Marketing stuff

[Marc Joan]

Saw this link on Facebook; a useful reminder of the commercial reality wrt finding readers.

Inside BookExpo: How Publishers Promote Books

 

[Paul Whybrow]

A useful article, thank you for posting. One of my rallying calls is 'Make them have it', by which I mean persevere with promoting yourself through querying agents and generally getting your name out there. Advertising, marketing, promotion, whatever you want to call it, is a tricky area. The quandary is summed up in the saying, 'Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.'

Having managed and owned several businesses, the one form of advertising that I would say is largely a waste of money is printing flyers to hand out. This is the easiest and most affordable form of promoting an event or product, so a lot of people do it, but it produced negligible returns for me. The huge size of the advertising banners at Book Expo made me smile, as they looked like the sort of thing found at political rallies. Big works though, clubbing the message into people's minds.

Reading smaller notices requires a person to stop and make an effort, and most don't bother. I found this out when I managed a community centre. Our computer suite needed to be closed for an afternoon for maintenance. The door to it was 15' from the entrance to the building, and I posted 15 notices on the entrance door, the reception booth, signing-in book, walls and even had one sheet of A4 paper dangling from a length of Sellotape attached to the ceiling. Many were vivid with fluorescent highlighter ink, yet still, people knocked on the locked door of the IT suite surprised it was closed. Maybe, if I'd written FREE MONEY or FREE SEX as a header, they'd have noticed them!

Becoming a brand has got to help your books. Simply saying 007, Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, 50 Shades or Sherlock Holmes identifies what the book is about. It's something that I'm increasingly mindful of with my series of crime novels, that I'm referring to as The Cornish Detective series.

Expensive as it is, some form of advertising your books and promoting yourself as a writer, is essential. As marketing expert Steuart Henderson Britt observed:

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I would argue that printed flyers have their place. I was advised not to use them when advertising my educational outreach business, but I had excellent return on them (15% of recipients rang to ask about programmes, and most of them eventually booked one or more). But, no, I wouldn't use them to advertise a book.

I think the point that you have to invest in marketing if you want to sell books (even if you're famous) is important. Somebody needs to pay to advertise your book--either you or your publisher. Somebody needs to go out there and enthusiastically encourage people to read your book.

My challenge, as an indie author, is not just funding my impersonal marketing (Amazon ads, etc), but figuring out how to personally market my books. If I do an event, I can sell a book (or two or three) to almost every participant, by virtue of my enthusiasm for the book and the fact I can link my book to awesome live animals. But I am one person living on a small island in the South Pacific--how do I reach the wider world personally (without spending 10 grand on a trip to New York)? How do I make those personal connections with potential readers from half a world away?

I'm exploring some options, including videos, etc. But, again, there's a huge investment in time there. And then I have to market a video or whatever other product I'm using to help sell my books. I don't think there's an easy answer.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

One of the dilemmas with advertising is, that if you don't promote your new book, music album, movie, etc, it makes it look like you're ashamed of it....

 

[James Marinero]

I printed up bookmarks - but I must get around to distributing more of them! I left a few in the public library - I also leave them on the shelves in airport bookstores (my books are never there). I did like the idea of tote bags in the article - very visible.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Yes, I do bookmarks, too. Drop them in airport lounges, leave them behind in cafes...give them out in my educational programmes...hand them out to people I meet casually here and there...basically litter wherever I go.

 

[James Marinero]

This article is about the marketing hustle. Apologies if it's been posted before. Plenty of food for thought outside the box. Don't you just love mixing cliches (sorry can't find the acute 'e' right now). Offline Book Marketing