When you
walk into a store do you make choices on which product to buy or do you
automatically sweep every brand off of the shelf and into your shopping cart?
What makes you choose one type of fruit for instance over another? Or why do you
pick a specific brand or flavor? The last time you were in a bookstore, did you
seriously want to read every book on their shelves or did you gravitate to a
few particular
If you can
understand and explain why you discriminate with your purchases, then you are
partway towards developing an effective marketing plan of your own for your
book(s).
Who did you
write your book for? Some genres are read more by woman, others by men.
Someone’s interest in history might make an historical novel more appealing to
them whereas someone who has been a fan of movies and TV shows like Star Trek, Battlestar
Galactica, E.T. or Close Encounters might prefer to read a good science fiction
set in a galaxy far away from Earth.
Focus your
marketing efforts towards the audience you wrote your book for, or the target
audience who will most enjoy your genre. If you are placing an ad for your book,
be sure to put it in a place where your potential readers will see it. Popular
Mechanics is probably not the best billboard for your romance genre book
promotion and marketing efforts; statistically a woman’s magazine will garner
you more romance readers than a magazine about coin collecting.
Put your
product (book) right up in front of their faces!
Determine
the success of your book marketing by how many people your message reaches.
Writing
Exercise: Make a list of 10 to 15 of
your “favorite things” – this can include anything like colors, foods, music,
genres, etc. For each item write a brief few sentences “selling that item” (figuratively)
to a target audience.
Writing
prompt: You are to be the keynote speaker for a local civic group or charity.
List ten attributes about yourself that this particular interest group would
want to hear about.
