This Hub is for Crash Cromwell. Crash has been struggling to sell his sci-fi trilogy. He has been posting excerpts of his work on sites all over the internet, and it's not helping. That doesn't surprise me!

Most people find websites using search engines.   If you type the title of Crash's novel into Google, up come all the sites where Crash has posted his excerpts, so he probably thinks he's doing well. 

Trouble is, it means nothing!  Who's going to search for the title of the novel, if they don't know it exists? There's absolutely no point in spreading the title around the internet, until you've got people interested enough to search for it.  And even then, there's not much point in spreading it around - all you need is one location, which will come up as #1 when you search for it.

So, we've established that scattering bits of your novel on various sites does nothing to raise its visibility.  What's more, it has several snags:

• The people who do find the excerpts can see that you're regularly posting sections of your novel,  So why should they buy it - all they have to do is be patient, and they can read most of it online. (Incidentally, it is a viable option to serialize your novel as a blog, but making money from it is a major logistical exercise).
• If you're hoping to publish the whole book one day, you don't want people stealing and reprinting the excerpts as their own work, so you need to check constantly for illegal copies and get them deleted. If you've published a lot of excerpts, that's a lot of work.
• If you get a mainstream publisher interested, they may not want material that has already been published elsewhere. If you've published only one or two small sections, it's easy to rewrite them. If you've published several chapters, you'll have a big rewrite job on your hands!

For all those reasons, it's much safer - and actually, more effective - to post an excerpt somewhere once, then put all your energies into marketing that URL to your target audience. One site with lots of links pointing to it will attract far, far more attention than several sites with fewer links each.

So we've decided to publish only one or two excerpts from our novel. But what excerpts?

I certainly wouldn't recommend doing what Crash has done, and publish the first chapter of my second book. In so doing, he gives away the ending to his first book - so who wants to buy that now? It's also hard to see the benefit in publishing later chapters of anything - true, they give a taste of what the story is like, but I wouldn't particularly want to buy a book if I already know what happens in Chapter 8.

So, it's Chapter One. If you don't think your Chapter One will hook a reader, then you have some serious rewriting to do. The opening of Chapter One is what will sell your book when someone picks it up off the bookstore shelf, as well as online. You absolutely must have an intriguing first sentence, an interesting middle and a devastatingly effective hook at the end - so the reader just can't stop there!!

You can preface the chapter with your bookjacket blurb, and follow up with a note about yourself - but nothing else. Don't make the mistake of offering a bio of your main characters. For instance, Crash's novel opens with an incandescently angry man. Reading it, you get so curious about why he's angry, you want to buy the book. Unfortunately, Crash has also published an article telling you his history, which explains why he's angry. Result - one lost sale!

Remember, never give away the rest of the story - that way, the only way your readers can find out what happens is to buy the book. And that's what you want, isn't it?

You'll find lots of advice on how to promote products on the internet, but many of them aren't terribly relevant if you're trying to sell a novel. It's true that every link on the internet helps to raise your visibility - but if you target your links in the right places, you can also get direct sales.

What's your novel about? If it's a specific genre like science fiction, fantasy, or romance, you're lucky. Genres have fans, and wherever fans congregate, you can take advantage of a captive audience.

Check Google Groups and Yahoo Groups for your genre. Google for forums about your genre.

• Join every Group and Forum, even if you don't think you can possibly participate in all of them.
• If there's a chance to create a profile, make sure it includes a link to your book, or your promotional website (as an example, my HubPages profile has several links to my other websites)
• See if you can have a link in your signature when posting - and if so, make it a link to your book or chapter.

Now do some posting. Don't jump in with both feet and start spruiking your book - establish your credentials as a fan yourself first. Then, once you know people, you can start mentioning your pet project. People are more likely to buy from someone they know and like.

You can do the same with social networking sites. Join Facebook, MySpace, Yuwie, Tribe, Tagged - anywhere that takes your fancy. At all these sites, you'll find special interest groups you can join. On many of them, you can theme your profile by choosing photos and backgrounds to suit your novel - plus, of course, you're going to have a link on there, aren't you?

Of course, you'll get the most benefit from all these sites if you actively participate, but don't fret if you can't. Just having all these links sprinkled around the internet helps, and if you're a member of lots of groups - especially small ones - you never know who will stumble across your profile.

As will be obvious by now, the key to success is to reach fans of your genre. Why waste time on places like Craigslist when you can make direct contact with the people who are really interested in your novel?

That doesn't mean other links are worthless. Take some time to review your internet presence. Make sure that every profile on every site has a link to your book, whether it's relevant or not! And speaking of internet presence...

You may wonder why I'm just plain Marisa Wright here on HubPages, instead of a catchy internet nickname. It's a deliberate strategy to create a reputation for Marisa Wright as a writer.

Let's say someone sees my book or my "taster" chapter. They wonder "who is this author?" If they Google "Marisa Wright", they'll find my name and image all over the place - and that gives the impression I'm a more established writer than I really am! They may even read my articles and like my style, which makes them more likely to buy the book.

Likewise, let's say I'm a member of a forum somewhere and casually mention I'm writing a novel. If I'm using the name "Marisa Wright", it's possible for people to find the book. If I'm using a nickname, no one will know how to find the book and I could have lost a sale.

So rule #1 is - choose a pen name and use it, everywhere you have a presence on the internet, even if it's not relevant to the genre of your novel. You never know when you'll get a chance to mention it.

If you can afford it, it's well worth buying the domain of your name (in my case, www.marisawright.com). It's the ideal place to post your "taster" chapter, along with links to your other writing. 

Although I'm giving advice here on how to promote your novel, I have reservations about sef-publishing, especially if your ultimate goal is to snare a mainstream publisher.

Mainstream publishers aren't impressed by an author who has e-published - in fact, I've had publishers tell me they're less likely to consider an author who has self-published. They worry that it shows impatience, as well as a certain amount of ego. They're concerned that a previously self-published author won't be willing to cooperate with a professional editor in the long, slow process of polishing the work for print publication.

However, if you can sell more than 5,000 copies, mainstream publishers will change their tune - so it's vital to have proof of your sales.  The best way to do that is to publish with an established site like Lulu.com.  The other benefit is that you'll be able to list your book on Amazon - which means that people can Google and find it, as mentioned above.

This is a final message to Crash. I know you don't want to hear this, but...

No mainstream publisher will ever buy a trilogy from an unknown author.

Even writers like J K Rowling had to start with the sale of just one book. So if you're to have any chance of publication, you must make your first book complete in itself - no cliffhanger endings!

A publisher makes a huge investment when they publish a book, so signing an unknown author is a big risk. They're not going to multiply that risk by signing up for more than one book at a time. They will only buy a book that stands on its own as a complete novel.  Pitch your book as a trilogy and your submission is liable to end up in the slush pile in triple-quick time.

On the plus side, if your first book is a success, you'll have two more books ready to go, to capitalize on that success.

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All text copyright Marisa Wright.