Must Authors Market For Now Or Later?

 

Authors need to market their books right now, in the present, to sell more copies. But they also must keep an eye on building their brand for the long-term. Sometimes, authors do things with a smaller. immediate payoff, and that is fine. They need to eat, too. But they must also keep their eye on the big prize.

Here are goals that many authors might have, each involving a series of continual marketing efforts to achieve:

Self-published, but wants to get published.
This author will likely need to attract a literary agent in order to capture a book publisher’s interest. In order to snag a literary agent, you will need to show a believable marketing plan. They will look at your track record in sales. They will look at numbers, such as how bug your email list is, your total social media connections, and your success rate at getting book reviews, news media coverage, and speaking engagements.

To publish a successful series or sequel.
How you lay the groundwork to promote your first book will dictate the potential success for launching sequels or a series.

To write in more than one genre.
Each genre has its own marketplace and means for promotions. Whatever you did in one genre may not work for another. It can be challenging to cross genres or co-exist in both worlds.

To use a book’s publication and promotion to serve as a loss-leader to bigger fame and fortune down the road, such as to become a paid consultant, earn speaking fees, or create a spin-off such as a toy, doll, video game, or to enhance their career status or launch a related business.

In this case, sales are secondary to your efforts to use the book to brand you. Traditional or social media is needed to get attention for it.

To spread a message rather than merely sell something.

To generate speaking appearances, social media attention, and news media coverage — all of which sells a message — you will need to focus on that versus doing something that particularly sells a book, such as advertising.

To sell foreign rights, film and television, theatrical rights, or for someone to purchase rights to sell the content in another format, such as a mass market book, or an audiobook.

Though high book sales can influence others to buy your rights for the above, these companies seek out a great book that has the ability to carry over into another medium. They need to know your book exists in order to discover it.

So, you might say, regardless of what one’s long-term goal is, the blueprint is the same: sell books, get publicity, seek more consumer reviews, gain more social media connections, etc. To some degree, that is true. Whatever sells books is great. But just selling books, by any means necessary, is not an ending point.

For instance, to brand yourself as an authority or to be an influencer or to snag the ear of a literary agent, you will need to go beyond book sales, however valuable they may be. You need to build a brand.

Do you market for now? Later? Go for both.

Please Contact Me For 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 successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres.

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. 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 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as  Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and had spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday,The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post.  . He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.