Don’t you sometimes feel as though you are all alone in the world of book promotion? You reach out with announcements and information about your wonderful book and all you hear is silence. You wonder if anyone is listening. You question whether your message is breaking through. You worry that you are not hitting your mark—that you aren’t reaching your audience.
You are writing articles for publication or submitting short stories. You’ve had a few book reviews. You left numerous posts, recently, at various related sites and you’re adding to your blog almost daily. You handed out about 50 business cards at the local Chamber mixer and left a stack of cards on the sign-in table at your class reunion this summer. You send press releases to appropriate publications regularly. But still, you have periods when you hear nothing but silence.
I’ve been promoting books for 30 years and I can tell you that it takes enormous effort and persistence to sell books. You’ll have flurries of sales at events such as book festivals or presentations. But where are your customers during the rest of the year? Why don’t they respond to your promotional endeavors? Why do you hear so much silence?
Readers are fickle. You can’t count on them to buy your book when you think they should. Like you, they are busy. They are overwhelmed. They are being bombarded every day with suggestions from other authors—″Buy my book!” “No, buy this one!” They have limited funds and time for frivolous things like reading for pleasure. They must limit themselves to only a few self-help or informational books on their favorite subjects. There are numerous reasons why consumers resist buying books or why they procrastinate.
Our job as authors is to create books that are actually needed/wanted by a large segment of the population. It is our responsibility to figure out how to reach these people and to entice them to purchase our books. And it isn’t easy. Nobody said it would be easy. Book promotion is a full-time job for the energetic, imaginative individual. If you don’t have the time, energy or imagination—if you don’t have the ability or willingness—you might as well give up the idea of fame and fortune through authorship.
It’s tough. It’s sometimes lonely. But it can be incredibly rewarding. Do yourself a favor, instead of imagining your promotional efforts being ignored—instead of feeling defeated each time you DON’T get an order—imagine thousands of people saving up their money to purchase your book. Imagine people everywhere reading your promo material with keen interest. Imagine folks seeking ways to purchase your book. Imagine them lusting after your book—yearning to own it. This will keep you on track. You’ll realize the importance of continuing your bombardment of promotion. You’ll understand the value in keeping your book and yourself in front of your audience.
At least, occasionally, do a Google search using your book’s title and another one using your name. This will help you to see how widespread your marketing efforts are reaching.
It may seem as though your efforts are going unnoticed. But truly, no promotional activity is wasted. While some specific activities might appear to lead nowhere, in reality, someone did notice. Maybe it was many people. And it may be weeks, months or even years before you will reap the benefits of your specific endeavors.
Just yesterday, I received an email from a woman who saw my picture on my brochure many months ago and decided then and there that I am the editor she wants to work with.
A couple of weeks ago, a woman contacted me after reading an article I wrote two years ago. She had some questions and ended up purchasing my book The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. She also hired me to do a manuscript evaluation.
I gentleman I met at a book festival last year contacted me recently ready to have his manuscript edited. He also ordered a copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and the Author’s Workbook.
It may seem as though you’re blowing in the wind with your promotional attempts. But, just because you don’t receive immediate feedback, doesn’t mean your efforts are going unnoticed. Hang in there. First, make sure that you have a viable product. This is your job prior to producing your book. Then promote, promote, promote.
Don’t forget, my next online Book Proposal course starts September 15. And if you sign up this week, you pay only $180 for the 8-week course. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm Deadline for the discount is midnight Friday, August 29, 2008.
Patricia,
I stumbled on this post today and was moved to leave a comment.
Everything you say here is SO true. I’ve worked with countless authors over the years, and have seen many struggle and some have enormous success just when they were ready to throw in the towel.
What’s the secret?
As you say, mainly it boils down to persistence. The authors who truly believe they have something of great important to share with people — to make someone’s life BETTER because of their books — are the authors who have the courage, energy and persistence to see this effort through.
At least in my opinion, these are the authors who succeed.
Up until January of this year, my full-time job was uncovering marketing ideas for authors as the managing editor of an industry newsletter (I won’t name it here, but you’ve probably heard of it and I’m sure you know the editor in chief).
Since then I’ve been building my own Internet info business full time. (This is something I started several years ago and have been able to build slowly to the “full-time-income” point, which is quite gratifying.)
Anyway, It’s startling to me to see how many pseudo-experts make a killing selling information that would never pass muster with most serious authors.
For the past several months I’ve been doing my own little part to try and turn that around by teaching a group of authors how to leverage their TRUE expert status into success marketing themselves and their books online.
I have a new site set up at http://www.therichauthor.com with a few tips. More will be added constantly.
In my experience, this can be a great (and highly lucrative) way to reach your audience. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a lot of money if you go down this road as well
Thanks again for all you do for authors everywhere. Keep up the good work!
Chris Simeral