Promote your Ebook

Yes, Amazon indeed is one of the leading platforms for selling ebooks, a gold mine for digital authors. But it is also a cemetery of forgotten ebooks, of titles that never knew a sale, victims of the ‘long tail’ perhaps, or simply because they do not interest anyone. The question is: do you want your book to be one of those?

Also read : Brand Voice – What is a Brand Voice?, And How do you Develop it?

Writing an ebook is just one part of the digital author’s job. Unless you have the backing of a publisher or someone else does it for you, after writing the word ‘End’, another no less necessary task begins: promoting your ebook.

The problem is that many of the tips that are offered to us sometimes do not work as we expect. It may be because our book is not attractive (this post will not help you with this) and other external factors that make life-long advice obsolete. Hence the importance of being up-to-date on the changes in the digital landscape that may affect us.

Write to Promotional Websites or Blogs

As soon as you publish an ebook, it is advisable to concentrate on making it known more than on the sale itself, such as free promotions or offering discounts. Now,  the business of free ebook promotion websites is not what it used to be. Some pages have had to close, and others have to change direction to adapt to Google’s new restrictions on affiliate links and by Amazon. Google wants to remove from the results pages based exclusively on external links and that do not offer original content.

For its part, Amazon is closing in on websites promoting free ebooks by restricting its affiliate program to give paid ebooks a boost. It means that it will not be as easy to provide visibility to your ebook in this way as it was before. In any case, pages like free ebooks can help you give your book the push it needs in its first steps.

As the name suggests, these websites will not promote your ebook if it is not accessible, at least during a promotion like those Amazon allows you to do through its KDP Select program. We advise you to plan the advertising leaving enough time for the website to handle your request. It includes taking into account weekends, etc. Still, if you don’t get the expected response, don’t give up. An alternative is to contact blogs that may be interested in talking about your ebook. This strategy is also advantageous if you already have an ebook published for a long time but want to start a new free promotion to encourage sales.

Launch your Website:

Having a blog about your ebook or related to the book’s subject can give your work a lot of visibility. Think of a reader who sees the cover, interested in the plot, but does not know you. A website can give you confidence and consolidate the reputation of your publishing project. Make sure you have links to all the distribution channels of your ebook. The downside is that if you use affiliate identification codes, Internet users using Adblock on Google Chrome will not see the links.

Publish your Work on Many Platforms and Formats:

Why limit yourself to Amazon when your potential readers are also on Google play or Nookpress? The first thing is to know where our audience is and ensure that our ebook is in all possible channels. It does not mean that you always have to be everywhere. Sometimes you will be interested in being in one place. For example, Amazon offers authors its KDP Select program. They agree to sell their work exclusively on its platform and include it in a library fund in exchange for receiving money for loans made.
These are some of the leading platforms where you can sell your ebook and the main aspects to take into account:

Amazon:

You can benefit from access to a large readership through the Kindle device. The range of profits per sale is 70% if your ebook’s price is higher than $ 2.99 and 30% if it is lower. The KDP select loan program fund is a tempting option. Now, you must evaluate your ebook’s possibilities very well because registering for it requires publishing exclusively in the Amazon store for 90 days. Also, getting your book to be borrowed in the Spanish market is not as easy as in the Anglo-Saxon market because it has much less push at the moment.

Google Play:

Considering that Android, Google’s operating system, has a majority market share in tablets and smartphones, in addition to having the leading search engine as a backup, it is an excellent option to consider. The problem is that Google Play can sometimes apply a discount on ebooks (and not a small one). To prevent anyone from selling a title cheaper than them, Amazon will probably write to you to politely ask you to lower the price, which will impact your earnings on that platform. In short, being on Google Play could be detrimental to your Amazon strategy, according to some publishers’ experiences.

Smashwords:

The main advantage of this ebook distribution platform is being able to publish from the same place in several stores (Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, etc.), as well as having total control over the prices of your works with benefits of between the 60 and 85% on the price.

Nook press: Formerly called Pubit !, the Barnes & Noble ebook platform is intended as a tool for creating, publishing and distributing ebooks, where authors can write, edit and sell their works from the same place. Profits per sale are 40% for securities below $ 2.99 or above $ 9.99. Between both prices, the ‘royalties’ amount to 65%, slightly below Amazon.

Bubok:

This ‘made in Spain’ book publishing website offers publishing services to publish physical books and ebooks on demand. Although it is focused on traditional publishing, it also allows digital editions. Bubok’s commission is 20% on each sale.

Booktango:

This distribution platform offers authors ‘ royalties’ of 100% of sales. As a complement, it provides you with a series of paid editing services.

Create your Promotional ‘kit’:

Put yourself in the shoes of who will promote your book. What material do you need? Have a series of essential contents prepared, such as a photograph of yourself (that is good), a suggestive image of the book, a press release with a few quotes from the author, etc. Not only will it save you time later, but it will give you an image of professionalism.

