How To Market A Book

By Author: Ronald Morgan
Total Articles: 34
Comment this article

People often get stymied when it comes to publishing their first book. They find out it is a long process. They do not realize how much goes into publishing a book. It may take a year to get a book published. You might be saying that is a long time. One thing I found helpful is becoming knowledgeable about the book industry and what goes into publishing. Let us start with marketing. That should be in the fore front of your mind as you need to plan before the book even gets published. How do you market your book?
one way is through book signings. Below i list how to make a successful book signing experience.
Book Signings - Setting up a Book Store Event
o The first thing you do is prepare mailing lists. Look for personal acquaintances around the city and surrounding cities to see if they can offer contacts of their own.
o Plan group discussion or plan on reading a portion of the book
o Coordinate with the bookstore and their times of availability
o Tell them about the size of the mailing list.
o Identify local organizations that might be approached to attend your talk
o You may ...
... need a press release, a book jacket, and a photo to promote the event.
o Ask if the store will order books directly from the publisher and give them the phone and fax numbers of the order department
o Ten days before the event, call and confirm the event.
o Ask the manager if they will list your book signing on their calendar. If not, you may need to ask for a copy of the store's media list and send out a media alert.
Making Your Appearance a Success
o Set up a networking breakfast where local business people are invited to the bookstore to hear about your book
o Give a talk about the book to bookstore audiences. Tailor the talk around the theme that mentions the topic of your work
o Use visual aids to help the reader connect to your book-e.g. slide show
o Decide if there is a good cause that could draw attention to your book-blood drive, medical screenings, etc.
Rules for Effective Book Signings
o If you are doing interviews-give date, time, and place of book signing
o Engage passing customers by talking about your book or just being friendly
o Display a poster of your book cover
o Make lasting contacts with book store staff by being memorable and polite
o Practice your short reading or your speech ahead of time
o Tell your audience you will be happy to answer questions at the end of the presentation
o Be gracious to all customers who approach you
o Collect Business cards of members of the audience for your data base. Circulate a sign in sheet.
o Thank the staff and the audience.
o Smile and be relaxed
o When signing the book, engage them. Ask how they would like the book personalized or what else they like to read or how they heard about the event
o Ask the staff if you can sign any unsold copied and have them placed upfront
With this under your belt, you can start looking at other marketing strategies.

buy dissertation