How To Seize Your Book’s Future

Do you take responsibility for your actions in regards to your book’s success?

Let’s start with defining responsibility and what that means.

You need to take ownership for your book and steward its success.  If you don’t have a publisher, obviously it’s all on you.  But even with a publisher, you need to be in charge of your book’s fate.

First, check with your publisher.  What do they plan on doing when marketing or promoting your book?  Monitor their efforts and progress.  Ready yourself to step in and supplement their role, however small or big.

Remember, you and your publisher overlap on one goal: to sell books.  But your publisher may not be concerned with your other goals, which may include branding your name as a writer, selling your services as an expert, sharing a positive message with the masses, and perhaps selling other books or products that you created.

Publishers focus on a book for a certain window of time – and then move on to the next batch.  Typically a key time is about a month prior to publication date and a few months after a book releases.  Then the publisher gazes its eyes on the next set of books coming out.  So authors must step up and take responsibility for the short- and long-term ROI for their book.

So how does one take ownership?  He or she learns what they could do to promote and market a book and craft a plan as to what they will do, pay for, farm out, dismiss, or beg their publisher to do.

Authors need to think about several key areas:

   Book reviews – with major print and online media

·         Traditional media coverage – print, radio, television interviews, heat up, stories and bylines

·         Advertising – online or other means.

·         Best-seller lists – from Amazon and bn.com to USA Today and NYT

·         Social media – Twitter, Facebook YouTube, etc.

·         Digital Media – online websites like HuffPost or CNN.com

·         Speaking opportunities – paid or free

·         Branding – their site, blog, podcast, etc.

Authors will need to:

·         Network daily and forever.

·         Craft content to share.

·         Invest time getting more social media followers.

·         Learn to speak in a compelling manner.

·         Act with preparation, vision, creativity, and dogged execution.

·         Commoditize their ideas, passions, connections.

Book publicity and marketing may seem mysterious, burdensome, and time-consuming.  It can be, but it also is fairly straightforward.  You just need to take on the attitude of being responsible for your writing success and suddenly your choices become clearer, your options widen, and your abilities become greater than you thought.  

You can – and must – seize your book’s future.

Catch Me At Book Expo America May 31

https://www.bookexpoamerica.com/en/Sessions/70624/Why-Now-Is-When-You-Should-Promote-Your-Books

Don’t Forget To Give Back

Don’t some of your book proceeds to a worthy charity. Feel free to consult these resources:

www.GiveWell.org

This nonprofit is dedicated to finding worthy giving opportunities.

www.CharityNavigator.org

This ranking system evaluates tons of charities.

www.Forbes.com/top-charities/list/

Here are the 100 largest U.S. charities.

DON”T MISS THESE!!!

How Authors Get Bulk Sales Now

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-get-bulk-sales.html

Some key principles to rally your book marketing around

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/some-key-principles-to-rally-your-book.html

How to write powerful, effective book advertising copy that sells tons of books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/writing-powerful-book-advertising-copy.html

So what is needed to be a champion book marketer?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/so-what-is-needed-to-be-champion-book.html

The Book Marketing Strategies Of Best-Sellers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-book-marketing-strategies-best.html

How authors can sell more books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-authors-can-sell-more-books.html  

No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019 Toolkit For Authors -- FREE

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/all-new-2019-book-publicity-marketing.html

Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

10 Rules For Authors Promoting Books

I often think, when advising authors on book publicity, that I know what they need and want to help them succeed at promoting their books.  But it has occurred to me that perhaps authors don’t know as much as I think they do.  They may not even fully understand what I tell them because they have no perspective to work from. How can they appreciate anything when they don’t really know much about the world of publishing, the news media, or books?

So let’s start from the beginning and see if I can help launch an introduction into book publicity for the uninitiated but eager writer.

Rule 1: A book will not sell well without some combination of publicity, marketing and advertising. 

