If
someone needs to understand how your book can help them, how would you best
explain it? If someone needs to be made
aware of your book before he or she buys it, how would they find out about
it? If in order for someone to buy your
book they need to trust you and value who you are, what would you show, say or
do to convince them and explain who you are?
A
recently published book, How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business
Development for Consulting and Professional Services, by Tom McMakin
and Doug Fletcher (Wiley), provides insights on how people buy from others and
go through their buying journey. Some of
it is certainly related to how authors sell books.
The
authors say that people buy based on trust, which can come about in three ways:
Relationships
– I go to a gym with a doctor and know her to be a very good person.
Referral
- I used so and so and is a doctor I can
personally recommend based on first-hand professional experience.
Reputation
– I saw that a major track association or magazine ranked this doctor as one of
the best in her area of specialty in our city for three years running.
Translate
that to books. People will buy based on a relationship (my friend said she
liked the book); referral (I liked the book), and reputation (the media
validated it).
So how many people are:
1. Aware
of you or your book?
2. Understand
what you and the book offer?
3. Interested
in what you do because it is potentially of value to them?
4. Respectful
of your story, credentials, or track record?
5. Finding
you trustworthy?
6. Seeing
the reading of your book as a priority?
7. Willing
and able to pay the price of your book?
Here’s how to build
awareness for your book:
·
Ask for advice and people will be open to
yours.
·
Publish your views: blog, podcast, white
paper, articles, newsletter.
·
Speak publicly.
·
Attend conferences and network.
·
Host a summit as an authority.
·
Have a best-practices roundtable.
·
Advertise it.
·
Get third-party validation from the media.
In
the end, to sell your book, you need to close the deal.
No
matter how many people your message is exposed to or that you are introduced or
connected to, you have to be able to make the book sale. Here are some styles of close that could work
for many authors:
Assumptive
Close – Act as if they will buy your book.
Balance
Sheet Close – Add up the pros-cons of your book.
Calculate
Close – Use a calculator to offer a discount.
I.Q.
Close – Show how only smart people understand your book.
Opportunity
Cost Close – Show the cost of not buying your book
Reversal
Close – Act like you do not want them to buy your book.
Embarrassment
Close – Make not buying so embarrassing.
Conditional
Close – Link a book sale to resolving objections.
Compliment
Close – Flatter someone into submission.
Companion
Close – Sell to the companion with your potential customer.
Exclusivity
Close – Show how the book is not for everyone.
Whichever
style of close you choose to employ, and however you convey trust, value, and
awareness, people will buy your book.
Give others what they need, want, desire, and expect. When you deliver on your promises, people
will endorse you and your book and become your best referrals for support.
“Forging
an entire book is an astronomically difficult endeavor. Simply put, there’s just too much specialized
knowledge for one person (or a small army of persons) to keep track of. The forger would have to master dozens of
different disciplines, from the paper, to the ink, to the binding, type, press,
and illustrations (most of them saturated with more than five hundred years of
quirks and technicalities), to successfully fabricate a book. One slip up, anywhere along the way, and the
deception is revealed…
“In
the world of books there are endless roads to explore. There are curiosities and triumphs, comforts
and provocations. The twists and turns
are as endless as the peculiarities of the human mind, for we have translated
our inner universes onto the printed page.
The single artifact that best captures the human spirit is the book –
which means that it inevitably captures both our glory and our frailties.”
--Printer’s
Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History
by J.P. Romney and Rebecca Romney
“I
find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go into
the library and read a good book.”
--Groucho Marx
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
Authors
cannot succeed without the right attitude
So what
is needed to be a champion book marketer?
Should
You Promote Your Book By Yourself?
The Book Marketing Strategies Of
Best-Sellers
How authors can sell more books
No. 1 Book Publicity Resource: 2019
Toolkit For Authors -- FREE
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.