This may seem like a strange concept, but think about it. If you’re promoting a book, don’t you seem to gravitate toward the same types of book promotion activities most of the time? Sure you do. There are hundreds of book promotion possibilities and only twenty-four hours in a day. Plus most of us have a life outside of our book projects—although, it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. We can’t be everywhere and do everything we want to or should do toward promoting our books. It’s simply impossible.
So which activities do you choose? What book promotion projects and programs do you find yourself pursuing most? Where is your level of comfort when it comes to promoting your book? Do you promote through your website, speak to local civic group members, use a signature with your emails and seek book reviews? Maybe you send press releases, carry your book with you everywhere you go, write a daily blog and submit articles or stories related to the theme or genre of your book regularly. Do you go out of your way to promote your book—travel to conferences and other events all over the US where you can speak to your audience?
I believe that most of us do what we can do and what we are willing to do. We push hard in the beginning—when we are still experiencing the excitement of a new book project. And then we find our comfort zone and pretty much stay there. Where we land within our individual comfort zones probably denotes our book promotion personality. Our choices indicate whether we are introverted, extroverted, assertive, aggressive, meek, self-conscious, ambitious, energetic, lazy, motivated, determined, shy, reserved or a real go getter. It’s the activities that we settle into after the big initial promotional push that indicates our promotion personality and, by the way, our potential for success.
Sure, it’s important to be true to oneself. But, when it comes to promoting your book, if you are seeking a level of success, it’s also necessary to stretch, experience growing pains, step outside of your self-imposed box and try new things.
Maybe I can put it in perspective this way: There are a whole lot of authors out there competing for their share of the readership. In order to compete, it’s imperative that you are on top of your book promotion game for as long as you want your book to sell.
I sometimes wonder how many people I have discouraged from publishing books. I do know that some people ignore what I say in my articles, blog, books and presentations or choose not to believe me. They go into publishing with no intentions of creating a business around their books. They don’t want to get involved in promotion at all. They comprise the 76 percent of authors who fail.
So do you know what kind of book promotion personality you have? Upon your evaluation, do you see that you could be doing more to promote your book or are you doing everything you know to do?
If your book is faltering and you are at a loss as to what to do next, let me make a suggestion. Purchase my little ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit, Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. It’s only 27 pages and $5.95—no shipping costs. And it is a great little book for authors who may have written the wrong book for the wrong audience and who could use some ideas for getting their book on track: http://www.matilijapress.com/author-repairkit.html