Further, to properly market and promote a book it will take a collaborative effort between the author, an outsourced publicists, and if available, the book publisher.  PR is an investment of time, money, and mental mindshare.  It’s work – but the effort can have a short- and long-term pay off.

Rule 2: Know why you are publishing a book. 

To serve those needs, you will have to actively promote. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish as a result of executing a publicity campaign.  Let your actions and marketing plans derive from your foundation of knowing why.

Rule 3: You can never start too soon to brand yourself and your book. 

Dig your well before you are thirsty.  If your book is coming out in six to nine months, use that advance time to set up your website, build your social media, blog or start podcasting, develop a marketing plan, seek out testimonials, identify sales prospects, craft your press kit materials, and schedule speaking engagements.

Rule 4:  Getting pre-orders (advance sales before your official publication date) can help you build towards hitting a best-seller list. 

You can market your book months before it’s actually available.

Rule 5: Check your ego. 

Sure it’s gotten you this far and we all have pride, but if you let your ego lead you, that will only get yourself in trouble.  You can’t arrogantly expect things to happen for you or fall your way.  It takes hard work, street savvy, luck, connections, skill, knowledge, a great book, and an understanding of consumers and the media to succeed.

Rule 6:  Temper your expectations. 

Most books – that means at least half – never, ever sell 10,000 or more copies.  Many authors are lucky to sell 5,000 copies in their first 6-12 months.  Shoot for the stars, but don’t be delusional. 

Rule 7: Social media is increasingly important for one’s success, but don’t believe the hype. 

You do not have to obsessively live on social media to raise your profile or sell books, but you do need a game plan.  Which platforms will you be on?  You can’t be on all of them.  Will it be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, or LinkedIn?  Will you post regularly and consistently?  Will you also spend time seeking to grow your number of followers and connections?

Rule 8: Network, now, tomorrow, always. 

Connections die, move away, switch industries, lose touch, or just prove to be useless.  Keep making new connections. You can never have enough. To network, you need to do so via email, phone, in-person, and on social media. Attend events or hold them.  Ask people for referrals and introductions to others.  Work your contacts and give them value.  Human currency is available to you – cash in.

Rule 9:  You need to be organized, prioritized, and informed to excel in life and certainly at book publicity. 

Keep good notes on what people tell you and follow-up accordingly.  If you are scatter-brained just give up now!

Rule 10: Keep learning about marketing, publicity, and advertising. 

Observe successful models.  Ask people questions to learn more.  Experiment too. Attend seminars workshops and conferences on PR, writing, and marketing.

I hope these 10 rules jumpstart the building of your foundation as an empowered writer-turned-marketer.  You control your fate and should feel you can overcome fears or obstacles to market the heck out of your book and establish your author brand.  Good Luck!

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A podcast on book publicity that you need to listen to today

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-podcast-on-book-publicity-that-all.html

How Authors Can Market To Libraries Successfully

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-can-market-to-libraries.html\

Unfu*k Your Book Marketing

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/unfuk-your-book-marketing.html

How Authors Get A Yes Out Of Others

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-get-yes-out-of-others.html

Some key principles to rally your book marketing around

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/some-key-principles-to-rally-your-book.html

How to write powerful, effective book advertising copy that sells tons of books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/writing-powerful-book-advertising-copy.html

So what is needed to be a champion book marketer?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/so-what-is-needed-to-be-champion-book.html

The Book Marketing Strategies Of Best-Sellers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-book-marketing-strategies-best.html

How authors can sell more books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-authors-can-sell-more-books.html  

No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019 Toolkit For Authors -- FREE

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/all-new-2019-book-publicity-marketing.html

Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

The Lesson Of The Civil War: It Can Happen Again

This Memorial Day weekend I took a road trip with my wife and two kids – 11 and 14 – to Gettysburg, PA, the site of the bloodiest and possibly most significant battle of the Civil War.  More than 150 years after the last shot was fired, one can still feel the historic significance of the war that could have destroyed the United States.

