Writing and Publishing News

Another question we got from the audience for our book marketing panel in Tucson last week was, how much marketing must you do for a book? How do you know when you’ve done enough?

If this is one of your questions, you may be interested in the response. If you want to keep selling copies of your book, you must keep promoting it. In most cases, when you stop refreshing your website, when you stop blogging and submitting articles/stories to appropriate publications, when you stop going out and talking about your book and attending book festivals and so forth, book sales will falter and sometimes dry up. Your readers will forget about you and your potential new readers won’t know about you.

So in truth, book promotion is ongoing for as long as you hope to sell copies of your book. The more you want to sell, the more intense and wide-spread promotion you must do.

If you find this idea distasteful and if you haven’t published a book yet, you might reconsider publishing at all. Or you can lower your standards for sales. You’ll discover that your book sales will be in direct relation to the amount of promotion you do.

I’m off to speak to a group of writers in Fountain Valley today on book promotion for the reluctant fiction and nonfiction author.

If you are newly published or are working on a book for publications and you have a lot of questions about publishing and book promotion, be sure to order a copy of “Publish Your Book.” It’s at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio. You’ll find it at most other online and downtown bookstores and here: http://www.matilijapress.com

Are you planning your book marketing campaign? Are you confused about where to start? Here are some questions you should ask yourself and adequately answer before you launch out.

1: Who is your target audience—what segment of people would most likely seek out a book like this one?

2: Where do these people hang out, what do they read, where do they buy books?

3: What is the best way to approach these readers? What promotional tactics are they most likely to respond to?

The comprehensive answers to these questions could help you immensely in devising your marketing plan and in preparing yourself to implement it.

You may hope that thousands of mystery readers will find your book at Amazon.com and immediately buy it. But how will they find it when it is hidden there amidst thousands of other mysteries…many by authors who are well-known? You may expect readers to discover your amazing website and buy your wonderful book featuring aviation museums throughout the world. But what will drive them there? How will they learn about your site and your book?

A good step in promoting your book is to prominently showcase it, but no one is going to find it without some direction. And people who stumble across it, may not buy it if they’ve never heard of you.

That’s why I suggest going out among your potential readers in person, through the websites and blogs they frequent, through the publications they read, using your professional-looking handouts, etc. Introduce yourself and your book to many, many groups and individuals over and over again, continuously. Strive to become a household name and to make your book unforgettable among potential readers.

Again, how do you do this? By knowing who your audience is, where they go, what they read, which sites they visit and so forth. And then show up with your book.

For much more about publishing, your options, how to write the right book for the right audience, marketing help and so much more, order your copy of Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio. You can also purchase it at most other online and downtown bookstores. Or place your order here: http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html

A solid companion book is Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html

We got a lot of questions while on the panels at the Tucson Festival of Books. One that came up a couple of times was whether an author should have one website covering all of their interests or more than one.

For example, one author was also an artist. Should she display her artwork on the same website with her book? The book isn’t related to her art, but she has included some of her illustrations in the book. One author is an artist as is her husband. They do different styles of art. They did one book together which relates to his art. Should they design a website including the book and both of their art styles?

Yet, another author has a business aside from her book and she was hoping to combine both on one website.

My response—and the general consensus of the panelists—was to keep the sites separate. You want to showcase your book front and center so that anyone visiting your site is instantly aware of the book, it’s purpose, the theme—genre. They should not be confused by distractions.

I’ve seen websites that are very confusing. Is this a book? Is it for sale? How do you make the purchase? What is the purpose of the site? Why are all of these designs off to the side? What does the owner of this site want you to do? How do you move from one page to another? Where is the “about us” page?

Someone who has more than one book on different topics has a decision to make about how to design his or her website. Do you feature one book and make the other one incidental? Do you try to promote both books equally? Do you create a site that sells books on a variety of topics? Or do you build a website to feature the book on quilting and another one showcasing your recovery memoir?

If you want to do justice to your book, you will build a website around it without any annoying distractions. For the quilting book, showcase the book on the home page. Create links to your about the book page—table of contents and so forth, testimonials page—what are readers and experts saying about your book, quilters’ resources page and so forth. If you were to add your memoir to this website, it would just muddy up the otherwise clear message to your quilt book customers. You can, of course, have a link to another website where you feature the memoir.

I realize that not all of you are one bit interested in what Patricia Fry does, where she goes, when she’s out of town, what she’s working on now. One reason why I report these things is for demonstration purposes.

I teach, preach and nag authors on the types of promotion you all should be doing, how to find and recognize the right publisher and so forth. And when I share my experiences and observations with you, it is generally to show you how I (and others) do it and encourage you to try something similar.

I attended the Tucson Festival of Books as a panelist on four panels along with agents, publisher representatives and others. I spoke to a total of around 200 people—one session had about 120 in attendance. The topics were publishing, book marketing, building a platform and writing a book proposal. There were also many, many authors there speaking and signing books on a variety of topics. Some of them were celebrity authors. There were award-winning and best-selling authors and others who had created pretty good platforms for themselves as well as agents, publishers, marketing gurus, etc. I was told that the event committee had to secure rooms for 400 panelists and speakers. This means that most of the authors were from out of town. I spoke with one from Florida and several from California.

Why would authors and others travel hundreds of miles to talk about their books? If you have to ask that question, I haven’t been getting through to you, have I?

It’s called exposure! The authors hoped to sell books and/or make an impression that would eventually result in book sales. Some speakers were promoting their agencies, companies and programs. We were there, certainly, to help where we could—teach and share. But we also wanted to meet our readers, introduce our books and services and make an impression on our potential readers/clients.

These are the reasons why you should be out doing public speaking and attending events like this. Of course, there were also authors, publishers, organization leaders and so forth with booths at the festival. They, too, were meeting their potential readers, clients and members and selling their books, services and memberships.

You can have a presence on the Internet where your potential readers can find you (that is, if you’re doing the right kind of promotion). And you can also have a presence in public at book festivals, conferences (related to the theme of your book), trade shows (again, related to the theme of your book) and so forth. A third type of presence is through print—articles, interviews and so forth in magazines and newsletters related to the theme or genre of your book. It’s all important. In fact, for anyone who wants to sell books, I think it is absolutely necessary.

Do you have any questions about this concept? Please leave your comment here or contact me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com

Another reason to attend events like the Tucson Festival of Books is that you have the opportunity to learn so much. Over the next few weeks, I will bring you some of the topics that came up in the sessions and some of the things that came to my attention while attending this event.

You can also request that I blog on a topic you’re interested in, need more information about or want resources for.