Author Tips

If the first rule of Real Estate is Location, Location, Location, then the first rule for authors should be - Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. A lot of new authors and first time writers aren't aware of this.

Luckily, Marketing has always come easily to me. And things are not usually as hard to do yourself as you may be afraid they are. Especially learning things on the computer. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask the computer how to do something. Just type in your question to the search engine and you will likely find many answers.

A few years ago, I didn't know much about computers at all, except the basics. Now I can create websites, write blogs, create videos and more. However I am smart enough to know that as much as I have taught myself, there are thousands of more things to learn.

The first website I created was for my novels. I started with a company simply called Freewebs.com, now it's even more simply called Webs.com I still find them the easiest and most user friendly. There is also Intuit, and Go Daddy and more that I don't even know the names of.

It does cost a small amount of money to get your own site name, around $20.00 a year. Design your website with your target market in mind. Look at some other author websites and see which ones you like, it's a good way to get good ideas. Ours is KT-Banks.com I didn't really want the - (dash) but KTBanks.com was already taken.

What astounds me is that we get thousands of hits, Even hits from around the world. I figured out that the more you mess around with your site, like adding blogs, merchandise, updates, members, etc... the more the "spiders" of the Internet notice you and mention you. I don't pay anyone for SEO (search engine optimization). I did in the beginning, but I don't now.

I once had a SEO company call me and tell me what all they could do for me. The man said they could even get us on the first page of Google. So I Googled our name and find out that we are mentioned all over the first 10 pages or so of Google. I was shocked. How did that happen?

Well, another thing I do is social networking on the net. We belong to a lot of different social networks, sometimes the "spiders" pick up something we've said on one of those sites.

We also write for different online ezines, magazines and of course, Hubpages. Those articles are picked up a lot of times and show up on Google. Plus it's fun.

We also made our own Book Trailer. It's like when you go to the movies and before it starts they show you "trailers" of other movies coming soon. Now they have book trailers, showing a short video about the book. I checked prices with professional companies, they wanted around $5000.00.

Then I thought of the local Art Institute. They were happy to help and referred me to a few recent grads. We ended up with a pretty good video, using family and friends as cast. The whole thing cost about $250.00, And we had a lot of fun.

Then I heard about Animoto. They take pictures that you upload, add music and creatively move the pictures around, and even add text. We did a pretty good one about our busy first year as authors. The cost was --- $7.00, We put our videos on YouTube, our website and facebook.

We also have done a lot of book signings. However, thinking outside the box, (I think I was born outside the box) we don't just do them at bookstores. We have actually had book signings at Spas and hair salons, luxury apartment communities, street festivals and other interesting places. And bookstores too, big ones like Barnes and Noble and also small independent bookstores

Every author has to do Marketing for their books. If you want more marketing ideas, let me know. Tonight I just shared some easy, inexpensive ones. We just finished the manuscript called "Nico's Guilt" which is a sequel to "Stand and Protect." If you have a chance, check out our website, mentioned above, and you can see some of our marketing at work. If you become a Member, we will even let you advertise on our site, it's our way of Paying it forward!

All the Best,

KT Banks