Category book marketing

May 12 2013

Character Marketing (Exemplified with Sherlock Holmes)

All authors know that they need to market their books. Many authors also realize that they must also market themselves – i.e. their own brand as an author.

But it’s also important to market the characters of fictional works.

There are two types of character marketing:

  • The first type is marketing and branding a very memorable character, much the same way as marketing and branding the book or author. An example of this is Sherlock Holmes.
  • The second type of character marketing occurs in the writing of the book itself. Here, the narrator and other characters help to market a character.

Authors can brand a memorable protagonist or antagonist using similar techniques that they use to brand the book or the author’s image. This is what authors who include the name of the protagonist in the title are hoping to achieve.

Play to your strengths. What makes your book special? If your book has a character that many people in the target audience are apt to fall in love with, this may be a strength that you wish to utilize in your marketing.

What makes a character memorable? Sometimes, marketing within the book – from the narration or from the dialogs of other characters – can help with this.

Why is Sherlock Holmes so memorable, for example? We all know that he is a super sleuth. How did he get this reputation?

It’s not because the narrator started the book by writing, “Sherlock Holmes was the greatest detective who ever lived.” You can’t sell many books by telling everybody your book is the greatest book ever. This technique doesn’t work with character marketing either.

Character marketing must be more subtle, like book marketing.

In the case of Sherlock Holmes, the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, developed a supporting character, Dr. Watson, to aid in this. (Dr. Watson may have been introduced by the author for another reason, but this is definitely a major benefit that Dr. Watson delivered.)

The adventures of Sherlock Holmes are presented as memoirs of Dr. Watson, who has a firsthand account. Dr. Watson appears quite humble about his own abilities, while making Sherlock Holmes seem superhuman. He doesn’t just tell the readers that Sherlock Holmes is incredible: He shows them.

For example, Dr. Watson recounts conversations where Sherlock Holmes impresses everyone – even the reader – with his amazing powers of deduction, making the problem seem impossible in the beginning, yet the solution so clear in the end. The mystery itself seems impossible to solve until Sherlock Holmes solves it, and the solution always seems so clever.

It’s not just the puzzle that matters: It’s the presentation. Dr. Watson’s presentation markets Sherlock Holmes as a super sleuth.

Dr. Watson’s role also allows Sherlock Holmes to have a measure of humility. It would be far more arrogant for Sherlock Holmes to write his own memoirs. Furthermore, Sherlock Holmes actually mentions in his dialog with Dr. Watson that his memoirs tend to make Sherlock Holmes appear far more extraordinary than he actually is. This helps market some modesty.

The next time you read an amazing book, think about how the narration and other characters help with character marketing. Also, think about how this technique can help with your own writing.

If, like me, you lover Sherlock Holmes, the best reference is:

http://amzn.com/B005HJU7HA

The formatting is fairly good. If you prefer print, the Dover Thrift Editions are a great deal.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

May 10 2013

Cross-Categories – a Misconception among Authors?

Not a Romance

I come across a staggering number of self-published books that don’t seem to fit into any single well-defined category.

What do you get when you cross Harry Potter with Brokeback Mountain? Buyer confusion!

Some authors are thinking along the lines, “I’ll double my target audience by writing a book that has a healthy combination of fantasy and science fiction.” Or it can be an action thriller mixed with historical romance. Or one of several other combinations.

To make matters worse, surely they will have friends and family members who will help encourage this. Somebody will say something of the sort, “You know what. I love Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings. I think that’s a great idea!”

One problem with this is that the target audience doesn’t actually double when distinctly different genres are crossed. Most readers who are specifically searching for a passionate romance, for example, are looking for exactly that. They’re not looking for a romance that’s fifty percent sci-fi, fantasy, or spy thriller.

Similarly, most readers who are looking for fantasy, for example, aren’t browsing for a cover that looks, or a blurb that sounds, too romantic.

Would you try to sell Easter bunny costumes on Halloween?

There may be an audience for a cross-genre book, but it will probably be a more challenging sell than a book that fits very well in a single genre.

In other cases, the author hadn’t thought about the categories at all until the writing was finished. When it came time to publish, the author is faced with the task of choosing the category. Now the author is thinking something like, “Well, there is a bit of action, a little mystery, a touch of romance, even some sci-fi at the end.”

Having a book that fits into a blend of categories is a major marketing and packaging obstacle.

It’s much easier to package and market a book that fits into a single, well-defined category.

Consider this from a marketing and packaging perspective:

  • The thumbnail image of the front cover needs to attract the right audience. When mystery readers click on a book because the cover appealed to them, but the blurb doesn’t sound like a mystery book, nobody will buy the book through discovery.
  • The title and cover need to send a unified message. If the title sounds like a spy thriller, but the cover looks like contemporary romance, this creates buyer confusion.
  • The blurb and Look Inside must reinforce the same signals given by the title and cover. Confused shoppers don’t by books.
  • The content has to satisfy the reader who is attracted to the book. If the title, cover, blurb, and Look Inside succeed in attracting fantasy readers, but the story doesn’t appeal to most fantasy readers, this will adversely affect book reviews and word-of-mouth sales.

Packaging a book for a specific target audience and sending a unified message about the content of the book is easiest when the book fits into a single, well-defined category.

I’m not saying that you can’t write a book that blends categories. If your goal is frequent sales, then writing a book that closely resembles one popular genre may be the best way to go. Marketing a book that fits into two or more different categories will probably be a much greater challenge. It’s already very difficult to be one of the top sellers. Why make it any more difficult than it already is?

