Do you have a book in the works or in your hands? Do you know who will have to promote that book? You! Yes, even if you have a traditional royalty publisher; even if you paid your \u201cself-publishing\u201d company to create a marketing plan for your book; even if you believe this book will sell itself.<\/p>\n
Your Traditional Royalty Publisher <\/strong> That\u2019s why it is vital that you, the author, step up to the plate and take charge of promoting your own book in any way that you can\u2014give live presentations, build your own website, do book signings and library readings, get book reviews in and write articles for appropriate magazines, attend book festivals, create a charity or organization around your book topic\/genre and so, so much more.<\/p>\n Your Self-Publishing Company Promotional Package<\/strong> I urge authors who want to \u201cself-publish\u201d with one of these companies to devise a solid marketing plan. But first, make sure that you completely understand your contract\u2014that you know what your profit margin is and that you\u2019ve set a reasonable price on the book (overprice it and it won\u2019t sell, under-price it and you won\u2019t profit).<\/p>\n Your Book Won\u2019t Sell Itself<\/strong> Let\u2019s say that your book is an amazing read. Still no one will know this if they don\u2019t know about your book. You have to get the word out to your audience in order to entice them to buy your book. So to say that your book will sell itself is a bit presumptuous. First people must know about it. Then they have to read it. If they like it, they will tell others, sure. But I don\u2019t think any book has ever made bestseller status or turned a fortune for the author without quite a great deal of promotional effort. <\/p>\n Again, books need to be promoted. And the author is the best one to lead the book promotion charge. Think about this: no one knows your book as well as you do and no one else cares as much about it. <\/p>\n For more about book promotion, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book <\/em><\/strong>by Patricia Fry. http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/rightway.html<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you have a book in the works or in your hands? Do you know who will have to promote that book? You! Yes, even if you have a traditional royalty publisher; even if you paid your \u201cself-publishing\u201d company to create a marketing plan for your book; even if you believe this book will sell […]<\/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
\nLet\u2019s examine each \u201ceven if.\u201d You land a traditional royalty publisher and he promotes your book to his list of reviewers, adds it to his online catalog of books, sends out a few press releases and gets it placed in bookstores. That\u2019s huge\u2014but is it enough? Probably not. So your book gets some press for a few months, it is reviewed by a few reviewers and the bookstores have placed another order for it. This is all good. However, it won\u2019t remain for long in bookstores unless it continues to sell. And it won\u2019t keep selling after the reviews and articles have stopped. <\/p>\n
\nLet\u2019s say that you pay the extra amount for a promotions package through your self-publishing company. Generally, what you get is only a pitiful bit of exposure and it may not even be within the realm of your target audience. As you can tell, I don\u2019t think much of the one-size-fits-all approach to book promotion that is often offered by these companies for a pretty hefty fee. <\/p>\n
\nWhat if you believe that your book will sell itself? Sounds crazy, right? But I meet authors with this conviction. No kidding! What they don\u2019t know is that the competition for books is huge and growing. And there are fewer readers. There were over 400,000 books published in 2008 and, I think it was, less than half of the adults polled a few years ago, said that they have never read another book since their high school graduation. <\/p>\n