the solution and how. The article,
"How to Listen at Work," needs to suggest where to go or what to
do next. You may name a quality book to read (maybe your book!).
Mention a seminar or training, or recommend a coach. You may
even mention a web site address or 800 number.
10. Place your article on as many high traffic Internet sites
and Opt-in Ezines as you can. Just as feature articles in
newspapers are seven times as powerful as advertising, so is
your article.
People are looking for free information Online. That's the major
reason they surf!
So, now that you know how to write a short article, put it to
work for you to promote your book.