For authors trying to figure out what EAN is and if they need it. Got quite a few questions lately regarding this question.

While most retail products in the US are marked with a UPC symbol, virtually every other country uses the European Article Number (EAN). To provide world wide standardization in the sale and handling of books and because the book industry produces so many products annually, a special “country” with its own EAN prefix just for books has been designated in the EAN system — 978 for “Bookland” — which is used in the universal barcode system.

Any EAN which begins with the 978 prefix is called a Bookland EAN barcode and is used on books and book related products.

In Canada, getting an ISBN with barcode is free in the United States the charge is around $125. The bar code is part of the ISBN making the number 13 digits long.

When you get your own ISBN this registers the book to you the author not for example to Createspace or Amazon.

The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.

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There’s no question that it’s harder to promote fiction than it is nonfiction (and let’s not even talk about poetry).

Be open to the possibilities

Promoting and publicizing fiction requires more thought, creativity, and effort.

Give one or two of these seven suggestions a try and evaluate the results. You have nothing to lose, and much to gain.
1.Support your book with a good website designed by a professional. Your website has to be as good as your writing. Use your site to help us connect with you as an individual, not as a silent author. Help us  know you better by including video interviews and links to other media exposure.

2.Use your content to identify promotion allies. This could be your secret weapon because honestly, not enough novelists are doing this. Camille Noe Pagán’s novel, The Art of Forgetting, tells the story of what happens to a friendship when one of the friends suffers a traumatic brain injury, so Pagán partnered with the Bob Woodruff Foundation (Woodruff suffered a brain injury while covering the Iraq war for ABC-TV). Look, too, at your characters’ professions – there’s an association for just about every occupation. Send a copy of the book with a letter outlining promotional possibilities and what’s in it for them. You might offer to speak at their national meeting, write for their member publication, or offer a discount to members.

3.Think beyond book reviews. Book reviews are valuable and securing them should be on any author or publisher’s book promotion to-do list, but your novel deserves more widespread, long-term, and ongoing exposure than it can get through reviews alone. Send out press releases. You want the press to talk about your book for as long as it’s available for purchase.

4.Use the nonfiction nuggets in your manuscript to create newsworthy material for media outlets. Is your protagonist a radio jock? The morning drive time personalities would love to interview you by phone. Is she a jilted wife starting over in the workforce as – let’s say – an account executive at a high-flying packaging design firm who finds love with her client at a consumer products company? You’ve got publicity opportunities with the packaging and marketing trade magazines. What about locations, products, or services in your novel? And a brand name product that plays a key role could get your book into that brand’s employee newsletter. If you’re writing your novel now, work in some nonfiction nuggets you can capitalize on later.

5.Take advantage of holidays, special occasions, annual events, and seasonal stories. You want to constantly look for special days or occasions you can connect your book to.  There’s a holiday for just about everything. Hitch your book to one of them and use it to get into the news. (Use the monthly calendars at Holiday Insights for inspiration.)

6.Leverage what you uncovered while writing your book. Did you learn about a period in history or a specific region? Use this knowledge as a springboard for publicity. The author of a historical romance novel set in South Carolina, for example, can write and distribute a news release announcing the top romantic attractions in that state or pitch local newspapers or regional magazines on an article about the state’s most romantic date destinations. Your goal is to be quoted as an expert source because this requires using your book title as one of your credentials.

7.Get social. Focus on one or two social networking sites and master the most effective and appropriate ways to use them to promote your book.

And this is just the beginning. But I’m wondering: What has been your most successful tactic for promoting fiction? Please tell us about it.

Your goal is to sell more books, so I want to share 3 awesome ways to sell your books by getting people on your email list. Remember an email list is important to building a relationship with your readers so that they want to buy your books and interact with you. If you make these 3 small tweaks, you will start to get more sales from your existing fan base. You can also start to create a fan base using these strategies.

1. Link to your squeeze page

A powerful strategy is to link to your squeeze page inside your book. You can link your squeeze page at the beginning of your book underneath the copyright information on the title page and again at the end of you book after your author bio. From my experience having a link to your squeeze page will turn a portion of your readers into email subscribers.

2. Link to your other books

If you have other published books, link to them at the end of your book. Remember, if your readers like one of your books, they will more than likely enjoy your other books and want to read them. If you only have one book right now, just remember when your second book is published, make sure to add a link to all of your published books in each book.

3. Ask for a review

Reviews help sell your books. One  overlooked source for reviews is your existing readers while they are reading your book. Simply insert a review request at the back of your book. For example: “Thanks for reading this book. If you enjoyed this book or found it useful I would appreciate it if you could post a short review on Amazon (insert link to book on Amazon)

There you have 3 awesome free strategies to sell more books. Leave a comment sharing your success with these free tweaks.

I was over at KM Weiland’s website Wordplay Helping Writers become Authors
and found this interesting image. Love the idea of being true to yourself.

Share your thoughts in the comment box below

Just found a great info-graphic on copyblogger

The title says it all.

If you need help with any of these problems call me. I will be glad to help.

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