Why promote books on a travel website?

You might ask why we suggest you sell your book through our travel website. Our response is another question: Why sell books at airports and train stations? The answer to both these questions is that people with time on their hands buy books on impulse when and where they see them. Most buy because they know they are unlikely to visit a bookshop in the near future. What we offer is the online equivalent of this on all our travel pages - by way of our Departure Lounge Bookshop. It is a niche with restricted shelf-space. So if you are a publisher or author, read on to see how we can help you with cost-effective book sales. Our entire site recognizes the synergy between planning vacations and choosing a good book to take with you! This is a fantastic combination for a great holiday.

Check out an example bookshelf at the bottom of this page. It features four books that are selected at random each time the page is freshly displayed. (You can try SHIFT + RELOAD for a fresh display, but whether this works depends on how your browser preferences are set up. It may still result in the same display from cache. But changing pages will always change the display.) We could be promoting your book on these bookshelves that appear right across our site. We make sure your title gets noticed - right alongside bestsellers!

The display includes a medium-sized cover image to attract the eye, plus a short 'sell' paragraph for the book. When visitors click the 'BUY' button they are taken directly to the promoter's chosen online sales page (such as Amazon.com). There are also options for buttons linking to a review page or to the publisher's or author's website.

Bear in mind that people never get to buy a book if they don't discover it, and even if they visit a vast online bookshop like Amazon.com, unless a given book is a bestseller, they are unlikely to even find it. Our online bookshop gives them that chance because we strictly control the number of titles we display and we give all titles an equal chance of prominence on every bookshelf we display. And since so many people view our pages it is inevitable that books advertised on our shelves will be seen. Through our Departure Lounge Bookshop we offer publishers and authors a guaranteed means of getting their titles seen for an entire year without a large financial outlay.

Because we sympathize with authors who don't have the budget to promote their own books, we offer authors who deal direct a HUGE DISCOUNT. So if they wish to take independent action to promote their book, this is an economic option.

Considering your online options

Firstly, let's be realistic. Your title might well be listed in an online bookshop such as Amazon, but listing in the world's biggest online bookshop does not guarantee anyone will even find your book. Ironically this can be your biggest problem as a seller! Unless it already has a high profile resulting from a large marketing budget, or is already a bestseller, there is very little chance of anyone discovering your book there - unless they already know about it. If the work is non-fiction, you do stand a tiny chance of someone finding it if they use the very best keywords in a search, but even this procedure is likely to list hundreds or thousands of other books... maybe before yours. If your title is fiction there is virtually no chance of anyone accidentally coming across it: for unless it already has good sales it will never creep high enough up the priority list.

One option for publishers or authors is to rely on their own website for sales. The trouble is, no matter how brilliant that site may be, who will ever find it? Why would they look for it? Unless they are searching by the author's name there is virtually no chance of reaching the sales page of a given title.

That's why your book stands a much better chance of being seen on our website. The Synergise website has visitors 24/7 - from around the world (typically including 35% from the UK and 15% from the US). Each visitor sees around 10 separate pages: so, conservatively, that's at least 10 bookshelves. Each bookshelf always contains one bestseller plus three promoter's books. The position of the bestseller is random. This provides a huge psychological boost to promoters' titles because they are seen alongside recognizable bestsellers. In fact, it is probably the presence of the familiar bestseller title that draws the visitor's eye to the bookshelf in the first place. So here's the chance for your book to be placed alongside bestsellers. It is inevitable it will inherit implied glory as a result!

Guaranteed prominence for your book

Every book has an equal chance of display on the bookshelf of every travel page. And because we promise all current applicants never to display more than 500 titles across the entire site for the duration of their annual subscription, your book can never be lost. (Normally far less than this are on our list, thereby greatly increasing your chances of being seen. See panel to left showing lower current maximums.) Our low 'virtual stock limit' is a major factor in assuring you of better exposure than you would get on a major bookstore site - because our system guarantees your title will be seen.

Consider this. With the maximum of 500 titles 'stocked', 3 promoted titles per page, and an average of 10 page-views per visitor, your book's worst chance of display to the average visitor is 6%. Usually there will be far fewer books than this, so if the current maximum is say 50 books, then you stand a 60% chance of your title being seen during a person's visit to the site!

That's how we guarantee prominence: guaranteed visitors and only a small selection of books. You are totally lost amongst millions at Amazon - but seen amongst the few titles promoted by Synergise. Our 'BUY' buttons take purchases wherever you want: whether to an Amazon site or your own sales page. And the bookshelf notice that the display is always changing hastens them to investigate any book of interest right away!

Our large cover pictures and long sell paragraphs help towards that impulse purchase - just like in a real departure lounge bookshop. We bring you the visitor 'eyes', but it is up to you to make sure what our visitors SEE will make them want to BUY your book!

