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 part way 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.
Challenge Assignment: Compose 10 to 15 questions to ask YOUR readers (or readers of a similar genre)to find out what they look for when choosing a book, which magazines/newspapers/radio stations do they frequently read, where or how do they spend their free time, etc. Be sure to throw in a few questions prompting them to say WHAT they expect out of a book and the author. Make sure that your questions promote more than YES or NO answers. Actually email these questionnaires, post them on your blog, Facebook page, etc.
Challenge Assignment: Compose 10 to 15 questions to ask YOUR readers (or readers of a similar genre)to find out what they look for when choosing a book, which magazines/newspapers/radio stations do they frequently read, where or how do they spend their free time, etc. Be sure to throw in a few questions prompting them to say WHAT they expect out of a book and the author. Make sure that your questions promote more than YES or NO answers. Actually email these questionnaires, post them on your blog, Facebook page, etc.