It can be fun to write non-standard books. If you do this for the fun, and don’t mind that this may adversely affect sales, then you should definitely enjoy your fun.

I’ve had a little fun with this myself. For example, I’m working on a book called Romancing the Novel, which is an extension of a couple of pieces that I posted on this blog a few months ago:

Reading and Writing with Passion

Giving Birth to a Book

I also have a dialogue called Why Do We Have to Go to School? The closest topic is probably educational philosophy, but it’s actually fiction. I didn’t find a good category for it. It doesn’t sell, but I’m not surprised. I didn’t invest time marketing it, since it wasn’t an easy sell. But I’m not disappointed: It was fun to write and definitely worth doing.

I mostly write nonfiction, which sells for the value of the content and expertise. For me, the fiction is fun, while the nonfiction is educational. For me, the educational part sells, while the fun is just fun (and what’s wrong with having fun for fun’s sake?).

One of these years, I will finish a juvenile sci-fi book that I started several years ago. I believe that it has a great beginning (it better – I’ve spent years working on it). This piece of fiction won’t just be fun, but will actually fit into a well-defined, popular genre. Of all of my ideas for fictional books, this one has the best chance of succeeding. It’s also the book that’s taking the longest time to write. Maybe by 2020? (Hey, that would be a good year to release a book that has something to do with excellent eyesight.)

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

May 4 2013

The Most Common yet Critical Publishing Mistake (?)

Perhaps the most common mistake that I see when shopping for self-published books is a target audience mismatch. Either many indie authors don’t realize how much this may deter sales or they didn’t consider how significantly this affects marketing when they were selecting the title, designing the cover, and preparing the blurb.

When authors with slow sales ask what they are doing wrong, very often their books suffer from this same marketing flaw.

In the simplest terms, the problem will seem very obvious, but knowing is only half the battle:

Imagine that you’re browsing through search results for a sci-fi novel. Are you likely to click on thumbnails that look like they might be mysteries, romances, or fantasies? If it doesn’t look like a sci-fi novel, will you click on the book? What if the title doesn’t sound like sci-fi? What if the cover looks suitable for kids, but you’re an adult?

After you click on the book, if the blurb sounds like adventure or erotica instead of sci-fi, will you look inside? What if it sounds like a blend of sci-fi, romance, and mystery? If you were in the mood for sci-fi, maybe you would prefer pure sci-fi.

(Don’t contemplate the exceptions. It’s what the majority will do that influences your sales.)

When you look inside, if it starts out like historical fiction or comedy, will that satisfy your hunger for sci-fi?

If you’re a sci-fi fan, you know what sci-fi covers usually look like, what sci-fi titles often sound like, what you expect to see in the blurb, how the novels usually begin, etc. When readers are looking for something in particular, they usually don’t settle for something else.

When a thumbnail cover looks like genre A, but the blurb sounds like genre B, then all of the potential readers who are attracted to the cover won’t be buying the book, and all of the potential readers who would be attracted to the description will never check it out.

A target audience mismatch is a huge sales killer!

Even a slight mismatch is a major problem. For example, readers should be able to distinguish between contemporary romance, historical romance, teen romance, and erotica. A contemporary romance cover with too much sex appeal might be mistaken for erotica, and vice-versa.

I understand that it’s not easy for most writers to design excellent covers. But it’s not enough to just have an appealing cover. If it doesn’t attract the right audience, the cover isn’t helping at all.

Many authors struggle with their image searches, often settling on stock photos that are in the ballpark, but really aren’t a good fit for the book. Others get a concept in their minds that either isn’t a good fit for the book or that they can’t pull off well enough for it to work. If the cover doesn’t appeal to the intended audience, this isn’t satisfactory.

If you’re in the mood for a candy bar, you won’t purchase a snack that looks like potato chips from a vending machine (and those in the mood for potato chips that wind up with chocolate will be irate customers). It’s no different and should be no less obvious for books.

If you value sales, don’t make this costly mistake.

Develop the title, cover, blurb, and Look Inside with the specific target audience in mind.

Check out other covers in the same genre to see what buyers are accustomed to seeing. Make sure that your cover appeals to the right audience. Receive feedback from readers in the target audience as you develop your cover.

You don’t need to copy the ideas of the bestsellers; in fact, copycat covers may backfire. But you do need to see what’s common.

If you absolutely loathe a very common concept, you can work around it. For example, if you write contemporary romance and find that most covers feature a romantic couple, but refuse to put people on your cover, you can find other elements common in the genre that signify romance. It is possible to make a cover without people that clearly looks like a romance (how about a red heart?). However, be sure that you do this for the right reasons. Don’t sacrifice your sales simply because you can’t find people to put on your cover; do it because it’s something you believe in so firmly that you don’t mind if it deters sales.

Do similar research for the title and blurb. Ensure that the title, cover, blurb, and Look Inside present a unified message regarding the content and genre. Have people in your target audience check these out before you publish, specifically asking them if they all sound like your book’s specific genre.

The cover and title are most important because if these send the wrong message, nothing else matters. Next, the blurb and Look Inside must reinforce the same signals.

Will the story and characters also appeal to your target audience? This is very important for reviews and the prospects for valuable word-of-mouth sales.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volumes 1 and 2)

Apr 30 2013

Branding Distinction for Authors

What distinguishes your book from others? What makes it special? How is it unique?

