Book Marketing Profits

Book marketing is an essential part of the publishing process.  You spend weeks, months or even years writing your book.  Another gruesome process begins as you dive into the literary agent pool. Finally your moment of triumph arrives when you receive a contract from a publisher.  Was it worth it?  All the months or years of perseverance you stayed up late, skipped spending time with family or friends and turned into an introvert have finally paid off.  You rush off to your favorite department store to pick out an outfit for you Oprah interview.

Anxiously you check the mail everyday for your first royalty check.  As the days and weeks come and go, so does your enthusiasm.  Are you missing something?  Was there a step in the book publishing process that you forgot?  The answer is yes.  The book sales profits you’re waiting for are waiting for you.  What am I talking about?  Book marketing.  Without some sort of book marketing plan in place your book sales will be very low. Don’t sit back and wait for your publisher to do all the work.

My uncle once explained how saddening it is when someone leaves their success up to others.  Are you expecting your publisher to put more effort into your success than you are?  If you want to see more book sales, you will need to create your own book marketing plan.  An effective plan should include methods for:

·         Increasing your book sales

·         Building an online and offline presence

·         Creating local and national exposure

·         Implementing common and very uncommon measures

·         Marketing through your community, companies and celebrities

Increasing your books sales is of course your ultimate goal.  To do so you will have to be creative, dedicated and committed to implementing various book marketing ideas/strategies and communicating with your readers.  Establish yourself in the public eye.  If you have a specific target audience, narrow in on your niche.  Focus your efforts where you see results.  Networking with other writers, organizations and groups will broaden your reach. Try to align your campaign with influential resources.

Building an online and off line presence should go hand in hand with creating local and national exposure.  The more people know about you and your book, the more opportunities you have to sell books.  An offline presence builds your credentials and reputation.  While an online presence produces similar results, it also allows you to reach more readers with less effort.

To increase your book marketing profits, your techniques should include common and uncommon measures.  Use what you know has worked for other writers but also create your own system.  What is special about your book?  Who would be interested in reading it?  What are some techniques that will work hands down?  If you have a small budget or none at all, do your research.  The internet offers a wealth of information on any and every topic, including book marketing.  Also create your own list of ways to market your book through your community, companies and if possible celebrities.  If you don’t have the time, effort or energy to conduct research, consider purchasing the information.