As an author with a book to promote, how do you know which of your promotional efforts are working? If you\u2019re like many authors, you are putting yourself out there in numbers of ways. You\u2019re speaking in public, sending press releases, writing articles for publications, keeping up a blog, participating in other blogs and have an interactive website, for example. So which of these activities result in book sales? It\u2019s important to know so you can do more of what is working. <\/p>\n
Paid advertisements and mass mailings generally have built-in monitoring systems. You simply add letters or numbers to your address or post a code somewhere in the ad or circular. When you receive an order by mail, you can tell which effort generated this sale. Likewise, when a customer calls your 800 ordering number, you can ask for the promotional code.<\/p>\n
You can also include a \u201cHow did you hear about us,\u201d question on your online order form. We do this with the SPAWN membership application. That way we know if the new member was referred by an individual or another organization, if they learned about SPAWN through some of our promotional efforts, saw our booth at one of the book festivals we attend or found us through a random internet search.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I get flurries of book sales and I can usually attribute this activity to an article that just appeared somewhere. Sales were up considerably after my article on publishing appeared in The Toastmaster Magazine over the holidays. Of course, if I have two or three pieces published during the same month, I\u2019m not sure which one inspired the book orders, unless I ask. And sometimes I do. <\/p>\n
We can also check our web traffic to get an idea of which aspects of our website and which of our books attract the most interest. Ask your webmaster about tracking your web traffic and then monitor it. <\/p>\n
When book sales slow down, what are you going to do? Get out there and do more of the kind of promotion that works for your book. If you\u2019ve been sending press releases to random newspapers and see no measurable results, perhaps you need a different approach. Try targeting appropriate newspaper columnists, instead. Maybe your novel features vintage automobiles. Contact the editors of the many car-related columns across the nation for a possible interview or book review. If your book focuses on how to stage your home to sell, contact real estate column editors. Of course, there are also gardening, senior, student, health, pet, music, hobby and sundry other types of columns in newspapers throughout the U.S. and beyond. Here are some links where you can do your own research:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.newspapers.com<\/a> News Bite And in turn, I went on a research rampage and found these sites for those of you with copyright or permissions questions.<\/p>\n \u201cFree Advice\u201d offers Law and Legal Advice for free and sometimes a nominal fee: http:\/\/www.freeadvice.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJust Answers\u201d also provides legal advice and you set the price. Check this site out at: http:\/\/www.justanswers.com<\/a><\/p>\n For advice on every aspect of publishing, no matter your publishing choices, pay $19.95 for my 312-page book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book<\/em><\/strong>. When you consider that this book responds to hundreds of questions and offers countless bits of information and resources, you\u2019re getting this advice practically free. And just for fun, check out my brand new book, Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats<\/em><\/strong>. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades.html<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As an author with a book to promote, how do you know which of your promotional efforts are working? If you\u2019re like many authors, you are putting yourself out there in numbers of ways. You\u2019re speaking in public, sending press releases, writing articles for publications, keeping up a blog, participating in other blogs and have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n http:\/\/www.newspapers.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/www.onlinenewspapers.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/www.thepaperboy.com<\/a> <\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ve been recommending the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts site for quite some time to hopeful authors who have questions related to copyright law or permissions issues. Well, one hopeful author this week contacted me to say that the free service is only available to people who live in Missouri or South Western Illinois. I don\u2019t know if this is something new or if it has been this way all along. When I first checked them out, I did not notice this policy. And, over all of these years, this is the first person to report back to me. And I thank him for the information because it is news I can use.<\/p>\n
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html<\/a><\/p>\n