I
must confess to being a fan of The
Twilight Zone, an amazing series that ran on CBS-TV for five or six seasons
in the 1960’s. I know I am not alone in
valuing the black and white show that intelligently and touchingly explored a
nation’s morals, fears, confrontation with technology, government, power, war,
beauty, greed and other leading issues of the day — many of them timeless. But I’m always surprised when someone,
especially a contemporary of mine, says they don’t like or never watched the
series.
Of
course we can’t all have the same tastes, passions, or views – and certainly we
won’t all watch the same TV show, movie or play. But that also means we won’t all read or like
the same book. Yours included.
In
fact, the vast majority of people rarely read the same book. Mega-bestsellers may sell a million copies in
a year – possibly 15-30 million over many decades. Compare that to the hundreds of millions of
individuals that will live in the U.S. during that time. Some of the most critically-acclaimed,
award-winning best-sellers, if lucky, may get consumed by 10% of the population
over time. Many wildly successful books
may only get read by 1% of the population.
Of
course, as an author, you would be happy to experience any of that, but the
truth is, your barometer for success is quite a different standard. To sell
10,000 copies of a book within a year of its publication is a level of
accomplishment.
Authors,
though they hope for book sales to climb and to hit the big time, what they
really crave is gaining support for their writings, being received by consumers
and the media favorably, winning awards, building a brand, and helping others
with a positive and empowering message.
All of that is possible with a sound book marketing and publicity
campaign.
The
key to a successful campaign is targeting and segmenting. Don’t expect everyone to like your book or be
interested in it. In fact, assume the
opposite. Most media and consumers will
not care about your book – but that’s okay.
You only need to impress a handful of kick-off, word-of-mouth buzz.
So
step back from your book and try to see things objectively. Who would likely be most interested in your
book? What would they look like
demographically? What type of people
would they be? What experiences would
they likely have had? What views would
they be prone to hold?
Now think
of where such people gather – online and in the physical world. What types of media would they consume? What is it that they want to hear, that would
appeal to them?
Really
narrow down who your targeted reader is and filter all of your actions through
that prism. Market to your reader – not
all readers. By dismissing 99% of the
population, you are on the road to success!
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
How
authors can communicate better when promoting a book
How authors can sell more books
No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019
Toolkit For Authors -- FREE
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