Write a Short Article to Promote Your Book Online
by Judy Cullins

Dissatisfied with your book sales? With book signings, press releases, book store sales?

So many authors spend a lot of time and money on promotion that doesn't work. It's time to do what authors do best--write a short article. Follow these ten steps to write an article top web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold.

Apply these Ten Steps:

• Choose a Topic that Relates to Your Book

Make sure this how-to article has useful, needed information. One site who markets to professional speakers just published my article "What Makes One Book Out Sell Another."

• Know Your Article's Thesis

The thesis is what your article will prove. In the introduction above, the thesis is stated in the last line, "Use these ways to write an article top web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold."

• Know Your Preferred Audience

Just as your book has a target audience, so should your article. My book, "How to Write Your E-Book or Other Book Fast!” is a short, easy-to-read, step-by-step guide to assist professionals with writing and selling their  book.

• Write a Sparkling Opening

Like a headline in a press release or on your book's back cover, your first sentence should grab your readers by the collar so they will keep reading. The opening could use a shocking fact, a question, a benefit, or a compelling story right out of your book.  Make the opening a short paragraph, even a single line. Readers want short, concise, digestible information, especially on the Internet.

• Illustrate a Need

Whatever your topic, show your readers why they need your information. If you have written a book on listening, then in your short article discuss how much is at stake for not listening such as divorce or lost business.

• Give a Brief Background of the Problem or Situation You Will Solve

One of my book coaching clients wrote a book, "The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis." She shares that over 2 million people worldwide with Multiple Sclerosis are diagnosed incurable, that doctors are pressured to use pharmaceuticals, and that the health industry is not about getting people well, but about making money.

• Share the Problems that Result

In "The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis," the problem is that most people rely on western medicine, which does not have the answers. Big money is not spent on alternative or complementary ways to prevent and cure chronic diseases, so people with problems get drugs that deplete the immune system.

• Give the Solution

Your book offers solutions to problems. So must your article. Show your readers how to get excellent health, how they can write a book, make more money, or have better relationships.

• Show Them Where to Get the Solution and How

The article, "How to Listen at Work," needs to suggest where to go or what to do next. You may name a quality book to read (maybe your book!). Mention a seminar or training, or recommend a coach. You may even mention a web site address or 800 number.

• Place Your Article on as Many High Traffic Internet Sites and Opt-in Ezines as You Can 
  
  Just as feature articles in newspapers are seven times as powerful as advertising, so is your article. People are looking for free information online. That's the major reason they surf!

So, now that you know how to write a short article, put it to work for you to promote your book. 

Judy Cullins: author, publisher, book coach helps professionals manifest their book dreams. eBook: “Write Your eBook or Other Short Book Fast!”

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