Plug Your Book: Online Book Marketing For Authors
by Steve Weber
ISBN-10: 0977240614
ISBN-13: 978-0977240616
PROS:
- Covers an incredible amount of information on book promotions.
- Explains why techniques work.
- Very little wasted space.
- Friendly, readable writing
CONS:
- Focus on social media is has some limits
- Heavy focus on Amazon – which is understandable.
- The sheer information density can be overwhelming.
SUMMARY: A must-buy book for people wanting to market books online.
"Plug Your Book" was yet another book that I "had to read" about book promotion according to people I know. Since the people I know have been on a roll in advice, I read it, and, well, they're right.
"Plug Your Book" is by Steve Weber, http://www.weberbooks.com/, a man who has serious experience in author promotion and running an online bookstore. As soon as you begin reading, he jumps into the world of online promotion and rarely comes up for air. The book is almost relentless in the amount of sheer stuff it gives you to do, read, and try.
Weber's major focus is, obviously online, and he gives a good amount of time discussing of the indisputable giant of online books ales, Amazon. He explores sales rankings, author pages, review ideas, and more in great detail, and how they can benefit you. The level of detail on Amazon is stunning and there's a lot I didn't know – he could probably make the entire book on Amazon and what it means to online book sales.
He doesn't limit himself, however. He goes into examining pretty much any area of book promotion: web pages, blogs, promo packs, and more. There's nothing here I haven't seen covered elsewhere, but Weber brings most of it together in one place, easily explained and with useful tips.
If there's one flaw, it's that his focus on Social Media is heavily focused MySpace. The book was written in 2007, and obviously that was his chosen social media platform, but I hope an update will add more social media information and suggestions or work to generalize it. Fortunately, a lot of his MySpace advice is easily applicable elsewhere.
The book ends up being a bit of an overwhelming read – you'll want to take a break from it and go back to it once finished because as noted, there is a lot of information. You're going to get your money's worth, that's for sure, but don't rush this one – take the time to extract the information from it.
I'm going to put this in the must-read category for authors. Very simply it just has a lot of information, communicated well, that you can use. Some of it may be a bit dated or have changed, but you'll get a lot out of it, and the awareness of the ins-and-outs and options of online promotion it brings will be very useful.
So go on, give it a try! If you're any kind of author, it's going to be worth your time.
– Steven Savage