MARKETING
When you are offered a publishing contract, for a brief moment you fantasise that you are the next J K Rowling, and that there is going to be such a clamour for your book, that you will be able to just sit back and revel in the glow of record sales and film rights offers. The reality is far from that, as most published authors know. A book is like any other product or commodity, however brilliant it may be, it will not sell itself. So as a published author I will have to be prepared to step into the uncomfortable world of self-promotion, or ‘marketing’, to give it’s correct name.
I have had some experience in marketing. For a brief period I was an entrepreneurial small scale chocolate maker. That is, I tempered chocolate and reformed it into bars with flavoured toppings, selling it via our small local craft fair. I did quite well with it. It was chocolate after all! Unfortunately, I think that selling chocolate is probably a mite easier than selling a book. But maybe I could use the same strategies I used then:
- Make sure it looks good, tempting even, wrapped with care and labelled appropriately
- Try it out on friends and family first and listen to their views
- Get it to where people can see it and buy it easily
- Talk about it and encourage other people to talk about it
- Offer people a taste!
On a very basic level I think it might be possible to market my book in similar ways:
- The cover design is great and Instant Apostle will ensure my book is produced to a highly professional standard. It will look and feel good. The blurb and endorsements on the outside accurately describe what is inside.
- The views of family, friends, editors and reviewers have been invaluable in the process of producing this book. The quality of the final product is going to be due to in no small part to them.
- A website has been launched (self taught and painful at times!) through which the book will be available to buy. Likewise I can use interactive social media pages, groups, posts and this blog to publicise my book… some of you will be sick of reading about the The Healing before you have a chance to actually read it! I have other ideas to help people see the book– ideas currently in infancy. Placement in bookshops and online is down to my wonderful publishers and their sales and marketing contacts. The best sales people, potentially, will be my readers – who hopefully will talk about the book and sell it to others.
- See above!
- I can’t wait to give you a taster… and I will… very soon! Watch this space!
I am incredibly grateful to Wendy H Jones and her box of tricks which is her book ‘Marketing Matters’. It has really helped me to strategize my marketing efforts. So if all of this it seems a bit much. If I am harping on about my book and it is getting annoying. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s not chocolate. But I think my book will actually do you much more good than chocolate. In the long run anyway! And I’d love you to give it a go.
