I would like to welcome JP Thompson yet again for another informative, fantastic post! If you have heard the before Field of Dreams adage, you’re hearing about it again, but in a whole new way! Enjoy!
If you are thinking that a bunch of ghosts of famous writers are going to show up on your site, and droves of readers are going to flock to see them to help promote your book…that’s not going to happen. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
If you search on Google for let’s say “romance novels,” it will return over 38 million results. There are about 10 results showing per page . . . well, let’s just say you are a penguin in a sea of penguins.
Let’s quickly do a reality check.
- Google research indicates that there are approximately 130 million published books.
- Amazon has approximately 1.7 million titles listed. Type in “romance novels” at Amazon/books and it will return approximately 38K results.
- 2011: about 3 million books published.
- 2012: is estimated to hit about 12 million books published.
- Alison Flood of the Guardian points out that a DIY study suggests that self-published authors make less than $500.00.
The hard reality . . . books are easy to find; buyers are not.
If you are interested in selling your book, it’s now time to take off your author hat. You need to think like a marketer. You now need buyers…so, how do you get buyers?
- First and foremost is EXPOSURE
- ENGAGE your potential buyer
- Offer them interesting or helpful content
GOT FANS? Sometimes we are our own worst enemy when it comes to selling. I know; I am a master sales trainer of 34 years. What I hear from authors:
I don’t blog.
I’ll never guest post.
I don’t know what to blog about.
My book is not selling; can you recommend a top agent for me in NYC?
I will advertise when book sales are better.
I am too old to use twitter.
I hate Facebook.
I don’t want people to find me.
I won’t sell a book on twitter.
“Hello, McFly!” Where do you think your buyers are going to come from?
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- A search on Google? You’re 1 in 38M!
- A search on Amazon? You’re 1 in 38K!
Get active! It’s all about getting your book or yourself out there as an author so potential buyers see you and what you write. There is a reason approximately $80B was spent last year on business to consumer advertising. EXPOSURE!
Here are 10 things you can do right NOW to EXPOSE YOURSELF:
- Create a blog
70% of the millions of people surveyed buy due to reading a blog.
50% of those people read a blog once daily.
- Then drive traffic to your blog:
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- Get Reviews
- Guest Blogging
- Face Book Fan Page
- Google +1
- Pintest
- GoodReads
- YouTube Video
- Use a book promo service
- Advertise
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- Create a book webpage
- Create a book website with a blog (e.g., humanbodydetectives.com)
- Create a blog with a link to a book webpage (e.g., rachelintheoc.com)
- Make the book webpage visually interesting and enticing
- Be sure to have a buying page or a link to where they can buy your book on your blog and book webpage with a strong call to action.
- Set up a Facebook fan page
- Set up a Twitter account
- You can tweet about your blog posts or book subject matter (just learn how to use the site properly so you don’t spam or self-promo exclusively).
- Reviews: Get beta readers to read your book.
Visit badredhedmedia.com for more information
- Minimum of 10 reviews
- Minimum 25 likes
- Set up a Google+1 account, LinkedIn account, GoodReads, and Pintrest account
- Set up a YouTube account.
- Create a video
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- You can have a video created for as little as $5 on Fiverr.com (e,g., $45 video example at http://youtu.be/KHRj8kfbzRI)
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- You can also advertise your video on YouTube for as little as $.01 per view
- Use a service to promote your book
- Advertise
- Use AdWords (Google)
- or AdCentral (Bing and Yahoo)
Until next week, expose yourself!
J.P. Thompson
Also, visit my blog on selling at Salescafe
”70% people buy do to reading a blog.”
Due you mean due to reading a blog? As in 70% off all internet sales are made by bloggers? That seems a lot
Sorry about the ‘due’ typo. Thank you for your comment. Let me clarify: 70% of the millions surveyed by Zarrella & Hubspot said they make buying decisions after reading a blog (about a product or service). This stat comes from them, not all internet sales. Hope that helps!
Sorry about the ‘due to’ typo. The data comes from Dan Zarrella of Hubspot where they surveyed millions of purchasers. I didn’t mean to imply all internet sales. Sorry for the confusion!
Great tips. I just published a book and I know I’m going to have to work my butt off to get a few sales. Sigh. Anyway, onward and upward to my next project. Just gotta keep trucking!
That’s the spirit! It’s a long hard incline and you have to stick with it! It’s not easy!
All good. Couldn’t agree more. I’d add in guest blogging as a separate item after setting up some kind of hub. But MOST IMPORTANT, it’s all about having a long-term understanding. There is NO quick fix. If you’re committed to your work and committed to being a serious writer, you will succeed (as long as you do all the items listed here). But you can’t expect over night success. It’s unrealistic as hell. A long-term plan, or at least an understanding of the general path you need to take, is essential. For me, that means lots of guest blogging this fall, completion and release of my book trailer, and getting my third book out there by the end of September…and sleeping 8 hours a night.
You’re absolutely right, David! 🙂 Thanks so much for your input. Taking it seriously from start to finish and doing all the above is what it takes. Writing is not an easy profession!
I think the phase we’re in right now is interesting. There are a lot of folks out there who think they can do this “write a book and make money thing.” That’s why we have things like the paid review scandals, low quality formatting, and poor editing. In a year or two, there will be other scams, but hopefully there will be less people jumping into this crazy (INSANE!) world not prepared to do the hard work and be patient. Maybe I’m wrong…I certainly wouldn’t wish being a writer on anyone but the most masochistic and stubborn of perfectionists.
Yes, there will be scams and there will always the the pretentious. All you can do is do your own thing and the right thing. It’s hard not to get discouraged and frustrated because of the pretentious jackrabbits. I guess you could say I’m a stubborn perfectionist–I have the creative trifecta and the type C personality. A lot of what is going on does suck, and the publishing industry is in shambles and still shifting. All we can do is move along and adapt.