Ultimate guide to your web content
17 topic suggestions, 3 web lessons and One very good advice.
SEO. Metadata. Content marketing. Storytelling. Aggregate data. Behavioral Targeting. Geo Targeting. Multi-segment targeting. Re-Targeting. BackLinks. Growth Hacking. Meta-tags. Organic results. Conversions. ROI. PageRank.
Please forget all those words right now. Don’t forget their definition or existence but stop thinking this is what you aim for when using the web to promote your book. They are just technical words to define different aspects of obvious online marketing matters. When I say obvious, what I mean is the following:
You want to spread your book, this means people have to hear about it. This means someone needs to say something about it. This won’t happen just because. This is where book marketing comes in.
And the first person who should be talking about your book is you: that’s your web content. Surprisingly enough, many authors and publishers often are asking what they could say to feed their web content. I thus decided to provide tips and instructions on what should be an author’s or publisher’s web content.
These instructions apply to any web place* where you will be able to publish content and that you’d like to see visited a lot. (That’s how people may get to know your book and buy it so, yes, it is essential that many people visit your web place.)
*Web place: blog, website, social media page, etc. basically any page with a URL related to your book.
Writing inspiration
What kind of content could you possibly put online once you described your book? That’s all your book is, you could not possibly just make up content about it. You’re not going to sell your soul to a padding strategy.
Really? Are you seriously at ease with this last paragraph I wrote? Does your book’s life end once you hit the “publish” button? Did your author’s life end? Did your publisher’s life end? No! You don’t think you have anything to write about? Don’t forget you are a writer and/or a publisher. Don’t forget you can get people interested in your book by other means that just having them read the synopsis. Let’s try to make a simple list of some of the topics you could be talking about once your book is published:
- Reader’s reception and reviews
- Book events (future, present and past)
- Feedback on your experience writing the book
- Feedback on your experience getting the book ready for publication
- Feedback on your experience and choices as a publisher
- Your impression and comment when readers talk to you about your book
- Your strategies to promote your book (advice, questions, ….)
- Your plans for other potential work
- Your latest reads, other’s work you support
- Your inspirations (places, people, books, stories)
- Your reaction and comments on publishing industry news
- Your answers to other’s reaction and comments on publishing industry news
- Your vision of how the publishing industry should evolve
- Your writing habits and how they compare to famous author’s habits
- Reader’s nice encounters and/or conversations with you
- The good advice you received from other authors or publishers
- Your take on an event related to writing or publishing you went to or are going to.
Shall I go on? For each of this topic you’ll probably have many opportunities to say something and since it’s always better to have 1 Subject for 1 post that could get you going for years to come with things to say everyday! And that’s only general suggestions from someone who knows nothing about your personal interests, expertise, passions, books topic, etc.
Did you not think about any of these? Do you think none of these are relevant to promote your book? No? So, why does finding things to say every week seems to be so difficult for you? (if not you, many other people.)
The main reason I hear when discussing this is that you don’t think it’s relevant/useful/of interest for the people of the web who will have access to your content. How is it not relevant for your audience to know how your book is doing, how it was written, how you dealt with publication or promotion? Or maybe you don’t feel you have the authority to make statements on publishing, authoring or writing.
There are a few things to remember when publishing content online:
- There won’t be a worldwide announcement for everyone connected everywhere in the world to read your publication. People who will read it are only your audience:
- You
- People you notify that are interested enough to click and read
- People who search for something specific related to your post, considering the glimpse of your publication (among search results) to be relevant enough for them.
- You again
- Your mother - Sharing online your tips and advice for free gives value to yourself and your work. It’s a time investment for your book’s promotion, not a waste of time for something you aren’t monetizing.
- People aren’t expecting you to be the online voice of truth (that’s Wikipedia). They are visiting your web place: they expect to read your view, your voice, basically: yourself.
You are the President, Chief, King, Queen, Emperor, CEO and Master of your webplace: Own it.
There is no reason to be shy, paranoïac or afraid. You won’t be sued for talking about you and your book. The earth won’t stop turning if someone reads your advice and disagrees. And, most of all, you don’t solve a lack of readership by not publishing. The more you publish, the more people may find what they need or like in your publication, the better your SEO will get and the better you’ll get at publishing online. So, here is the one advice you have to keep from this message:
