Build Some Buzz For Your Book To Generate Word-Of-Mouth Awareness
BUILD SOME "BUZZ" FOR YOUR BOOK TO GENERATE WORD-OF-MOUTH AWARENESS. by Sidney Allinson.
Wow, you've placed some copies of your self-published opus with a few local bookstores! On consignment of course; meaning you only get paid if retail customers buy the books. If they don't move off the shelves in three or four months, the store will tell you to take your books back. It is a tiresome nickle-and-dime process, demanding a lot of energy that could be better used for more productive marketing efforts.
Even when brought out by regular mainstream trade publishers, novels are notoriously difficult to promote. Sales of fiction books rely mainly on author reputation, writing style, currently fashionable public attitudes, and an aggressive sales-force. Tough odds, indeed, for any lone unknown self-publisher.
So instead of exhausting oneself over iffy small sales, or vainly relying on newspaper reviews to create demand, self-published authors would be wiser to concentrate on generating some favorable "buzz." That's book-trade talk for getting people to talk about a novel in everyday gossip.
More than anything else, fictional books need word-of-mouth recommendations by enthusiastic individual readers to build awareness. A Gallup poll of why people buy fiction found that a huge 26 per cent bought a book because a friend or acquaintance recommended it. The idea is for people to tell others about your book, "You gotta read this!"
To start the buzz, pass out free sample copies to book-loving acquaintances, teachers, librarians, fellow club members, or professional colleagues. Compile a list of every person you know, however slightly. On average, we each know 250 people. If you tell every one of them about your book, and they pass along mention to everyone they know, you are looking at an astounding personal network of about 50,000 potential buyers.
Public speaking is one of the most powerful publicity methods available to authors, yet relatively few take advantage of it. (Understandable enough, considering most people literally fear public speaking more than death itself.) If authors are honest with themselves, however, they love talking about their book to anyone who'll listen, so why not go one step further and start lecturing about it? Public speaking skill is mainly just a matter of practice, which is readily and inexpensively available through local chapters of Toastmasters International.
The same applies to marketing non-fiction, but it's an easier process entirely. "How-to" informational or instructional books make up the great bulk of sales. Of the 50,000 books published in North America each year, only about 3500 are novels, and a third of those are paperback romances. The reason for such an overwhelmingly huge demand for non-fiction books is that they fill actual needs -- for manuals, guides, histories, cookbooks, hobby hints, and so on. Furthermore, their potential readers are much easier to identify and reach.
One fond myth about self-publishing is the mistaken idea that people will buy your book the instant they come across it. Really though, books are pretty much like any other commodity, in that it takes people anywhere from seven to twenty times to hear about a title before they act to buy it. According to industry publicist Rick Frishman, that same rule applies to getting media attention. He says, "It takes at least seven contacts to gain interview bookings for authors."
So, if you stop trying after just a couple of turndowns by a radio or TV station about discussing your book on-air, you've given up without making a real fight. Those familiar authors you hear on air all the time are the ones who kept hammering on studio doors until they were let in, so do likewise. And when you do arrange to be in front of a camera or microphone, prepare yourself ahead of time.
Even though you sent the station an advance copy, be aware the host rarely will have actually read a word of your book. (Either too busy, or simply disinclined.) So plan how to steer the interview towards highlighting the best features of your book from a reader's point of view.
Whatever it takes, get enough readers talking about your book's message and style, and sales will surely follow.
Sidney Allinson is a freelance communications consultant with over 30 years' experience as a copywriter, was creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, is author of six published books and many magazine features, who frequently presents seminars on the writing trade. Contact him at sidneya@shaw.ca
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