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While publishing is all about creative expression, its also about business and its those business savvy authors who will succeed in the end. Now you dont have to be an MBA to be a keen business person, you simply have to understand that the choices you make relative to your books future should be based on strategies that will enhance sales not just drain your pocketbook. So, how do you do this? First, take a long, hard look at your reader. At Author Marketing Experts, we always create a reader profile for each book we promote. This reader profile will tell us where to find buyers for the books we represent. Taking this first step helps us sort through our choices when it comes to book promotion and make decisions on behalf of our authors that are sound and will help leverage sales. There are times when its a waste of resources to do a nationwide radio or TV promotion. In fact, some of our programs dont include any outreach to broadcast media. Why? Because as alluring as it might seem to appear on the Today Show, whats the point if your audience doesnt watch morning TV? And, if your audience isnt watching this show, the chances are slim theyll even consider you anyway. What? More rejection? Who needs it! As you embark on or continue your campaign, ask yourself a few tough questions. First, whats your ultimate goal for this book? If its just to give away at family reunions, thats great! But then youll probably want to nix any marketing. If your book is an arm of your business and you have speaking engagements lined up through the end of the year. You probably dont need to spend a lot on marketing since most of your sales will come from your speaking engagements (i.e. back of the room sales). On the other hand, if you wrote this book to grow your business or to leverage your credibility then you will probably want to dial yourself into your industry through enhanced media exposure. For fiction authors this area becomes a little tricky. First, you need to determine your long term goals. By long term we mean: do you want to stay in this business or was this book just something you wanted to do. If its a hobby, then treat it as such but if this is going to be your career, then you need to keep your message out there on a continual basis, through venues such as author events, talks, signings, print and broadcast media. Make sure the choices you make, make sense for your book and arent just made because youve always dreamt of being on Oprah. Ive known authors lured into inappropriate marketing plans by big, flashy names and promises of stardom, wasting thousands of valuable marketing dollars and heading in a direction that wasnt right for them. If youre serious about your work, ready to let go of your muse and face the task at hand with some business savvy, then youre really ready to get published. Below are some guidelines that will help further your success! 1) Reader profile: create one of these at the beginning of your marketing campaign and keep refining it as you move through the process. Refine and redefine who and where your audience is and how to get to them. 2) Time commitment: determine what you can and cant reasonably do. If you have a full time job it probably doesnt make a lot of sense to commit yourself to forty hours of marketing a week unless your boss is on vacation. 3) Investment: how much are you willing to invest in your future? Are you willing to invest money without seeing much in return knowing that you are building a foundation or do you want to see immediate monetary results? Most authors dont see a return on their investment for a year or more. Are you committed enough to yourself or your project to keep this investment going? 4) Reality check: whats realistic for the industry youre in? Are you latching onto a fad or something with more longevity? Are you getting into a brand new market that will require lots of reader education? Or are you trying to go mainstream with a non-mainstream topic? While this is an admirable goal, it can be like swimming upstream. 5) Budget: while we encourage authors to invest in their future, weve also seen a number of people go into heavy debt, quit their jobs and even sell their homes just to promote their book. While that kind of dedication is certainly admirable, remember that although you have the potential to make a great deal of money its not going to be overnight. The lure here is of course that If I stick with it, this next sale will make me famous. Well, maybe or maybe not. If youve been plugging away for a while without any significant success get a professional to give you some honest, constructive feedback about your plan, your market, and your book. It might be that a poorly designed cover is the reason youre not making sales, or a topic thats fallen off of the publics radar screen. In the meantime as youre waiting to hit the big time youll still need a place to sleep and Uncle Vinnies couch will get old real quick. 6) Burnout: we hear this term often, even to the point of being overused. What were really talking about here is author burnout. Weve found that the average author only markets their book for ninety days. That means ninety days of day and night marketing, radio interviews at 3am and a book signing every weekend. On day ninety-one they are so tired, so discouraged and so broke they quit. You can avoid this by giving yourself realistic goals and a realistic timeframe in which to complete them. Theres nothing in the world like seeing your book in print. If approached realistically, objectively and with sound business sense, it can be one of the most exciting times in your life. |
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