By Hajni Blasko, Online Book Publicist & Search Engine Optimization Specialist

This article is an exploration of Social Networking behavior, patterns and the effects on online book sales, focusing on North-American online book sales figures from small and independent press. If you are an author or publisher of either, hopefully you are able to allocate at least four hours per week to your title’s online publicity campaign. If you currently dedicate more than four hours on this task, feel free to still read this article and send me your observations or comments. I am keen to hear from authors who are highly involved with their title’s online publicity.
If you are not able to allocate 4 hours per week to online book publicity, then why not take advantage of Substance Books, to give your title an online book publicity boost simply by submitting it right here.

Most traffic shown on your Website’s statistics will be arriving from Search Engines. If your Website is hard to find by online book buyers, due to low Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP), this could jeopardize your marketing goals set for your site.
Social Networking will provide you with a great exposure on Search Engines. But is this the type of target-marketed exposure that will sell more copies? I encourage you to note a few ways, you have in the past looked for a title or information and ended-up with a recommended title. Does Social Networking make it onto your list?
I am guessing, not.

Let’s examine how online book buyers look for and purchase books:
More than 80% of online traffic is driven by a few Search Engines and most book sales are made through online distributors (Amazon, B&T, etc). No matter how wonderful your Website is or how well your site’s purchase path is executed, book buyers will still wish to see your title offered by at least one online distributor offering input from readers along with easy purchase options.
Sadly, in my experience, most author Websites have a poorly executed purchase path system with low usability levels. With such systems, who could blame the average book buyer opting to use well established online distributors. Online distributors have the capability to offer discounts and savings on shipping fees for multiple title orders.
You might ask. “Why should you still have a Website?” Here are my reasons, not listed in any particular order of priority: