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The 7 Best Things an
Author Can Do
to Promote His Book
Without Spending Big Money
by Stephen Blake Mettee
Often the biggest surprise for a book author—fiction or nonfiction
—is the fact that the publisher, small or large, expects the author
to do much of the book’s marketing.
And all too often, the next surprise is that there are few things an
average author can do that will immediately have a large impact on
his or her book’s sales.
Mounting a successful book publicity campaign can be compared to
filling a bucket with water. Unfortunately, with a book campaign,
the only tool you have is an eyedropper. There are no water glasses
available and certainly no hoses. All one can do is add one drop at
a time.
And, for the campaign to be successful, an author must be
unremittingly persistent in adding those individual drops.
Every book is an ad for itself
The goal with any book is to start a word-of-mouth buzz that takes
on a life of its own with each reader recommending the book to the
next. To do this, you have to get the book into the hands of as many
readers as you can. The best marketing tool a writer can have is a
battalion of readers who love your book.
To create this battalion, your word-of-mouth campaign needs to snare
opinion makers such as reviewers who will tout the book, industry
leaders who will suggest it to their associates, retailers who will
recommend it to their customers, and librarians who will place it on
their shelves for others to discover.
And how is this done? One drop at a time.
But I get frustrated easily
Yes, this process will at times become frustrating. It may feel like
a lot of work for little reward. But if you believe in yourself and
your book, history shows that the persistent route will be rewarding
in the end.
Wayne Dyer may have been the first author who really understood the
power of getting the word out. In the 1970s his speaking engagements
and public appearances in small venues kept Your Erroneous Zones
on the New York Times best-seller list for a year. Nearly
three decades later, you can still find the title on bookstore
shelves.
Neale Donald Walsch, author of the terrifically successful
Conversations With God, is a more current example. His
publisher, Bob Friedman of Hampton Roads says, "Getting the word
about the book out there any way you can is the way to get a book
jump-started. Neale did a lot of speaking to anybody who would have
him in a room."
Unless your residence of late has been a cave in Afghanistan, you
will have heard of the success of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor
Hansen’s Chicken Soup for the Soul. In the beginning,
Canfield and Hansen set a goal for themselves of selling one million
copies. While each had an extremely busy schedule, they agreed that
every day each of them would do at least one activity to promote the
book. This could be anything from a radio talk show interview to
writing an article for a newsletter.
Did it work? You bet! They have surpassed their original goal fifty
times over. Visit a major bookstore today and you’re likely to find
a whole section devoted to the Chicken Soup for the Soul
series.
So what is the common denominator? Persistence, persistence,
persistence. Persistence, one drop at a time. Hansen says, "I had to
see an awful lot of church basements to get where we are today."
Here are seven things you can do to get your book flying out of your
publisher’s warehouse.
1.) Don’t do book signings
That’s right, don’t do book signings—but do lots of "events"
—especially events held in bookstores. Unless you are already
famous, book signings per se don’t usually draw a crowd. Always make
your book signing an event. Announce that you’ll be discussing
strategies for making a small apartment more livable, demonstrating
how to buy and sell antiques on the Internet, or revealing
300-year-old beauty tips. Give potential attendees a reason for
attending. Be inventive.
As you may have guessed from the stories above, one of the most
successful things you can do is to take your event show on the road.
At first, this will mean small venues close to home—men’s and
women’s clubs, friends of the library groups, church groups. Watch
your newspaper’s local events calendar for organizations to contact.
Every time you go on vacation or travel for business, set up events
in the area you’ll be visiting. Book as many events as you
can—whoever, whenever, and wherever.
If you will be presenting at a bookstore, begin checking weeks
before the scheduled date to make sure the store has ordered and
received your books. Keep checking until you get an affirmative;
strangely, bookstores are notorious for overlooking this little
detail.
At other sites, always have books available for sale and signing at
the back of the room after your presentation. Most publishers are
happy to supply books to an author at a discount, and many authors
find the profit from back-of-the-room sales pays for the time spent
on the event and then some.
As your ability and reputation as a presenter develops, chances to
speak at larger venues farther from home will open up. Get good at
it and some will come with paid travel expenses and an honorarium.
(You’ll actually get paid to promote your book!)
Success Story
Many authors feel events at bookstores aren’t worth the bother.
