Home-shopping networks (QVC, HSN) reach millions of people every day with information on a wide variety of products, including books. Before you try to reach these buyers, consider your books’ salability on television. Does your book …
- Demonstrate well in eight minutes of airtime? There is not a lot of time to sell your product, so it must have unique and demonstrable benefits that are easily and quickly communicated. Do not plan to talk about your book for eight minutes, but what the information in your book does for the people in the audience. This may be recipes, collectibles or other items of interest. Anya Clowers wrote Jet With Kids, a book to help people fly with kids safely and with a good experience. She could go on a home-shopping network to talk about the products that are described in her book, such as children’s seats, safe clothes and games kids can play to keep busy.
- Solve a common problem or make life easier? This gets back to the need for which you created your book in the first place. How will the people in the audience be better off after having purchased your book?
- Appeal to a broad audience? Your book must address the needs of a target audience, but that audience must be of sufficient size to generate large volumes of sales. Titles of interest to a small group of people will not make it past the first decision-making round.
- Have unique features and benefits? How is your product different from and better than competition? The answer to this question will help you sell more books to most other target segments, too.
- Relate to a topical or timely subject? If your product is associated with a current event it is more likely to be selected than one that is not.
- Have a selling price of $15.00 or higher? If not, you might consider bundling several titles or products to build the price of the package. In addition, a home-shopping network does not want to promote a book that people in the audience could buy on Amazon.com. Therefore, create a group of products that could be purchased as a set only through the network and you have a better shot at getting on.
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Brian Jud is the Executive Director of the Association of Publishers for Special Sales (APSS – www.bookapss.org– formerly SPAN) and author of How to Make Real Money Selling Books. Contact Brian at brianjud@bookmarketing.com or www.premiumbookcompany.com and twitter @bookmarketing
