How to Help Others Promote Your Book

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an author, I understand thousands of new books enter the marketplace every day. It is a real challenge for every author to get any attention for their book. Most of us are introverts and don't like to market and tell others about our books. Yes I included myself in this category. Yet I know the truth of the

statement from P.T. Barnum, “Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.” Raleigh Pinskey, author of the book  101 Ways to Promote Yourself  taught me this quote. In the early days of her public relations career, Raleigh promoted rock and roll groups. Learn more about Raleigh and take a free teleseminar (follow this link).

 

In simple terms promotion or marketing means including others. As the Bible says in James 4:2–3, “You have not because you ask not.” I've often heard David Hancock, the founder of Morgan James Publishing summarizes this verse saying, “Don't ask don't get.”  A key part of the process is asking or including others in your marketing or promotion. There are many simple yet significant ways to as others to help you.

 

For example, in the final pages of 10 Publishing Myths, I ask readers to post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble.com and other places. I've seen many other authors use this strategy. In addition to asking for their help, I include a simple link where the reader can get a book review template to help them know what to write for a review. I got my template from my friend and public relations expert Sandra Beckwith. Yes I purchased this product which comes with the rights to use it for your own promotion.

 

I created a page for 10 Publishing Myths with resources and ideas to help people tell more people about my book. You can see the variety of resources and suggestions at this link.

One of my Morgan James authors Lily Taylor has a new book called Unconfined. She created this page (follow the link) with various ideas and resources. Notice she has created a free study guide for her book and also given readers a place to ask for prayer. I call these two book examples to your attention to give you ideas for your own book. It doesn't matter if your book is brand new or has been out for a while. Every author can create such a page of resources to help their readers tell others about their book. 

 

Have you created a page to help others promote your book? What does it include? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Tweetable:

How are you helping others to promote your book? Get ideas and details from this prolific author and editor here. (ClickToTweet)

Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

 

 

Every Writer Needs A Plan

How did 2010 turn out for your writing life? Did you get as much into print or online as you planned? Or did you plan at all?

Many writers have a haphazard system for getting their material submitted and out into the marketplace. They work at it off and on without any type of consistent action, then they act surprised when little or nothing happens.

I've written many times about the necessity for a writer to learn his craft and improve their writing skills. It happens through consistency and constant learning and growth. Through experience their communication abilities increase and more of their work appears in print or online. As you write better, you will be compensated better (in most cases) for your writing. The principles are the same for growing your audience, your presence in the marketplace and improving your marketing skills. You need a plan then to consistently execute the plan. If you fail to plan, you should not be surprised when little or nothing happens.

As Raleigh Pinskey writes in the early pages of her excellent book, 101 Ways to Promote Yourself, "P.T. Barnum is the father of a well-known marketing cry, 'Without promotion something terrible happens--nothing!'"

What are you wanting to accomplish in the year ahead? A typical goal might be to gain more people coming to your personal website---or traffic as it is called in the Internet world. What steps can you take to generate more traffic and increased relationships because as John Kremer consistently teaches, writers sell books through building relationships.

I suggest you tap into this free resource from Anthony Morrison, 30 Days to Massive Traffic. This 76-page resource will not cost anything but it will require effort on your part. First download it, print it, read it but then apply it to your life. You will see a different result for your work in the days ahead. More people will know about you and your work.

The Unexpected Book For Sale

I arrived to the restaurant for my lunch meeting a few minutes early so I went into the nearby Borders. Whenever I enter one of the big box stores, I always like to see the "for sale" material in the entry. For example, I found an audio book by a former President of the United States for only $5.99 and it probably originally retailed for $29.95. Many people outside of publishing don't realize these products are on the path of destruction. If they aren't sold, they will be returned to the publisher and destroyed. As much as I love books, I hate to think about it but it's the reality for unsold products.

As I glanced through the various books, I was surprised to find several copies of Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder by Herschel Walker. The original sticker price of $20.95 was on this book but now it was priced at $2.99.

While holding the book in my hand, I was instantly transported to the last time I held this particular book about eight months ago or last April. In New York City, I spent a day with editors at a number of publishing houses. An editor at a Simon and Schuster imprint showed a copy of Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder. It was his first book at the publishing house and he barely allowed me to hold it for a minute explaining, "This book is embargoed until it's release and Herschel will be on Good Morning America talking about it."

Some books are embargoed where retailers are specifically forbidden to sell the book ahead of a certain release date and Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder fell into this category and the publisher had high hopes for the title. It was totally unexpected to see this book for sale as a remainder in Borders.

