The opening lines of Billy Joel’s song “An Innocent Man” reflect the way some — perhaps most — authors feel about book marketing (“Some people stay far away from the door, if there's a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside, And hope that it just passes by.”). Authors think selling books is emotionally risky and adds too much stress and anxiety to make it worthwhile. So, to their peril, they ignore it.
You are already a risk taker but may not think of it that way. You wrote a book, and as Erma Bombeck said, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dream to someone else.” Now increase your risk tolerance by taking more, but small risks. You then become more comfortable with higher-risk decisions. Once you are in a cycle of lowering fear and developing courage, you create a virtuous circle that allows you to continuously improve.
Think of each book-marketing risk you take as adding a small amount to a savings account. Each one may not make a big difference, but they accumulate over time. When you make each mental deposit, you move outside your comfort zone, expanding it little by little. Small, incremental steps take you to the same destination but with less angst.
.
Begin by thinking back upon the achievements of which you are most proud, the moments when you took a chance and transformed your life: writing your book, starting your business, appearing on television to promote your book or making a speech to a large audience. Before each you probably experienced a period of doubt and stress that you overcame to eventually accomplish something great.
Uncertainty doesn’t have to paralyze you if you learn to build your resilience and tolerance for ambiguity. A journey out of your comfort zone requires a temporary surrender of security. When you try something new — like selling to non-bookstore (special-sales) buyers — expect some of your efforts to fail. If you expect things to always succeed, you are probably not far enough out of your comfort zone to fulfill big dreams. You can become adept at managing uncertainty and empower yourself to step confidently into the unknown and seize the opportunities it presents. Applying these four principles will help you do that.
1. Redefine your perspective.
Each industry, organization and person has its own way of looking at the world. For example, authors think people want to buy books, and they only buy them in bookstores — bricks or clicks. What buyers really want is information to help them solve a problem, and they want to purchase it conveniently. How can you make your content available where your target readers already shop? Depending on your target readers, this could be in airport stores, supermarkets, discount stores, gift shops, etc. To paraphrase President Kennedy, ask not what your customers can do for you, but what you can do for your customers.
Another way to change your perspective is to change the words you use to describe your journey into uncertainty. Do not call it a risk, but an adventure. This replaces feelings of anxiety with those of excitement. And stop thinking of non-bookstore marketing as a win-or-lose competition. That only heightens your anxiety. Seek win-win opportunities and both sides succeed. Once you recognize uncertainty as an essential part of the trip, it adds an element of positive anticipation.
2. Divide your opportunity into manageable pieces.
Some people looked at Goliath and thought he was too big to hit. David looked at him and thought he was too big to miss. Similarly, you might look at the non-bookstore market and think, “Is that market big enough to approach, or is it too big?” The answer is yes. A special-sales market of $20 billion is too big to pass up. However, it can be too big a market in which to compete profitably — if you look at it as one goliath market.
A humorous question is, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a time.” Apply this concept by dividing into manageable segments your opportunity for selling to non-bookstore (special sales) venues. The special-sales retail segment is a good place to take your first step because the process is identical to selling through bookstores. You find a distributor to sell your books for you, unsold books are returnable, and you get paid in 90 days.
To find which is best retailer for your content, think, “Who is the customer of my customer?” Let’s take a children’s book as an example. In what retail outlets would parents seek information for their children to learn and enjoy? This could be in supermarkets, airport stores, discount stores, toy stores, in stores selling children’s apparel and furniture, and gift shops in museums, aquariums and children’s hospitals.
Take another step by looking at the segment comprised of non-retail buyers in businesses, associations, schools, government agencies and the military. These people buy in large quantities and books purchased are non-returnable. They do not buy books for resale, but to use as sales-promotional items. Think of a company that sells cribs, strollers and car seats. A buyer there could purchase X,000 books from you and give them to the retailers selling their goods. The retailers in turn would give them to the parents who purchase their products as an incentive to buy.
There are myriad opportunities for non-retail sales of children’s books to PTAs (as a fundraiser), moms’ groups, children’s libraries, government agencies, daycare centers, home schooling and parenting associations. Now the enormous opportunity seems a little more manageable.
