Success Story from Bolivia: Joan Hernandez
This week, a success story and guest post from reader Joan Hernandez in Santa Cruz, Bolivia:
During the past ten years I have written a number of books and booklets in Spanish on education, development and human relations for different projects sponsored by the university for which I work (Nur University, Santa Cruz, Bolivia). Later, some of these materials were incorporated into courses in different faculties, so I had small, periodic sales.
Then last year I decided that I wanted to let a wider audience know about these valuable materials. I started by developing a webpage. The next step was getting people to visit it, and I learned about ezines. So three months ago I started publishing an ezine twice a month. The subscriber list has been growing slowly but steadily, and I really enjoy the positive feedback I get from my subscribers. I also started a blog on which I put the main articles from my ezine.
Although I’m definitely not “swamped” by orders for my materials yet, every month I receive several orders through the webpage, mostly from people who are receiving my ezine.
This week I’m sending out a special promotion for my new 38-page booklet Manejo Financiero Transparente, which is designed to raise the consciousness of local community organizations regarding the importance of honest and transparent financial management and to give them the basic tools they need to do so.
I truly appreciate The Web Savvy Writer, because through it I’m learning about opportunities of which I was completely ignorant; for example, how to put books on Google Search, and even how to submit my webpage to be included in Google.
Now I’m taking the first steps in learning how to better my webpage to make it more “friendly” to search engines, so that hopefully some people may begin to find me that way, and not only through my ezine.
Thank you so much, Patrice, for sharing your knowledge with us.
Have a success story of your own? Feel free to contact me about your own online book promotion success.
Success Story — Mike Maranhas
Mike Maranhas, author of the novel Re’enev
- Featured in an article in his local newspaper, The Gloucester Daily Times Online
- Chosen as one of the Highlighted Titles for 2006 by Independent Publisher magazine
- Reviewed by a book reviewer Time magazine listed as one of the most prolific and influential book reviewers of 2006 (after being turned down for reviews elsewhere)
The lessons for other authors:
- Persevere. If one opportunity doesn’t work out, keep on trying. There are thousands of potential channels for promoting your book if you’re creative and persistent.
- Look into opportunities for awards and recognition for your book (but verify the legitimacy of any program before paying a fee to enter).
Have a success story of your own? Feel free to contact me about your own online book promotion success.
Share Your Author Success Stories
To make this blog more interactive, I would like to start sharing reader success stories. Is online book promotion working for you? Did you generate good results from a particular online effort such as a new website, ezine, blog, or podcast? Do you have a killer video book trailer you’d like others to see?
In addition to sharing your experiences with fellow authors, this is a good opportunity to promote your own book as well!
Please feel free to contact me with your success stories and tips.
Tags: book publishingRelated Posts
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About the Author
Patrice-Anne Rutledge is a freelance writer and author specializing in business technology.