Whereas the Revolutionary War birthed our nation, and later World War I and II would save the world, the Civil War preserved a country that very much could have split into two, limiting the prospects of survival by either side.

I love history and paid attention in school and I consider myself well read, but I have to say in coming to the Gettysburg National Military Park you get a real-life feeling for what took place on the battlefield and what the nation must have felt like at the time.

I also couldn’t help but feel the nation is still divided today.  The battle line may not be a physical one and there’s no one lightning rod issue at stake such as slavery was back then, but our red state, blue state approach to every issue is going to tear our country apart.  Half the nation hates the other half, led by a president with a greater negative rating than a likability rating.  At best, little gets done by the federal government, with far fewer bills being passed by Congress this year than just about any other time in history.  At worst, key issues like healthcare, immigration, and climate change do not go acted upon.  Individual states seek to legislate over things the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled on.

This past holiday weekend we were supposed to honor those who gave their lives for freedom, who died, heroes, who risked themselves for the greater good of others.  But one has to wonder how many more wars must we make the ultimate sacrifice for?  Will we even head to another civil war?

The Civil War, at its center, was over slavery.  Southern states wanted to keep it legal and grow it.  They also wanted U.S. expansion west to include the use of slavery.  The Northern alliance would have none of that.  All of Abe Lincoln’s presidency was spent governing over a split country, dying just a few days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the North.

The Confederate States of America consisted of a rogue nation.  These states opted out of the U.S. to form their own country, elected their own president printed their own money, and fielded their own army.  But President Lincoln never acknowledged them as a nation – just as petulant rebels seeking to overthrow America.

What shocks me today is how many people still worship the Confederate flag.  The North won the war, but did not capture the hearts and souls of those they defeated.  It wasn’t until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s that black Americans had full legal rights and protections that should’ve gone to them a century earlier.

It angered me that some stores sold Confederate objects, including magnets and T-shirts emblazoned with the southern flag -- the nation’s ugliest symbol that has come to represent hate and racism as well as rebellion and insubordination.  How can anyone justify displaying this ugly image, this vestige of a past we need to distance ourselves from?

Would a store today sell the Russian flag?  Would a store sell a Nazi swastika?  Would a store sell something that so many find offensive, oppressive, and is diametrically opposed to the values of the community?

One of the things that being at Gettysburg made me wonder and feel was about the town itself.  How did it handle being overwhelmed by what took place there? The town had about 1,800 residents when over 150,000 soldiers used it as a bloody battle ground, leaving some 6,000 dead and another 45,000 wounded, captured, or missing. They had to deal with an incident that combined the number of people killed in Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

The town not only had to bury thousands of people, it tried to tend to tens of thousands who were physically and psychologically damaged.  Everyone’s life was put on hold.  Commerce came to a halt.  People gave up churches, houses, hotels and restaurants to help the armies recover and recuperate.  What was it like to also have thousands of enemy soldiers right in their town?

One can see many story lines, as a novelist, coming out of this.  Could a young woman of the Union fall in love with a Confederate soldier she was tending to?  Could one of the black residents use the chaotic opportunity to kill some of the slave-holding Confederates in custody?  Who were the hero townspeople?  What could have happened if the battle was not won by the Union?

The city has forever been shaped by the calamity to befell it.  It’s built on tourism, with many buildings of that era the dominant architecture of today.  The town will forever be stuck in 1863, defined by the ravages of war, the hate of racism, and the fighting spirit of young men who proved their valor against other Americans.

By contrast, Pearl Harbor is not consumed by WWII.  It’s part of Hawaii, a beautiful tourist island.  Lower Manhattan is not consumed by 9/11.  Business and living go on as usual there.  But Gettysburg is a town that forever leaves us in the middle of a bloody war.

The Civil War, by most estimates, led to 620,000 deaths, which represented 2% of America’s population.  But there were evermore casualties and not a town in America was untouched by the war’s death and destruction.  The dead from World War II, World War I, Vietnam, and Korea combined don’t quite equal the number lost in the Civil War. Just 25,000 Americans died in the Revolutionary War.