Plan your Presence well on Social Networks and Forums:

Social networks are a great instrument to give your project visibility, and remain careful. They are not a direct sales channel. It is advisable to be online long before publishing . The book and publicize your work and professional profile, which will help generate interest later. The most important thing about networks is that they allow us to be close to our readers and interact with them. The same applies to forums. There is nothing worse than interrupting a conversation of interest in a meeting to sell our ebook.

Participants could interpret it as an intrusion, achieving the opposite effect. It remain advisable to use only the signature footer and work on the longer-term interest, for example, posting creative content like this. You can encourage your potential reader participation by previewing information about the ebook, sharing cover designs or experiences from the writing process. One of the best strategies to make living selling ebooks is to plan a multi-instalment editorial project and write at least the first two. In combination with a social media promotion plan, I  can help build buzz and a growing reader base. For example, you can use SlideShare as a means to promote your content.

Take Care of Criticism:

If you want others to promote your ebook, make sure that your part of the work is well done. Not only that the ebook is of quality, but that you attend to the criticisms of the readers and take good note of them. Some say that readers make opinions for readers. But authors can also extract valuable information. For example, if many readers talk about a problem in the book, listening to them will allow you to act quickly and correct it. Of course, there will be bad reviews, some disrespectful. Still, if the work is of quality and corrects the errors rapidly, those comments will be anecdotal among the positive opinions.

These tips will help give your project visibility, but they will not make you millions in three. The extraordinary thing about posting online is that we don’t have to measure success just by the work’s income. Whereas before publishing and distributing a paper book required a significant investment, today it is available to everyone, at least when it comes to money.

Yes, it is true that time is money and that writing a quality ebook requires dedication, but at least now we can make projects with a motivation other than economic reality. The important thing is to set your goal. Maybe you want to write an essay on a topic that interests you with no different motivation than social awareness. The only thing you propose is to generate traffic to a website where you develop more content around this topic. In this case, promoting your book for free or at a low price may be the most convenient option.

Also read :What is Digital Assets Management (DAM)?

‘.Once you discover royalty-free stock photos or photos . You open yourself up to a whole new world with tons of creative possibilities to exploit for your Business, brand or project. If you are one of those who think that a picture is worth a thousand words, take a look at the stock illustrations. Discover the best strategy to include images that make your website stand out with original content. By buying cheap photos, you can achieve a more significant visual impact on your designs without spending too much. You can find great high-resolution photos at rock-bottom prices in the StockPhotoSecrets Store!  Also, discover the best cheap image banks here.

But the question of how to use stock photos can get a bit confusing at first. And here, we will help you clarify the picture.

It’s exciting to learn that you can get high-quality professional photos to use in your Business for just pennies on the dollar. And unquestionably thousands of ideas come to mind to develop with them: the design of your website, your brand logo, your blog entries, your flyers and brochures, your advertisements, posters and decoration of your store or office, courtesy coffee mugs from your company, t-shirts to give to your customers, prints on products to sell. But is it allowed to use stock photos for all these purposes?

Cheap Stock Photos with Royalty Free License

Before starting, there is an essential point to keep in mind: Each image bank has its custom terms of use for the licenses they offer, and you should always carefully read the license agreement of the bank you use to make sure you understand. The rights that consume stayed granted to you on the photos and the restrictions that apply and corroborate that the use you want to give the images is covered by the certificate obtained.

Most severe and trustworthy image banks that offer cheap photos do so under the Royalty Free License. Besides, though, as we said, respectively, they personalise the terms of use of their images, the license has a basic structure common to practically all of them.

Here we will explain how to use stock photos in your work and your. Business based on these rights of use typical to all banks. Remember: you should always read the complete license agreement of the agency you use!

General Guide to Using Stock Photos

1. Royalty Free License

As we told you, Cheap stock photos usually come with a Royalty Free license, which allows you to use them legally and safely in your designs at a low cost. To learn more about stock photos and where to buy them, we recommend reading our guide to The Best Cheap Image Banks.

The Royalty-Free license is one of the best not only for its super accessible price (you can buy photos for between $ 1 and $ 20 each, and even for less than $ 0.30 with a subscription) but for the great flexibility in rights of use that he offers you.

By purchasing a Royalty Free license on a photo, you acquire the right to use said photo in designs for personal, commercial and editorial purposes, without time limit or geographic restriction. Besides, this license covers the repeated use of the image in multiple different designs, whether simultaneous or consecutive. All this, paying a single flat fee and without ever having to pay royalties or any extra costs.

It’s easy to see why it’s such a popular option: By paying the price once, you get the ability to use a professional, high-resolution photo for as long as you want . As many times as you want, and wherever you want.

