If you’re an author who spends any time at all studying the process of book promotion, you know the word exposure. You are being told that sales are not nearly as important as is exposure. You read that authors must strive to get, above all else, exposure. Experts advise you to seek ways to get exposure. What does this mean?
• What is exposure?
• How do you get exposure?
• What can exposure do for your book?
Suggesting that an author forget about sales and focus on exposure is sort of like asking someone who is super excited about his/her pending book debut to chill—be patient. Authors want/need sales. We want to cut to the chase and sell books, not just show it around to people. What many new authors don’t understand, however, is that exposure leads to sales.
It has been my observation that those authors who concentrate only on sales, usually fail. It has to do with expectations. As an illustration, here’s the story of two authors, Bill and Betty. Both authors reserve a booth at a fairly large book festival. Bill expects to sell two cartons of books, which will pay for the booth and travel expenses and net him around $500. He arrives at the book festival with his books, a cash box and high expectations.
Betty also hopes to sell books, but realizes that it takes more than just offering it for sale. She’ll be happy if she sells 15 or 25 books, talks to 100 potential customers about it, hands out 300 brochures and signs up at least 150 people for her free book drawing or e-newsletter. She realizes that she may just break even at the book festival. But, she creates a lovely display of her books, sets up a large poster behind her in the booth and looks forward to talking to scads of people. Which of these authors will most likely be disappointed at the end of the day? Yes, the one with the high, rather unreasonable expectations.
And which one will be most successful in his/her endeavor to sell books? The one with the most realistic approach. It’s unlikely that Bill will sell his quota of books, unless it is something quite special and unless he is a master salesman. It is my experience, however, that an author with unreasonable expectations and little understanding of how to display and represent his or her book will sometimes develop a rather negative attitude about half way into the event if books are not selling as well as he expected. As you can imagine, this will drive customers even further away.
Betty, on the other hand, has maintained a good attitude throughout the long day. When someone seems interested in her book, but doesn’t purchase it, she thanks them graciously and makes sure they walk away with a promotional piece (postcard, magnet or brochure, for example) and/or that they have signed up for the free drawing or e-newsletter.
Now Betty has a list of people who have once expressed an interest in her book. She can email her e-newsletter, which includes promo about her book each month, as well as information about the topic or genre of the book. She can contact the people on this list when she plans a book signing, wins a contest with the book or to remind them to consider purchasing this book for holiday giving, Mother’s Day or another special occasion.
While Bill allowed himself just one chance at selling books, Betty took the opportunity to create potential customers out of the people she met who were not ready to purchase her book
that day. Her connection with some of these people may eventually result in book sales as well invitations to speak or be a guest blogger, for example. These people might be more inclined to tell others about Betty’s book. Those who saw Bill’s book only once and who walked away without something to remind them of it, probably won’t think about it again.
Can you see the importance of exposure in book promotion? Does this illustration help you to understand the value in displaying your book, of course, but also making an impression on potential customers by sharing something about the book, asking about their experience or interest within the genre or topic of your book, handing out material to continually remind them of your book and staying in touch through your newsletter, occasional emails, blog posts, etc.
And don’t overlook the possibilities of connecting with some of these potential customers through your social media networks.
In book promotion, exposure should be your primary goal. And the more creative you can be in gaining exposure for your book the more sales you will make.
For more about writing, publishing and promoting your book, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
It’s a good time to sign up for the online workshop of your choice. I provide the most amazing opportunity to work with me one-on-one—an opportunity that generally costs several times more if you were to hire me. Check them out at http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm