I’ve enjoyed introducing some of my clients’ publishing projects through this blog over these past several days. There will be more of them featured in coming weeks.
I’ve worked with a variety of authors on an assortment of projects from young adult fantasy to recovery memoirs; from historical adventure stories to books on how-to enhance your relationships; from serious travel books to fun fiction. Writing has been a fascinating, exciting journey for me and my clients have made it even more interesting.
Some of my authors have done well with their books and others have not quite got it together, yet. Some never actually publish their books. Some find a way to publish, but then get bogged down in life and don’t have time or energy to do the promotion necessary. And believe me, promotion IS necessary.
What is promotion, anyway?
1: It’s knowing who your potential readers are—your target audience…Who did you write this book for? Who did you have in mind throughout the writing process?
2: It’s knowing where your potential readers buy books, learn about the books they choose to read—where they hang out?
3: It’s knowing how to approach your readers—what prompts or entices them to consider your book over all the others? What can you do to get their attention?
A key to book promotion is exposure. So many authors, when I quiz them about their promotional attempts, say, “I have a website,” but I’m not selling many books there. Or they say, “Yes, I’m promoting my book on Facebook.” Or “I paid for a press release service to do a mailing.” And they believe that’s all they need to do. If only it were that easy…
It takes being everywhere your potential readers are and not just once. We’re all being constantly bombarded by strong marketing campaigns on TV, on the Internet, in our email, on the radio, in our mailboxes. We have so much coming at us all the time that we tend to tune a lot of it out. Sometimes we notice a product we want to try or a book that sounds interesting, but we don’t act on it because we’re distracted or busy or not feeling financially flush at the time. You know from experience that you might not make a purchase until you’ve seen the item advertised or mentioned or recommended three, five or more times. Isn’t that right?
Successful book promotion is not a one-shot deal. You cannot expect to sell numbers of books by simply building a website. You must promote that website far and wide, have a presence at some of the social media sites, go out and mingle with—even speak before—your audience, reserve booths at book festivals and other events conducive to books or the particular theme of your book, for example.
Some authors believe that they will sell books to a high percentage of the people who are aware of it. Not necessarily. You can usually sell more copies of your book in person. Let’s say that your book is a guide to hiking trails throughout a particular region and you speak before a group of 100 hikers living in that area. If you come across as credible in your presentation, you may sell as many as 15 or 20 books. The percentage of books sold will go down considerably when you speak to the Rotary Club or Kiwanis, for example, where only 5 of the 30 people are even remotely interested in hiking. So what percentage of books will you sell through your website, press releases and social media sites? You may actually reach thousands of people and sell just a handful of books. It takes a lot more to sell books when your personality isn’t involved.
Keep promoting through these means, however and come up with additional methods of getting exposure through online and downtown bookstores, other hiking/travel websites, your blog, other blogs, an informational newsletter, spin-off booklets focusing on other aspects of hiking, etc. and your sales will increase.
• Book promotion is ongoing for as long as you want to sell your book.
• Books need exposure—lots of it.
For additional information about book promotion, be sure to order my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. To discover methods of locating and creating speaking opportunities and for tips on how to enhance your presentations, order Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public, Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. Both books are at Amazon in print, Kindle and audio as well as at most other online and downtown bookstores.
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