Friday, September 10, 2021

The 51-49 Book Marketing Solution

 


There is an old joke circulating: What do you call someone who finished last in their class at medical school?

Doctor.

Did you know that you don’t even have to own a law degree to be eligible to serve on the Supreme Court?

Or that there are far more legal requirements to be a cab driver than to run for president of our country?

I want to encourage people to strive far, work hard, learn more, and try their best when it comes to book marketing. However, keep in mind that you don’t have to be perfect or even the best. Technically, nothing is required of you to be able to market your brand or sell a book. You just need to be good enough, often enough.

This is not a mantra for the underachiever nor a call for mediocrity. Certainly, in specific fields where life and death are on the line, more is demanded and necessary. Our police, firefighters, ER docs, criminal defense attorneys, and soldiers are trained rigorously and must perform at highly optimal levels all of the time in order to avoid or mitigate high casualty totals. 

But in order to win often or succeed greatly at our jobs and endeavours, we should feel comforted in knowing that we just need to be a little better than any opposing forces.

Case in point. Whether you win a baseball game 10-9 or 10-0 means the same in the standings: a win of equal value.

Elections are the same way.

One candidate, even after millions of votes are cast, just needs one more vote than the next person to be the winner. Heck, the number of citizen votes nationwide for president count for nothing; only that you have earned one more than half of all eligible electoral college votes.

See a pattern? The margin of victory means little, other than to assuage the ego.

To market your book well, half the battle is in showing up, mentally and physically. Be present and vigilant in pursuing the many ways one can promote a book.

The other half is execution. It is all a big game. You just need to be a hair better than others to reap a lot of attention, book sales, awards, etc.

That is right: domination is not needed. No degrees or special training are required. Just put yourself out there. No permission to succeed is necessary. You are the boss in a company of one.

It always amazes me, to give you a sports analogy, how even some sports teams can be pretty even with each other, yet only one gets to say they are champs while the rest go home, defeated, even if by the thinnest of margins.

Look at many pro sports, such as baseball, basketball, or hockey. You will find several teams who may have done enough to qualify for their league’s playoffs. In some cases, they made it in with barely a winning record. Even that is not required to get into the playoffs. Then they typically play elimination rounds, needing to win three out of five or four of seven to keep advancing. So, you can have a team that won only 51 percent of its games in the season get into the playoffs. Then it goes 3-2 in round one; 4-3 in another; and 4-3 in another round. Every step of the way, they are just one win ahead of someone else. Keep in mind, some of these wins come just because you scored one more point or run than another.

In a typical NBA game, over 200 points are scored. And you could conceivably win 101-100. Then in the championship you could have razor thin victory margins, in a series where both teams lose three times. What really makes one a champion over the other?

Book marketing is like sports. Every day, you go out and compete. The only standard that you need to achieve is this: Just be a little better than other people. Start earlier, work later. Do what others won’t or can’t do. Experiment. Be persistent. Put in a little more effort. Be a little smarter.

You can and will fail often when marketing your book. That is to be expected, even embraced. Some teams, politicians, or even medical students have figured out how to win championships, elections, or pass tests by doing just enough — even if it means missing or losing 49% of the time.

 

 

 

Need Book PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has 30 years of experience in helping thousands of authors in all genres.

 

Catch Up With These Posts

When Should Authors Just Quit?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/when-should-authors-just-quit.html

 

Guaranteed: Authors Who Do This One Thing Shall Succeed

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/guaranteed-authors-who-do-this-one.html

 

How Do Authors Think Their Way to Better Book Marketing?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/how-do-authors-think-their-way-to.html

 

Will You Take The 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/will-you-take-30-day-book-marketing.html

 

How Do You Improve Your Elevator Speech, Authors?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/how-do-you-improve-your-elevator-speech.html

 

15 Ways To Increase An Author’s Blog Traffic

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/15-ways-to-increase-authors-blog-traffic.html

 

The Author As Entrepreneur: 17 Tips/Resources

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-author-as-entrepreneur-17-tips.html

 

Top 100 Book PR Blog Posts

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-best-100-book-marketing-pr-blog.html

 

How Do Authors Recharge A Stalled Book Marketing Campaign?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-do-authors-recharge-stalled-book.html

 

Will You Send 25 Book Marketing Emails Today?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/did-you-send-25-book-marketing-emails.html

 

How Should Authors Spend Their Book Marketing Dollars?

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/how-should-authors-spend-their-book.html

 

Great Book Marketing Podcast Interview With Savvy Book PR Pro Brian Feinblum

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/great-book-marketing-podcast-interview.html

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2021. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  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. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.