In a post today ( in BBC News ), discusses the government of India’s strong interest in returning to the expansion levels of yesteryear. With a former growth rate of around nine percent annually, India’s latest growth rate has been around 6.5%+ recently. Actually, 6.5% looks great compared to many countries around the world for [...]
Many an author discovers that writing a book is just half the equation to becoming a successful author. An author with an outgoing personality can have lots of fun with the promotional aspect of publishing, while an author with an introverted personality has to work at developing the ability to interact. I have been active in the publishing industry one way or another for more than 15 years and have seen many creative promotional techniques. Here are three proven promotional techniques in this series that an author can use to sell more books…
Commenting on Relevant Leading Blogs
When an author is trying to build their platform, being “seen” commenting and linking on high-traffic blog about relevant topics keeps their “name out there.” To start searching for relevant blogs, visit Alexa (owned by Amazon) or Technorati.
Commenting on a popular blog calls for an author to offer worthwhile feedback or information readers can benefit from without overtly self-promoting the author. Practice posting succinct comments on three blogs to gain your footing, and then gradually develop a list of 15 to 20 well-trafficked blogs on which to routinely comment.
Relationships on blogs take time to develop, so an author should plan on regular comments for at least two to three months before seeing measurable recognition.
Triangle Marketing Program
An author who wants to benefit a nonprofit and distribute many books at once can create a triangle marketing program. In the triangle marketing program, an author coordinates with a company interested in reaching the constituents of a nonprofit. The company pays for books that are donated to the nonprofit who sells the books and keep the proceeds.
The triangle marketing program is attractive to the groups involved because:
a) An author sells many books at once. Sure, the price per book is lower, but the exposure to the nonprofit’s constituents promotes author name recognition and volume of sale is high.
b) The company is “seen” as philanthropic for helping a nonprofit with a fundraising project (while being “seen” by the nonprofits’ constituents) and,
c) The nonprofit receives an item with high perceived value (your book) that is paid for by a corporate sponsor. The nonprofit can turn around and sell your book and keep 100 percent of the proceeds.
Everyone wins!
Booklets
Readers are slow to take a chance on an unknown author. If an author gives readers something free to “taste” what is in the book, resistance to a book sale diminishes. A condensed version of a book in booklet form is an inexpensive bridge to bond an author and reader, without a major commitment on the reader’s part.
A 15 to 20 page booklet that fits in a reader’s pocket makes it easy for a reader to carry your material everywhere and acquaints potential readers to an author. Readers often pass along booklets to friends and colleagues…like an appealing magazine issue a reader wants to share with others. Booklets are inexpensive to print (around $0.12 apiece in quantities of 1,000) and conversion rates are high (number of readers who received a booklet and ended up buying the book). Paulette Ensign is known in the book industry for her use of booklets.
Stay tuned for more upcoming creative promotional techniques that an author can immediately use…
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com
How to write a book article series to this point has been about bringing a book to life – quality writing, quality visuals on the back cover and front cover, and professional editing. Now comes the big day: An author holding their own book for the first time.
The first time I ripped open the box with my first book inside and held the finished book in my hands, I was elated. At the same time, I thought “now I have to get to work and sell volumes of books. This was such a nervous moment that I decided to catch my breath and go for a long lunch.
After lunch, reality sinks in…how to promote and ‘move’ boxes and boxes of books. All authors will understand. Enter targeted promotion, well-planned marketing and lots of work. Writing a book is the easiest part of the birth of a successful book, moving your books off the shelves and out of boxes takes more planning, tenacity and time.
Recognizing that there are many authors who have approached promotion and marketing of their books in many unique ways, I want to provide proven techniques here that should spur your creative juices to customize what I say in the next few articles for your own personality and set of conditions. Whether self-published or an author associated with a publisher, you will have to do much of the promotion yourself. Here are several promotional “legs” to establish before customizing your marketing program:
a) Website – When an author wishes to be interviewed by the media, speak before a group or otherwise “be out there,” people will judge a website by its cover. Approach creating an author website with the same care and professionalism used to create the book. Think of visuals (book covers) and content (inside pages).
b) Blog – A website sets the foundation for an online presence. A blog tells the world an author is “building” on the foundation of the website and interested in interaction with readers through comments on a blog.
c) Social Media – I like LinkedIn and Facebook, one is for professional interaction and the other is for more relaxed, fun topics. I recognize there are many social media networks worldwide and an author can consider social websites in other countries (if your book is relevant to these international markets). For example, Orkut is the big social media gorilla, owned by Google and especially popular in Brazil and India.
Set up a professional profile and join relevant “groups” on LinkedIn. Search for relevant demographics on Facebook for your book (e.g., a cookbook author searching for “cooking” aficionados). For individuals who seem to be a match with my book material on these two social media sites, I direct message a short and professional note introducing myself, asking if there is a mutual interest in a social media connection. So far, these messages have been well-received (probably because most people just send an “invitation” without personal note attached).
d) Press Releases – Set up a schedule to distribute newsworthy press releases. I hear authors say all the time, “Yes, sure. I don’t know what to say in a press release beyond the first one announcing my new book.”
Tie material in your book to current events. For example, if your book is on “bringing up a smart child,” all news stories about education for children in the age group you cover in your book is a tie-in for writing about your findings and mentioning your book…along with contact information.
PRWeb.com has great resources for crafting quality press releases. Search “free press releases” and “press release distribution services” for getting the word out. There IS a learning curve to writing a professional press release. Stick with the ramp up learning process for crafting a relevant and meaningful (to the media and their public) press release because the effort will soon become easy and quick.
These four promotional marketing “legs” will create a foundation for an author to begin selling their book. In part six of how to write a book, I will start with time-proven techniques authors have used to add to the foundation above, have fun interacting with people and start selling books. Stay tuned…
Mike McCann
Mike-at-GlobalBusinessCafe.com