Often, even for noted authors, bookstore events are disappointing
in both turnout and sales. I once had an author complain about
making a two-hour round-trip for a forty-five-minute presentation
at a Barnes & Noble store. Only a few people had shown and only
six books were sold. He wanted to cancel all his other events in
light of this "embarrassingly unsuccessful washout."
While his bruised ego was understandable, the author was wrong in
calling the event unsuccessful; actually, the event was a huge
success. Here’s why:
• News of the upcoming event, complete with the title of the book
and the name of the author had appeared in the local newspaper in
the Sunday "Book Notes" section and in the paper’s weekly events
calendar. This free coverage introduced the book to tens of
thousands of potential buyers—including librarians.
• The store’s newsletter carried a picture of the cover and an
article about the event affording further free advertising.
• The manager of the store ordered dozens of books and built a
display, complete with a large sign, two weeks prior to the event.
This display stayed up for a week after the event. Without the
author’s visit, the management might have brought in a couple of
copies and put them on the shelf—or they might not have brought
any in at all.
• The store’s sales staff was introduced to the book and the
author. Bookstore staff often recommend books they know
about—especially if they met and like the author. One San
Francisco bookstore clerk hand-sold over 1,000 copies of a book
she really liked.
• The author signed the remaining copies of the book and the
manager put "Autographed Copy" stickers on the books. Autographed
copies tend to enjoy stronger sales.
By the end of a month, the store manager reported he had sold
ninety-nine copies.
2.) Write for magazines, newsletters, and websites
Since periodicals come out monthly, weekly, or even daily, their
editors are often desperate for material to fill their pages. The
same is true for website editors who need fresh content to keep
people coming back to their sites.
Websites often pay less than in-print periodicals (if any pay is
involved at all), but have the added advantage that they are often
archived in an easily searchable format; people may read your
article and learn of your book months or years after your article
first appeared.
Don’t overlook small publications. Often smaller publications enjoy
a more loyal, devoted following, people who will actually read the
article and act on it.
Work the title of your book into the article or, at least, include
it in the author’s profile that usually accompanies the article.
A good idea is to let the editor excerpt part of your book—perhaps a
chapter or a sidebar. This is less work for you and will whet the
appetite of the reader for the whole book.
3.) Work the media
Call producers of radio talk shows and TV shows and suggest that
they have their on-air personalities interview you. Contact
columnists and other journalists. To find likely candidates, search
the Net or use media directories available at the library.
In most cases, the fact that you have a new book out isn’t reason
enough for such an interview, so think up something topical,
exciting, controversial, or informational that is oblique, but
related, to the book itself. Supply on-air interviewers with a list
of ten or twenty questions they can ask. Most will not have time to
read your book.
Of course don’t forget to mention the book by name, and ask that the
interviewer include your publisher’s toll-free number so people may
call and order the book. (Quill Driver Books’ authors note: Our
order number is 800-497-4909.)
Let the local and national media know you are an expert in your
subject area, and then when a journalist needs a quote from an
authority, he’ll contact you. Always take or return media phone
calls right away. If you’re not available the journalist will go
right on to the next source on his list.
Success Story
Even minor media coverage can lead to major sales. A freelancer
who wrote a column on aging for a small-town newspaper discovered
Betty Fielding’s The Memory Manual at a writer’s
conference. The resulting column, complete with Quill Driver
Books’ 800 number, was picked up by a major syndicate and appeared
in newspapers of all sizes all across the nation. The phone orders
from individuals generated by just this one column numbered in the
hundreds.
Mike Reynolds, author of Three Strikes and Your Out!, is
diligent about doing interviews. He’s been on everything from
The Today Show to BBC specials.
Yet, one late-night phone interview, to be broadcast from a
small-wattage radio station in North Dakota, hardly seemed worth
the effort for Mike to stay awake for. As it turned out, across
the border in Alberta, a Canadian minister of parliament must have
been having trouble sleeping. He was intrigued by the show and had
his office contact our office. Eventually, the MP bought 100 books
and flew Reynolds and his wife to Calgary where Reynolds was guest
of honor at a fund-raising banquet.
4.) Build a website that promotes your book
Websites are getting cheaper and easier. Often your Internet service
provider includes as part of your subscription space for dozens of
web pages. Complete web hosting services are available from
suppliers such as Readyhosting.com starting from about $100 a year.
