Authors Should Build Keywords into Their Elevator Pitches for Best Results

I love this digital world we now live in. Where the only forms of advertising authors used to have at their disposal were posters, print, radio, and television ads, we can now sell audiobooks, ebooks, paperbacks, and even hardcovers online. The whole world is open to us via blogging, social media marketing, email campaigns, et cetera. The Internet is truly the great equalizer.

But some fundamentals remain, particularly given the increase in competition digital publishing has created. Millions of books are being published every year, so how do you stand out among the rest within your own genre?

For starters, the back cover copy of your book should be your elevator pitch. It should sell people on buying it by piquing their interest about the content inside. But writing creative copy that sounds delicious to your readers is no longer enough if no one can find it within the maze of other similar books. You have to be able to lead people directly to your book in the first place, and you do this by building your top keywords into that back cover copy.

This is why I always tell authors to start thinking about your book's marketing campaign during the writing process--long before you reach the publishing process. Think about who your target market is and what sorts of keywords they will type into the search engines when they go looking for a book like yours. Figure out at least your top ten keywords and start blogging about those words and your book as a form of pre-promotion well ahead of publication. Share those blog entries on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and wherever else you can think of at least twice weekly to improve your author name recognition and search engine optimization well before the book is even released.

Then write your back cover copy--your book's elevator pitch. And make sure you somehow incorporate as many of those top keywords into it as you can. That way, once your book is published and available online, whether it be on KoboBooks or Amazon, it will be that much easier for your target market to find the book and buy it. It will be top of mind for them and stand out more clearly among the rest.

What do you think are the best social media marketing platforms to promote a book on? Share your thoughts here. We can all learn from each other.