Not long ago I had dinner with a therapist from New York who wrote a book on behaviors that don’t serve us.
When the subject of marketing his book came up he said he didn’t know how to market and hadn’t sold more than a handful of books. He had invested thousands of dollars to get the book published with little to show for his investment.
“I really thought the publisher would market it for me. But turns out their idea of marketing was sending out a press release and sending one email to a select group on their subscriber list.”
This is an all too common scenario. Many authors either self-publish thinking the book will somehow gain traction and sell out or goes through a mid-tier publisher believing the publisher will do all the marketing. The truth is almost every author learns the truth about marketing their book the hard way; by not selling books. The fact is you as an author have to take full responsibility for marketing your books.
By full responsibility it might mean you do the work yourself or you hire someone to do it for you. This too can lead to lots of frustration and very high investments.
Ask most authors what they know about marketing a book and they will likely tell you they have minimal knowledge.
Years ago, after successfully marketing my book, The Law of Achievement, I realized how little most authors know about marketing. For many it is some mysterious activity only those initiated into the “secret club” of marketers knows how to do.
The fact is, virtually any author can learn how to market their book(s). And… they can do so without spending a fortune on their education or the marketing.
Here are a few simple things you can do to market and sell your books.
1. Gain visibility in forums where your potential readers congregate. Get involved, share in discussions, network and build trust. If you are authentic about your involvement many people are likely to support your efforts of getting your book into the hands of many readers. If you are simply in a forum to sell, this becomes apparent very quickly and rather than people supporting your efforts they tend to get irritated.
2. Blog on a regular basis. Gain a readership for your blog by providing high quality content. Again, as with forums, when you are authentic you tend to gain the trust of the readers.
3. Host teleseminars on topics that are in line with the genre of your book. You can offer complimentary teleseminars that participants must register for. This allows you to build an opt-in subscriber list of potential buyers.
4. Host a paid teleseminar where the price of admission is a book. You would need to set up a landing page where buyers would send in their receipt number as proof of purchase.
These are only four of dozens of ways to market and sell your books.
Want to learn more? Join me on Tuesday, September 20th, for the first in a series of webinars on Secrets to Making Your Kindle Book a #1 Bestseller.
The information you will learn is applicable to more than Kindle books. The information can be used for traditional books, information products and various services.
To learn more and register go to http://www.kathleengagetrains.com/kindle-2
Only a few more spots left.
Kathleen —
It is great that you’re doing a series of webinars on marketing a Kindle book. And it is so true how many authors do not realize that they must market their own books.
My co-author and I had to do this way back in 1992 for our traditionally published Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. So I was mentally prepared to do this for my self-published books and ebooks now.
And thanks to the Internet, book marketing is so much easier than it was in 1992!
I’m signing up now for your webinar,
Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller
Thanks Kathleen this was excellent information I’m always looking for ways to market – being shy is definitely a draw back, as is living in a rural small town.
Thanks again,
Billie
Wonderful suggestions for marketing a book, Kathleen!
I think many authors and other professionals equate marketing with advertising and that’s where the struggles and challenges begin in getting the word out about a book, product, program, or service.
You can advertise till the cows come home, BUT …
Until you find effective ways to “connect” with your ideal target client or customer, your advertising efforts are not going to pay off.
Marketing is all about developing and nurturing those all-important relationships with prospective buyers. People want to know the person or the team behind the scenes of what you’re offering — they want to get to know the author or small biz owner BEFORE they’re willing to pull out their credit cards. People not only “want” this kind of experience — they’re insisting on it!
I really love the idea of hosting teleseminars to build a list of subscribers and potential buyers.
Happy Marketing!
I agree that marketing is difficult, and most certainly if you are shy and as I do, live in a rural town. Thanks for sharing.
I actually live in a rural town and this has been more of a plus than not. I just got back from a walk in a very quiet area that allows me to clear my head and be more targeted in my marketing.
Go Rural Towns!
Kathleen and Terri,
I grew up in a rural area in Southwestern Pennsylvania and I only wish I lived in a small town now! The beauty of a rural area is just that … you can actually “see” and enjoy the beauty. It’s not covered over with shopping malls, high rises, parking lots, and multi-family dwellings.
I believe offline marketing would be especially easy in a rural area since most everybody knows everybody else. You wouldn’t have to work as hard at getting people to know, like, and trust you. 🙂
Oh-ho-ho Kathleen!
What a great piece of information you offered us!!!
Thanks so much. I need this kind of empowerment in my life and you sure
help me obtain it!
Hugs from Mexico,
Juracy
You are most welcome. We all help one another.
I’ve found forums to be kind of a time sink myself, but I know there are lots of roads people have taken to find success with book sales. I really like to work on a blog that I promote with social media, and then I try to get people to sign up for my newsletter, so I can keep in touch with them and let them know when I have a new book out. I’m surprised how rare it is to find authors with newsletters. How else are people going to know when it’s time to buy the next book? 😉
Thanks for your comments Lindsay. I agree. It is surprising how few authors do much of anything to market in addition to a newsletter or some form of a consistent communication.