BOOK MARKETING
Writing and publishing a book is a big deal but selling and making profit from the book is the big deal. And this is the major source of frustration for many authors. In this article, I will walk you through strategies that if implemented, you will begin to see sales coming from your book. This secret is Book marketing.
Many of us, focus on writing and publishing our book but the major work is in marketing your book and that’s where you beginning to see profit.
Now what is Book Marketing?
Before, I discuss on these strategies, you need to understand what Book marketing is, knowing it will give you a concept of what you are to do and what you should except afterward.
- Book Marketing is more than social media, paid advertising and branded pencils.
- Book marketing is everything that you do to make your work and your author brand more discoverable, more desirable, and more enjoyable for your target reader.
- This means marketing encompasses everything from book production to pricing to distribution and promotion. Every decision you make will have a marketing impact.
- Smart marketing starts by understanding your target reader. Who is that reader more than any other who will derive the greatest satisfaction from your work?
Understand your how your readers think
Your target reader looks to books to satisfy specific emotional and intellectual aspirations. A reader may desire to laugh, cry, learn, escape, contemplate, feel happy, feel scared, feel titillated or all of the above and more. Your target reader is a time traveler with split personalities. Your reader has diverse tastes. The same reader may desire a political memoir today, a sweet romance tomorrow, a book on business finance the next day, and a celebrity biography the day after that. Your reader is a moving target. To reach them, your book needs to be in the right place at the right time with the right message so the reader is drawn to its gravitational pull the next time their orbit passes by your book. Smart book marketing works like an ever present magnet to bridge the gap between a reader’s desire and your book’s ability to satisfy that desire.
Using the power of great and thoughtful writing
Next section, writing is marketing. Writing is the most important form of marketing because it’s how you produce the product that will satisfy your target reader’s desires. Your number one priority as an author is to write a super awesome book that takes your reader to an emotionally satisfying extreme. It doesn’t matter if your book is about real estate investing, political philosophy, or romance. The goal is the same. Make the reader go, “Wow.”
Great books become bestsellers when they spread from one reader to another through word of mouth. As we discussed in prior episodes of the Smart Author Podcast, good books aren’t good enough anymore. There are millions of good books out there but only a small number of wow books. We’ve all read wow books. They’re the books that stick with us forever. They’re the books that inspire us, move us, or shake us to our core. Wow books are in five-star reviews. They’re the books readers can’t put down. Wow books are the books that cost readers to become fans and fans to become super fans. Super fans buy everything you write. Super fans are your evangelists. They drive word of mouth. They’re the readers that will propel your career forward for many decades to come.
Of all marketing tasks, organize your day to protect and maximize your writing time. Think of your book as the cake. The marketing recommendations in this book are the icing on the cake. Now, let’s turn our attention to the market environment in which you participate. Once you have the lay of land, you can prosecute your marketing campaigns with greater success.
In the next post, I will be discussing strategies that you should employ to market and promote your book without paying any money.