What is the most effective way to market my book?

Question

What should I purchase firs for starters? Book Relase letter to local media, Book signing kit, Marketing kit posters, get it into major bookstore program. Let me know.

Answer 1

I take it you have self published. The very best thing you can do is hire yourself a marketing firm. All of the things you suggest are valid, however you are going to find getting into a major bookstore is not easy. Did you know major bookstores are now charging major publishers for placing their books on the tables in key locations and featuring them? Publishers pay for that. No matter what you do, you are going to find it costs money. You can buy space on the internet in key sites that you think your readers might visit. You can advertise in local publications, you can send out thousands of letters to bookstores urging them to stock your book through the distributor. All of that costs money. That is one of the key reasons self publishing is a really bad idea. The average sale of a self published book is around 100 copies. You have to push.

I recently took a master class on promoting books - mostly for people who publish traditionally but we did discuss self publishing as well. The author who taught the class said that you can expect to have your friends and family disown you because you will spend so much time promoting your book that they will never see you again. It is a very rough road. And the sad part is you cannot even refer to yourself as a published author. You are a self published author. Your work has not stood up to the scrutiny to a publisher or an agent. Self publishers print anything. I could print the San Francisco telephone book if I wanted to spend the money to do so.

But what Lily has told you isn't always true. Publishers do not always dump money into first novels. Don't count on it. Sure, they get you in bookstores, but you still have to do a hell of a lot to push them yourself.

I am ghostwriting now for a major sports personality. He put out his first children's book about 18 months ago. I didn't ghost that one. His publisher - a top five NYC publisher promised him a ton of promotion. It didn't materialize. He pushed it very hard on his own - using his celebrity and his connections to get it moving. It made #1 on the NY Times bestseller list largely to his efforts - not the publisher's.

Now that they saw that, the two I am ghosting are guaranteed a huge promotion budget. You don't necessarily get it on the first book. But if your first book is a runaway best seller like this was, they will fall all over you to promote the next one. It is cool to know we won't have to do anything to promote these two.

I also know an author whose first novel did quite well. IN fact, it was a book of the month selection in many book clubs. She is sweating out the sequel - even offering to appear at reading groups to promote it. Her publisher isn't offering her much in the way of promotion for the second - despite the first doing very well.

All these things you suggest cost money. And they are iffy. You have to agree to get a bookstore to hang posters or do a signing. First you have to get them to stock the book. Remember that bookstores are all about shelf space. A bookstore pays rent. Square footage costs them money. So what they fill that square footage with has to be enough to cover the costs of their overhead plus earn them a profit. If they don't think your book will sell them more than one or two copies, it won't be stocked. Those are the facts. Your task is a daunting one my friend. Welcome to the world of self publishing.

Pax - C

Answer 2

I notice that everyone is assuming that you are self-publishing, simply because you are talking promotion. The sad fact is, publishers generally don't do promotion anymore (just like editors don't edit anymore). You are on your own. There are many ideas, and the more original you are the more you will be remembered.

The best thing I can say is, EMPLOY A COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS to whatever you do. I hear about all of these wacky ideas to promote books, and in the end, you spend more promoting the book than you make back in sales. For example, the RWA is heavily encouraging members to do seminars at their conferences. "You HAVE TO build name recognition!" Well, it seems to me that giving a seminar on adding Japanese sex practices to your romance novel might hook some of the 50 people in the room into buying your book, BUT you have spent hours and hours, not to mention airfare, room rental, and countless other little expenses in order to make maybe 20 sales, if you are REALLY good. That translates into between $5 and $20 of profit for your work. Meanwhile, for the cost of a well placed $500 ad, you might make a couple thousand sales. (My experience is in political campaigning, my Wife is the author. In politics, as much as people like to see you show up at their door, you are talking a maximum of 50-75 votes a day, assuming everyone likes you. One well crafted and placed ad can get you many thousands of votes. I can't really see how publishing promotion is that different.) I have also seen many an author sitting lonely at a table in the front of the Barnes and Noble in the mall, while hundreds of shoppers walk right on by. It seems the only authors who draw a crowd for signings are the ones who's books would have sold anyway.

Don't pass on any freebies. Call local media outlets. Get an interview. I recently changed all of my Internet names from "islesfan" (I'm a huge Islanders fan) to "BeWere fan" which is the name of my Wife's book series. Not only am I her biggest fan, but I have people ask me about the name. That gives me a chance to plug her book! (Now, Amazon.com has many reviews that bear the name "BeWere Fan" rather than "islesfan.") Its the simple things.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

A great way to market your book is to create a website for it. There are online templates available (Googling "Free Website templates" turns up over 98,000,000 results) or you can try doing it with HTML. Be sure to choose good keywords so your book turns up high in any search results. Good luck!

Answer 4

Are you self-publishing? Too bad, because if you got traditionally published, the publisher would handle all of that and more.

The very first thing you'd want is reviews. Contact magazines, book clubs, libraries, newspapers to try and get some good reviews. That would be the first step.

Answer 5

Start a website advertising your book and virally market your site.

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