Frugal Book Promoter (eBook)

In Chapter One you learned you must market your book to give it its best chance for success and, I hope, you committed to learning what you must do to give your baby—your book—the best start in life. That’s the hard part. The next hurdle—learning the marketing essentials—will be easy for you. I know because you’re creative and have perseverance. That’s what it takes to market a book.

Getting over the I-don’t-want-tos is the next step. Go ahead. Have your little tizzy fit. Pick any excuse or scary marketing word from the list below. Afterward we can get to work.

Marketing: I don’t want to “market.” It’s an ugly word. Reminds me of selling pigs at a renaissance fair.

Promotion: The word “promotion” gets paired with “self” way too often. I get embarrassed just thinking about it.

Publicity: Give me a break. “Publicity?” What is that? Sounds expensive and I haven’t figured out how it’s different from “public relations.”

Advertising: That sounds expensive. I have big hopes for my book but no assurances my book will make any money, so how can I spend money on advertising?

Branding: My book isn’t published. It’s too early to do any branding, much less learn what it is.

Platform: Don’t even mention the word. I’m a writer, not a politician.

Public Relations: Oh, gosh. Does that mean I have to get out from behind my computer and relate to people?

All the misunderstandings, prejudices, and concerns expressed above are why you hold this book in your hands. You know you must do something so readers know about you and want to read your book. Indeed, to convince them they need your book.

Putting off your marketing is dangerous to your book’s health. The arguments most destructive to the success of your book usually go something like this:

I don’t need to learn this stuff. I’ll have a team behind me—everyone from an agent to the marketing department of a powerhouse publisher. My writing career will be fine.

It’s too early to begin worrying about promotion. I’ve got a book to write.

I’m willing. I’m able. Maybe I don’t even need this book on marketing. I’ll start soon. Maybe tomorrow.

If I need a publicist, I’ll use that huge advance I’m going to get to hire one.

No, no. Please don’t delay! It gives me an Excedrin headache to think of the time you are wasting by rationalizing away the need to learn to market. It gives me a migraine if you really think you can wing it. If you’ve even breathed these objections, it’s very nearly certain you’re living in the last millennium.

It’s unlikely that even if you snag a big publisher they will allot much of a budget to what used to be called a midlist author. Now “midlist” merely means a new author with a publishing house—one who’d better be able to market her book to stardom on her own if she wants another book contract.

Here’s why you must start using some marketing tools right now rather than later.

When you build credibility, experience, marketing expertise and become familiar with your marketing tools the moment you decide to become a writer, you’re building your platform. That platform works in your favor when you go after an agent or publisher.

Elements of marketing, like writing query letters, taglines, and knowing how to pitch, is the power behind your entire writing career, not just your book’s marketing campaign.

To be effective, publicity must build.

You can’t possibly learn all you need to know about publicizing your book in one evening. Publicity is like practicing piano. The more you do it, the better it will play in Peoria and everywhere else.

A Marketing Umbrella is my gift to you.
Picture a big red umbrella with the words

“S-E-L-L-I-N-G S-T-U-F-F”

printed around the edge in pristine, white letters. It helps if you add

“E-V-E-N B-O-O-K-S.”

This umbrella is your map. Each of the umbrella’s ribs represents a division of marketing similar to those the marketing departments of universities and corporations use. One rib might be “market research.” One might be “advertising” (something you may want to avoid—but more on that later). One is “public relations.” “Publicity” is the happiest rib because—as you will learn—it’s partially about getting free ink. There may be further divisions right down to the ever-dreadful “statistics.”

“Branding” is what you do so your reader will call to mind a certain image when you or your writing (notice I didn’t say “your book”) come to mind. Hang in there. We’ll talk a lot about branding.

You might hear the word “promotion,” but you probably won’t find a class dedicated to it in any university catalog. It’s not that “promotion” won’t get discussed in some classes, but authors tend to use that term inaccurately, just as the title of this book does. In its strictest sense, a promotion is an individual gimmick that businesses use to sell a product. Esteé Lauder has frequent gift-with-purchase promotions to coax women to buy their anti-aging creams. An author offers her book packaged with another author’s book at a book fair. Magdalena Ball and I offered the Christmas chapbook we coauthored to our readers in quantities at a discount so they could use them as greeting cards. (bit.ly/BloomingRed). I’ll probably use the word “promotion” incorrectly in this book again—for convenience’s sake. “Promotion”—the way we use it—is important for authors, so we’re going to designate one of our umbrella ribs to it whether academics or marketing professionals like it or not.

You’ll also hear the word “campaign.” A campaign is all the promotions and other marketing ribs that a business carefully crafts into an overall plan for the success of a product. McDonald’s began offering coupons or apps to get free cups of latté to promote its McCafé line when it was new. Later it did the same thing for its real fruit smoothies. Those promotions, combined with others, fit its overall “campaign” to boost its image as a cool place with more healthful food choices. No matter that we prefer not to think about it, authors are in business. We need to work on a plan for the progress of our writing careers.

The publishing world has sort of co-opted the word “platform” in the sense of résumé. Even though business people need to build platforms to get jobs just as authors must, the word “platform” did not come up at the PR class I took at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Still, authors must be business people. We start building our platforms in high school when we begin to collect tangible evidence that we’re motivated, talented, and persistent. All that good stuff. We start building a platform for our writing with the first article or story that comes out in print or on the web. We also build platforms when we show in verifiable ways that we know how to market. Publishers have always needed their authors to be good marketers, but authors need those skills now more than ever.

One of the most important ribs in our marketing umbrella for building platforms (or careers) is “public relations.” “PR” is short for public relations or your relations with the public and the media. You know. That free ink or exposure you need to get your book read.

“Public relations” is neither advertising nor free ink. It is the part of your marketing that builds the right relationships between you and your readers and those folks who can give your career a boost. It is, in part, dissemination of information that sets a standard for how you would like to be perceived. First and foremost, your public relations must be undertaken with the highest ethical standards.

Public relations advances your career and, done well, keeps you from putting out brushfires. You avoid ticking people off (readers, editors, radio hosts, your providers, and a host of other folks associated with your career) by using great PR. When you do, you have more time and energy to market your book.

To have great relations with the public, you must never assume the worst about any situation. Think of yourself as the best coach in any league. You rally support. You know that people want what’s best for you. That means no chips on shoulders, no low esteem for yourself or others, no...