You don’t just want people in your target audience to see your name and the name of your book repeatedly. You want people in your target audience to associate something with the kinds of books that you write.

Knowing the author’s name or the book’s title provides recognition when they see it. You don’t just want people to buy your book when they recognize it. You want people to search for your book.

If you brand a distinction for your writing, people in your target audience may search for your book when they’re next in the market for a book of that kind. This is better than recognition.

When people in your target audience discover your name or the title of your book while they interact with you, you’re branding your name or your book’s title. It may be more effective to brand a signature that distinguishes your writing. Give your target audience a compelling reason to search for your book.

First, you must identify your target audience. Secondly, you must market your brand effectively – e.g. through discovery or by providing valuable content (whereas self-promotion and being too frequently visible may get you tuned out).

Interact with people in your target audience and let them discover that you’re a writer and what makes your work special. The more you write or say, the less people will remember. You want the emphasis on a concise phrase (just a few words, nowhere near an entire sentence) that brands your specialty and something to go along with it – your name, your book’s title, or the name of a series, especially if it’s very short – so that they can easily find it when they’re ready to search for it.

Here are some examples of how to brand distinction:

  • Your Name, writer of clean romance
  • Series Title, featuring Brooklyn’s modern day Sherlock Holmes
  • Book Title, a dancing guide for people with two left feet
  • Author’s Name, specializing in vampire erotica
  • Workbook Series, math for children with ADHD
  • Name of Book, sick of implausibly perfect characters?

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2, on editing/marketing, is now available)

Apr 16 2013

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Marketing Books

When trying to decide if a book marketing strategy is worth doing, consider this in terms of a cost-benefit analysis. What you hope to determine is whether the costs are worth the prospective benefits.

Even if the marketing technique is free, it still costs time. Time is money. You don’t want to spend several hours per week doing marketing work that yields very little in return. So you must factor both money and time into the costs.

Benefits very often aren’t measured in immediate sales. Marketing that helps new members of your target audience discover your book or which improves or furthers your branding efforts has value, too. Some sales from continued branding efforts may not come for months.

There are also other possible costs (besides money and time) and benefits (besides sales, discovery, and branding).

For example, a marketing strategy that places books into the hands of people outside of your target audience might be more likely to draw negative reviews, since these readers may not really appreciate and understand the genre. Similarly, giving your book away for free might draw a negative review from a customer who didn’t take time to read the description and therefore didn’t get what was expected. A few negative reviews help to provide balance and sometimes have a positive effect on sales, but too many negative reviews can deter sales.

On the other hand, some marketing strategies may be likely to result in positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations. The more customers who read your book and like it, the more good reviews and word-of-mouth sales you may receive. When the readers are in your target audience or are bloggers who frequently review books in your genre on their blogs, for example, this improves these prospects.

Another thing to factor into cost-benefit analysis is the quality of the product and packaging. The packaging includes the title, blurb, Look Inside, and customer reviews. The better the packaging looks, the more this will help to magnify the benefits of effective marketing; the worse the packaging looks, the fewer benefits any marketing will reap. Similarly, a better book is more likely to receive good reviews and recommendations, while a poor book that receives many low-star reviews will inhibit sales.

Even a seemingly small thing like the title can impact this. A title that’s short and easy to remember is more likely to earn word-of-mouth sales. Just imagine this: “Oh, that reminds me of a great book that I read once. Oh, too bad I can’t remember the title of it.”

Realize that some marketing strategies may be reaching the same members of your target audience. Very often this is okay because it takes repetition for branding to become effective, but it’s still something to consider.

When you’re thinking about costs, you should be thinking:

  • How much money will you need to spend on this marketing strategy?
  • How much time will you need to spend doing this marketing?
    • What impact will this have on your author image? Anything you might do to brand yourself with a negative image can be a hefty cost.
    • Might this cause people to buy the book without realizing what they’re getting? For a free book promotion, for example, this could be the case. If so, these customers are more likely to express frustration if the book doesn’t meet their (sometimes unreasonable) expectations.
    • Is there any reason for customers to feel that the book is unprofessional? Poor editing, formatting, or storyline, for example, may result in bad reviews.

For benefits, you can’t calculate how many sales you will derive. Many of the sales may not be realized for several months. Instead, you should be thinking:

  • How many new members of my target audience will this reach? Don’t waste your time with marketing efforts that aren’t geared toward your target audience.
  • Will the interaction be personal or impersonal? Will it be engaging, or momentary? Personal, engaging interactions make a much stronger, lasting impression. Impersonal and momentary interactions are only worthwhile in very large numbers.
  • Does this come across as self-promotion, advertising, or salesmanship, or does this work like discovery and branding? Most people have an aversion to the former, but respond well to the latter.
  • Is this likely to generate thoughtful reviews from members of your target audience or bloggers in your genre?
  • Are you putting the book in the hands of highly social people in your target audience who may, if they like the book, spread the word in person or on Facebook or Twitter?
  • How strongly do you believe in your book? The better your book is cover to cover, the more it enhances these benefits through possible reviews and recommendations.
  • Have you written a series where the book is good enough to induce purchases in subsequent volumes? If so, prospective sales of the later volumes can significantly enhance the benefits.

Example 1. Should you invest in professional cover design?

Costs: How much will you pay for the service? Divide the financial cost by the per-book royalty to see how many copies you must sell just to break even. How much time will you invest looking for a designer and then interacting with the designer throughout the process?

