Ever think about writing a book? It’s sort of like owning a house, right? Everyone wants to do it. But what about book marketing?
Naturally, once the book is written people just buy it, right? Or do they? 😉
Sadly, people don’t line up to buy a book just because we write it. Case in point – the TV commercials with an author plugging his newest book. The author is James Patterson – big name – and even he has to do book marketing.
Let me share a conversation I had recently with Pete. We’ve talked about writing a book together for his business, and I wanted to get an idea for how clear he is on the process.
My first question was “What’s the purpose for the book?” Since Pete’s a consultant for business owners, his first answer was to show people how to run a business. Definitely NOT a good answer. That’s such a broad topic the book would have to be the size of the Gutenberg Bible!
You see, book marketing starts with choosing what you want the book to do. Is it a lead generator, an authority tool, or maybe a straight teaching book. And yes, all of this is based on knowing whether anyone wants a book on the topic you’re covering.
So we talked about what he wants a book to do. He’s going to do some more thinking about that, and we’ll talk again. The conversation did go on, and we talked more about how the book marketing is done.
Pete already does speaking gigs for industry organisations. That means he can always promote the book when he’s speaking. That’s book marketing 101. And there are dozens of ways to promote your book – radio interviews, articles, Kickstarter, videos, podcasts, blogging, industry sponsorship, and the list goes on.
It’s important to remember two things:
- nobody get rich from writing and selling books – the writing and selling of books leads to other, more profitable activities
- book marketing is a continuous process that becomes part of your lifestyle.
If you’re not willing to flog your book, then don’t write it.
Why “flog” right? Because it’s used as in “flog a dead horse.” You normally wouldn’t, of course, but with a book you have to. It’s the same as telling your attractive character story and building credibility – you do it all the time. (Unless you’re me, of course, then you forget to do it when you’re writing blog posts 🙂 )