Place content on your site that people browsing the web will find
informative and useful. Update this content regularly so these same
browsers will have a reason to return.
Consider placing a different chapter of your book on your site each
month. Contrary to what you might initially expect, this should
increase book sales, not limit them. One publisher of travel guides
placed whole copies of its books on its website and saw bookstore
sales soar.
Create a link to Amazon.com so people can order your book from your
site. Amazon will actually pay you a commission for books ordered
this way. (Go to the bottom of Amazon’s book page and click on
Amazon.com Associates to sign up for this).
Today, even the most modest web pages are locatable via the various
search engines such as Google, Dog Pile, and Yahoo! Use one of the
free Internet services that list your website on the search engines.
(Adpro.com offers this service.)
5.) Collect an e-mailing list and publish an e-mail
newsletter
Collect e-mail addresses from people who visit your website (have a
link they can click to sign up) or people who attend your events
(pass around a sign-up sheet). Then publish a monthly or quarterly
e-mail newsletter. Don’t make this newsletter an overt pitch for
your book, but provide interesting or useful information pertinent
to your book’s topic.
To see an example of an e-mail newsletter and to learn more about
how to market your book, sign up for John Kremer’s free "Book
Marketing Tip of the Week" at Bookmarket.com
By the way, Kremer is the author of the bible on book marketing,
1001 Ways to Market Your Books. If you don’t already have a
copy, get one.
Success Story
In one of John Kremer’s newsletters, he advised a reader who had
written to him to write a book proposal and approach selected
publishers. Always alert for ways to promote my book, The Fast-
Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal, I
e-mailed Kremer and offered to supply any of his newsletter
readers with an e-mail copy of the checklist of the twenty-three
essential elements of a book proposal that I included at the back
of my book.
More than 150 readers responded when he ran my offer, proving the
power of an e-mail newsletter and exposing my book to 150 (and,
perhaps, many more through word-of-mouth) potential buyers.
6.) Join Internet chat groups
There is an Internet chat group or listserv interested in discussing
every subject under the sun, including yours. Participate in these
forums, offering insight and advice. While open promotion of your
book will usually get you into trouble, it is proper to have a
"signature" line that mentions not only your name but also the title
of your book. People will begin to recognize you as an expert and
buy your book.
By the way, be sure to use this same signature on all your e-mail.
You might even include a small image of the cover of your book in
your e-mail signature.
7.) Contact businesses or organizations about buying
large quantities of your books
This is one area where an author stands the chance of moving
hundreds, even thousands of books at one time. Books have what
advertising people call "a high perceived value." Marketing
departments of corporations and other entities use books as premiums
to lure customers to purchase their products or use their services.
We are all familiar with the
send-in-two-box-tops-and-receive-a-$14.95-book-for-only-$5.00 type
of promotion, but books are used in many other ways to promote goods
and services. Kaiser-Permanente offers a free book on the concerns
of the aging to seniors who come in to learn more about its Senior
Advantage program. One of the nation’s largest homebuilders, KB
Home, used the Clifford children’s books published by
Scholastic Books in one of its promotions aimed at attracting young
families thinking of buying a new home.
Publishers often will supply books at greatly discounted prices to
organizations buying them in large quantities. Sometimes special
print runs can be made with company logos placed on the cover,
coupons inserted at the back, or with other innovative
modifications.
Watch for and contact businesses or organizations that would benefit
by using your book for promotion or other purposes. Don’t overlook
getting businesses to use your book as thank-you gifts or Christmas
gifts for their clients.
Success Story
The director of a Missouri county health-care department read a
review of The Pediatrician’s New Baby Owner’s Manual by
Horst D. Weinberg, M.D. He was having difficulty getting
mothers-to-be to attend prenatal classes and decided to offer a
free copy to any woman who attended the whole series of classes.
This caught on with other Missouri counties and now, every year,
thousands of new parents all over Missouri are provided with a
copy of the good doctor’s book.
So, go out and be persistent; I’ll see you on the New York
Times best-seller list.
************
Stephen Blake Mettee,
publisher, Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, Inc. is the editor
of
The Portable Writers’ Conference, a Writer’s Digest Book
Club Selection, and the author of
The
Fast-Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal.
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