When It Comes To Book Marketing, Little Things Mean A Lot

When it comes to book marketing, it is never possible to do too much - but it is very easy to do too little.
 
I was reminded of this on a couple of occasions recently, for different reasons.
 
The first was when I attended a local writers’ group for the first time. I had wanted to join them for some time, but the meeting day always clashed with something else I do on the same evening. However, that week my normal activity was cancelled, so I went along.
 
It was the sort of thing I had expected, with the writers reading out bits of their work and being given constructive feedback. All very pleasant and friendly. It was at the end of the evening when I found that nobody there was really thinking about basic marketing.
 
I was asked for my contact details, so that I could be added to the email group. Everyone seemed surprised when I produced a business card with the Selfishgenie Publishing contact details printed on it. I expected to be handed cards in return but wasn’t. None of the dozen or so people present had that most basic marketing tool to hand. Not even the organiser!
 
I commented on it and the attendees seemed bemused by the possibility that anyone outside the group would want to make contact.

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“What do you do when people ask about your books?” I asked. “How will they know what name to search for on Amazon or wherever?”
 
I could see from the puzzled faces that they didn’t get it. “Well, I tell them my name and my book title, and they remember, I suppose.” Someone replied.
 
I wanted to say “But 30 seconds after you part, they will have forgotten both. But if they find your business card in their pocket, or purse, they will be reminded of you and may look you up then.”
 
But I didn’t say that. I let the matter drop. I just hope that the expression on my face said enough to make the people think about investing a few pounds in the purchase of some business cards for future use.
 
I have found that in the past many people have introduced themselves as “I’m a nurse/plumber/whatever” first and author or writer only as an afterthought.

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But if you want to be taken seriously as an author you must first take yourself seriously.

​You are an author first and whatever else you do second. You are only doing that to pay the bills until you can give up being a plumber/nurse/whatever and write full time.
 
And that means having a business card that says “author”, with the relevant contact details on it so that people remember who you are and look up you and your books,
 
OK, not everybody will do that. Hand out 50 business cards and maybe only 4 or 5 of the recipients will actually look you and your books up. But that is 4 or 5 that wouldn’t have looked you up if they have forgotten your name 30 seconds after you have parted.

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The second incident (two actually) was almost as bad, but this time the offender wasn’t standing in front of me at the time.
 
I had just finished reading a book by an author I hadn’t read before. It was by an Indie author, as most of my reading is these days as I try to support Indie authors as much as possible and the best way to do that is to buy their books.
 
The book was pretty good, and I was sorry it had finished. I knew the book was part of a series and I was keen to buy the next title. I was even more keen after I had read the preview chapter the author had inserted at the back of the book.

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But when I went to click on the link to take me straight to the book’s page on Amazon …. it wasn’t there.
 
Another simple marketing tool overlooked.

The best time to sell one of your books to a reader is when they have just finished reading one of your books.
 
There are a lot of psychological factors at work at that moment and it is important that the author makes them work in their favour.
 
When a reader finishes a book that they have enjoyed they feel a sense of loss. It isn’t as severe as grief, but it is from the same source. They want to ease that feeling of loss and you, the author, can make that happen.
 
It’s why we put sample chapters of our other books after the end of the story. 

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Strike while the iron is hot – get the reader when they are wanting more.
 
But if you don’t include a link to where they can buy the next book, they’ll just say “I’ll look it up tomorrow.”
 
The problem is that by tomorrow the feeling of loss has gone and they may already have started to read the next book in their TBR list, whether it is a paperback or an ebook. The moment has passed, and the sale may have been lost forever.
 
Obviously, you can’t put a link in a paperback (but you can include the URL as ordinary text), but there is no excuse for not putting one in the ebook version.
 
OK, if the next book hasn’t yet been published and isn’t even on pre-order, then you can’t put a link in.
 
But you can go back and put the link in the moment the book does go on pre-order or is published. If you don’t write series, that’s OK. You just insert the link for the next book you published.
 
Finally, there was the second sin that the same author committed.

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There was no request for a review.
 
We all know how important reviews are for authors when it comes to selling books. Some people always post them, some people never post them, but some people will post them if you give them a nudge in the right direction.
 
Just a simple request along the lines of “Reviews are important to authors, so if you have enjoyed this book please post a review wherever you normally review the books you read”.
 
You can even post a link to the sales page on Amazon (if that’s where you sell your books) just to be helpful.
 
That’s all it takes.

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We use a publication and marketing checklist when we prepare books for launch, just to make sure that we don’t overlook such simple things. We would recommend that you develop your own checklist so that you don’t forget the same little things​.

My takeaways from this blog are:
 
1. Everybody you meet is a potential new reader of your book(s).
2. Everybody you meet needs a way of remembering who you are, what your book is called and how to find out about your books, and
3. If someone has read your book, that is the time to persuade them to review it and to buy another of your books, so make it easy for them.
 
And if you have forgotten, it isn’t too late to do it now. You may have lost sales in the past but that is no excuse to lose more in the future.
 
As a well-known supermarket used to say in its adverts “Every little helps”.
 
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