3. Take action.
Do not just think about these opportunities — do something. Take a step because nothing can happen until you start. Taking action is one of the most important parts of facing uncertainty, since you learn with each move you make. Do something and make changes as you proceed. In all cases, act in these ways:
• Act effectively. Success occurs when you become effective (doing the right things) rather than efficient (doing things right). Action is not the same as accomplishment. Like the revving engine of a car stuck in traffic, you can be busy working without moving ahead.
• Act strategically. Special-sales effectiveness means outperforming your rivals to the extent you can establish a customer-oriented difference that you can preserve. Deliver greater value to your customers or create comparable value at lower cost — or do both. The arithmetic of superior profitability then follows.
• Act productively. The mantra of the publishing business is "What have you done for me lately?" Your customers expect more from you today than they did yesterday, so work diligently to meet their expectations.
• Act intelligently. Intelligent action is based on the understanding that knowledge is different from wisdom. Knowledge is information, but wisdom is the prudent application of knowledge earned through experience.
• Act creatively. Wisdom is not different from creativity. Creativity helps you discover imaginative ways of applying your wisdom. Innovation is resourcefulness, the ability to look at a task and find new ways to perform it. It is a playful means of looking at ordinary events, stimulating your thinking and inventing new techniques to accomplish results.
• Act boldly. You may encounter internal opposition in your journey to special-sales success because you may be wary of untested concepts. New ideas are neither right nor wrong ― they are simply different. They are round pegs that do not fit into square holes. Trust your intuition, make calculated choices and implement them courageously. This does not mean that you should throw all caution to the wind and advance blindly. Bold action is informed, planned work implemented with passion. Some authors have an unrealistic approach to special sales. They invariably invoke the fatal conjunction “if” as a condition: “I would do it if I had more money or more time.” Set a goal and make it happen. Trust your instincts and take yourself by surprise.
• Act passionately. Negativity happens. Retail stores might return books. Distributors may reject all your submissions. Problems conspire to erode your enthusiasm and make it more difficult to remain passionate about your special-sales business. A sense of enthusiastic expectation is a valuable asset. Invest in your attitude regularly, build interest in it and protect it from depreciation as you would any other asset. The pursuit of happiness begins with the happiness of pursuit.
• Act persistently. Passion begets determination. If you believe in what you are doing it is easier to perform all the activities that, in spite of everyday obstacles, will propel you forward. Persistence is tenacity in the face of obstacles, determination to succeed, perseverance in conducting perpetual promotion in spite of resistance, rejection and returns. This resolution is supported by the knowledge that ultimate achievement is not immediate, and the fact that you start your journey anyway and do what is necessary to reach your objectives. Non-bookstore marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.
• Act cooperatively. None of us is as smart as all of us. Interacting with other people make success happen. This requires an understanding of yourself and your limitations as much as it involves finding people who can help you accomplish what you cannot do alone. For example, you may be a person who is good at implementing details but cannot metaphorically rise to thirty-thousand feet for a view of the big picture. If so, ally yourself with the strategic thinker who may be poor at details. Your sea-level strengths are just as valuable to the high-flying strategists as theirs to you.
• Act responsively. Cooperative action permits everyone to be responsive to the needs of the people upon whom they depend for success. Your suppliers, distribution partners and special-sales customers need you as much as you need them. Understand and respond to their needs.
• Act ethically. Non-bookstore marketing keeps authors busy, sometimes so busy that they neglect to perform some necessary tasks. This does not mean you are irresponsible, but that you need to be more vigilant. Responsible action is just that ― observant, dependable and conscientious diligence. It means doing what is ethically and morally right to build or maintain a reputation of integrity. If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you do not have integrity, nothing else matters.
.
Use these ideas to help you move out of your comfort zone and tap into new possibilities. You may fail along the way, but failure does not do something to you, it does something for you. It doesn’t take something out of you, it gets something out of you. Learn the lessons from your mistakes and then move on, applying your new-found knowledge in different ways.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------