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Book Marketing: The One Key To Making Your Book Successful
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Book Marketing: The One
Key To Making
Your Book Successful In The Marketplace
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We have all
heard the
story. The one
about that really great book. You know the one.
It’s a
really
great book that did not make it in today's
marketplace. It
was a great book that failed.
Conversely,
we
are all very aware of
those poorly written books that, for some strange reason,
continue to break sales records year
after year. What is perhaps surprising is the fact that, in both
cases, a single concept could be said
to be the cause of both situations, good or bad.
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Strategy.
Fact 1:
A
poor book can become wildly successful if there is a good marketing
strategy behind it.
Fact 2:
An
absolutely wonderful book can fail miserably if the marketing strategy
is poor. A well designed strategy is more than just important - it is
of the utmost importance. However a strategy is not WHAT you do. A
strategy is WHY you do what you do. Allow me to explain.
The
Tool Is Not A
Strategy
Unfortunately, most well meaning authors believe that the tool IS the
strategy. In my work with authors I hear many of the same statements
over and over again:
"I know there are buyers for my book out there. I just need to find a
way to tell them about it."
"I know I need to have a website. But I cannot afford to hire a
professional as they are quite expensive, so I will do it myself. I
will do the best I can to optimize it for the search engines."
"I use a blog because everyone says this will work."
"I am on Twitter and I post every day."
"I send out press releases to journalists frequently."
"I belong to a bunch of social networking sites."
"I use discussion groups to get the word out to my buyers."
"Book signing events are a good idea."
So, naturally, my first question is: "How are sales?
"Not as good as I hoped."
This is how 99% of people attempt to market their books. This is fine
and certainly there is nothing wrong here. But there is a very
important point that must be considered here. Effort does not guarantee
sales. As a matter of fact, effort, without a well planned strategy,
will most likely just cause more frustration than sales. Frankly effort
can be wasted without that strategy. All of the above methods mentioned
above are just TOOLS. These are not the STRATEGY.
The
Reality Of Book
Marketing
Depending on the source you believe, there are roughly 400,000 new
titles hitting
the marketplace every year. What does this mean? Imagine, if you will,
a football stadium:
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Look at how many people are in this stadium. Let's suppose this stadium
holds 80,000 people. Doing the math, we can determine that, if you were
to set all the competing authors and their respective titles in a
single place, that picture would look more like this.
Over 400,000 new titles and competing authors and companies. That is
just in a single year. This number is being added to the books already
published.
Now
certainly nearly every single author has a website. Nearly all of them
are blogging. Many are all twittering,
using press releases, social networking, using discussion groups and
doing book signings. So the question becomes:
How can YOU possibly get any real attention for your book in a
competitive environment such as this?
The simple answer is that you must develop a marketing and publicity
strategy that will set you apart from that very, very large crowd..
Marketing
Strategy
101
(Please note: This is not a full blown marketing strategy. This is an
extremely simplistic example used to illustrate a few simple points).
To develop a strategy, you start by defining your market. Defining your
market means you simply must do the research. The research will allow
you to determine:
a. IF there is a market for your book
b. if so, HOW MANY people comprise that market
c. WHO comprises that market.
d. HOW those potential buyers prefer to receive their information
e. WHAT tools should be used to deliver a well developed branded message
What
Does This Mean?
1. IS there a market for your product/service? If so, what verifiable
sources can you cite? List
them. Don't fool yourself here or you may be setting yourself up for
failure. It is not enough to say ‘I
think there are interested buyers out there!’ If there is no
interest in your subject matter, you will not
sell many books.
2. HOW MANY people comprise that potential market? Cite the studies,
surveys, verifiable
information sources. Be completely honest here. If there are only a few
hundred potential buyers for
your book, you will most likely not sell many books.
3. WHO comprises this market? You simply must know your potential
purchasers. To get to know
your potential buyers, you must create a buyer profile. That profile is
developed by knowing:
* Gender
* Income Level
* Age
* Occupation
* Education Level
* Geographic region
* Lifestyle characteristics
* Purchasing characteristics
* Benefits sought by this profile
Example: Let us create a fictitious author named Joe Smith. Joe has
written a book entitled 'Becoming A Scratch Golfer - For Retirees'. Let
us also suppose that Joe has determined, through his valid and
documented research, that there are 1.5 million retired golfers in the
US alone. He knows he has 1.5 million potential buyers for his book. He
also knows that his profile is very targeted. He manages to put
together the following assumptions:
* Gender = PRIMARILY MALE
* Income Level = 50K to 100K plus
* Age = OVER 55 to 65
* Occupation = EXECUTIVE
* Education Level = COLLEGE
* Geographic region = ALL
* Lifestyle characteristics = HIGH INCOME, ENJOY GOLF
* Purchasing characteristics = TRADITIONAL, SOME INTERNET
* Benefits sought by this profile = IMPROVED GOLFING SKILLS
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This profile tells Joe that his potential buyer will most often be
spending time on the course. They
will be hanging out at the club, listening to radio, watching
television or listening to radio - certainly
reading the newspaper and golfing magazines.
Now, let's look at back at which tools might work for Joe, based on his
newly developed profile:
A website - Yes, in all cases, a well optimized website is an absolute
necessity. The verbiage on the
website must 'speak the language' of the profile and it must be
optimized for the search engines.
A blog - perhaps not necessary, though some retired golfing enthusiasts
may be reading blogs in
their spare time.
A Twitter account - most likely not necessary, for obvious reasons
A press release campaign to the journalists - Absolutely. Retired
golfers will get their information
from traditional sources such as newspaper and television
Social networking sites - Not likely, though possible
Social discussion groups - Not likely, though possible
Book signing events - Absolutely.
Result: In this case, Joe would want to concentrate on driving traffic
to his site, approaching
journalists, and doing book signings. Though they may produce a few
sales, blogging, twittering and
posting to groups would most likely be a waste of precious time. These
are just the basics. We have not yet touched on the strategy for
setting Joe's book apart from all the other books out there.
Now, if the profile instead was a 21 year old underemployed female, the
tools used to approach the this younger female would be as follows
Website - Yes
Blog - Yes
Twitter - Yes
Press Releases to Journalists - No
Social Networking Sites - Yes
Social Discussion Groups - Yes
Clearly defining your profile and then using the tools that will
deliver a sharply honed message to the
profile in the manner in which they prefer to receive that message is
the easy way to market books.
Not having a sharply defined strategy will most certainly lead to an
unsatisfactory number of sales.
Do listen to what works well for others. However, do not adopt tools
that have worked well for others
unless these tools can be used within the profiles you have created.
Others do not have the same
buyer profile as yourself. Using a tool that works well for others
would be like using a screwdriver to
drive a nail. If YOUR goal is to drive nails, this will not work, as
the tool is not designed to
accomplish that particular goal.
Please Note: The subjects of positioning, branding and subjects such as
effective use of marketing language are beyond the scope of this single
article. It is recommended that you read some of the free articles
located on this site for a more in-depth treatment of these
subjects.
Posted by Don McCauley
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