Over the past month, we have discussed the number one reason why writers today choose self-publishing over and over again – CONTROL.

Via self-publishing, writers control book titles, book covers, book content (story and words), publishing, copyrights, and promotion.

We spend countless hours in front of the computer and our notebooks researching, writing, and editing our manuscripts to perfection.  We work through blood, sweat, and tears, until we fall in love with every aspect of our stories.

By taking CONTROL, we announce to the world that we are not only the author, but the publisher, agent, and promoter as well.

Many of us didn’t go to school to study business and or marketing, while some of us might have.  Many of us don’t have the first clue as to how to promote our products.  Heck, many of us aren’t even that comfortable with promoting ourselves.

But we can; we can do it.

Last week we suggested that one of the most important pages for an author to create in order to promote his or her book is an Author Website.

This website will serve as the primary launch pad for selling our e-books.  We can create different pages on this website for different aspects of our writing: a home page, including our book cover/s and blurb/s; an author page, including biography and head shot; a blog page, linking back to our blogs if we have one; and perhaps even a shopping cart page.  The author website makes it possible to sell all e-book versions in one location; after all, it’s important to have a central location for readers to find information about our books.

Okay, so what do we do now?

One way writers promote their books is by launching a blog tour.  With a blog tour, others in the blogosphere read and review books for their followers.  Some tours consist solely of book reviews, while others interview the author about their stories, characters, and general motivations behind telling their particular story.  Most authors like to offer their products to the reviewer for free, and sometimes even like to extend discounts to the reviewer’s readers.

We asked star client, Jillian Dodd, what she likes most about using her author website and here is what she had to say:

“The big thing I love about my author website is the ability to give my reviewers a coupon code linked to my Digital Content Center shopping cart instead of emailing a copy directly to the reviewer.  When we email copies, e-books usually aren’t digitally protected.  However, by giving the reviewer a coupon code to my author website, the digital rights of my story are still protected.

“This coupon code also allows the reviewer to grab a copy of my book in whichever format they prefer – Kindle, Nook, i-Books, and even .PDF.   With the DCC shopping cart service, there is a digital stamp created to help discourage file uploading to share sites.

“Clearly this method seems much more professional and I control the sharing of my work.”

Jillian saw much success with her That Boy Blog Tour earlier this year, and we wish her continued success with her sequel, That Wedding.  Her experiences have been crucial to our CONTROL blog series, and we can’t thank her enough.

To learn more about Jillian, her books, or just to simply check out her author website, click here.

And now…

Now we’re ready.  We’re ready to convert.  We’re ready to self-publish.  We’re ready to promote.  We’re ready to take CONTROL of our story.

Want to take control of your story?