A 4-State Bestselling Plan

Florida recently surpassed New York as the third most-popular state.  A number of years ago Texas had supplanted NY for No. 2.  And some time last century, California zoomed past New York.  Times are changing.  Are books changing with them?

If you think about it, California, with 38.8 million people, has twice as many as Florida’s 19.9 and New York’s 19.7 million.  Texas just hit 27 million.  Four states hold 105.4 million – almost a third of the United States’ 320 million residents.  If you have a four-state approach to books you can:

·         Become a bestselling author

·         Generate major media coverage

·         Create a national legacy

·         Influence America's culture

These four states account for a huge chunk of the country, but if you want to concentrate on the 10 most populated metropolitan areas, zero in on these cities and their neighbors:

·         New York City metro 19.9 million

·         Los Angeles metro 13.1 million

·         Chicago metro 9.5 million

·         Dallas-Ft. Worth metro 6.8 million

·         Houston metro 6.3 million

·         Philadelphia metro 6.0 million

·         Washington, DC metro 5.9 million

·         Miami metro 5.8 million

·         Atlanta metro 5.5 million

·         Boston metro 4.7 million

Now, focusing on four huge states is not easy.  They are thousands of miles apart from each other.  Florida and New York are up to 2000 miles apart from the top of one to the bottom of the other.  Both are over 3000 miles from California, Texas, Florida, New York, and California are each big landmasses that would take time to navigate.  Each has numerous cities worth visiting.  But to narrow down a nation by hitting just four states is pretty incredible – and strategic.

If books focused on themes that appealed to people who live in those states you’d increase the chances of people buying books in those states.  Set a novel in Florida and California and you hit nearly 60 million combined.

One thing that we see is that the United States is made up of some mega states, then medium-sized ones like Pennsylvania and Ohio, and then smaller states.  The coastal states or border states tend to get the people, while middle America is kind of scattered around.  It’s been this way for a long time.

In terms of marketing to the four biggest states, you need to zero in on the biggest cities, such as SF, LA, SD for California or New York City, Buffalo, and Albany in New York, or South Florida, Orlando, and Jacksonville in Florida, or Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in Texas.

By pursuing events, bookstore signings, and sponsorships in those cities, you have a chance of generating local or national media headquartered there.  The other 46 states would naturally follow without doing anything.

A bonus to all of this is that you’re visiting some of the most beautiful parts of the country in CA and FL.  NY offers history and skyscrapers.  Texas offers good steaks.  Get your plane ticket set: Four states to a best-seller!

DON’T MISS: ALL NEW RESOURCE OF THE YEAR

2015 Book PR & Marketing Toolkit: All New

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-book-marketing-pr-toolkit.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, 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 © 2015