We offer our service to both publishers and authors. Because our charges are low it means publishers can get great value for money when promoting low-budget titles. And because we offer authors dealing direct a huge discount on these already low prices, we make it viable for them to personally ensure their book gets seen. One payment puts your book with the bestsellers for an entire year. While we cannot promise to make your book a bestseller, we can promise its details will be seen: 365/24/7!

The psychology of our bookshop sales

People visit this site with travel and vacations in mind. They are subconsciously thinking of relaxing. For readers, vacations are very much synonymous with a good book, and many avid readers buy a book to keep ready for relaxing reading while on vacation. So books and travel go very much hand-in-hand. Hence the bookshops at all travel terminals. Our Departure Lounge Bookshop is the online equivalent of this.

When a reader finishes reading one of our travel articles they see a bookshelf. Because they have reached the end of the page they are suggestive of where to go next on the Internet, so it might as well be to the sales page for your book! The bestseller on the shelf is likely to be familiar so it will draw their eye. Once drawn it will skim the other titles alongside this bestseller - giving them more than average interest in case these are also bestsellers. Then they see your book. Plus the true message they should check it out then and there since the bookshelf content varies each time a page is visited. The rest, of course, is up to you. We offer you a good size cover image, the chance of offering a short sales pitch and the button(s) that will lead to sales. But your words need to make them click!

We think it's a great combination and our 500 title limit is your promise that your book can never become buried. As you will see on the supporting page for either Publisher or Author below, all book sponsors have proof of our title limit guarantee and can check their title is available from the site from any page displaying the bookshelf.

The kind of books we promote

We prefer novels, self-help and travel-related books. We might also consider well-researched biographical works about well-known and interesting people. Other non-fiction work can be considered if it has wide appeal, but we are very selective, so you need to tell us about your title first, preferable including review extracts. What we do not want is a work with very limited appeal: such as the memoirs of a window-cleaner or a survey of steam engines. Each to his/her own, but with our title limitation, we have to be very restrictive. In difficult cases we might occasionally ask to see a (non-returnable) copy of your book, but such a request is unlikely if the title is already listed by a major online bookstore and includes a review or 'product description'.

We can only promote books that have ISBN numbers and an online sales page that permits purchase, preferably by credit card. Since most titles with an ISBN number will be listed on Amazon or a similar online bookstore, this is generally not a problem. We do not sell direct. This means, of course, that if you are a bookstore affiliate you can direct purchases through your own sales channel. You can also have more than one 'BUY' button if you wish, giving the option to link to say Amazon.com for USA purchasers and Amazon.co.uk for United Kingdom purchasers. The maximum number of buttons is 4 per book.

Finally, be aware that we only seek to promote quality work - just as this site only seeks to promote quality travel sites. Therefore we reserve the right to reject applications for book display if we consider the subject matter unsuitable or the quality lacking in some way. We place client books alongside bestsellers - but they must be books worthy of comparison. That's why we reserve the option to ask to see a non-returnable copy. Furthermore, we reserve the right to remove a title from our promotion list if subsequent evidence suggests that, in our opinion, it is no longer a suitable title for promotion; in such an event we would give you a pro-rata refund.

So, if you have a well written book to promote that falls into our preferred categories, why not consider applying to promote it through our Departure Lounge Bookshop?

If you are a publisher promoting travel books, we have a very special deal for you. Click here for further details!

How to put your book on the shelf for a year

Whether you are a publisher or author, you'll be surprised how inexpensive guaranteed promotion of your title can be through Synergise.

• Click here for Publisher Rates

• Click here for Author Rates

Example Bookshelf

In addition to the Departure Lounge Bookshop shopfront, the following 'General Bookshelf' appears on most travel pages - with a different selection of books each time the page is visited. (It always contains at least one bestseller.) Travel publishers will be interested to know we are shortly introducing a sidebar 'Travel Bookshelf' featuring a single travel book (more).

Life of Pi Yann Martel Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths...   The Alchemist Paulo Coelho A simple fable, based on simple truths and places in a highly unique situation. An Andalusian shepherd boy one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. Then he's off, leaving Spain, literally following his dream.   The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time Mark Haddon A murder mystery - told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole! 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted but socially hopeless, taking everything at face value. He resolves to discover who has murdered Wellington the dog.   Hour Game David Baldacci As a series of brutal murders darkens the Wrightsburg, Virginia countryside, the killer taunts police by leaving watches on the victims set to the hour corresponding with their position on his hit list. He also strives to replicate notorious murders of the past, but improving on them... Publishers & Authors - Find out about guaranteed visibility in our Departure Lounge Bookshop Please note that book covers may vary from those shown above

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