| rketing. Sales. What beautiful words, because they | | | | There are people out there who can do a |
| mean your book will be selling, right? And the | | | | reasonable job of getting ads out where you will |
| answer to that question is Yes—IF the | | | | be seen. But, look at their pitches very carefully |
| marketing is done right. However, look back at | | | | because there are a lot of shysters, also. I bought |
| the previous part of this article to see some of | | | | into a “mass e-mail” program |
| the problems we face in marketing in the general | | | | because I wanted to get my book out in front of |
| publishing industry. The subject is very complex, | | | | millions of people for exposure. It only cost me |
| and not many publishers have any kind of true | | | | about $40. But, I knew in advance that it was an |
| (see my definition in the previous part) marketing | | | | “almost spam” thing that |
| program. As I said before, it will most likely come | | | | wouldn’t likely get really noticed by most |
| down to YOU. How much effort are YOU | | | | of the people that got e-mailed. However, I |
| personally going to put into marketing your book? | | | | figured if my ad got out in the mail to three or |
| Last time we talked about your personal website | | | | four million people, maybe one percent (30,000?) |
| that will feature you and your book, and | | | | of the people might get interested. Even 1/10%? |
| here’s another little tidbit I didn’t | | | | Could sell a lot of books, right? There are lots of |
| mention about your site. While it’s okay to | | | | companies out there that you can buy into for |
| use many sites, yours or others, to put out the | | | | small amounts of money, but just be very aware |
| word about your book, on your personal book | | | | of what they are really going to do. |
| site, don’t mix anything else on it. This is a | | | | Before we go further, it would be a really good |
| site that’s about YOU and YOUR BOOK, | | | | thing to define a major question: Who do you |
| and you don’t want to have visitors | | | | think is going to buy your book? Because virtually |
| looking at family pictures, your dog, the products | | | | all marketing efforts will depend on who your |
| you sell at your business downtown, etc. You | | | | potential market is and how you might be able to |
| want them concentrating on you and your book. | | | | reach that market. Here you need to get pretty |
| You can set something up on YouTube or one of | | | | specific. If you’ve written a |
| the other social sites as long as it features only | | | | children’s nursery rhyme book, you are |
| your book, but don’t combine anything | | | | not likely going to get much response by |
| else on this site. (Get more sites if you want | | | | advertising in a hunting magazine or a mechanics |
| them and link them, but don’t combine | | | | website, even if they are really cheap. You |
| them.) If you have several books, then | | | | probably need to find ways to get it into |
| it’s okay to put them all in one site. James | | | | churches, day-care centers, young mothers |
| Patterson and Steve Martini only have a single site | | | | groups and so on. If, on the other hand, |
| each showcasing all their works, but that’s | | | | you’ve written an analysis of the best |
| basically all they have on their sites. | | | | techniques for building porches, sheds and lawn |
| Once you have your site and you’ve | | | | furniture, you should be trying to get noticed in |
| looked at it and looked and looked and have finally | | | | Popular Mechanics magazine, the local carpenters |
| decided it really does look professional, how do | | | | club or other places made for DIY-ers (Do It |
| you get anyone to find it and look at it? You can | | | | Yourself-ers). Maybe the toughest project around |
| pay a lot of different companies a lot of money | | | | is finding where to reach people who are |
| for them to guarantee some kind of perfect | | | | interested in plain old mystery books. Dime a |
| placement in Google and others, but as | | | | dozen; libraries and bookstores are full of them. |
| I’ve said before, do you have a lot of | | | | How are you going to get exposure for yours? It |
| money? If you do, you would likely be much | | | | has to be a major question as you try to market |
| better off hiring someone to actually market your | | | | your book: Who is your target audience? |
| book for you and put your money where it will | | | | I mentioned libraries. Good place to try, right? If |
| do the most good. The facts of Internet | | | | you only got each library in the country to buy |
| marketing, though, are that there are literally | | | | one copy of your book, that would be about |
| millions of people and companies out there trying | | | | 15,000 copies. So, how do you get into libraries? |
| to use the same venue as you are to market | | | | There are several ways to do this, and they |
| their product. That includes at least thousands of | | | | come in stages. |
| other authors trying to sell their books. How are | | | | We’ll pick the subject up again in Part 15. |
| you going to get noticed in and around all of the | | | | Care to comment? |
| other ads. | | | | |