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Blogs by Patrick Joesph Schnerch
City of Gardens on the Fast Track 1/31/2009 8:19:14 AM
West Coast Literary Productions has steppped up its business by establishing contacts with several business associates such as printing, flyer distribution and deliveries. Such tasks are less evpensive and time consuming than doing it myself. This gives me more time to do what I do best and that is to write. Marketing and related tasks for the 'City of Gardens: The Other Side of the Fence' has taken a heavy toll on my writing. I have already lost over three months for working on 'The City of Gardens: The Invisible Society'.
The official book release is right around the corner with only one month to the day to be prepared. There is food, book pick-ups, transportation and advertising to take care of.
The official release is much more than what the name implies. It is a major event. AS you already know, the publicity campaign has gathered a lot of interest already.
I learnt from a friend who owns a business of how to reach the public. Everyone knows that advertising is very expensive and the response of this is between 2 to 3%.
He told me of a way that I can print 5,000 community newspaper flyers and distribution for under $500.00. If the flyer is very interesting and provocative, it may increase the response as high as 5%.
My book release is aimed at having an audience of 250. 5% of 5,000 is 250. This is very cheap advertising and effective. Without this publicity, a poor turnout is inevitable.
The event is on a Sunday and the flyer will be on the doorstep the Wednesday prior. The timing is perfect. Other methods are too expensive and it is still true that the best advertisement is free.
We have done this already and the advertisement will only compliment it. We have all our books ready to go and most other tasks have been completed. We are basically ready to go. This took six months of planning.
We have a few contacts in the media working on this and are seeking a few more. I ordered 350 books just to be on the safe side.
The beauty of this sort of advertisement is that you can pinpoint area codes you which to target throughout the province giving you tremendous coverage.
If you pick one target a month for your book, that turns out to cover 60,000 homes in a year. That is 1,800 responses at 3%. In my case, the sales would be $45,000 for a $6,000 investment. Imagine two postal codes a month. My budget allow me two do this and that is what I am doing.
This is not the only road I am taking, but it is a great way to instigate further oprotunities for free coverage from the media including radio, newspapers and TV. If you make a big splash in your own province, it has the posibility of going national.
Book tours and speaking engagements will be in demand. For $6,000.00, you may become a best seller. You may think that this is a lot of money, but it really isn't compared to what you get back.
$500.00 a month on advertising is low compared to other methods available. When you crunch the numbers, you will realize that this will provide a bigger bang for your money. In one year, thousands of people will know about your book in the province and beyond. This is the spark you need to start the fire.