I do hope we learn from history and all of the wars fought.  Enemies become friends.  

Peace lasts a little longer than war.  But we keep fighting and re-fighting wars because new generations follow the patterns of prior ones.  There are not many enduring periods where the U.S. is not engaged in a war.  We can’t get past two generations without a war.  

I was born during the Vietnam War.  My kids were born into the Gulf War II.  My parents were born during World War II.  Their parents came in between World War I and the Spanish-American War. In between formal wars you had other battles going on.  Today, we’re in an era of fighting terrorism.  Earlier in the nation’s history we battled Native Americans – the Indians.  And when we don’t fight war around the globe, we turn on ourselves with crime, racism, and mayhem.

President Lincoln perhaps said it best.  “America will not be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

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https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-get-bulk-sales.html

A podcast on book publicity that you need to listen to today

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-podcast-on-book-publicity-that-all.html

How Authors Can Market To Libraries Successfully

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-can-market-to-libraries.html\

Unfu*k Your Book Marketing

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https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/some-key-principles-to-rally-your-book.html

How to write powerful, effective book advertising copy that sells tons of books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/writing-powerful-book-advertising-copy.html

So what is needed to be a champion book marketer?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/so-what-is-needed-to-be-champion-book.html

The Book Marketing Strategies Of Best-Sellers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-book-marketing-strategies-best.html

How authors can sell more books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-authors-can-sell-more-books.html  

No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019 Toolkit For Authors -- FREE

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/all-new-2019-book-publicity-marketing.html

Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

Which Books Sell?

The genres that sell are the ones that people need the most, that offer a big payoff to the recipient, and the one where people cannot merely find information in a simple Google search. Promote the books that people want or need.

People always need to:

·         Learn how to do something: get a job, fix a car, buy a house, raise kids.

·         Grow therapeutically, with self-help books, and find out how to live life fully.

·         Find love and make their relationships last.

·         Be inspired and motivated, to overcome setbacks, loss, death, failure, addiction.

·         Get rich and build up their wealth, pay off debts, and save on expenses.

·         Get the edge on creating and running a business, whether it is management, leadership, sales, entrepreneurship or climbing the workplace ladder.

·         Get healthy and lose weight, overcome a disease, or get stronger.

·         Escape with travel, entertainment, and lifestyle issues.

·         Discover their spirituality, whether it’s religion, meditation, or some type of guiding philosophy.

·         Prep for some kind of test, get into a school or program, or be selected for a certain position, so guides on how to gain entry into an exclusive club are in demand.

·         Of course, there are other genres that sell well, including fiction, sports, children’s books, etc. But in each of these genres consider the level of competition, how unique you can be vs. others, and whether the genre is growing, changing, or declining.

DON”T MISS THESE!!!

How Authors Get Bulk Sales Now

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-authors-get-bulk-sales.html

A podcast on book publicity that you need to listen to today

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-podcast-on-book-publicity-that-all.html

Some key principles to rally your book marketing around

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/some-key-principles-to-rally-your-book.html

How to write powerful, effective book advertising copy that sells tons of books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/writing-powerful-book-advertising-copy.html

So what is needed to be a champion book marketer?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/so-what-is-needed-to-be-champion-book.html

The Book Marketing Strategies Of Best-Sellers

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-book-marketing-strategies-best.html

How authors can sell more books

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-authors-can-sell-more-books.html  

No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019 Toolkit For Authors -- FREE

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/all-new-2019-book-publicity-marketing.html

Don’t Forget To Give Back

Don’t some of your book proceeds to a worthy charity. Feel free to consult these reosurces:

www.GiveWell.org

This nonprofit is dedicated to finding worthy giving opportunities.

www.CharityNavigator.org

This ranking system evaluates tons of charities.

www.Forbes.com/top-charities/list/

Here are the 100 largest U.S. charities.

Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.