Dee’s marketing blog: The secrets of successful self-publishing (part three): How to promote your new book

Dee Blick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the world’s largest marketing body. She has 26 years’ marketing experience gained working with blue chip organisations and SMEs. Dee is the author of the bestselling book; Powerful Marketing on a Shoestring Budget for Small Businesses. In the last five years Dee has won six awards for her published work and has featured on the BBC as a marketing entrepreneur. Dee writes for a number of business publications and she is an active blogger and twitterer.

Part Three: How to promote your book.

That glorious day finally arrives when your book, that incredible literary accomplishment you’ve spent so many months toiling over, is finally in your hands.  Savour the moment!  Then it’s time for the next all-important stage – promoting it.  Not every self-published author writes a book to make money.  For example, I met an author who simply wanted to write a book on his extraordinary life to pass on to his grandchildren. I, on the other hand, wanted to write a book that would be read by thousands of people, so I knew that I had to invest my time in marketing it.

As a marketer by day and an author by night, it was relatively easy for me to promote my book.  However I still had my fair share of setbacks and disappointments, thankfully punctuated by a growing number of successes.  Promoting it took every spare hour of my time and it was many months before I could actually relax.

There are many ways in which you can successfully promote your book on a shoestring.  Here are five powerful, but simple, ways to get you started.

• Organise a book launch. As a self-published author you’ll make a large proportion of your money on direct sales and a book launch brings you face-to-face with a large number of potential customers. Also, of course, it is a fantastic PR opportunity.  Mine cost me nothing.  I found a sponsor, a local business, to pay for the refreshments. I negotiated the venue for free in exchange for the publicity and my guest list of 90 people included the local press and my VIP, Saira Khan. My master of ceremonies gave his time for free and on the evening 94 people attended (I had invited 90!).  I sold 115 books and this immediately covered my publishing costs.

• Organise mini launches. For example, I spoke at several business networking events on marketing on a shoestring, the topic of my book, and followed up with a book signing.  Find the groups that would like to hear about your book and approach them.  Most people admire and respect authors and enjoy listening to their story.  The magic of the printed word endures and nowhere is it more potent than in a book.

• Make sure that potential buyers on Amazon can look inside your book. This is a massive selling tool.  The team at Amazon are very helpful and will show you how to do this.

• Create a blog and feed it through twitter. Direct followers and readers to your latest reviews on Amazon, and explore topics that are within your book that will be of interest. And whilst you’re at it, join and contribute to forums and blogs where the other contributors will be interested in your book too.

• Find the national and local critics that could influence people to buy your book through positive reviews. This was the big one for me and undoubtedly it was a series of great reviews that propelled my book into the bestselling ranks on Amazon. It’s a slog and you will get rejections, but if you’re persistent it does pay off.  The book critic at the Federation of Small Businesses reviewed it in such glowing terms that it reached number 25 best seller in its category on Amazon and that momentum is still there many months later. I was also found by the small business marketing manager at Royal Mail from an Amazon review and this led to my book featuring in several business magazines. I was interviewed by the Financial Times and the Financial Mail on Sunday, not to mention many other publications.  Do not give up on this. You only need one or two lucky breaks for your book to reach the bestsellers if my experience is anything to go by. All of this publicity culminated in Amazon promoting my book in a recent email marketing campaign as one of their recommended reference books. When I saw that email, I knew that the hard slog had been worth it!

Good luck!  I would love to hear your own story, or any comments you may have.

Click here for part one and click here for part two.

Posted by Dee Blick on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 2:36 pm.

Filed under Ask an Expert, Features, SMEs, Starting a Business, Tagged as: .