Benefits: How much will the cover improve over what you could do yourself? Will you sell most of your books in person or at Amazon? Your cover is far more important at Amazon. Will the cover attract your target audience? How well will the cover stand out among other thumbnails in your genre? Are the blurb and Look Inside effective enough to seal the deal? Will the book live up to the expectations? Is there a large market for your book idea? You can search for other books similar to yours and see how well they are selling.

Example 2. Should you invest in bookmarks?

Costs: How much will you pay for the bookmarks? How much time will you invest looking for a company to make them, developing a design, and distributing them?

Benefits: Will they be appealing enough for people to use them? If they look like advertisements, no; if they only mention your title and name, but mostly have appealing images, yes. Will they be distributed primarily among new members of your target audience? Seeking feedback on the bookmark design may be helpful.

Example 3. Should you give your book away for free?

Costs: Every book that you give away is a royalty that you won’t earn. If you give away paperbacks, it also costs you money to print the books.

Benefits: Are most of the recipients in your target audience? What are your prospects for word-of-mouth sales? Do you have other books that may interest the customers if they enjoy your book? Giving away the first book of a series may help to sell subsequent books in the series, provided that the first book is very good.

Example 4. Should you write an article that relates to the content of your book?

Costs: How much time will it take to research magazines, newspapers, and websites that are a good fit for your target audience? How long will it take to write the article? How much time will you spend on submissions? What are the prospects for having your article accepted? If you have relevant expertise and experience with the subject matter, this greatly improves your chances. Also, there are very many websites online. Finally, in the worst-case scenario, you can always post the article on your own blog or other website.

Benefits: What is the circulation of the magazine or newspaper, or the frequency of site views of the website? What percentage of this audience is a good fit for your book? Will your name and the title of your book be visible at the bottom of your article? This helps with discovery and branding.

* * *

For each marketing strategy that you consider, make two lists – one for costs and another for benefits. Is this geared mainly toward your target audience? That should be one of your main questions. Remember that discovery and branding among your target audience are very helpful long-term benefits. Another main question is: Will this seem more like advertising or discovery? A marketing strategy is worth adopting when benefits outweigh the costs (and not just slightly).

Let me mention one more important benefit. For many authors, this may outweigh many of the other benefits. It’s not just about sales, is it? Many of us write for other reasons besides money. Even if we didn’t write for money, we still appreciate those royalty checks. (You might ask, if you’re not in it for the money, why not give it away for free? Maybe we want our work to be valued. If we give it away for free, many people who may have read our books might feel that if it’s free, it isn’t worth reading.)

If money isn’t your only motivation, there are some other benefits to consider. There is the benefit of sharing your work with others, telling your story, having your work appreciated, spreading knowledge, etc. But if you think about it, these really amount to the same thing as sales: The more books you sell, the more your work is shared with others, the more knowledge you spread, etc.

What I had in mind is a benefit that doesn’t correlate with sales. That’s the benefit of the marketing endeavor itself. For example, blogging is something that all writers should do even if a cost-benefit analysis says that it’s not worth doing. As writers, blogging is a useful creative outlet. We can explore new techniques, try a different voice, develop a new character, receive feedback, reduce stress by getting stuff off our chests (but beware that what you say could negatively impact your author branding), etc. There are many positive benefits of blogging that make it worthwhile even if this effort doesn’t result in a single new sale.

Another example is performing community service. If you write a self-help book, you may be able to get discovered by members of your target audience through your involvement in related community service. Even if this doesn’t make sense from a cost-benefit analysis in terms of sales, though, there are many other benefits of community service that may make it worthwhile.

For other marketing strategies, you might also consider if there are valuable benefits other than just sales that may make it outweigh the costs.

Don’t market for the sales. Be passionate about your writing and market to share your passion. Don’t market just to share your passion. Be passionate about the marketing strategy itself – e.g. be passionate about blogging, writing an article, or doing a book reading. When others indirectly see your passion, it has a positive impact on sales (but don’t be boastful, overconfident, or talk about your book too frequently, as these things deter sales).

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Apr 14 2013

Effective Book Marketing – Part 3

(5) Strive to generate word-of-mouth sales.

Word-of-mouth sales are among the best sales that your book can get, yet are also the most challenging to achieve. There are a few things that you can do to help garnish these valuable sales.

Try to create buzz for your upcoming book. Don’t simply publish the book and wait to see how little it gets noticed. Instead, strive to get people talking about your book prior to its release:

  • Solicit feedback on your cover, title, and blurb. Post these on your blog and Facebook, requesting comments. Show these in person. Have these with you and show them to people (especially, those in your target audience). You get valuable feedback and might help to create a little buzz at the same time.
  • Don’t keep your book writing a secret. People ask, “What have you been up to lately?” Let them know how your book is coming along. This is more effective when they inquire about your book, and less effective when you volunteer it. You’ll get tuned out if you’re always talking about your book.
  • Join a critique group, see if a book club is interested in your draft (if you’re already a member, this is far more likely), start a focus group, and find people who can read your book (in whole or in part) and offer feedback. The more people who know about your book, the greater the chances that some people will like it and talk about its upcoming release. You want people to be saying, “Did you know that So-n-so wrote a romance novel and it’s coming out this June?” You can’t tell people what to say, but you can create the opportunities.
  • Send out advance review copies. Search for bloggers who have a following among your target audience who occasionally review books and see if they would be interested in reading a free copy of your book for possible review on their blog (if you’ve already been a long-time, active follower, that may help). You can also search for book review websites. Keep in mind that the most popular bloggers and sites will already have numerous requests.
  • Arrange for book readings and signings. Develop a one-sentence strapline that will help generate interest in your book. When you interact with people (in general) or do a book reading, this is the thought that you want to leave them with.
  • Seek local press coverage from the media. Prepare a professional press release package. Local newspapers may have column inches to fill and like to feature local authors. Similarly, local radio shows may have minutes to fill; even try local television stations. Start local, then look for media that specifically relates to your target audience; when they’re trying to catch the same target audience, featuring you may be a good fit. Even if they can’t cover you on the air, they may be willing to post a brief note about you on their major website.

