Marketing your book is an often times overlooked component of being published. It is how you set up your book to make sure it is carried by book stores and sells enough that other book stores buy your book and actively promote it.
Authors need to do a great deal of self promotion to sell their books. Just getting published is the first part of the plan. The second is getting your book noticed and in the book stores. There are a number of things you can do to make this happen.
· Know your competition
· Tell the book sellers and potential publishers why your book is different
· Create a web page for your book
· Create a web page for yourself as an author
· Set up as many book signings as you can muster
· Get reviews for your book from other writers in your genre
Knowing your competition, tells the publishers that you thought out where your book fits in the market. Tell the publishers and book stores the demographics of your books readership and try to find out how many books others in your genera have sold so you and they can get a feel for potential sales.
Go to book stores and talk to the manager or buyer. Set up a folder for each store and put your book information in the folder. If you have already been published add the following items to your folder.
· A page with the book cover so they can see what it looks like
· Any reviews you have received
· Make book marks with the cover and a short blurb about the book that they can hand out
· Any sales or other book stores that have agreed to sell your book
· Any promotional items they can use to sell your book and get the word out.
Create a web page for each book or a page for you as the author where you can highlight your books, reviews, etc. A cheap way to market your book. Many service providers provide one free web page for you as part of your Internet package.
Book signings! Find any local connection to your book and contact them and offer to talk about your book at their group or meetings. Use the folder you created for the book stores to give to the folks at the groups or organizations to set up a talk and book sale. Local writing groups are a great start. Many even pay a speakers fee to come talk to them. You get to sell your books and make money to do it.
Get reviews for your book or manuscript you are trying to sell. It tells the publishers and book stores that you know your subject and also makes it easier to sell when a potential buyer sees reviews from authors they know and like.
Talk about your book anywhere you can. In the grocery line, at the library, in the queue at the airport. Anywhere you can talk to someone about your book. If there is an event in the local paper that has a relation to your book, contact the paper and offer to be interviewed as an expert on the subject.
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