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Exercising Your Author’s Voice
Promotion can be a silent and lonely activity. As an author with a book to sell, you spend quite a bit of time each day/week trying to find readers. (If you aren’t doing this, you should be.) You are building mailing and emailing lists; writing and rewriting press releases and other promotional material; searching for appropriate newspapers, magazines and Web sites to solicit; mailing free copies of your book to reviewers; sending out press releases and so forth.

But sometimes it feels as though you are all alone searching the vast earth for another human being. You are out there shouting accolades for your book and no one seems to hear you. Yes, promotion can be very lonely work.

I speak to a lot of lonely authors throughout the year. All they want is a little feedback and some sales. They need to know that there’s someone at the other end of their efforts. Maybe it’s time that we change our promotional tactics. Maybe we should get back to the dreaded COLD CALL—go face-to-face or at least voice-to-voice with potential customers.

Our neighborhood, like many in America, is representative of the historic cottage industry era. One neighbor sells jewelry from home and another one makes and repairs jewelry. Another neighbor does quilting for customers in her garage. There’s a bookkeeper up the street, a dog trainer and a part-time realtor who all work from home. But the most successful woman of all in our neighborhood is the one who makes cold calls.

Stephanie Wood designs unique completely organic tee shirts with garden themes. And she sells thousands of dollars in product each month mainly through cold calls and by doing gift shows and harvest festivals. She talks to at least a dozen people each day and she gets orders. She says that almost everyone she speaks with is interested in her product line and wants to see it. http://www.canyoudig-it.com

Have you tried the cold call, lately? I think we’ve all become fairly comfortable communicating through the Internet. Most of us don’t want to bother trying to reach people by phone or in person, anymore. But I maintain that it is more difficult for someone to ignore you when you have a solid voice. They might receive your email and click you into the trashcan. But if you reach them by phone, they will listen to what you have to say.

Let’s make 2006 the year we take our voice back and became more visible. This may just be a unique and effective way to increase our book sales.

Let me know how it goes for you.

There are just 4 days left for the prepublication discount offer on my new book: The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Offer ends December 31, 2005. Order your copy today: http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Question: When is it the right time to start promoting your book?
Answer: The minute you commit to writing it.

It’s true! Promotion starts way before you actually have a book to sell. You might ask, “How can I sell a book that I don’t even have?” Well, you probably can’t, but you can certainly start planting seeds that may develop into eventual sales.

Start by building a mailing list of potential customers. Who is a potential customer? Everyone you meet. You might be surprised who will buy your ethnic recipe book, a book of poetry or your workbook for realtors, for example. You can’t tell by looking at someone whether they are interested in your book topic or whether they have several friends who are. But you sure can find out who is a good candidate for your particular book by talking to people and by going where potential customers hang out.

This brings us to our second most important prepublication promotions activity–talk about your book everywhere you go. When someone expresses an interest in your book topic, ask for a card or make note of their email address. When the book is ready to sell, you’ll want to notify everyone on your mailing list.

While you’re working on the book, take time every week or so to locate potential book reviewers, appropriate showcase sites, Web sites and radio talk shows dedicated to your topic and magazines and newsletters related to your topic where you might submit articles to promote your book or get your book reviewed.

Once you’ve finished the book and while it is with the publisher or at the printer, you’ll have more time to do some prepublication promotion. This is a good time to contact everyone on your mailing list to announce the coming of your book. I like to offer a prepublication discount to folks who will purchase the book during this period. If you’re self-publishing, this is a good way to pay your printing bill.

As you all know, I’m in my prepublication stage of my latest book–“The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.” And the above suggestions are just a tiny example of the information and recommendations, tips and techniques you’ll find in this 328-page book.

Orders must be received by December 31, 2005 in order to get the prepublication discount.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Do you ever pay to advertise your book? In my book, Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book and in my newest book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, I provide many, many no and low cost ideas for promoting your book. In fact, I steer authors away from paid advertisement as a means of promoting their books. It has been shown that paid ads aren’t very effective unless, perhaps, you can afford a full page ad in Publisher’s Weekly. And even then, I’m not sure that you would realize a return on your investment.

Kirkus Review is one of the major prepublication review magazines. A review in this and other prestigious library journals can generate a lot of sales. But only a select few books qualify. Kirkus is now offering a prepublication review program for others , however–but for a fee. I hear from colleagues that this, as with so many author/publisher services, is a big waste of money.

Are paid advertisements read by anyone? Do you read them? Sure, you sometimes notice ads. Amidst the constant bombardment of ads that we find in our faces every minute of every day—on our own Internet services, on practically every Web site we visit, in our newspapers and magazines. My gosh, you have to turn upwards of 100 pages of ads, in some magazines, before you ever find something to read. Some of the ads you notice, but most you do not. Then there’s the radio and TV. It gets easier and easier to tune out the commercial ads that interrupt your news programs, documentaries or favorite talk shows.

Does it do any good at all to advertise the traditional way—to pay for space in which to sell your book or your writing services? That’s a good question.

I think it is important to get word out about your book any way that you can. And, yes, sometimes that means paying for an ad. I advertise occasionally. In fact, this week, I have four or five ads running in various writing-related magazines and newsletters advertising my latest book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I decided to do this in conjunction with my articles that these publications are running.

I am going for major exposure, right now. I am soliciting interviews at writing/publishing Web sites, having my book showcased, writing tons of useful articles, communicating with folks in writing/publishing forums, sending out emails AND I’m also doing some advertising.

The good thing about paid advertisement is that you are guaranteed a spot in the magazine, newspaper or newsletter. Also, if you pay for an ad, that magazine or newsletter editor is going to be more interested in publishing your articles. And articles are important means of free advertising because it gives you a chance to demonstrate your expertise (if you’re a nonfiction author) and your storytelling ability (if you write novels). AND you get to include your bio at the end of the article, “advertising” your book for free. Paid ads afford you additional exposure. It is said that it takes about eight instances of exposure for a book to entice someone to purchase it. Another reason to advertise is that it helps to support your favorite magazines and newsletters. Just a thought.

Those of you who haven’t yet ordered my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, are probably about ready to do so. If you’ve been reading my Blogs, subscribing to Writers Weekly, Freelance Writer’s Report, SPAWNews, SPAWN Market Update, Book Promotion Newsletter, Authorship, PMA-Independent, Christian Writer’s Fellowship Newsletter, Absolute Write, Writing for Dollars, Byline and Writer’s Digest, you’ve been exposed to The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book dozens of times. It’s time to go to my Web site and order your copy at the prepublication discount. But hurry. This offer expires December 31, 2005. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html