THE Group for Authors! discussion

I'm working on how to raise the profile of my recently-published book. One of my thoughts, having read various member posts, is to upload an excerpt of the first Part of the book (it has 5 Parts), as a free download, to hook readers in and encourage them to buy the full edition.

I assume other people have done this, but is it effective? Has it led to more sales?

Thanks,

Will

If the excerpt is interesting and well edited, I see no harm. Well known authors and even some publishers have been doing this for some time on their blogs and websites.

But the important part to remember, is the excerpt must be well edited, the same as your book. You don't want to put an excerpt out there that is poorly edited, and I am not just talking no typos, no spelling or punctuation mistakes. I am talking about formating of sentences and paragraphs to make sense. Of consistent PoV. Of character voice, pacing, scene building, dialogue that flows smoothly, etc, etc, etc.

If it is a self-published book, I see absolutely no harm and would encourage you to do so. I feel that if it were published by someone else, permission would need to be granted. Anyway, Nick is spot on here. Consistency is the key with the excerpt. And I'd go so far as to not confine yourself to the first part-- if the second part of the book is individually better, use that. Of course don't put an excerpt up of the end but you'll have to decide which portion will most effectively hook the audience.

Best of luck and congratulations on the publication!

Nick, Garrett and Fritz,

Thanks for the enciuraging advice. It's the first part of the published book, so it's a well edited as it's going to get! :-)

I do like the Amazon 'Look inside' feature, and the same on the other vendors' sites, both from a reader and an author's point of view. By uploading, people who might not visit Amazon, etc., will be able to see it.

I'll upload today.