What do you do if you
are the type of person who does well when in a group or seeing people in
person, where your style of delivery, your touching, and your personality serve
you well? In the age of corona, it means you adjust or perish. For authors, how
well they handle our changed times could be the defining moment in their
careers.
To market a book
successfully, one must master at least some of these areas:
·
Social
Media
·
Traditional
Media
·
Digital
Marketing
·
Advertising
·
Public
Speaking
·
Networking
·
Direct
Marketing/Bulk Sales
·
Affiliate
Sales
Certainly,
if you don’t like to do something, or you are not good at it, or you don’t have
the time/funds to do it, you simply will not do it. But that just means you
need to excel in other areas. If you fail across the board, your book dies.
Pretty simple math there, right?
So,
what do authors do who normally attend physical events to speak, hawk books,
and shake hands with crowds?
Well,
you can do the following:
·
Organize
smaller outdoor gatherings, as permitted by various localities. Mask and all,
you can begin to address people in person.
·
Rest
up, enjoy the break from the road and having to always be on for others. When
things do open up, post-corona, you will be roaring ready!
·
Use
this down time to secure future speaking gigs. Spend time marketing yourself
and introducing yourself to those you need to network with and impress.
·
Where
possible, morph to the online world. You can charge for zoom webinars and you
can make videos for sale. You can develop an online course and you can be
interviewed on people’s podcasts. Get out there – right from your own home.
·
Skip
all of the speaking and online seminars and just put your time, effort, and
money into other things. Build up a better website. Expand your social media
footprint. Use the phone more and connect with those you haven’t been able to
see in person.
·
Use
this time to produce more product and content so that when things get back to
normal you are armed and ready to go!
There’s
no corona playbook to refer to. We all make this up as we go. But the
principles of marketing and the fundamentals of publicity rule – do more of
what you can do; ignore what you can’t or won’t do. The world changes every day
and we can’t sit back and just wait or hope for things to return as they were. Our
lives are upended, the way cabbies got dislocated by uber, the way malls got
upended by amazon, and the way Netflix has reshaped the movie theatre landscape.
Authors
have to be flexible and forward-thinking. They must take advantage of the tools
available to them and to opportunistically seek out their own moments to
succeed. Their voices do not need to be silenced just because public speaking
in 2020 is banned.
The
weapon all authors have is words. My advice: Use them, whether written or
spoken, whether online, in person, by phone, or though some other means. Just as
the form of books has expanded and evolved to audio streaming and e-books, so
should the marketing efforts of authors. Diversify and you shall prosper.
PLEASE CONSULT THESE TIMELY RESOURCES
Authors & Publishers: Censor Your Social Media Now!?
Can Some Novelists Keep Up With These Volatile Times?
Book
Marketing Lessons From BLM Protests
How Should Authors Promote Books During A
Plague?
10 Tips For Pitching Books To The Media
Now
The Right Social Media Strategy For Authors https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-right-social-media-strategy-for.html
Are You Really Ready To Write, Publish & Market Your book?
Powerful 2020 Book Marketing Toolkit --
FREE
How Do Authors Promote Books When The
Media Is Corona Centric?
The Bestseller Code For Book Marketers &
Authors
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 ©2020. 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
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