If I had to pick one key buzzword from the past several book industry events, it would be discoverability. As more and more people turn to the internet for book purchasing, whether electronic or print, the need to provide good title information is huge.

Just a few years ago, your biggest challenge and goal was to get your book in front of the world by getting it on a bookshelf.

Now your challenge and goal is to get your book to come up on a screen.

For most search engines, the more your book sells, the higher up it appears in search engines and the more likely to be sold again. It is a great cycle once it starts. But what if you are just starting out?

There is another key to discoverability: excellent metadata.

Metadata is data about data. In this case, it is information about your book. Very basic metadata includes binding type, number of pages, subject, title, author, and description. You would be surprised at how often people neglect to take care in providing this information.

Our company uses a new title form to collect this information. As forms tend to be, it can take a little time and be a bit tedious. But if this is now the key way the public discovers your book, don’t you think it is worth it?

Along with the need to provide good information, the industry is now pushing to have that information earlier in the process. We’ve recently had to rethink our new title submission deadlines in order to keep up with the requirements of the larger customers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Please take great care in providing as much detail as you can about your book. If you don’t know what one of the terms means, ask. Take the time to write a concise and compelling book description. Use your author bio as a chance to connect with readers about your book, not to talk about your dog (unless, of course, a dog is central to your book).

Do a little research to figure out which subject codes best represent your book and give it the best chance of selling (the more specific you can get, the better). List comparable titles that are actually comparable (“No book is like it!” doesn’t work. Neither does listing a selection from the best-seller list when your marketing plan and budget doesn’t look anything like theirs).

By being meticulous with your metadata, you give your title its best chance in the online world.

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About six months ago I shared a link on Facebook titled Stop Treating $9.99 as the Magic E-Book Price.

This article sparked some good comments such as:

“What price would you prefer?”

“How do you feel about 99 cents?”

“My friend has hers set to $8. Lol, she says it’s her magic number.”

“plus from a numerical standpoint, nine is a very powerful number, but when it shows up in threes? Total awesomesauce”

“Is it wise to stagger prices by year of release?”

There are obviously a lot of questions. And though we are half a year further down the e-revolution from when I posted the article, I think eBook pricing is still a very relevant question.

Since that article ran, I’ve heard various thoughts on eBook prices. Some say $.99 is the way to go. Others say $.99 indicates that it is not a good book and that pricing it so low devalues publishing as a whole. There are many who fear that the buying public expectation will be that all books should cost $.99, making it hard for many authors and publishers to continue their efforts.

Some say that it depends on the genre. Your pricing may also be dependent on how you go about selling your content. Depending on your terms, a different pricing strategy might work better on a given platform than on a one-size-fits-all strategy.

From our experience at Bookmasters, our recommendations start at $5.99 and fall from there. We have found that there is more volume sold at a lower price point. For instance, if you sell 2 copies at $9.99 compared with 4 copies at $4.99, you should choose the lower price hands-down. More copies sold means more exposure for your book and your name.

For most of the publishers and authors that we work with, this range seems to be the sweet spot. What eBook pricing strategies have worked for you?

Photo: MoneyBlogNewz, Creative Commons

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Think writing a book is hard? Authors know the editing process can be even more painful. But ask seasoned authors and they will likely tell you that marketing a book could be about the hardest part of the whole book process.

Luckily technology is making marketing a whole lot more interesting. Now you can combine print and web marketing through using QR codes.

Bookmasters has successfully been implementing this strategy for the past year with innovative business cards containing author contact information and QR codes that link to social media sites, marketing widgets, and eRetail sites for direct book purchases in both print and eBook formats.

Call us (888-537-6727) to spice up your marketing efforts.

Photo: Faheem Mir, Creative Commons

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We are currently running a contest in which we asked our followers to submit a book idea that would then be voted on by our Facebook fans and readers of our blog. We will tally up the votes at the end of the month and the winner will receive a free cover design from our team.

This is the first time we’ve run a contest like this, and I’ve been very pleased. We had ten people submit their book ideas, and our blog visits have been up since voting commenced.

A few days into voting, one of the authors who had submitted a book idea emailed to ask the wisdom of using our fans to vote. This person was afraid that the contest would essentially become a popularity contest and that the person that could influence the most friends to vote for him or her would win.

The contest is open to our entire fanbase, which includes more than 13,000 Facebook fans, so there is a pretty good depth of field. But I have to admit that this author is partially right. I hadn’t thought it through fully before, but after receiving the email, I realized that this is a great illustration of the importance of working to build your platform for book sales. I challenged the author to encourage his friends to check out the contest and to encourage their friends to check it out. Then when he has a finished book, he will have a larger network of people who have already heard about the book and are more likely to buy.

In a way, it becomes a way of crowdfunding. But instead of customers giving money up front for a project yet to be completed, they are investing their interest. Now that they have voted and feel that they’ve been a part of something from the very beginning, they are likely to be at least a bit emotionally invested.

This used to be a good tactic to use with buyers for stores. These are the people that make the decision on what to stock on their shelves, whether it be for their store or for a chain of stores. Our sales people would pitch books to the buyer, of course months ahead of actual publication date, and if there was ever any feedback, we would relate that to the publisher. Then, when the publisher would implement the feedback into the final product (which we would highly suggest they do), we would alert that buyer. Do you think their initial buy quantity went up? You’d better believe it.

While this is still a good tactic, and one of the many reasons we love our sales people, the same idea can be brought down straight to the buying public. As I mentioned above, when a person is involved with a project in the beginning stages, they build a bit of an emotional investment. They feel as if they are a part of something. When the book goes big, they want to be able to say, “I’ve been there from the beginning.”

I hope that you take a moment to look at our contest tab and vote on the book idea you think is best. And keep an eye on any that catch your fancy. They will likely be available for sale in the future, and you can brag about being there from the beginning.

And if you are an author yourself and are disappointed that you missed out on this contest, check back every now and then. We have events planned all throughout the year. And I’ll even give you a hint. Next month we will have voting on favorite cover designs. I’ll leave you hanging about what the prize is, but it is good.

Photo: designsbykari, Creative Commons

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Yours for $195* per title

Space is limited

Contact your account executive
at 1.800.537.6727 to learn more

*Note: Pricing includes 4% cash discount. Discount not available for other forms of payment.

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