It
was Opening Day for Major League Baseball last week. What a beautiful sight – the sounds of the
greatest American sport and the oldest professional league on display for tens
of millions of fans to embrace. My Mets
started the year off properly, with a 9-5 victory, providing inspiration for
boastful banter and optimistic predictions for the season. It felt like the
launch day for a new book, where hope and promise often outpace reality. What can we learn from how baseball launches a
season and apply it to how publishers and authors can launch a book successfully?
The
publication date for a book used to mean more than it does today. The fact that one can secure pre-orders many
months in advance of the book’s actual on-sale date changes the entire
marketing approach.
Baseball,
too, has pre-orders. In fact, teams work
really hard to sell tickets in advance, before the team’s on-field misfortunes
turn fans off. To lure ticket buyers in
they offer a number of things, including:
·
Bulk
order discounts.
·
Multi-game
discounts.
·
Give-away of sponsored products.
·
Special
tie-ins, like Fireworks Night.
·
Opportunity
for fan engagement, such as a chance to run the bases after a home game.
·
The
ability to gain first dibs on playoff tix (should your team get that far.)
Authors
can certainly offer similar deals:
·
Discounts
on the sale of a book.
·
Bulk-sale
super discounts.
·
Give-aways of something perceived to be of value.
·
Fan
engagement (meet the author in person).
·
Special
tie-ins (access to author webinar).
·
The
ability to get preview access to your next book (after the upcoming one).
Opening
Day for baseball begins almost as soon as the past season ends. Fans are eager to reset the calendar for a
fresh start and to wipe the slate clean.
They book forward and ahead to next year. Teams know this so they email fans to
advertise way in advance of Opening Day, seeking to trade the promise of a good
season into a purchase of tickets. Can
authors sell such anticipated optimism to others as well?
Baseball
has a let-down after Opening day. Game 2
at home often features far smaller crowds.
Most of April, with chilled weather, features teams struggling to fill
the house. Authors, too, feel lost after
making a launch date surge, having gone all out to get things going but
providing no plan for what happens in the subsequent days, weeks, and months.
Authors
must build up a fan base, whereas sports teams have to spend more time
maintaining their followers and less on developing new ones. To build a fan base, authors must launch a
concerted effort to establish and grow their platform way before the book comes
out. It can take months and years to
build.
Like
baseball, the season to promote and market your book lasts a long time. Launch date is just one day. So is Opening Day. You have a season to play and sell (tickets
or books). Not every day will lead to a
win and you’re bound to hit a losing streak.
No worries. Stay the course and
remember, in order to win at this game you need to start fresh and play hard
every day.
“The courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.”
--Christopher Morley, Inward Ho! (1923)
“Writers can treat their mental illnesses every day.”
--Kurt Vonnegut Jr., in Playboy (1973)
“A book is never a masterpiece; it becomes one.”
--Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Journal (1851-96)
“Be sure you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.”
--John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies (1865)
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