Every author, entrepreneur, produce developer, artist, etc., is thinking ahead to the holidays—to holiday sales, to be more exact. If you’re on the ball, you’ve been planning your marketing strategies for months. You’ve ordered promotional materials. You’re ready to approach your audience/the consumer—or are you?
Some of you are already burned out on the marketing process. You’ve sent out an email blast and you’ve set up several events and without much response. Yeah, you’re ready to strut your stuff—start making those holiday sales, but your audience is not thinking about Christmas, yet. Most of them won’t give holiday shopping a thought until a week—maybe two weeks ahead of time, no matter how much pressure you put on them to order copies now! But that shouldn’t stop you from forging ahead with your message.
This year, I’m marketing a holiday story as part of the Klepto Cat Mystery series—“A Picture-Purrfect Christmas.” I’ve been involved with some kind of promotion every single day for the past two weeks or so and I’ll continue on this schedule until Christmas. So what am I doing in order to promote this book?
This week, I’m:
- contacting reviewers who are new to this series.
- reminding those bloggers and reviewers I’ve already contacted.
- seeking guest blog invitations from appropriate bloggers.
- addressing the Christmas cards I’ll be sending out to clients, colleagues, reviewers, etc.
- blogging at both of my blog sites and being active with my social media accounts.
- checking in with regard to tentative engagements—a signing and an open house where my books are being sold.
- handing out bookmarks.
- commenting at appropriate blog sites.
- arranging for additional interviews for blog sites (I’ve done two already).
- making sure I have plenty of print books to fill orders and to sell while I’m out and about.
That’s ten things I’m doing now and will continue to do over the next seven weeks. I’ll also:
- send out 150 or so Christmas cards with bookmarks and maybe a discount coupon, free sample of our note cards, etc.
- participate in signings and other local events.
- write guest blogs for a variety of blog sites.
- do another email blast promoting the book.
- run a contest or two at my Catscapades blog site.
Believe it or not, while I’m involved in these tasks pretty much daily, I’m writing book 14 in the series and participating in everyday life with family and friends. I even clean house once in a while.
If you want to see sales spike during the holidays, it’s up to you to make it happen. Start now planning your strategy and putting it into action. We’d love to know how you did with it.
To learn more about the book I’m promoting, go to: http://www.matilijapress.com/Klepto-Cat-Mysteries