Paged Media

5. No excerpts

“Everyone’s heard that your book is faboo, but it’s from some itty bitty press no one’s ever heard of, and the cover price is a little higher than we’re used to. Since you haven’t given us any excerpts, we have no idea if we’ll like it, and we pass. Surely if it’s that good, someone will pick up the paperback rights in a year or two.”

Excerpts are a great way to entice people into buying your book. This is especially true for books that might not be stocked at the neighborhood Barnes & Noble.

Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 3:15 am • comment

4. All images

“My friend is chattering about how wonderful your books are, so I whip out my Blackberry and look you up on the web. Alas, your site is nothing but images, and I’ve disabled them on my phone because of the slow connection. I get a blank screen.”

First and foremost, your site should consist of text. Lots of text will boost your search engine rankings. It is also essential for visitors with poor vision and for people browsing on PDAs or cell phones. Use images as embellishments, not as the main course.

Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 8:20 pm • comment

3. No description

“I can’t tell whether the book is for me by glancing at the cover, and you haven’t given me anything else to go by. Is it SF, mystery, romance? What’s it about? Who knows?”

Give us a little information about a book — for example, its genre. Write a description or just copy the cover blurb.

Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 6:21 pm • comment

2. Which book comes first?

“We’ve heard that your Quest of the Protagonist series is fantastic, but we don’t know which book to read first — and you haven’t told us.”

If you’ve written a series, make it clear which book comes first! Don’t assume that because you’ve put the first book at the top of the page, we’ll know it’s the first one — we’re used to blogs, remember, where the newest thing comes first. Number the books! Be explicit. Many readers are reluctant to try a series unless they can start at the beginning.

Posted by admin in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 10:42 am • comment

1. Print the Titles

“The book cover images on your site are a little grainy. I can’t quite read them, and the titles aren’t printed anywhere else on your site.”

First and foremost, your site should consist of text. Experiment: turn off images in your browser, or check out your site in a text-only browser. Can a visitor still figure out what books you’ve written? Images of book covers should be used to help them identify your book, but they shouldn’t be the only place to find the titles.

Read more about listing your books to give your readers — and future readers — all the information they need.

Posted by steph in 50 Ways Your Website is Not Helping You Sell More Books at 3:29 pm • comment