Realize that your book is a marketing tool in itself:

  • An eye-catching cover helps to attract interest in your book.
  • A cover, title, and blurb that send a unified message about the genre and content help to catch members from your target audience.
  • A cover that features one image and a title with two to three words are easy to remember and help with your branding efforts. This also makes your book easier to describe, which helps with buzz and word-of-mouth sales.
  • An effective, well-written blurb and captivating, well-written and well-formatted Look Inside help to sell your book. This is your only salesperson at the point-of-sale online.
  • The quality of the book significantly impacts your prospects for word-of-mouth sales. Editing or formatting mistakes detract from this. Memorable characters and great stories that evoke strong emotions for fiction, and helpful and clear explanations for nonfiction, improve your chances. These things similarly affect customer reviews.

(6) Be diligent, consistent, and persistent in your marketing efforts.

It can take a year of diligent marketing before your marketing efforts are fully realized. Trying for a short period and giving up prematurely is a common mistake. We like to see instant satisfaction, but marketing just doesn’t work that way. There aren’t any shortcuts. You can’t just throw money at it (like paying for advertisements) to reap instant rewards.

Be patient. Branding and discovery take time. People won’t rush out to buy your book the second they hear about it. It may take months until readers from your target audience have come across you and your book enough times for branding to take effect. Then it can take additional weeks before they’re shopping for their next book. It may take months to read your book. So it can easily be a year before they recommend it to others.

If you stop marketing prematurely, your branding effort will be incomplete.

Many marketing strategies actually have indirect benefits. So even if they don’t reap immediate sales, all of your marketing strategies that specifically reach your target audience may have long-term benefits. Don’t give up.

(7) Choose strategies based on a cost-benefit analysis.

Most authors decide which marketing strategies to adopt based on what’s easiest for them to do, what they feel most comfortable doing, what they perceive is popular among other authors, what they’ve heard other authors recommend, and especially what does or doesn’t seem to be providing immediate results.

What you really want to know is which marketing strategies will be most effective for your unique book.

Decide which strategies to employ based on a cost-benefit analysis.

Even if the marketing tool is free, it still costs you time. Therefore, every marketing strategy that you apply has cost, whether in money, time, or both.

Ideally, you want to reap the most rewards with the least cost. For each marketing strategy that you consider, make a list of the probable costs and benefits (and remember, time is money, so the time that you must invest is a cost, too).

Click here to view an article on cost-benefit analysis: https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/cost-benefit-analysis-for-marketing-books/.

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Apr 13 2013

Effective Book Marketing – Part 2

If you missed Part 1, you can find it here:

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/effective-book-marketing-part-1/

(3) Promote your book indirectly through discovery and branding.

Consider these questions for a moment:

  • When you’re walking down the sidewalk, do you like it when someone stops you to give you a sales pitch?
  • Suppose that an acquaintance tells you that you should come to his shop and buy a product first thing every time that you meet him. Would you appreciate this?
  • Do you believe it when somebody tells you that their product is the best ever?
  • If a stranger tells you out of the blue that you should buy a particular product, will you go to the store and purchase it?
  • Don’t you love it when a televised movie breaks to commercials just before the climax?

Most people have an aversion to advertising and salesmanship. You won’t sell many books through self-promotion and direct advertising of an unknown book by an unknown author with an unknown publisher.

Bragging also tends to be ineffective. It’s important to show confidence and passion for your own work, without coming across as boastful.

If you post online just to promote your new book, most people will ignore it. If you frequently advertise your book, most people will tune you out.

Now consider these questions:

  • When you see people wearing outfits that you like, do you ever ask where they bought them?
  • Suppose that you’re having a conversation with an acquaintance. You ask what he does and learn that he’s a singer who has just released a new CD. Would you be interested in buying a song from someone you’ve actually met?
  • If you’re buying a product in the store, do you ever choose one that you’ve heard of over one that you don’t recognize?
  • Do you enjoy seeing an artist’s passion for her work?

When people discover that you’ve written a book (rather than have you thrust this information upon them) they are much more likely to develop interest in it. If people recognize your book, your cover, your author photo, or your name from your indirect branding efforts (not from direct advertising or salesmanship), they are more likely to buy your book. When people see that you are passionate about your book, but not boastful, this tends to increase their interest in it.

The indirect techniques of discovery and branding tend to be far more effective than self-promotion or direct advertising.

Interact with your target audience in such a way that if they enjoy the interaction, they can discover that you’re an author and inquire about your book. Gear your marketing efforts toward increasing your visibility among your target audience in order to brand your book.

Personal interactions tend to be more effective. People like to read books by authors they’ve actually met. Mingle with your target audience. Let them discover that you’re an author, rather than volunteering this information. If you ask what they do for a living, they might ask the same of you, for example.

