Book Marketing Ideas and Tips From Google
Books, Mapped: Google Book Search meets Google Maps
If you've self-published a book, or have a book that has been published recently, then you'll want to know about these great new tools from Google.
Google recently launched a feature that's fast becoming a big hit with their users: a Google Maps integration with Google Book Search. They call it "Places mentioned in this book," and you'll find this module on the "About this Book" page of certain books. Not every title in Google Book Search has this function enabled; they display a map when their automatic techniques determine that there are a good number of quality locations in a book. These maps animate the information in books by organizing a sampling of locations from them on an interactive Google Map, with snippets of text from the book, and links to the actual pages where the locations are mentioned.
Take a look at the maps extracted from this New York City Rough Guide or this iUniverse title about a cross-country bike ride. Providing a better experience for Google Book Search users means more visibility for the product, and in turn, more people finding your books. Of course, they're working to add more features to the program, both for end users and for you, their partners. Don't hesitate to drop Google a line at
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if you have any suggestions for how to improve your experience with Google Book Search in any way.
Add Book Search results to your site
Here's a new way to promote your books online: a simple widget that adds a dynamic "book bar" to your web page. Just enter information about your books, and Google will generate the code you need to add a bookshelf of titles. Visitors to your site can then click on the book images to see previews of your books through Google Book Search.
Adding the Book Bar to your page is a snap. Once you customize how your book bar should be displayed, the Book Bar Wizard will generate the code for you. If you want to showcase specific titles, simply input their ISBNs. Or, try using a search operator like "inpublisher:YOURNAME" to limit the books that are displayed to just those that you've published. Currently, the AJAX Book Search API is available in all languages supported by Book Search. The developer documentation, however, is available only in US-English.
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