The Right Book Marketing Strategy

One can walk down many paths to promote and market a book.  Which one should you choose to achieve optimum success?

It may depend on your goals and needs.  What’s at stake here?

For instance, if you are dabbling as a first-time, young novelist with a limited budget, you may have different goals than say a middle-aged writer who is seeking to break out on book number three.  

The things to consider, before plotting a strategy is this:

·         What resources do you have?  Think money, connections, knowledge.

·         How much risk are you willing to take?

·         How much time can you devote to this?

·         How good is your book – really?

·         How big is the potential targeted readership?

·         Is your ego as big as Kim Kardashian's ass?

Here are some strategies to contemplate.  You may employ just one of them, combine several, or start with one and then switch to another.

1.      Rely on a hired gun

Using a talented professional with relevant experience could help you in a big way. If you have the financial means – and your goals are equally as big – go for it.  However, no matter how many people you hire to generate publicity, sell your book, brand you on social media, arrange for speaking gigs, or perform research, you’ll still be needed to participate, and where necessary, complement their efforts.

2.      Pour all of you eggs into social media

Social media has many buckets, from blogging, podcasting, and webinars to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, YouTube, Google+ and other platforms.  Determine how you’ll spend your time and on which tasks.  True, it’s free to your wallet, but not your time, so devise an effective plan.

3.      Go hard with traditional media

You can – and should – pursue local and national print, radio, and television – as well as the dot.com side of those outlets. From book reviews to feature stories to interviews, you can secure a lot of media coverage. Don’t forget byline articles, op-eds, and letters-to-the-editor.

4.      Speak your way to success

From free opportunities with bookstores, libraries, churches, chambers of commerce and non-profits to paid speaking gigs before government agencies, corporations, and trade show events, you can use public speaking to sell lots of books, earn a speakers fee, or try out for a consulting gig.

5.      Buy attention through targeted advertising

This alone is a failed strategy for any writer. It’s the least cost-effective way to get the word out – and it has no long-term impact on your career.  Ads are a one-time thing, whereas getting a speaking gig or earning a media placement builds up your credibility and opens new doors. Ad costs overwhelm book sales revenue – abort, avoid, forget it!

6.      Copy the campaign strategy of a competitor

Sure you can learn from others in a similar situation but no two book marketing campaigns will yield the same result.  Borrow from those you admire, but don’t rely on any one person to blaze your own trail.

The main thing to promoting your book efficiently is;

·         Having a plan.

·         Executing it on time.

·         Measuring results and making adjustments.

·         Remaining committed and passionate to the cause.

You certainly need to come up with a game plan that meets your needs, serves your preferences, and matches with your personality.  Take into consideration – your budget, skills, contacts, experiences, knowledge, time availability and comfort level.  Your book marketing plan likely would need to take into account a rotation of strategies.

For instance, you may initially spend time seeking out speaking engagements and pre-publication book reviews.  Then you replace that with a full-time press agent to get radio and TV exposure.  As the book ages, your approach matures as well.  Evaluate the success and failure of your actions, reassess the marketplace, take into account how people have reacted to our book and then take a new approach.

Your time could be thinned out by:

·         Researching                                                    

·         Media outreach and follow up

·         Writing                                                                       

·         Editing your website

·         Networking                                                    

·         Social media posting

·         Managing others                                            

·         Speaking

·         Strategizing                                                    

·         Shipping books

·         Negotiating                                                    

·         Making media appearances

·         Accounting                                                    

·         Creating content such as videos

·         Learning a skill                                                           

·         Studying the competition

Choose your time wisely but always choose to do something.                                 

All-New 2017 Book Marketing & PR Toolkit 

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/2017-all-new-book-marketing-book-pr.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. 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 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs