Plug Your Book!

A few months ago, I was sent a real nifty little book on book promotion to review which was called Plug Your Book by Steve Weber. It sat on top of my desk to grab when I had a few minutes to spare, but I never could grab those few spare minutes with the book tours and promoting The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, a paranormal that Heide Kaminski, Pam Lawniczak and I wrote which just came out in paperback this month. It was always busy, busy, busy, which left absolutely no time for reading.

Well, today, at work, I found the time. It was extraordinarily slow, so I pulled up a chair, propped my feet up on computer equipment in the back and dived in. Big mistake. I was worthless.

Waiting for my relief to walk in so that I could go home and finish the book, I pulled out my yellow highlighter and started highlighting. It was a treasure trove of information that I wanted to refer to when I sent him my review.

One passage he had in the book that really made me sit up was:

"Many booksellers, publishers, and agents pay close attention to Amazon ranks. So if you manage to pump up (gotta love his buzz words!) the sales rank of your book, it can prompt brick-and-mortar stores to order more copies. Publishers looking for a complementary title might ask you to write the book for them."

What I found interesting about that passage was that it made me wonder, for those published with small press and who lack distribution in major book stores like Barnes & Noble, would sales rankings make a difference as to whether they would stock you?

The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost has held a ranking of 740 or so in B&N online for days. If I mention the ranking to the store manager, would that make a difference? Anyone know?

I'm heading out to the B&N in Salisbury, Maryland, tomorrow just to test the waters. I'm not even sure how I'm going to approach this and I'm sure, by what I've heard, it just isn't going to happen come hell or high water, but what if...I'm a local author? Would that even make a difference in this highly competitive market?

I'll let you know what happens. BTW, as of this writing, the sales rankings at B&N just dipped to 1,030 and my luck, it'll be higher than that when I go in there, but we shall see.

Another thing I liked about Mr. Weber's book is the chapter on how to approach Amazon top reviewers, even down to the sample email you can email them with. Quite a neat little book. I'm only half-way through but I'll be giving it a full review soon.

BTW, his rankings at Amazon isn't anything to sneeze at. For a self-published book, it's standing at 5,351 (it's been out since February 2007).

I'll give you my full evaluation in another day or so of why I believe he's doing so well. Meanwhile, if you want to check out Mr. Weber's blog, go to http://www.weberbooks.com/publish.htm. That's nothing to sneeze at, either. WTG, Mr. Weber. ;o)

Tags: How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, online book promotion, author publicity, book promotion, book promotion tips, Plug Your Book!, Steve Weber, self-published