By Sandra Beckwith

When Champion Products sponsored the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Player of the Year Awards for the NCAA’s five college divisions in the U.S., I was responsible for publicizing the award nominees in their hometown media.

To get the most publicity possible for the authentic athletic wear brand and the athletes, I used what marketers would now call a “hyper-local” approach.

Another publicist probably would have created one press release naming all 25 nominees and sent that announcement to a mass media list. But I knew that with publicity (as with many other things), personalization was the key to success.

I knew I had to make it instantly clear to every hometown media outlet that the press release I sent contained local news for a local audience. To do that, I created a fill-in-the-blanks press release template that I merged with a database containing relevant specifics about each athlete. All I had to do was press a few keys to produce each nominee’s hometown press release.

Because of this customized approach, each nominee (and the subsequent five winners) received the hometown newspaper and TV news attention they deserved.

By Marquis Matson

After blogging sites started becoming popular in the late 90s, early into the 2000s, sites such as LinkedIn and MySpace quickly gained prominence. By 2005, social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube had made their debut, creating entirely new ways through which people across the globe could communicate, share with each other, and do business.

Today, the estimated number of people using social media platforms worldwide are about 3.2 billion and still growing. With that in mind, it goes without saying that for the success of any business in the 21st century, social media marketing is crucial.

However, social media marketing has not been a bed of roses for most businesses, and don’t let the numerous online success stories fool you. The reality is, digital marketing requires a lot of effort, research, and experimenting with different social media techniques for brands to realize significant growth and success.

From the on start, it is very important for marketers to be strategic. A well laid out SMM plan and attention to details are critical for success. This article has what brands and marketers need to help them create an outstanding social media marketing plan.

read more https://digitalpubbing.com/guest-post-how-to-create-a-social-media-marketing-plan/

When we first start writing, many of us dream of having a book signing. We also cower at the prospect of having to talk to ‘real people.’ But for the most part, meeting readers is what we want. Organizing and delivering a book signing day can be daunting. ALLi Author member Eileen Omosa explains how to organize a book signing.

read more https://selfpublishingadvice.org/organize-a-book-signing/

Amazon still won’t convert a user’s Epub ebooks to Kindle format, but luckily there are alternatives such as Calibre or the converter Reedsy launched a few weeks ago.

I got an email from Reedsy on Friday which brought the converter to my attention. I didn’t have a chance to play with it until today, however. The converter has a simple interface; you just drag your Epub file over the window, and let go. You’ll then be prompted to enter your email so the resulting Mobi ebook will be sent to you, and that’s it.

I tested the converter just now. The Mobi I made from an Epub file arrived quickly and looks just as good as the the Mobi I got from from the publisher, although Reedsy’s file is well over twice the size.

All in all, it’s always good to have another option.

Have you tried it yet?

read more https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/05/12/reedsy-has-launched-an-epub-to-mobi-converter/

Many authors and publishers use a company such as PublishDrive or Draft2Digital to handle their distribution to smaller ebook retailers. They trade a small cut of their revenue for less hassle in managing their ebook offerings across multiple smaller ebookstores whose sales do not justify a direct relationship.

One would think that it is a good deal all around. Google, however, would disagree.

I’ve just heard about a policy Google started enforcing a couple months backs. It seems that Google now wants all authors and publishers with titles in Google Play Books to have a direct account with Play Books.

read more https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/05/16/google-play-books-is-cutting-out-the-middleman-now-wants-a-direct-relationship-with-authors-and-publishers/

When it comes to growing an audience on social media, every single author faces a time that I refer to as “The Gray Area.”

It’s that time between when you start writing a book and when it is released, and it’s often met with much trepidation from authors. The Gray Area is the time of needing to grow your audience but not knowing how to talk about your book early on in the process without giving too much away.

To see the results you’re looking for on social media, you have to be consistent. If you only post around the time your book comes out, you will probably be disappointed by the response.

If you think about social media as any relationship you have in life, this will make more sense. If you only talked to your friends when you needed something but ignored them the rest of the time, you won’t hear much from them.

Social media wasn’t created for marketing – it was created to build relationships.

And like any relationship, it takes time to establish trust. So as an author, it’s important to start that process as soon as possible. Even before your book is completed.

As a freelance fiction editor with a degree in marketing, I’m passionate about helping authors publish the best book possible. Why? Because a great product (book) is your first and best marketing tool. Basic Number One: Have a Great Book

read more https://badredheadmedia.com/2019/05/tips-how-to-create-your-author-platform-basics/

Why Is Content Marketing Important for Writers?Over the past few years, content marketing has gained popularity as a marketing strategy. And rightfully so—businesses all over the world are successfully using blog posts and social media to gain customers, clients, and brand fans.

EmailWe love it, we hate it.  We like to complain we get too much of it, but we’re also addicted to our inboxes.  If you’re an author who’d like to build a following, sell more books, and be seen as the go-to person in your industry, then this article will show you how

It’s tough enough to write an eye-catching blurb for your book on Amazon, especially so when you consider how many millions of books are there to compete with. It’s something we all struggle with, believe me. So how do we make our blurb pop? How do we draw eyes to it on our sales page?

A very quick and easy way, and a very effective way, is to use italics and/or bold in your book’s description. If you’ve published through KDP, I’m guessing your first reaction to this is, “Huh? There’s no option for that in KDP.”

You’re right; there’s not. The emphasis is something you have to add after publishing, and you have to do it through your author central page on Amazon.