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On Book Marketing: Organic Growth 6/5/2017 6:56:44 AM
A week or so ago, I stopped in at the Book Exchange in west Toronto. During my visit, I had a chat with Tom Colson, the owner, who's well-informed about many things, including present-day conditions in business. He told me that thanks to big box discounters and on-line shopping, many retailers could expect a spell of rough going. He showed me an article in a Toronto paper about declining sales at two well-established clothing chains.
He also introduced me to the concept of organic growth, as opposed to aggressive methods that some business folks use to make money quickly, which sometimes work out and sometimes don't.
Tom's comments brought to mind one of my favorite subjects these days: book-marketing. Some writer-publishers adopt what looks like an organic strategy: write the best books you can, publicize them thoroughly, increase your reach, get to know other writers, be patient.
It's easy to find other ways writers use to create and market their books: figure out what's selling now, write in those genres, and take advantage of the latest marketing techniques: videos, keyword and category research, etc., and pay one of a dozen experts who'll show you how to multiply sales.
At the same time, marketing by organic growth has strong supporters, too. I recently read and re-read a book by Dan Blank called "Be the Gateway", which advocates procedures that fit in with organic growth.
A gateway is the means by which a writer or musician or visual artist brings interested people to their work. Let's use ourselves as an example. The first step is to identify our story or narrative and express it in a way that's congenial to our intended audience, in other words to connect our narrative with theirs. Fox example, supposing the theme of our work is the proverbial rags to riches story. In marketing material -- email, blogposts, on social media, in conversations, ads, or public speaking -- we emphasize that our work will inspire people to move beyond forces that oppressed them in the past and strive for fulfillment, freedom of mind, and courageous hearts.
Along the way, we find help from the marketing activities of other artists, not the big stars, but people a bit ahead of us on the road. We read their blogposts, sign on to their email lists, study reviews of their work, research people who follow them and make contact with these fans when we can by email or social media.
Our goal is to learn as much as we can about people we want to include in our target audience. We learn who they are, what drives them, and how our gateway lines up with their interests.
Often, building our audience is a matter of dealing with one person at a time, in conversation or through contact on-line. Dan Blank advises us to invest in the people in front of us who are interested in our work. Focus on individuals, he says, rather than abstract numbers, like how many twitter followers we have.
He describes his method as a four-step procedure:
1. We look for like-minded people.
2. We let them know the similarities between them and us.
3. We share with them what we have in common.
4. We shape the conversation by asking questions and listening to what they have to say.
As I read "Be the Gateway", I found several comments that especially got me thinking:
1. Don't wait for people to find your gateway. Bring them to the gateway one by one and help them walk through.
2. A quote from Brian Eno: "Stop thinking about works of art as objects and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences."
3. A quote from Leo Babauta: "Frustration stems from focusing on what we don't have. The antidote is appreciating what's already here."
4. "Creative work fails to find an audience when the creator assumes a value in the work that the ideal audience can't see because the creator didn't make it clear to them."
5. "Fear is the biggest barrier. We resist stepping out of comfort zones to connect with people who can help us."
6. "What lasts is not how we react to something but what we create."
Dan Blank's mind works differently from mine, so I had to think to make sense of some of what he wrote. As a result, I found his work both encouraging and potentially useful. He communicates well the value of organic growth.