There are several lessons for any book author or potential book author from my brief experience. First, many authors are dreaming about a major publishing house to take their book proposal or book manuscript and bring it into the bookstore. Those major publishers are impatient for success with their books and often give is a small window to perform in terms of sales or they put it out of print. With a single letter to the author from the publisher, a book can be put out of print and the remainders sold. The smaller publishes are often more patient with authors and keep their books in print for a much longer period of time.

Also remember as a book author, it is all about book sales. An appearance on national television does not make a promotion campaign for a book. The marketing and promotion process is continual for any author who wants to find their audience. Some times books take a while to locate that audience. As the author, you have the greatest passion (and responsibility) for your own book promotion. Yes, you may prefer to be writing the next book but never forget the books in print and the need for a steady stream of sales.

Another lesson is that not every book succeeds in the marketplace--even a name brand sports figure. Publishers gather the best information at the time and make a decision. Some books succeed unexpectedly and others flounder and disappear.

As a book author, you have to be aware of the massive amount of new books and backlist books in the marketplace. There is a continual need to be telling people about your book and it's availability to generate those sales. I love the famous saying from P.T. Barnum in the front of Raleigh Pinskey's fascinating bestseller, 101 Ways To Promote Yourself. "Barnum is the father of a well-known marketing cry, 'Without promotion something terrible happens--nothing!'"

You can't control the future for how the marketplace will receive your books. Instead be committed to doing what you can do.

Charged To Promote

Last week a savvy author contacted me about possibly reviewing his book. Over a year ago, this author published a book about the Presidents and had read the customer reviews of some of the presidential candidates on Amazon. Now I wrote one of those customer reviews so he contacted me to see if I would be interested in possibly reviewing his book. That's a smart idea worthy of your attention and possible imitation. You could look at books similar to your title and directly contact some of the people who have written customer reviews about possibly reviewing your book.

As I looked at the Amazon page for this book on the Presidents of the United States, I noticed the publisher released the book outside of the election year cycle. Like many Amazon pages where the author isn't actively involved, the book had scant information. The Search Inside The Book feature wasn't turned on and it had less than five customer reviews and no information about the book or the author.

In my email to the author, I encouraged him to proactively change the missing elements on the book page of Amazon. He instantly bounced back that he wanted those features to be activated but to turn them on was the publisher's responsibility. Yes, maybe sometimes the publisher will handle this matter but I hear authors large or small complain about the limited marketing and promotion efforts from their publishers. Instead of complaining, I recommend you roll up your sleeves and get involved in the promotion process--and not just for a season. I encourage you to spend a regular part of your writing life doing something to promote yourself and your book. It will pay off for you.

If you are concerned about your book sales (and every author should be concerned about continuing to sell books), then I encourage you to actively work on the pages where your books appear on Amazon.

1. Join Amazon Connect and create an Amazon blog and a connection to your website.

2. Take active steps to implement the Search Inside feature on the Amazon page. If your publisher hasn't activated this feature, you may have to take matters into your own hands (and that's OK--the publisher should applaud your proactive efforts to sell books).

Working with a small press for Book Proposals That Sell, this feature wasn't turned on for my book. I printed and signed the Amazon permission form, then mailed them a physical copy of the book. After several weeks, they scan the book and get the pages into their system and the Search Inside feature will be activated for your book. Customers make buying decisions every day by looking inside the book online, then purchasing the book. If you don't have that feature turned on, then you are potentially missing some sales.

3. Actively work to gather five star customer reviews for your book on Amazon. The five stars portion of my previous sentence is important because Amazon averages the stars. You want to have many reviews of your book on these pages. As readers send you little notes of appreciation for your book, when you thank them for their encouragement, take several additional seconds and suggest, "Could you cut and paste those kind comments into a Five Star Review on Amazon? I'd really appreciate it and here's the link to take you right to exact page on Amazon."

The Amazon links tend to be really long--so make sure you send them a short cut link. You create a short cut link using a free tool like snipurl.com or tinyurl.com. The short cut link almost guarantees that they will have an active link from your email they can use to go to the Amazon page for your book. This simple suggestion works and when you notice they have added their Five Star review, don't forget to send them a little email of appreciation. All of these steps work into the bigger picture for your promotional efforts.

While I've been talking about Amazon in this post, I encourage you to continually look for new promotional avenues. Raleigh Pinskey has some terrific new resources on her blog. Raleigh is the author of 101 Ways To Promote Yourself (another book I recommend). I wrote about her work earlier this year in this link.

The key point that I'm making in this entry is not to wait on someone else to promote your book. You should be charge to promote your own book.

More About Promotion

Since my last post about The Writing Life, I received an email from Raleigh Pinskey. I was interested to learn since 101 Ways to Promote Yourself first appeared in 1997, it has sold over 250,000 copies in nine countries.

