Book Marketing Is About: The Packages
Book Marketing Is About: The Packages
Book Marketing Is About: The Packages
But always remember the old maxim that 90% of marketing is wasted but nobody knows
which 10% is effective. So aim carefully but don't worry if you think you have missed the
target.
How much, and which, activities you undertake depends on the type of book. A local
history, a course textbook and a romantic novel need very different marketing approaches.
It is your job as publisher to work out how to reach your market. Put bluntly, if you
cannot think of a way of reaching your target audience, is it still worth publishing your
book?
You will need some good copy for the cover and for the information sheet. Ask a friend or a
professional copy-writer to write this. It is a skilled task.
Preparation
Take a look at the packages you might think of preparing if you are going to have some
formal publicity.
You need a good press release but be prepared to modify this for different marketing
shot. If you are aiming at one class of special journals, explain the relevance at the
start of your release. Modify it for each mail shot to keep it relevant.
Increasingly you have to market yourself as the author rather than the book. What they
needs is stories they can place which allow you to mention the book. A two page
biography about yourself with stories. These don't always relate to the book.
The media is changing. They look for the short features like 'my first car' and submit a
story about you which can mention the book. You can use this as the bait for the
broadcast media. Don't forget that journals prepare their copy months before
publication.
Reviews
It is monstrously difficult to obtain a review of your book in the national media. The
current fashion for celebrities favourably reviewing each other's work is flawed, but so was
the work of the literary critics with their set of prejudices. You are not going to change the
present system, so find alternative routes. Local papers and local radio are open to new
writers, especially if some topical or local link can be contrived.
You could spend a fortune on promotional copies but you will be disappointed by the
response. Count up the number of books reviewed in the national press each week and set
this beside the number published each week. The theoretical odds, which are already about
'100 to 1', are lengthened when you realise that the publishing houses already have good
working relationships with literary editors. Self-publishers are not in the running.
Go for local review. Apparently even the big publishers are now getting national reviews.
You can link this to marketing to the local bookshops. Indeed, the buyer at the local
bookshop will probably only take the book if they know there is a review coming.
Focus your efforts on relevant journals. Always make personal contact and send a review
copy only if requested. Be patient. It may be several months before you get any column
inches for your book.
You should be able to get into the local news pages which is fine for stories with a local
market. It always helps to add a biography and a bit about writing the book to your
information sheet. We can help with mail shots.
Web marketing
The convention media does not report the success stories from the web. at present. But
this will change soon. From seeing the web as an upstart that need to be marginalized,
ridiculed or just ignored, the old media are now moving to become big players on the
internet in all its manifestations.
So success stories for those who have sold a stack of books via their blog, website or
through a newsgroup are hard to find. But the internet is the future of marketing,
especially for media products. If you have not already done so, think about getting a blog
going and think about the best place to put your website. You might look at
writerspages.net which provides space tailored to the needs of writers.
We provide all our writers with free space within our website in our WritersBookstall.
Because the WritersServices.com site is regularly crawled all over by the web spiders which
supply information to the major search engines, the information about your book will
soon be noticed and your pages should be listed in response to web searches.
And, crucially, your title will be available through Amazon (.co.uk and .com). Explore the
sites and see just how much they do to promote the books featured there. They profile
their customers and suggest books they might like based on titles previously ordered.
Amazon also allow readers to rate books so you might get some audience feedback.
The book will also be displayed in our WritersBookstall and linked to the web pages we have
created for you.
Chain bookshops and bookstores are evolving into lively places of entertainment but their
business is bestsellers. Once you are able to shift thousands of copies of your book you will
be snapped up by an agent or publisher. Self-publishing may help you reach this goal but
prepare yourself for disappointment if you write fiction. It is not easy to get self-published
fiction into bookshops.
Sadly the big booksellers have central buying systems, so the scope for marketing yourself
to them is limited but it's still worth trying. Independent bookshops are often more
supportive of local authors, so it is well worth trying to get them to support your book.
Promotion
One day perhaps you will have an eager audience waiting for your work but to reach that
stage you have a lot of hard work to do. Writing well is not enough. It never has been.
Being famous is not enough either, as several celebrities have discovered. The shelves of
the discount bookshops are filled with hardback editions of the books of the famous selling
at £1.99.
Online sales
If you expect to sell most of your early copies online then you want to spend a bit of energy
on what you prepare for your web page. You might put up some of the illustrations and
background relating to the writing of the book. Interview yourself and explain why you
wrote the book. Talk about the characters. Explain the background to any historic incidents
in your narrative.
Signings
There are a few people who can pack a bookshop or store for a book signing. Most authors
are very happy to attract 50 people. You might find it a bit humbling that people whom you
regard as famous and successful writers will travel hundreds of miles to talk to the public
and sign a few copies of their work. Their motives are diverse. Part is promotion but in
return they get a look at real readers. Most report that it is good for their egos in spite of
the travel.
It might be a bit early for a celebrity signing (unless you are a celebrity, of course), but if
you can think of some act or angle that might attract an audience, then go for it. Many
works have a historical context and anniversaries provide an excellent opportunity to do
some promotion.
International
Although you would publish in the UK this does not prevent you exporting or selling your
books overseas. The laws and regulations covering publication vary from one country to
another so you need to check that it does not transgress local laws or customs.