How's Your Book Marketing Working?

Did you get all the book sales you wanted last year?Think about the time, effort and money you invested. Which one's paid off? Which were losers?

One client confessed she bought an expensive program to get her book listed as top seller on Amazon. She worked hard and long hours to get a lot of bonus products and services offered as a bonus to entice others to buy. What's wrong with this picture?Even if she did get a lot of sales on one day, what about the rest of the year? The next year? Life time sales?

Others tried press releases, book talks, and networking, but found the effort to experience these far outweighed the profits.

Look Over Last Year and Write your  Marketing Duds and Successes Down!

1.At the top of a piece of paper, write Book Marketing and the year at the top.

2. List all of the marketing you did for the year. List everything from phone calls to email.

3. List the hours of effort for each effort. Which method paid off? Take a look at your time investment. Without consistent, continuous marketing, no much happens.

4. List the costs for each effort. Educating yourself doesn't have to cost a lot. Don't fall for the glitzy, expensive offers that don't focus on your particular needs.

5. Line through the actions that did not pay off.

6. Mark the ones you enjoyed doing and that gave you contacts, feedback or sales. It's good to keep doing what you love because you are more likely to do it. .

7. Write down the dollar success you made.

Yes, visibility is OK, but  without sales, so what?

If you really want more effective, easier and cheaper ways to market your book, you need to widen your vision to include internet marketing. (That includes your web site and email)

If you are a reluctant marketer or an introvert, internet marketing works well because you don't have to "tell and sell."

Maybe you resist. You barely know about email and have fear of the techie world of the internet. Or, you may have a web site that nobody visits. Most first web sites fail because the owners didn't think about marketing when they hired their first web designer. And many web designers are good with graphics but don't know marketing.  Always write your sales copy before you hire a webmaster. If you don't know how, it's a good idea to visit web sites that have good examples. Plan on investing a little money of copywriting too.

The solutions? Just open your mind to it. Six years ago your coach kicked and screamed because she was a newbie and non-techie. But, little by little, she overcame her fears because she connected with techie and business mentors. Once she got the key steps and skills, her business took off.

You too can find out more about such internet marketing as advanced article marketing and email promotion by connecting with a coach, reading books on it with a recent copyright, or taking a teleseminar.  This kind of marketing educates your audience and shows you as the savvy expert in your field. Start small and build your skills and confidence so you can take advantage of the much bigger piece of the pie at a much smaller price in time and money.

Judy Cullins c.2007