Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Avoiding Book Marketing Disasters



The downside of not promoting or marketing your book is huge. You essentially doom it to failure. However, if your book marketing or book publicity is not done well, not only do you lose the opportunity to succeed, but you waste resources in the process. So, what’s the worst that can happen with a lousy PR and marketing effort?

1.      You’ll waste money, lots of it.

2.      You’ll have lost available window of time to promote and market your book.

3.      You’ll feel lousy, that your campaign failed, maybe even dumb for having made a bad decision.

4.      If few books sell as a result of the campaign, you will find it harder to get a literary agent to represent your next book because publishers don’t want to invest in authors with bad track records.

5.      If the book publicity failed to establish your brand you’ll need to launch a new campaign to do so, for without a solid platform it’s challenging to be seen as an expert, a speaker, or a serious writer.

6.      The lost opportunity could also bring you to suffer a loss of confidence, leading you to question your abilities.

So it’s obvious that a book marketing campaign that falls short can be damaging, so how can you make sure that you benefit from any partnership that you enter into with a publicist or marketer?

First, explore your options. Who seems credible and connected? Who has a solid track record? Choose your partner wisely.

Second, be clear on what you are expecting to be delivered. The scope of the work will indicate what a vendor is doing. Anything else not included in it is up to you to do, so don’t neglect those areas.

Third, have ways to measure performance incrementally so that you can build on various accomplishments.

Fourth, communication is key. If you don’t get frequent input from your hired hand or you don’t receive complete and regularly scheduled updates, there may be something wrong.

Fifth, divide and conquer. Let one firm handle, say, traditional PR, and let another do sales/ads/marketing. Carve out what you might do as well. Best not to put all of your eggs in one basket, though many prefer one-stop shopping. Only do that if you have complete confidence in your vendor.

Lastly, be honest with yourself. If your book is nothing exceptional, don’t fool yourself into thinking throwing money at it will make it a media darling. Be realistic and you’ll do well.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013

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