New book marketing tool

I'm an aspiring author and I've been looking for a comprehensive online book marketing technology. Most of the author sites I've seen have books appearing as static cover images. I've found this site - where your book extract will show up as a real book and allow readers to turn pages like they would in a real book. And you can put up your book on your author site, blog or Facebook profile.
Any thoughts about this online book marketing technology?

Hi freya,

Thanks for the information. You will have to join to post a link (the forum software strips out links from guests' posts to stop spamming).

A few years ago I attended a midwest writers' conference, had my ten-minute pitch to an agent, send the manuscript in, and waited to hear. And waited, and waited some more. Finally, a letter from her arrived, and my heart sank. Agents who sign a new author usually calls. The agent said that I wrote well, but needed to learn story structure. That started my quest to learn.

It took quite a while for it to sink in, and I attended more conferences, took more classes, talked to author friends and anyone published with the majors who'd talk to me, but few told me the secret, but I was persistent, as I wanted that big contract.

Finally, between the classes and dissecting novels, I learned and begun teaching it to my writing students. Then I wrote an ebook, Plot Your Way to Publication, to help them understand. I had a cover designed, took advice from other ebook authors, bought software to convert a Word doc into a .pdf file and to include the cover and pages of charts I'd designed, opened a seller's acccount with PayPal and went into business. I offered instant download from my website and was successful.

Then I discovered an online firm who'd market for me and offered multi-marketing plans with affiliates and sub-levels. Beiing green, I thought it sounded good and I signed. After a few months with no paycheck, I realized the super-small fine print stated they could hold my money for several months until all monies cleared and then some. I cancelled my contract and went back to offering the ebook from my website. Now my current publisher has published it as a workbook with extra charts included.

Sometimes, when you're trying something new or a new company, it takes experience, good and bad, to decide what's right for you, but sometimes it's difficult to get that experience. I'd suggest sending an email to several of their customers to see if they'll share the good and the bad. Then you can make your decision.

I believe they were trying to promote freado.com. It is a new site, similar to those other book sites listed here. Upload a profile and your book, let people browse it similar to a Search Inside feature, and put your widget wherever you want.

It is pretty new, just getting going but is free to join and add your book.

My question about those kinds of sites is simply this: are the primary people going there the people who are promoting their books?

If so, the audience is too small and it's there to sell, not to shop. I feel the same way about AuthorsDen.

Sad, but true, authors really aren't much more likely to buy books from people they've never heard of than the general public.

Malcolm

I'm trying that site. I think the advantage of participation is the thoroughness of the information posted and available for those with interest. I plan to link it with Twitter, Facebook, www.dkchristi.com, and other social networking sites that have a general readership. I'll add it to blogs also. Hey, I'll give it a whirl and see what happens...thanks for bringing it to my attention.

You can check out my start there...I listed Arirang: The Bamboo Connection first.

I'm with you Malcolm. Most of these sites seem to be full of other authors. Some are promoting their books, some are looking for books to read. They are not generally filled with readers looking for the next great book. That said, they are still useful. It only takes a few minutes to register and put your book up there. Can't hurt, right? So, it may not amount to much in terms of sales, but any chance one has for free marketing opportunities should be capitalized on.

Malcolm wrote:

My question about those kinds of sites is simply this: are the primary people going there the people who are promoting their books?

Malcolm