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Marketing
Your Self-Published Book
An Effective Approach To Marketing
As a self-publisher it is up to
you to market your book; however, as a self-publishing service
provider, it is up to us to help make the process of successfully
marketing your self-published book as simple as possible. With this goal in mind, we
implemented a 50 book minimum order for hardcover books (200 minimum
for paperback) which allows authors the advantage of effectively test
marketing their book to determine its sales potential. This removes
the risk and financial burden of having to produce large quantities of
books with each printing.
Expert Book Cover Design
It's
often said that you can't judge a book by its cover. The fact is that
the book cover will likely determine whether or not the book will be a
success. This is why a cover design should be well planned and
skillfully created with a proper use of color and images. At Art
Bookbindery, our design professionals spend the necessary time and
effort to create an outstanding cover design that will be noticed. We
provide professional cover design at no additional cost to authors who
order a minimum of 50 copies of their book in hardcover or 200 copies
of their book in paperback.
Our system of producing only the highest quality books in short run
and producing re-orders only when required is the common sense
approach to self-publishing that has empowered many writers to
self-publish.
Create
A Marketing Plan
In marketing your book, it is important to create a marketing plan . A
marketing plan addresses by what means your book will be sold as well
as outlining the promotion to support the book’s sales. A good
marketing plan does not have to be complex and is quite often very
simple.
The three most
common venues in which most self-published authors sell their books
are through local book retailers, online booksellers, and independent
booksellers throughout North America. Online booksellers such as
Amazon and Barnes & Noble can be powerful marketing tools that
provide worldwide exposure for your book and should be given
consideration in your marketing plan.
In
order to raise awareness and support the sales of your book, you
should promote your book using a variety of methods. Some of these
methods involve creating a press release. A press release is simply a
notice to the media that your book is now available for sale. The
press release should introduce your book and ask the recipient to call
you to schedule an interview or request a review copy. For information
on how to prepare a press release and view a sample press release click
here.
Effectively
Promoting
Your Self-Published Book
The following are some promotion
ideas to get you started.
Online
The internet has changed the way in which books are sold and has become one of the most effective ways to market a self published book. In order for our customers to take full advantage of this potential, we now provide a personalized web page (at no additional charge) to those who produce their book with our company. These personalized web pages contain information about the book and the author as well as a large image of the book cover. These pages contain keywords relevant to your book and are created to appear at the top of every major search engine's results. To view a sample web page, click here.
Another online marketing tool is Amazon. Amazon is the largest online bookstore boasting millions of book sales annually. To properly list your book with Amazon, you must go through the Amazon Advantage page to register. To do this, click on the following Amazon link.
Book
Signings
Call
every bookstore and offer to do a book signing. Retailers love to have
promotional events and book signings are an easy way for them to
generate excitement in the store. Make it as easy and logical for the
retailer as possible. Ask if your book signing can be promoted through
their internal mailing list. For some of the smaller independent
bookstores, you can even offer to produce the mailer
for them if they will pay for the postage. Remember, their primary
concern is to sell books, so make it clear that you will be promoting
your appearance also. Work with them as a partner.
Radio
Radio
programming covers many topics, and chances are good that someone is
interested in covering you. Finding that person may be difficult though.
Mail or fax to as many stations as you can find. Collect information
over the phone, or, if your topic is particularly well suited to
talk-radio or a specific format, you may want to consider purchasing a
mailing list of all the stations that cover that format. Public
broadcasters can be a very effective way to reach your potential
market. Your local
library will have most of the information on mailing lists and radio
stations.
Newspapers
Newspapers
are another good target. Again, it’s absolutely critical to send
your press release to specific individuals rather than to “editor”
or to no name at all. Don’t assume the book review editor will be
the only person interested. Most newspapers have editors for almost
every subject they cover (science, health, sports, lifestyle, travel,
etc.) so find the right person. Always bear in mind that these are
busy people who are much sought after. Although they may be interested
in your work, timing is critical. Don’t be afraid to send a press
release more than once.
Television
Television
can be the most powerful friend a writer has. Never assume you're too
small for a national program. Contact the major networks and find the
producers for shows such as Oprah, A Current Affair, Today, Good
Morning America, and CNN and send them a press release. You never know what’s out there, so it’s worth
checking out everything. With all forms of media, it’s important to
pursue both the local and national shows as well as both public and private broadcasters. Local media is always happy
to put the spotlight on a hometown author.
Web casting
Web
casting is a fairly new and fast evolving technology. Basically,
it’s radio broadcasting over the world wide web. In many cities, the
radio dial can only hold a limited number of stations. But there’s
virtually no limit on the web, so there are thousands of webcasts
happening at any one time. There are two types of webcasts. Many large
commercial stations simply simulcast their signal on the web, while
others exist as Internet only stations. The Internet only stations
range in programming from very narrow formats to very broad ones.
There are a lot out there and more signing on every day, so chances
are good that there is one suited to your genre. The beauty of
Webcasting is that it’s possible to broadcast to a very small niche
that may be geographically spread out. Seek out the webcasts that
cater to your audience and make them aware of your book.
Magazines
Your
book is, or should be directed to a target market. Is it a book on
parenting? A murder mystery? A self-help title? No matter what your
topic is, there’s probably a magazine that targets the same
audience. Seek out any magazine that targets the same market as your
book and contact the people there. Don’t send your press release
until you find out which editor or editors review books or cover the
subject that you’ve written about. If our press release doesn’t
hit the right person’s desk, it’s practically guaranteed to be
thrown away. Getting reviewed in a niche publication is well worth the
effort because people who read that magazine are predisposed to buy
your book.
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