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Writing Your Book was Only the
First Step
Marketing Your Book is the Survival Step
by Scott Lorenz
President
Westwind Communications
Marketing your book is too
important a task to leave to the good intentions of a publisher.
Marketing your book is too important a task to
leave to the good intentions of a publisher. Harsh words? Maybe,
but after spending so much time writing your book, don’t assume
the publisher will put the same effort into the marketing of
your book. I hear this issue every day from authors who contact
me to promote their books. Believe me, writing your book was
only the first step, making your book known so it can be sold is
the survival step.
What you must always remember is that it does
absolutely no good to promote your book if it is not readily
available to buyers either at bookstores, online or by phone.
After writing your book, do not hurry your book
into the market. With 175,000+ new books every year, the world
is not waiting for your book to hit the stores. So take all the
time you need to market it correctly.
The key to marketing is to really know your
book. What is the overwhelming message your book conveys?
Whether you self-promote or hire a professional, you must know
your message so you can know your market.
If you decide to self-promote, I strongly
recommend the purchase of MAXIMUM EXPOSURE Marketing System Book
Marketing Training Program for Publishers and Authors by Tami
DePalma and Kim Dushinski. This is a very well written
publication that teaches authors all about marketing their book.
If it’s not in here it’s not important.
I also recommend that authors purchase John
Kremer’s 1,001 Ways to Market Your Book. This is a collection of
techniques and tactics that have been used by other authors in
the promotion of their books. Sometimes it’s better to follow a
path created by someone else than to spend time and energy
forging a new one.
John Kremer says, "Eighty percent of all books
are sold by word of mouth, but it’s publicity that primes the
marketing pump. Remember that you cannot do everything, so hire
the right persons to do the things you can't do. If you're not
comfortable doing your own publicity, then hire someone who does
it for a living." You can purchase his newly revised book at:
http://www.bookmarket.com
This is the advice I would give to those brave
authors willing to self-promote. But, very frankly, I do not
recommend self-promotion, for the same reason you don’t cut your
own hair. You can do it, but it’s not going to be that good.
Book marketing and promotion requires special skills and most
authors simply do not know how to market a book nor do they have
the time or, more importantly, the patience.
At a recent media conference I attended in New
York City, the producers of the Today Show and Good Morning
America said they each receive about 75 books every day! With
those incredible numbers, unless an author has a PR person
trying to get their book on top of the heap for them it’s
unlikely their book will ever get on the radar screen.
Getting media coverage is all about creating
interesting 'angles.” I try to find out everything I can about
the author using a questionnaire that even asks about
fraternities or sorority membership, roommates in college, and
other tidbits about them personally and about the book itself.
We then use this information to craft a pitch that entices the
media to want to interview the author. To me it’s like going
fishing, you use whatever bait you can and keep changing it
until you find the one that really works. And, like fishing, the
bait that works today may not work tomorrow and that’s where
most people will give up. With thousands of media outlets, this
is a very time-consuming task. Unless an author has someone
skilled in book marketing, their potential best-seller is just
one of a million books lost on the shelves of Borders, Barnes
and Noble, and in the "ether" of Amazon.com."
My approach to book promotion involves the
following:
To successfully market your book, you need to
determine who will read it. Once we really zero in and determine
who your audience is, we can target the media they read
directly.
We make sure galleys and the finished books are
sent to the reviewers at major publications and broadcast
outlets. We write and send press releases, pitch letters in an
electronic press kit and make follow up phone calls to media
outlets encouraging reporters and reviewers to write about our
client’s book.
Being reviewed by The New York Times, Washington
Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and USA TODAY
are major goals. In fact USA Today has 4.3 million readers every
day. Furthermore, it gets more notice from the other media than
the other four newspapers combined. That's a major reason why we
will make a concerted effort to get our authors noticed by USA
TODAY.
We also contact national magazines and others
that may be interested in the author’s “personal” story.
Sometimes the media is more interested in the author than the
book itself and that is just one more angle we’ll use to promote
our client's book.
We contact TV and radio outlets. Every day
thousands of interviews are conducted on TV and Radio stations
across North America and several hundred are with authors. If
you are not trying to get interviewed by the producers of those
shows they won’t find you because they simply don’t have time to
look for you. We have developed relationships with many
producers over the years and those contacts combined with
well-thought-out pitches produce results.
We regularly go to New York where we have
face-to-face meetings with journalists, editors, writers and
producers from top national magazines, newspapers and radio/TV
programs. We have successfully pitched such media outlets as
20/20, Prime Time, CNN, People, Good Morning America, Newsweek,
Time Magazine, Dateline NBC, The View, Oprah's O magazine,
Cosmopolitan, Fox News, Good Housekeeping, Newsweek.
If you don’t have a web site for your book,
create one. We’ll refer media to your site for more information
and to download book jackets, author photos etc.
Remember, writing your book was only the first
step. Making your book known is the survival step.
About Scott Lorenz
Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a
public relations and
marketing firm that has a special knack for working with
doctors,
lawyers, inventors and authors.
His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX &
Friends, CNN, ABC Nightly News, The New York Times, Nightline,
TIME, PBS, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Washington
Post, Family Circle, Woman's World, & Howard Stern to name a
few. To discuss how Westwind Communications helps its clients
get all the publicity they deserve and more, call 734-667-2090
or email:
scottlorenz@westwindcos.com . Visit:
http://www.westwindcos.com
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