Have you ever wondered when you can stop promoting your book? How many promotional activities do you have to pursue in order to sell enough books? And by the way, what is “enough” books?
I can tell you—and I have told you, by the way—that your book will sell for as long as you are willing to promote it. So the answers to the rest of these questions are up to you. How many books do you want to sell? Do you want to make a large profit, at least a small profit or do you want to just break even?
Most authors change their book selling goals with time. They come out of the publishing chute hoping to earn a fortune. When reality sets in and they understand what it takes to make those sales, they lower their standards. Many authors are eager to get back to their next writing project and sort of abandon their first project—hoping that the book will catch on and sales will begin to soar without too much effort on their part.
Okay, here’s the deal. Stop promoting your book and it will stop selling. How many types of promotion will you have to pursue? This depends on how many books you want to sell and to whom? How wide-spread is your target audience? Where are they? What sort of promotional approach resonates with them?
In 2000, I wrote a book called Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. I am currently revising that book and will call it Over 100 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. In fact, it is will include well over 100 ideas, but I didn’t think that 131 or 167 would fit in the title as nicely as Over 100.
Considering 100 promotional ideas is overwhelming enough, don’t you think? By the way, how many of them should you adopt? It depends on you, it depends on your book and it depends on your audience. I put those ideas out there for you to consider and choose from based on your skills and talents, the topic/genre of your book and your readers. I outline the ideas and hope that you, the author with a book to promote, will use those that work best in your situation. I also strongly urge you to stretch and grow in the process and take on some of the activities that are outside your comfort zone.
The new book probably won’t be ready until the latter half of 2010—especially if my editorial business stays busy (cross fingers). So if you need a leg-up, a boost or a whole lot of new ideas to apply to your marketing program, order your copy of Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book today. http://www.matilijapress.com It’s only $6.50.