Of course, there is a limit to how many people you can interact with in person, so you must also interact with your target audience online. If they enjoy their interaction with you, they may check out your online profile and discover that you’ve written a book.

Where relevant, some authors end their posts with Your Name, Author of Your Book (in an online forum, it’s best if you have a very short title – two to three words). Don’t list several books and services at the bottom of your post, since this will look like your post is mostly about advertising and sales.

Branding entails more than just getting your book and name out there. Your image is at stake. Brand your book or your name in a negative way and it can greatly deter sales. You want to come across as professional, confident (but not boastful), trustworthy, credible as an author in your genre, respectful of others, knowledgeable, and as a model for how authors should behave.

Never behave defensively, avoid complaining, don’t say bad things about any customers or reviewers, refrain from asking for reviews, and so on.

(4) Attract a following by providing valuable content.

Blogging about yourself and tweeting about your book, for example, aren’t likely to attract new readers. You can provide more information about yourself on a fan page, but this just entertains a few of your current fans – it doesn’t gain you new readers. A fan page might help you spread the word of subsequent books. But what you really want to do is attract new customers.

What you want to do is provide valuable content that may attract your target audience. Get valuable content where your target audience is likely to see it.

When you blog, provide helpful nonfiction material that relates to your book (without duplicating the content). Blog because you’re passionate about the subject and wish to share it with others (don’t blog because you’re trying to sell books), and your articles are likely to be more valuable. When you tweet, focus on using the limited space to offer useful information to your target audience – often through a link (that doesn’t go to your own book or websites). Use tags and hashtags to help reach your target audience.

No more than 10% of your posts should be about you or your book. If people appreciate the content that you provide, they may check out your profile and discover that you’ve written a book.

Look for other ways to provide valuable content. Meet bloggers who are a good fit for your target audience: They might feature you on a guest interview (or review your book on their blogs), for example (something you can also do for others). Write an article and try to publish it online (the very large number of websites out there gives you reasonable chances of achieving this in a modest traffic zone), where the website is a good fit for your target audience and your knowledge and expertise. At the bottom of your article, you want it to list Your Name, Author of Your Book.

Passing out flyers generally isn’t effective because they just look like advertisements. Passing out bookmarks is much better because bookmarks serve a function – it has value to the recipient, especially if it doesn’t look like an advertisement for your book (it might feature images from your cover and mention no more than the title and author). Especially, distributing appealing bookmarks among your target audience can be helpful.

In every marketing strategy that you consider, think about the following:

  • Is this mainly reaching my target audience?
  • Does this provide valuable content to my target audience?
  • How will this affect my image as an author?
  • Will people view this as advertising or discovery?
  • Is it helping to establish your brand?

Click here to view part 3: https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/effective-book-marketing-part-3/.

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Apr 12 2013

Effective Book Marketing – Part 1

Thousands of authors are actively promoting their books. A few do this successfully; many do not. A wide variety of marketing tools are available. A few work very well; some are ineffective; and others work well for some books or authors, but not well for others.

How do you know which marketing strategies will be effective for you?

(1) First identify your target audience.

This should be incredibly obvious, yet it’s extremely common to find authors promoting their books in ways that aren’t geared toward their target audience.

Your target audience is NOT anybody with a pair of eyes!

Sure, anybody with eyes can read your book, and you’d love to sell your book to everybody who can read. However, the reality is that the vast majority of people who will read and enjoy your book will be people who frequently read books from the same genre.

Don’t waste your time or money with marketing tools that are likely to yield a tiny percentage of new customers for your book. For example, if you promote a mystery novel in a way that reaches 1000 people, but only 5 of those 1000 people actually read mysteries, 99.5% of your promotion is being wasted.

Identify your specific target audience. A few people outside of your target audience may read your book, but the vast majority of your readers will come from your target audience, so focus on reaching people in your target audience.

People in your target audience are most likely to enjoy the book, give you word-of-mouth sales, and review your book. When you succeed in marketing your book to people outside of your target audience, they are less likely to appreciate and understand the book, spread the word to others, and review your book (and if they do, the audience mismatch might lead to a negative review).

That’s one problem with the KDP Select free promo books: Many people read books outside of their normal genre just because they’re free (and often don’t even read the description, Look Inside, or any reviews to try to learn what the book is about beforehand). When the book doesn’t live up to their (often unrealistic) expectations, this tends to show up in product reviews.

If your book is a romance intended for adults, then your audience is adult romance. Your target audience does not include erotica (otherwise, your audience would be erotic romance, not adult romance), nor does it include teen romance. You might get a few readers from these similar genres, but most readers will be looking specifically for adult romance.

(2) Gear your marketing efforts toward your specific target audience.

Your promotional strategies will be much more effective when your exposure primarily reaches members of your specific target audience. If you have a fantasy novel and leave flyers for your book on the windshields of cars outside of a science fiction convention, you’re wasting your time with a target audience mismatch. Even worse, if you pass flyers out at a mall, only a tiny fraction of the people there will be fantasy readers. (Then there is the issue of solicitation being prohibited at many places.)

Where can you find your target audience? Strive to understand your target audience. Where are they likely to hang out (both online and in person)? What common interests will they have?

You have to be realistic with this question, too. For example, many authors will fall into traps like, “Science fiction readers might play chess.” True, they might. What you really want to know is how many chess players avidly read science fiction? If it’s a small percentage, then it’s not worth your effort to target chess players.

