After several years of unsuccessfully hiring book marketing experts, I realized I had two choices. The first was to not do any book promotion. The other was to do it myself. With great reticence, I decided to do it myself. I did this knowing it would detract from my writing and reduce my output. I […]
Hiring someone to market our books seems like a logical decision. After all, we hire professionals to edit our books and design our covers, so why not book marketing too? This is exactly what I thought and precisely what I did. Over the years I’ve hired a book launch expert, a publicist, a book marketing […]
Some publishers strongly suggested that authors use their advance for marketing their book. Though this sounds reasonable, my advice is not to do it unless you have a long-term reason for it. First, let’s talk about advances. An advance for a book was originally intended as money for the author to live on as they […]
Write for your audience, and don’t try to impress others with your skill I recently read a nonfiction book. My assessment was that the author wrote to impress more than to educate. Though I did learn from her words, I’d have gained much more had she gotten out of the way and put me, the […]
Marketing can have one of two goals: make sales or create awareness. Although any marketing effort can do both of these, it will only do one of them well. This post will discuss ways to create awareness—and when done right, top-of-mind awareness. That is, having our author brand be what a reader first thinks of […]
With an online ad, a book sale is one click away I once shared columnist Andrew Brenneman’s thoughts on the benefits of print advertising. It is, by the way, a compelling list that includes things we take for granted or overlook. Print advertising is the medium of choice to meet certain marketing objectives. Notwithstanding that […]
Designing a great ad is an art that takes practice In my work as a magazine publisher, I see all sorts of print ads, from good to bad, appealing to boring, effective to ineffective. While ad creation is an art, one that requires both practice and talent, it’s also something that can be learned. The […]
Social media and its wide reach on the Internet have given rise to word-of-mouth book recommendations. Given this trend, some book marketers wonder if there’s still a role for traditional advertising. Here are three reasons why traditional advertising is critical to promote books in a social media world: Advertising Influences Recommendations: We don’t form opinions […]
It seems many authors are putting all of their book marketing efforts into social media. This is often shortsighted and not cost-effective. Discover how to capitalize on social media. It seems many authors are putting all of their book marketing efforts into social media. This is often shortsighted and not cost-effective. Though I’m not dismissing […]
Marketing experts say it takes an average of seven marketing touches before a consumer buys a product. Advertisers who run a couple of ads and give up are giving up too quickly. As writers with a book (or service) to sell, we need to keep this in mind if we want to maximize our success. […]