2. Standard License

Another significant point to know is that the Royalty Free license has two variants. The main one is known as the Standard license. In almost all image banks, this is the default license that accompanies all photos, and the main prices advertised correspond to it. See here a list of the image banks that offer the cheapest Royalty Free licenses.

The Standard license gives you all the above rights, with two small but significant restrictions:

Copy limit: Although you can use the photos as long as you want and in as many designs as you want, there is a limit to the number of printed copies or digital reproductions you can make of the image. This limit is generally quite broad, around 500,000 copies.

Products for resale: Although you can use the photos for commercial purposes, these refer to designs linked to a business or profit-making activity and not direct selling. The Standard license prohibits stock photos in techniques applied to products you will sell or redistribute to generate income. (This does NOT include when you are a designer hired to develop a design . Or when you design something and then sell it to a single client, more on that later).

3. Extended License

Image banks, however, give you a way to bypass the limitations of the Standard license, albeit at a particular extra cost: the Extended license. It gives you all the rights to the previous one but adds unlimited copies and the right to use photos in resale products.

In almost all agencies, the Extended license comes in the form of a “pack”, including this extra rights battery. Still, in others, each added right is charged as a separate Extended license . Which can increase the image’s final cost depending on your intentions of use.

Other extended rights, such as multiple user rights . Allow you to add more people to the same user account to download and work with the photos.

You can get Extended Licensed stock photos at very reasonable prices at Best Cheap Image Banks.

4. General Restrictions

There are also certain restrictions on the Royalty Free license that are immovable. There are not many, and they are based on common sense . But you still need to know them to know how to use and how not to use stock photos.

Sensitive use: It is prohibited to use stock photos .In designs that refer to society’s sensitive topics. such as violence, racism, discrimination, criminal or illegal activities, etc.

Negative connotation: Regarding photos with people, topics that may result in harmful. Unwanted connotation for the image of the model are also included . Such as serious diseases, addictions, political ideology, sexuality, among others.

Direct promotion or endorsement of products or services: It is not allowed to use stock photos that include models . In such a way that it appears that they are directly promoting or recommending a product or service. You can use a woman’s image to promote a clothing store. But you can’t add a speech bubble where she says that she loves shopping at that store, for example.

You will never be able to use stock photos in these ways in almost any image bank . And you may face legal trouble if you do.

You must bear in mind that sensitive use is mainly subject to interpretation . So, you should consult both a legal advisor and the image bank staff before using a photo for such purposes.

Three Pillars of Persuasion

Little progress has remained made in the art of presenting since Aristotle. He wrote more than 2,300 years ago in his famous Rhetoric that there are three types of persuasive arguments or modes of appeal in a speech: those connected to ethos, pathos and logos

Also read: Webinar: What is it, and How to use it in your Content Strategy?

1. Arguments linked to the Ethos

They are of an affective and moral order and concern the issuer of the speech. They are, in short, the attitudes that he must adapt to inspire confidence in his audience. Aristotle wrote in Book I of his Rhetoric:

“ Good men we believe more fully and with less hesitation; this is generally true whatever the issue, and true where absolute certainty is impossible and opinions remain divided.

2. Arguments Referring to Pathos

They are of a purely affective order and fundamentally linked to the recipient of the speech. Seth Godin opines on his blog :

It is not the facts that change the behaviour of people. This is an emotion that changes your behaviour. It is the stories and irrational impulses that change behaviour. Neither the facts nor the bullet point lists .

To my knowledge, smokers don’t quit when they read statistics on lung cancer; they stop smoking when they or people close to them have cancer. Indeed, as emotional arguments, stories, anecdotes, analogies, metaphors, similes can remain used, all told with passion. Effective stories resonate in the hearts of the audience.

The Christian scientist, writer and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, correctly stated that “the heart has reasons that reason ignores.

3. The Arguments linked to logos

They stick to the theme and the message itself of the discourse, entering here the proper domain of the Dialectic. Logical arguments supported by solid evidence are used, appealing to reason and the intelligence of the audience.

Find the Balance Between Analytical and Emotional Exposure

Stephen R. Covey defines these three arguments very clearly in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People :

“Ethos is personal credibility, the faith that people have in our integrity and competence. It is the trust we inspire, our emotional bank account. Pathos is the empathic side, the feeling. It means that one remains aligned with the emotional impulse of another person’s communication. Logos is the logic, the reasoned part of the exhibition. ”

To maintain credibility with the audience ( ethos ) a speaker needs to strike a balance between their logical ( logos ) and emotional ( pathos ) arguments. It is necessary to present facts in a presentation accompanied by an emotional appeal. In our presentations, we often make the mistake of basing all our persuasive argumentation on data and facts ( logos ) neglecting the other two, especially the emotional appeal ( pathos ). We forget that emotion moves action more than reason.

Also read: What is Newsjacking, And How can you apply it?