For a science fiction book, you want to find places where you can interact with people both in person and online who are very likely to be science fiction readers. Going to a Star Trek party, attending a science fiction convention, joining a science fiction club, meeting people online at a discussion forum for science fiction, and writing articles about science fiction (and getting them published on blogs or websites with significant science fiction traffic) are examples of how to reach this specific audience.

With enough thought and determination, you can find your target audience. For a self-help book, for example, get involved in community service that relates to the subject. If you’re having trouble thinking of ideas of where to find your target audience, tell people about your book and ask for some suggestions.

Find Part 2 of this article here: https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/effective-book-marketing-part-2/.

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Apr 10 2013

Professional Touches that Make Books Stand out

Design Marks

Small professional touches on the cover, title page, copyright page, and first pages can make a big difference. They may be little design marks, but they help to create a favorable impression.

Self-published books are competing against traditionally published books. Some books appear very much self-published at a glance, others are obviously traditionally published, and there are also many in between – those that use an imprint and look very nice, but not quite.

When we’re buying books, we prefer to find those that look professional. For this reason, all publishers – self or traditional – want their books to look professional.

One way to tell is to carefully examine the cover and Look Inside. Don’t just read the first chapter: If you’re looking for a professional book, look for visual clues before investing time on Chapter 1.

Following are a few examples. I’m not affiliated with any of these authors in any way. I’ve never met or interacted with any of these authors. I haven’t even read these books (well, not yet): I chose them for the professional touches that they illustrate, not because I wanted to recommend the content.

(1) Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki:

http://amzn.com/1591845831

See the gold starburst on the paperback cover. Such a starburst doesn’t need to be an award; it can be any note worth highlighting, although in fiction it’s usually an award. (By the way, although this book was published with Penguin, this author has recently self-published a book with CreateSpace.)

Starburst

Look at the pictures in the Look Inside of the Kindle edition. These are not just the front cover repeated inside, but are sending a unified message with the front cover by using the same butterfly.

Interestingly, the Look Inside for the paperback brings up the “Kindle edition” (or so it says), but when you click on the Kindle edition and then Look Inside, it’s different. The actual Kindle’s Look Inside includes a logo, for example. The logo is another professional touch.

Study the copyright page. Every traditionally published book has a very detailed, professional-looking copyright page. Virtually every self-published book has a minimal (if any) copyright page.

Why? Because self-publishers are thinking (A) customers don’t care about the copyright page and (B) they want to get to Chapter 1 as soon as possible, hoping to hook the reader who begins reading. Think about why traditional publishers don’t similarly minimize their copyright pages. Their copyright pages look very professional.

Customers don’t stop and stare at the traditionally published copyright pages. They pass right over them. It’s not going to be a delay on the potential customer’s route to Chapter 1. However, customers will catch a glimpse of the copyright page as they skip past it.

When customers see the minimal copyright page, it creates the impression that the book is self-published. Not much effort was put into this page (perhaps like the rest of the book?). When they catch a glimpse of the long, detailed, professional-looking copyright pages of traditional publishers, it makes the impression that a professional staff has combed through and prepared the book.

(2) The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott:

http://amzn.com/1118026985

You’ll find another starburst here; this cover also has matching top and bottom borders. (Note that this book is geared toward businesses.)

Check out the customer images and you’ll find an Amazon Video – a video from the author. There are many ways to use AuthorCentral to help make the book’s Amazon detail page look professional, too.

In the Look Inside, of course the copyright page is again very professional (since it’s published by Wiley). The page numbering, horizontal lines after section headings, and matching gray boxes outlining some short paragraphs are design touches that help the book appear more professional. Note that traditionally published books often have such design marks – which come in a wide variety of styles – but that they don’t overuse them.

(3) The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko:

http://amzn.com/1563523302

This cover has a corner stripe with text instead of a starburst (but when you Look Inside, there’s a similar cover with a starburst instead of a corner stripe).

It also features a logo on the copyright page.

Topher

(4) Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich:

http://amzn.com/0061787426

Most fictional books that include a starburst do so to indicate an award of some type (whereas a nonfiction book that doesn’t have an award or bestseller rank to advertise might use a starburst just to say something like, “Includes answers”).

If you publish a fictional work and don’t have an award, note a couple of other design marks on this cover: part of a green circle on the bottom right and a quote between brackets at the bottom center. Harper chose to clearly advertise that this was a “newly revised edition” right on the cover.

Notice the logo/picture at the bottom of the title page, which also appears at the top of the copyright page.

Find the flowery artwork border at the top of the family tree pictures. Such artwork can also be used as section breaks (provided that it matches the theme of the book). If so, it should be short – just taking up about one line of text (and often isn’t nearly as wide as the artwork I’m referring to here). For eBooks, a glyph section break should be in gif (not jpeg) format, and should look good against white, sepia, or black backgrounds (it’s very important to check the preview in each format with each background).

(5) Wool by Hugh Howey:

http://amzn.com/1476733953

When you Look Inside, first you find the logo, then you see a cool picture on the next two pages that looks like the “page” is torn. Although this is now published by Simon & Schuster, this author had been featured at CreateSpace.

Banner

Look closely at a variety of traditionally published paperbacks (and, where available, compare with their eBooks). You will sometimes see a couple of lines or other marks on the cover, copyright page, and other pages, or special marks used in a page header or footer, for example. This sample will help you see what’s possible and help to inspire a professional looking design of your own.

Check out traditionally published books in your own genre to see what kinds of design features are common. Some kinds of designs are more popular in some genres and much less common in others. You don’t want your book to seem out of place.

