Book Marketing Gets Social

By Yvonne DiVita - Jan 03 , 2008

In the world of book sales, traditional publishers require new authors to create an extensive marketing plan – well before their manuscript is accepted for publication. In fact, new authors are NOT likely to get accepted for publication if they don’t include a well-thought out marketing plan.

Over the past three years, I’ve worked with a number of authors who were insistent on going the traditional route, and all of them were asked for more—more contact information (who did they know that was famous – at least in their area of expertise?); more speaking engagements (where had they spoken last year, and the year before, and where would they be speaking next year, when the book might be released?); and more information on their overall network (precisely, were they connected to any influential bloggers that might blog about the book?).

In the end, the publishers seemed more concerned with how well the authors were going to market their book than their talent or expertise in writing the book. It seemed that once the publishers were sold on the topic, all they wanted to know was how well the author could sell their own work. Interestingly, I’ve also heard of authors being asked to buy goodly quantities of their own book!

Certainly, marketing is key. No one wants to publish a dud. The best way around that is to be assured that a book’s author will put time and effort into marketing—time and effort that the publisher does not have to put in and that the publisher does not have to pay for. When an author already has a platform — via speaking engagements, seminars or workshops, and ways to connect online — publishers can enter into a book contract with some expectation of recovering their costs.

(As for asking authors to buy copies of their own book once it’s released, that sounds a lot like self-publishing, to me.)

I was reading Jeff Gomez’s blog recently and was impressed by his long post on how much work is involved in marketing your book, even when it’s published by a traditional publisher. Jeff writes the Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age blog, which is titled after his book, Print Is Dead. [Click here for Jeff’s bio page.]

In his post, Jeff says that when he had his first book published he hung around a local bookstore and tried to “will” people into buying his book, to no avail. That was back in the late 90s.

Today, he has a different story: “It’s now a different decade and, for me, a new book. And it’s just amazing to me how different a feeling it is to be published in 2007 versus in 1997. Back then, being an author felt very much like being an awkward teenager hoping to get a date—all an author could do was stay near the phone waiting for the publicist to call. But now, with the Internet, I feel completely empowered. I don’t need to wait for my publisher to do something on my behalf; instead, I just need to sit down at my laptop, do a bit of online research, and from there I can do any number of promotional things for my book.”

In fact, he goes on to write, “For instance, this blog. I started this blog long before I even completed the book. And in the past sixteen months, since starting and working at this blog, I’ve slowly built an audience and generated traffic, using this site to get to know the players in this space and letting them get to know me (and for a person who doesn’t like to knock on doors, it’s been an incredibly easy thing to do).”

In the end, regardless of how you publish, a big part of the author’s job is to market and sell his or her book. Yes, your publisher should participate. And guide. But without author participation, the book will likely go nowhere.

Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, who write the Church of the Customer blog, have some excellent advice on marketing in the New Year. This post isn’t specifically aimed at books, but when I read it, I slapped my palm against my forehead and said, “This is exactly what our authors should be doing!” And what WE, as publishers and writers, ourselves, should be doing. Here is just a portion of their list—please visit their blog and read the whole post:

Their first point is the most valuable, IMHO: “Vow to do more attracting than selling.”

So, in the book world, how would that work? Well, first of all, it would require an outstanding cover. Then it would require introducing yourself, and your book, to people who already write about the topic. And it would mean giving those people some free publicity on your blog or website.

Another point they make is, “Build a niche.”

We know smaller is better, these days. Who hasn’t read Seth Godin’s book, Small Is the New Big? You? Well, go get it and read it. Learn the true ins and outs of niche marketing and why social media is all about connecting to the long tail. Start local and you can go global later on.

The very last bit of advice they give in their 10 points is this: “Do what you love.”

When it comes to writing your book, I expect the topic will be something you love. When it comes to marketing your book, even if you don’t love marketing, remember the love you had for the topic – and find exciting, interesting, and non-threatening ways to continue loving it. At least love the fact that you can connect online where you don’t have to get wet, cold, or embarrassed. Safe at home, in your office or at your dining room table, you can talk about your book, and why you wrote it, to thousands of people who just might go to your website and buy it (you are selling your book via your own website, aren’t you?).

And, when folks like me find you and interview you on our blogs, remember to share the love by announcing your interview to your network. Working together, we can introduce our books and expertise to a small group of enthusiastic readers – who will then introduce it to their network of enthusiastic readers, and so on.

Book marketing – it’s not just for other people. It’s for everyone: publishers, authors, and even readers. As a group we have more power and reach than any of us have alone.