March 12, 2008

ONLINE BOOK MARKETING THAT WORKS - Part VIII: Subtly Promoting Your Book on Major News Sites

During Week I, we talked about sad assumptions and irrational expectations new authors usually have about book sales. We then discussed the dire need for an author to have his OWN website (not a URL controlled by someone else!) and a periodical (ezine/blog) to market their book.

During Week II, we discussed how important it is to offer a free excerpt of your book. We also shared URLs to "free article" websites where you can post your excerpt as an "article."

During Week III, we talked about posting your free book excerpt on FreeBookExcerpts.com, a free service for everyone, including book lovers. Authors can post excerpts and readers can discuss them.

During Week IV, we cozied up to websites that have a good Google ranking.

During Week V, we asked websites, ezines, blogs and magazines to publish an excerpt from our book.

During Week VI, we subtly marketed our book to online discussion groups.

Last week, we subtly promoted our book on other people's blogs.

This week, we're going to subtly promote our book(s) while posting comments on major news sites.

I don't know about you but I love reading Letters to the Editor in newspapers and magazines. The letters section is one of the first places I look when I'm reading a periodical.

The great news is, in increasing numbers, newspapers, magazines, and other news websites are allowing readers to post comments about articles, often instantly, on their websites, directly under each article.

You can find a list of the nation's 100 largest newspapers right here:
http://nyjobsource.com/papers.html

That's a pretty nifty page - but not all newspapers allow you to post comments online. So, let's find the top five that do. They are:

USA Today
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
Los Angeles Times
The Denver Post / Rocky Mountain News

As in past articles in this series, I need to show you how to do this by example.

USA Today

To promote my book, The Emergency Divorce Handbook for Women, I went to the USA Today website and typed the word divorce into their search box there at the top of the homepage. I then had to sit through an incredibly boring ad (yawn), but then arrived at a page that lists their archives. Under "FROM THE ARCHIVES", I found:

1. An excerpt from a book on divorce
2. A story about the Britney Spears custody battle
3. An article about Spain allowing fast-track divorces
4. An article about how caring for an aging parent can increase your chances of divorce
5. An article about how divorce increases your chances of foreclosure

That is just the tip of the information iceberg. There are hundreds to thousands of articles that I could post comments about...while subtly promoting my book at the same time. Luckily, the stories are arranged by date on that page so I can just post comments to the top 5 or 10 news stories.

The best part is, every single article allows readers to post comments underneath. Whoo hoo!

I would, of course, not blatantly promote my book to the masses because this might be considered spam. I would, instead, provide valuable and informative comments about each story and then post a "subtle signature" (my name, author, and book title) like this:

Angela Hoy
Author, The Emergency Divorce Handbook for Women

Anybody can find my book for sale online and can order it through their local bookstore so the title and my name are really all they need.

Okay, your turn. Go to http://www.usatoday.com and, using their search box at the top, search for the top keyword/phrase that describes your book. Find 5 to 10 articles that you think your book's target audience might be reading. Then, post a comment about each news story using your subtle signature (Name, Author and Book Title only).

Next, repeat the exercise for your other top keywords/phrases.

The Wall Street Journal

Okay, again using my divorce book as an example, I surfed to wsj.com and typed divorce into the search box there at the right, near the top of their homepage. What popped up?

1. An article about emails being admitted as evidence in divorce cases. This is a blog on wsj.com that allows readers to post comments.
2. An article about the law of religion meeting the law of the state. This article also allows readers to post comments underneath it.

I'll stop there but you get the picture. There are links to articles, blogs, and even moderated discussion lists managed by Wall Street Journal journalists and featuring discussions with their readers.

Go to wsj.com and, using their search box near the top (right-hand side), search for your top keyword/phrase. Find 5 to 10 articles/blogs/discussions that you think your book's target audience might be reading. Then, post a comment about each news story/blog/discussion using your subtle signature (Name, Author and Book Title only).

Next, repeat the exercise for your other top keywords/phrases.

The New York Times

This website allows you to search specifically in their archives and in the New York Times blogs.

Go to http://www.nytimes.com and, using their search box near the top (right-hand side), search for your top keyword/phrase. Find 5 to 10 articles and/or blogs that you think your book's target audience might be reading. Then, post a comment about each news story/blog post using your subtle signature (Name, Author and Book Title only).

Then, repeat the exercise for your other top keywords/phrases.

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times website features a link to their blogs page. However, you can simply use their search box at the top of their homepage to find their blog posts that may be attracting your book's target readers. As with the other sites, yes, you can comment on the blog posts.

As of this writing, they don't allow visitors to post comments about articles. However, that may change in the future. If you do see an article that interests you, you can write a letter to the journalist who wrote it. Chances are, they cover that topic on an ongoing basis and they may want to use you as a source in a future story.

Go to http://www.latimes.com and, using their search box at the top, search for your top keyword/phrase. Find 5 to 10 LA Times blog posts that you think your book's target audience might be reading. Then, post a comment about each one using your subtle signature (Name, Author and Book Title only).

Then, repeat the exercise for your other top keywords/phrases.

The Denver Post

Oh goodie! Another news site that allow visitors to comment directly on articles!

Go to http://www.denverpost.com and, using their search box at the top, search for your top keyword/phrase. Find 5 to 10 articles that you think your book's target audience might be reading. Then, post a comment about each one using your subtle signature (Name, Author and Book Title only).

Then, repeat the exercise for your other top keywords/phrases.

ONGOING

This should be considered an ongoing book marketing activity. You should never drop into a discussion and then disappear completely because somebody might step in and make a comment about what you wrote or somebody might ask you a question. In addition, there are new articles, blogs, and discussions being posted all day long, every single day. Stay on top of them and you'll continue to sell books.

Don't stop at just the top five news sites I featured here. There are many more newspapers, listed by size, at this site: http://nyjobsource.com/papers.html

Have fun helping others (posting comments/facts/opinions) while promoting your book!

Angela Hoy is the co-owner of the ebook and print on demand publisher, Booklocker.com and the publisher of WritersWeekly.com.