Don’t go overboard and overuse design marks. Don’t make the cover too busy with too many design details. Notice that traditional publishers tend to add occasional touches. An occasional design touch stands out very well – you notice it better this way.

Make sure that no design marks or pictures seem out of place. Any glyphs or images should match the theme of the book.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)

Apr 6 2013

Self-Publishing Success?

A few self-published authors have been highly successful, which shows that indie success is possible. But the odds are very long, as the vast majority of self-published books don’t even sell a copy per day on average.

What have the top indie authors done differently? Is it just dumb luck?

No!

Self-publishing isn’t like buying a lottery ticket where the odds are incredible. With the lottery, every ticket has the same odds. But all self-published books are not all equal.

Not every book has a chance of winning the self-publishing lottery.

The top selling indie authors have some things in common:

(1) They followed good business models. Some authors, like Amanda Hocking, actually researched business strategies in their traditional publishing pursuits.

Most self-published authors do one or both of the following:

  • They get an idea, carry it out, and publish it. Business-minded authors won’t write and publish any idea; they will develop the idea as an integral part of the business strategy.
  • They want to do something significantly different than what is traditional. This is great for authors who want to write as artists and aren’t concerned about lack of success. The problem from a business perspective is that the existing readership has well-defined expectations in each genre and the vast majority of books that they purchase meet those expectations. More of these readers will explore something significantly different if the author first publishes a couple of traditional books and then attempts something new after building an audience.

Some authors genuinely prefer to write as artists, knowing full well that sales might be considerably less than what they may be if they approach writing from a business perspective. There is much to be said for the writing artist. It’s just very challenging to get noticed this way and to establish a large readership.

I’m not saying that you should write for money and not write as an artist. Rather, since highly successful self-published authors follow good business models, let’s follow the logic behind business-minded book development and see where it leads. In the end, I will explain how an author might write as an artist – not for money – and yet benefit from some of the same logic.

A business-minded writer doesn’t just write a book, but develops the book idea as part of a business strategy:

  • Start out considering possible subjects and genres. Of those genres which are a best fit for your writing, which are most popular? What experience or expertise do you have? What needs are there on the market?
  • Research each of these possible book ideas. What books already on the market are most similar to each of these book ideas? Look at their sales ranks. What are the best books like these that don’t have a big-name author or publisher? The business-minded author chooses a book idea with the best potential in a genre or subject that he/she is most qualified to write.
  • Research the top books in the genre similar to the book in mind. Can you compete with the writing in these books? Read these books to learn the unspoken rules of the genre. For example, the business-minded author won’t allow the protagonist to act in a way that will upset much of the potential readership and will create an ending that will please the target audience. The business-minded author develops an idea and writes a book geared toward the largest possible target audience that he/she is likely to attract with his/her writing skills.
  • The business-minded author is thinking about marketing throughout the writing process. This author is seeking input on the cover, title, and blurb for two reasons: to help generate “buzz” about the upcoming book and to see what features please or upset the target audience. (In contrast, too many indie authors disregard important criticism that they receive and focus mostly on feedback that coincides with what they wanted to hear.) They develop a great cover – often hiring a great cover designer – knowing how important this is to marketing. They wrote their blurbs and first chapters to be captivating, knowing how strongly this affects sales.
  • Pinpoint the target audience and discover where to find them and how to reach them. The business-minded author is thinking long and hard what marketing strategies will be most effective for them. Those who have a knack for business tend to be the most diligent, motivated marketers. They also know how to use price, discounts, giveaways, and series to their advantage. Everything from the cover to writing to marketing is part of an overall business strategy.

We’ll return to writing artists at the end.

(2) Most tried diligently to get traditionally published, but didn’t succeed in this until after becoming successful as indies.

Although they didn’t get traditionally published (before they broke through), they were doing all the right things toward achieving this, which helped them develop the skills that they ultimately used to thrive on their own.

  • They tried to improve their writing to get traditionally published.
  • They spent much time studying readerships in an effort to identify their target audience, since publishers are very interested in this.
  • They researched business plans to develop book ideas and write proposals that would help them get traditionally published.
  • They learned about marketing in order to convince publishers that their books would succeed.
  • They attempted to meet people who might help them with their writing careers.

These are all valuable skills that any authors can benefit from, self-published or not. In the last point, they also developed handy contacts.

(3) They were highly motivated to become successful writers. You have to be highly motivated to learn about business strategies when your initial goal is becoming an author. All those rejection letters from traditional publishers fueled their motivation. The best place for those letters is a bedroom ceiling or bathroom wall that you’ll see every morning.

Never give up. Constantly strive to improve.

***

Back to my earlier point: You don’t necessarily have to write for money to be successful.

You can be a writing artist and succeed.

The pure businessman who develops the perfect business strategy to write and market a book is highly motivated to do the marketing, but must find the passion to put into the writing and learn to write well.

The pure writer who writes for art’s sake naturally writes well and puts the passion into the writing, but must find the passion to do the marketing in order to be successful.

There is a limitation from the pure business perspective – i.e. how well can you write, how well can you tell a story?

The limitation for the writing artist is that not all book ideas are good ideas, not all stories have a potential readership.

Almost nobody is a pure business person or pure writing artist.

Determine which side you’re on – those are your strengths. The more you’re willing to improve your weaknesses, the more balanced you’ll become as a self-publisher, which will increase your chances of success.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)