Of the questions I’m most often asked by potential clients (for the book public
relations firm that I work for), perhaps none is more common than this one: How should we measure success?
The
answer, to me, is obvious: In many ways!
It
all comes down to why you wrote the book and what you hope to accomplish with a
campaign to promote it. You set high
goals, have reasonable expectations, and set a minimum bar of what absolutely
must be accomplished. Then you go out there, give it your all, maybe get lucky,
and…find success, however you definite it.
Obviously
there are certain things almost all of my clients would want – book sales;
leads generation for other services, books, or products; impacting others with
an empowering message; and growing one’s brand.
Some of this has an immediate pay-off while a chunk of it yields
long-term bonuses.
Book
publicity can’t guarantee success alone.
It’s a collaborative effort. Some combination of publicity, marketing
and advertising will contribute to your accomplishments. Some mixture of author-publisher-publicist-marketer will produce your results. The secret sauce
consists of something not so secret. It’s perseverance, creativity, time, money,
and luck that gets you somewhere.
For
some authors, they feel successful for having written and published a
book. The rest is gravy. For many
others, that’s just the beginning and the hard work first begins after the book
is done and the PR begins.
When
it comes to sales, all kinds of numbers dance in an author’s head. If he or she
received an advance against royalties, they may not be satisfied until the book
earns out, reaching a point where enough sales were generated to cover the advance
and allowing for royalties to kick in.
Others are concerned with hitting specific best-seller lists. Some even hope to convert their book into something bigger, like a film, TV show, or consulting business. Self-published authors want to recover costs and maybe land a real publisher.
Everyone has their definition of success, depending on where they started out from – and where they hope to get to.
Others are concerned with hitting specific best-seller lists. Some even hope to convert their book into something bigger, like a film, TV show, or consulting business. Self-published authors want to recover costs and maybe land a real publisher.
Everyone has their definition of success, depending on where they started out from – and where they hope to get to.
PR
can be measured a number of ways, including:
·
Total
number of impressions (how many people saw, heard, or read about you).
·
How
many media outlets covered you.
·
Which
specific outlets featured you.
·
The
advertising cost-equivalent of your media coverage.
·
How
many good pull quotes you got from media coverage.
·
More
clicks to your website or connections to your social media followings.
It
can also be looked at, but maybe not exactly measured, as follows:
·
If
it yielded more people to know who you are.
·
If
it changed the hearts, minds, and actions of others.
·
If
it influenced influencers to encourage the right action of their followers.
Did
your effort to promote your book lead to:
·
Someone
hiring you for a job/consulting gig?
·
You being utilized as a paid speaker?
·
Invitations
to be a contributor to a media outlet, like a columnist for a newspaper?
·
Getting
another, bigger book deal with a top literary agent or book publisher?
Success
may be about website clicks, numbers of downloads and book sales, or about
video views and FB likes and emailed shares – but it’s about influence, impact,
and inspiring others. Your words mean
something and so does your book marketing and PR.
You
can define what success would look like – and you can be successful by anyone’s
definition. It’s okay to dream, hope, and demand more of yourself, but enjoy
the wins you achieve. It’s not okay to
just be happy you have a book but it alone is something to still marvel at. Now
go on out there and reach beyond what you can touch.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
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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.
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