In light of the typical low sales numbers for many books, I found that quarter of a million sales number pretty amazing. How did it happen? Raleigh continues to work at promotion for this book through speaking, book signings, teleseminars and a host of other such ideas. She is not sitting around expecting the sales to happen naturally because most of the time they don't. The author has to be proactive to encourage people to buy their book.

Here's another creative resource with 50 book marketing ideas. If you sign up at John Kremer's blog to receive his updates, you will receive a seven page list of these ideas which came from a two hour speech at the PMA Publishing University several years ago. The sign up spot it in the left-hand column of the page.

I love #48 on John's list: "Do Something Every Day" where he says, "Each day, take some marketing action on every active title on your list. Write a letter. Make a phone call. Create a new ad. It need not take much time, but these small actions can keep your books actively selling for years to come. If you devote just ten minutes of focused marketing time every day on each book you published, I guarantee you will make more sales."

If you become a proactive author about your books, you will stand out from many other authors in a positive way. Publishers want to continue to publish and work with authors who understand the necessity and priority that needs to go toward consistent promotion.

The Continual Need for Any Author

I often hear this refrain from authors. "I don't like to market." Or "I'm an introvert and don't like to speak in public." Or this one, "I'm a writer and not a marketing person. I'm going to spend my time in the craft of writing." Now don't get me wrong, it's important to learn the craft of writing and I encourage such action often in these entries on the writing life. Yet it is also important to learn the skill of promotion and marketing. It's a huge pain--and I feel that pain personally--yet I understand the realities of the marketplace.

As an acquisitions editor and now a literary agent, I've listened to authors complain about their lack of book sales or their book going out of print. While I understand there are many reasons for lack of sales and the book going out of print, much of it relates to whether the book is selling or not. As I've said many times in these entries, it is the author who has the greatest passion for their topic. It is the author who lives, breathes and sleeps with the topic. So the author is the one who needs to continue to carry that passion ahead and continually do something proactive to get the word out on their book.

Almost every day I try to do something proactive to tell people about Book Proposals That Sell. Yes, this book has been in the market for over two years but it continues to consistently sell either in the ebook format or through Amazon and other places. How do I know it is selling? It's not an accurate barometer but I notice my Amazon sales numbers. They have consistently been between 5,000 and 30,000 throughout the two years. What does that mean? It means that every week this book continues to sell copies. Your first step is to write an excellent book that helps people but the second key is to continue to talk with people about that book.

I make no claims to do this promotion and marketing perfectly but I am consistent. Yesterday I was talking with a long-term editor friend who I had not called in years. when she answered her phone, it turned out she is living in the mid-part of the United States and working remote for the publisher--and has been doing it for two years. Now I've known this editor for many years so we connected right away. She and I had lost touch and I told her about my Book Proposals That Sell. When she said she'd look it up on Amazon, I offered to send her a copy--then I put it in the mail yesterday. Will I see an immediate return on that action? I don't know but I do know she's an active member of the publishing community and I want her to know about my book and recommend it to people. It was a simple act that I took to continue to let people know about this product. You can follow my example with your book. The world is small and inter-connected.

Let me give you a couple of resources in this area of promotion. I was listening to Arielle Ford and her Everything You Should Know package in my car yesterday. If you don't know what I'm talking about, follow the link and check out the short video that Arielle put together. It's informative.

I was listening to Arielle interview Raleigh Pinskey, author of the book, 101 Ways to Promote Yourself. Now I had never heard of Raleigh Pinskey but I was fascinated to hear her talk about her own shyness (common among many of us) and yet how she continually promoted this book with a copyright date of 1999. I have no idea when this interview was recorded but some time in the last couple of years. Pinskey noted that her book continues to sell about 250 copies each month and had total sales at the time of over 10,000 copies. Now 250 copies a month may not sound huge to you but that translates into about 3,000 copies a year--which is respectable in many publishing circles--especially for a backlist title.

"Something" about the title of this book, 101 Ways to Promote Yourself, sounded familiar. It turns out I've had the book on my shelf for at least six months (maybe longer) and had never opened it. I read the entire book last night. I love the classic marketing quote from P.T. Barnum in the Foreword, "Without promotion something terrible happens--nothing!" This quote captures the truth of many authors. They want the world to come to their door and when it does not, they don't understand. It's like Pinskey says, you can build the world's best mouse trap (or the world's greatest book) but if no one knows about it, then you have a garage (or basement or storage area), filled with great mouse traps (or books). I added my review of this book to Amazon then I noticed Raleigh Pinsky's address in the right-hand column. We probably live within a few miles of each other.

In summary, here's the lesson for your writing life: make a choice as an author or writer to continually promote and market your book or yourself or both. It may not pay off immediately but in the long run, I predict you will reap unexpected and potentially huge results.