Do you go out and speak as part of your book marketing plan? You should be. Most professionals agree that the best way to sell books is through personal contact. <\/p>\n
You\u2019ve probably noticed this already. When you talk about your book to someone in person, they are more apt to purchase it than if you send them a dozen emails. An individual may have seen your book in the bookstore or a gift shop downtown several times. But it isn\u2019t until you meet them face-to-face with your book in hand that they even express an interest in buying it.<\/p>\n
Yes, personal contact is good. What\u2019s even better is personal contact with groups of people. If you have a book to promote and if you aren\u2019t doing so already, you really should get out and speak to interested groups. This might be groups of random citizens (as in civic organization meetings), groups of like-minded people (businessmen and women, child care\/health advocates, gardeners, hobbyists, quilters, those with political interests, pilots, artists, etc.) <\/p>\n
I speak to writers and authors at their local group meetings and at conferences nationwide. I\u2019ve been doing this for numbers of years. And I want to share one thing that I\u2019ve learned\u2014building rapport with your audience takes time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve decided this year that I will no longer agree to speak for less than an hour\u2014that might be 50 minutes with 10 minutes for Q and A. I especially love the 90 minute gigs. Why? Let me count the ways.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tAudience members need time to warm up to you\u2014to sense who you are and determine if they like (and even believe) you or not.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tIf the host did not introduce you properly (which happened to me recently), you have to spend some of your allotted time establishing your expertise.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tYou need time to learn about the audience. Recently, I was told that no one in this group has been published, yet. However, when I got there, prepared to speak to total newbies, I learned, though a round robin group introduction, that several members had, indeed, been published and quite successfully. It\u2019s an awkward time to have to shift gears.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tIf you intend teaching a rather foreign and even unpopular concept, it may take time to sell the idea. Imagine how difficult it is to sell the idea of writing a book proposal to hopeful authors who just want to write that book. <\/p>\n
\u2022\tIt takes time for an audience to learn to trust you. Your credentials, alone, won\u2019t sell them. Your 15 minute spiel probably won\u2019t convince them that you know what you\u2019re talking about. But if you have at least an hour with them and you come across in a friendly, but authoritative manner, you will win at least some of them over.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tYou definitely want to have time for Q and A. And if you speak for only 15 minutes, you probably won\u2019t get any questions at all. And if you do, the questions may not relate to what you attempted to present. The audience must hear and comprehend your message and, perhaps, learn something new before formulating any meaningful questions. And that can take time.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, I listened to a farmer speak on \u201chow to grow what you eat.\u201d His presentation was scheduled to last for two hours. At first, I thought that was a bit long. But I soon realized that I learned so much more than I would had he talked for 30 minutes. Sure, he could have covered his material within half hour. But not in the depth that he did\u2014not to the point where I understood the reasoning behind his suggestions and the consequences of not following his garden rules, for example.<\/p>\n
It takes time to prepare the garden, to plant and germinate a seed and then to sensibly harvest and use the bounty. And it takes time to prepare an audience for the material you want to offer them, to plant and develop your ideas so that they can understand enough about them to make more educated decisions with their projects or in their lives.<\/p>\n
How I Can Help You?<\/strong> Check out my array of books at my website: Have you ordered my new ebook, yet? Many of you have purchased my book, The Successful Writer\u2019s Handbook over the years. I now offer my BRAND NEW The Successful Author\u2019s Handbook <\/em><\/strong>expressly for authors. It is an ebook and can be ordered here: How do you handle an ebook? I like to print it out on pre-hole-punched paper (you can buy it that way) and put it in a binder to read and use as a reference. Having this book at your elbow is like having printed and bound all of my blogs that you really enjoyed\u2014those that resonated with you. Don\u2019t you wish you\u2019d done that over time? Well, I did it for you. If you\u2019re an author or hope to be soon, I compiled The Successful Author\u2019s Handbook <\/em><\/strong>for you!! Contact me directly for an evaluation of your amazing manuscript. PLFry620@yahoo.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you go out and speak as part of your book marketing plan? You should be. Most professionals agree that the best way to sell books is through personal contact. You\u2019ve probably noticed this already. When you talk about your book to someone in person, they are more apt to purchase it than if you […]<\/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
\nAmazon is ordering more and more books from me. Thank you for your orders. A few folks are also purchasing books from my website. I appreciate that even more as there is very little profit left for the author (even when the author is the publisher) when books are sold through Amazon. <\/p>\n
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/successful_author_handbook.html<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/successful_author_handbook.html<\/a> <\/p>\n