Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
How to Market a Book on a budget!
Dan Fitzpatrick
Author, Vision: Evan’s Book
www.dansvision.com
When I entered into the writing world I had no previous writing experience, no advertising experience and basically nothing to lose. However, I had to find ways to get my book out there. Obviously there were a few things that entered my mind such as; how much will it cost? How long will this take? Should I be finding an agent?
I will begin this little article by saying this; if you want to find an agent, get ready for all of your time to go bye-bye. Finding an agent is a job in itself and it takes too much time. I have done extensive research about how to find an agent and to be honest with you; I don’t have that kind of time or patience. Some of you may but I don’t. I just simply wanted to write a book and try to sell it the best I could. Trust me, if an agent contacted me with interest I would definitely go with it, but I personally don’t want to put all that effort just to wait six to eight months (at the minimum) just to hear a response I don’t want to hear. Since I’m not Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton, I don’t really see a 7, 6 or even a 5 digit contract in my writing future. Hence, this is why I tried to be as creative as I could to promote on my own. I figure if I could break even with the money I paid for professional editing and publication, I would be a success story. So with that said, I wrote a few ways I have learned to publicize my book with little to no cost.
- Create a Website: I can’t stress how important this is. There are many different web hosts out there for very little money. I recommend SiteCube. It is affordable and it has numerous options to make your page fun and flashy. I have seen many different author websites and a lot of them are very bland and uneventful; that just isn’t me. If you have ever seen my website (www.dansvision.com), I use color, animation and music. I have had rave reviews about it and I would definitely recommend something flashy rather than plain and simple. (Did you notice that little advertisement?)
- Creative Advertising: I know advertising seems obvious but hence the word ‘creative’. We can all spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars in advertising and it could get us nowhere. Unfortunately, self-published authors are inferior to traditional authors by reputation (even though I disagree with it.). To quote Peter Gallagher’s character on American Beauty, he says, “In order to be successful, one has to project an image of success.” That is very true and that is one of the mistakes I made early on in the game. I put very little effort into my promotions and I have every intention on correcting that with my next book. I didn’t get my name out there enough. Nobody knew who I was. I’ve learned that there are so many inexpensive ways to promote your work that you don’t hear about too often, at least I didn’t. I even painted my car windows with my book title and a catch phrase. With simple creative advertising, you don’t even have to hire anyone. Here are some examples; keep in mind that some may work, some may not. Time and effort goes a long way.
- Make Business Cards: You can go to Staples and have a thousand business cards made up for about $40. Always keep some with you to hand out. Give them to people you meet; store clerks, waiters/waitresses, book store managers, and even complete strangers walking down the street. Throw one in an envelope when you mail your bill payments out. Give some to friends to hand out to their friends, and so on. I always leave a card on the table with my tip at a restaurant; like I said, get creative.
- Create Flyers/Posters: You can basically do everything with flyers you do with business cards. Go to stores (especially bookstores) and ask to hang them up on the door or window; you’ll probably get a ‘no’ most of the time, but I got lucky in a few places. Hang them around college campuses with all the rave and party announcements (who doesn’t read those?); hang them on bulletin boards at work and in town. I even often accidently drop one in a shopping cart when I am done shopping, at least one person will see it.
- Alert the Media: This one is huge but not so much on the creative side; however, you can make it creative. I went to our local top 40 radio station here in Keene, NH and gave a book to each of the morning DJ’s. As I was driving home that very morning fifteen minutes later, they were talking about my book on the air. I didn’t have to do a traditional press release and make it all official. I simply went in and said, “I have a special delivery for so and so.” Two weeks later, I was featured on two radio shows. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing and think of the little effort it took on my part. Also, hit the newspapers. This is a tough one because they always get tons of stuff that people want printed in the paper. They have to pick and choose, as do publishers. So, with that said, be creative. Give them a reason to print your article. What makes you so special? Why should they put in the time for you? I can’t tell you how to do that, you have to figure that out for yourself.
- Dress to Impress: You are not just advertising your book, you are advertising yourself. If you are out and about trying to promote your book, dress professionally. If someone pitched you an idea on the street about something, who would you most likely listen to, the guy wearing the suit and tie, or the guy wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt? This was one mistake I made. When my book was first published, I went into a local bookstore to give them the PR. I was dressed comfortably and not to impress. I was wondering why I was getting the looks I was getting, but a few weeks later I went back in wearing a suit and tie. It was a whole different ballgame. They were more helpful, respectful, and interested in what I had to say. For the record, there is nothing wrong with regular clothes, I wear them, but if you are trying to be a professional, you must look and act like one. By looking professional, people will think that you are serious about what you do, especially those that don’t know you.
Last but not least…
- Social Networking: During this day and age, I really hope I don’t have to explain this one. Between Myspace, Facebook, Squidoo, and the millions of other SN available, the opportunities for gaining a fan base are infinite. However; you have to be very careful; DO NOT SPAM! People don’t like that and you will most likely get booted from whatever networking site you are on. I should know because I got booted from Facebook because of it. The funny thing is that I wasn’t even spamming. I got booted because I had too many people on my friends list. That’s a whole different story. Join writing groups, online and locally. Get on those sites and put in your information, without forcing it on anyone. Let people make the decision of whether or not they want to participate in your book life. Join blogs and participate in writing threads. The possibilities are endless on this topic.
I hope this helps some of you struggling authors out there. Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. It is a very hard world to be successful in. I should know because I struggle too.
Posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Business, Marketing, Marketing, Technology, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
