Promote yourself before you’ve Smote yourself.
When promoting your book, it seems
intuitive to focus on the content of the book. Advertisements
like:
But what if, at first glance, the content of
your book doesn’t appeal to a person, or they are unimpressed by a seemingly “gimmicky”
advertisement (like in the ad for that Patricia Cromwell book above)? If all of your energy has been poured into
content promotion, you might have just lost that potential reader and that potential
sale. In addition, if you’re relying heavily on word-of-mouth marketing
strategies, that fish is dead in the water now too.
It is undeniable that the content of a book
is important because, in most cases, an author’s ideas are important and people
will recognize that. However, in this age of reality TV shows being granted to
any Tom, Dick, or Heiress with a couple extra bucks, I think it is becoming
increasingly apparent that as much as readers are interested the content of the book, people care about
who wrote it, too. Promoting yourself along side that book allows people to relate to you and maybe
better understand why you wrote your book. Sometimes, these grounds alone are
enough to make people give your book a read. Also, by establishing the
authenticity of your voice (not just being some phantom writer), you give
people the opportunity to trust your point of view.
Share stories and experiences relating to you as a
writer in blogs and websites that you use to promote your book. These can be potential inspirations, obstacles, or seemingly unrelated
anecdotes. They will act as friendly gateways for introducing your book to a
wary stranger. The fact is, when a person perceives an author as someone they can
relate to, a human being, they are more likely to be open to what that author has to say.
others to listen.
2 Comments
Tara Anderton
Amen to that! I totally agree. I have written a book and it is in the preorder stage so I have been all over my blog and other social medias trying to do just that. Letting people know who I am by writing random but equally entertaining posts about myself, and what I enjoy in a hopes that by showing people who I really am, and what I am interested in will hopefully promt them to purchase my book.
Thanks for sharing!!!!
Rebecca E.
tara– much luck, what is the name of your book? Love to read it soon!