For the last few days we’ve been talking about the 5 P’s of successful authorship. We talked about the importance of adequate Planning, thorough Preparation, expert Proofing and informed Publishing. We also touched on the importance of using Patience throughout the process. Today we will cover another major P word—Promotion.
Do not even consider producing a book for publication if you do not have the money, time, experience, interest, enthusiasm for and/or knowledge about book promotion.
In order to sell copies of your book, you must turn practically all of your attention to promoting it. This means identifying your audience, locating them and finding ways to effectively approach them with information that will entice them to purchase your book.
There are numerous ways to approach book promotion and, in my articles, courses, workshops and books, I outline various activities for each type of promoter—the bold and the bashful. Do not expect to sell books without promoting them. Your book will not sell itself. (Don’t laugh. I’ve met authors who believe that their books will do just that.)
One of the things you will learn from studying the publishing industry is that the competition for books is fierce. You may have already noticed that everyone is writing a book. Did you know that over 75 percent of all published books sell fewer than 100 copies? And lack of promotion is only one reason why so many books fail. What are the other reasons?
• Lack of appropriate planning.
• Improper preparation.
• Inadequate proofing/editing.
• Ineffective publishing methods.
• Lackadaisical promotion.
Put your P’s in a row before you even put your pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and you will have a much greater chance for publishing success.
Your five Ps were great, but I would add a sixth, Persistence. An author’s persistence can be embodied in several ways: writing an article or book from beginning to end, submitting your writing until you get an acceptance, promoting your work constantly, and the biggest persistence key of them all–NEVER GIVE UP!
Hi Julie,
Absolutely, Persistence!!! Good call.
Patricia