Marketing & Publicity

Good marketing is an art. Knowing your audience is critical. Get the word out about your book in a compelling and interesting way.

Steps in Marketing & Publicity

How to craft your message
Social media
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Steps to Book Signing Success! Part 1

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 22, 2016

I write a lot about online marketing tactics and how to maximize your presence on social media, your website, and Amazon. But today, I want to talk about something a little less virtual, and more reality-based. With Amazon beginning to open brick and mortar book stores, I’ve created a series to focus on how to pitch and plan a successful book signing. Here’s why these in-person events are still relevant: meeting people at a book signings brings a connection that virtual events cannot simulate. While I love doing video events, I am always eager to do something live; nothing can replicate the feeling of connecting to your audience and reader quite like a book signing!

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 3

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 15, 2016

In this series, we’ve talked a lot about the logistics of a good marketing plan (research, timing, and budgeting) to ensure that you have a successful long-term plan. For the final installation of this series, I want to talk about the best attitude to cultivate relationships and support your success. When you’re marketing, the right attitude can open a lot of doors and keep you motivated!

Attitude is Everything!

Do: Be Grateful

At any phase in your career, it’s likely that you need the media more than they need you. So what does that mean for your marketing efforts? If you book an interview, keep in mind that most media people don’t have the time to read your book. So, make it easy for them to promote you. I’ve found it’s useful to carry an index card with book highlights on it and hand it to them prior to the interview. After the interview is over, thank them, and send a follow up thank-you note after the interview.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 2

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 8, 2016

As an author, I know how much time and effort authors put into crafting the perfect book. In order to give your book the best chance at success, you must put the same amount of effort into crafting your marketing plan.

In part one of this series, we talked about how to create a successful marketing plan. Next, we’ll talk about how to best allocate your marketing budget to support this plan.

Do: Invest Your Money

First and foremost, it’s crucial to understand where you should spend money. My advice is to trust the experts when it comes to designing your book cover and website. Why?

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 1

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Mar 1, 2016

As an indie author, the process of marketing your book can seem overwhelming. There are so many marketing tools and resources at your fingertips that it can be difficult to figure out where to start! To guide you on your marketing path, I’ve created a series of Marketing Do’s and Don’ts. In Part 1, we’ll talk about Do’s and Don’ts to help you create a marketing plan for success!

Do: Understand Your Industry

Knowledge is power, so as you compile this marketing plan, get to know your market. Research and prepare a list of bloggers who you should pitch for advanced reviews. While you’re compiling this list, keep track of who to contact, and when you need to pitch them. You can also research the top authors in your industry to investigate what types of marketing efforts they are implementing. Success leaves clues, so you can learn from these top authors what marketing efforts work best in your industry.

Don’t: Rely on opinions

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Managing Post-Sale Emotions

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Feb 9, 2016

Negotiating a large, non-returnable sale of your books to a corporate buyer can be a euphoric event. As you leave the premises you may celebrate with large smiles and high-fives. Unseen and unforeseen by many publishers are the various post-sale emotions experienced by the buyers, especially if this is their first time dealing with you. Their feelings may range from comfort and positive expectation to uneasiness, wariness, disappointment or regret.

Experienced salespeople know that the sale is not over when they get the signature on the dotted line, but when the buyer reorders. There is still much to do to manage delivery of the books, making sure they are customized, printed and shipped as requested – on budget and on time. Publishers who get it understand that they can only generate repeat orders, recurring revenue and referrals from satisfied customers.

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Two Ways to Become More Creative

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jan 26, 2016

The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg and only 705 of its 2200 passengers and crew survived. With too few lifeboats onboard, many lives were lost unnecessarily. With a little creativity more people might have been saved. For example, what if the crew saw the iceberg as a sanctuary instead of a cause of death? They might have ferried people there. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

There is an important lesson from that tragedy that can help us solve more problems. The lesson? When you look at something do not think of it only in traditional terms. The crew of the Titanic saw the iceberg as a menace to be avoided. They overlooked possible solutions hidden in plain sight, much like publishers overlook the opportunity for lucrative sales to buyers in non-bookstore markets.

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The Advantages of Advertising in Print Media

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jan 19, 2016

One of the basic axioms of book marketing is that it takes multiple impressions on target buyers to induce them to make a purchase. The more varied these touchpoints the greater the impression and motivation to favorable action.

Successful book publishers market their books using an assorted mix of promotional media. The four parts to an assorted communication mix are publicity, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. The weight of any one element depends upon the content, nature of your product lines, the author’s involvement in marketing, and the target buyers. As a general statement, publishers focus on publicity and avoid advertising -- print advertising in particular. They feel that if they do any advertising it will be in digital format thinking print communication “is a thing of the past.”

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How to Leverage the Power of Free to Drive Sales

by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Jan 12, 2016

I know that giving something away for free may not seem like a smart business move, but let me explain. Free giveaways can be a very effective business tool when you think of those freebies as a marketing expense (the cost of exposure) rather than lost sales. Free promotions are a great way to get you exposure in front of your target audience, expand your following, and drive sales in the long run. The key is to know how to take advantage of free.

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Dealing with Emotions While Selling Your Books

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jan 5, 2016

Negotiating a large-quantity book sale is a little like playing poker, requiring both hard and soft skills. To be good at it you need practice and experience. You also need a little chutzpah, the creativity to recognize alternatives, the ability to assess odds, the willingness to take calculated risks and the confidence to bluff when necessary.

But unlike poker, selling to a corporate buyer is not a winner-take-all game. It is not zero sum activity where one’s slice of the pie is increased at the expense of the other. Negotiating is a give-and-take exchange seeking a larger pie to split.

Pursuing that end can cause consternation among the participants, particularly if they have not dealt with each other before. Both sides enter the negotiation with various degrees of tension or anxiety. If you manage the emotional tenor of a negotiating session you can be more successful bargaining and bring it to a win-win conclusion.

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Win More Book Orders Before You Begin Selling

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Dec 29, 2015

The circumstances surrounding every selling situation are different, but there are two parts essential to them all: substance and process. Substance is made up of objective elements such as price, terms and shipping costs. Process is the path you take from your initial meeting to the close.

One of the costliest mistakes in negotiating a large book sale is focusing primarily on the substance of the deal and not enough on the process and the players. You can be more successful if you understand each distinct process since it is more likely to differ than the substance of any selling event.

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Marketing & Publicity

Steps to Book Signing Success! Part 1

The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 3

The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 2

The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Your Book: Part 1

Managing Post-Sale Emotions

Two Ways to Become More Creative

The Advantages of Advertising in Print Media

How to Leverage the Power of Free to Drive Sales

Dealing with Emotions While Selling Your Books

Win More Book Orders Before You Begin Selling

Pages

Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

FAQs about ISBNs

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Do You Have the Write Stuff?