Books are commodity items and are difficult to differentiate physically. Separate yours by content, position, distribution, value, service or author’s credibility.   

Every March basketball fans are embroiled with Madness. Similarly, there are so many marketing “bracket choices” available to authors that they become overwhelmed and do not know where to start or how to organize and implement an effective marketing mix. Until now.

See my article “March Marketing Madness” here: https://bit.ly/3LQqPW8. Then apply bracketology to book marketing by analyzing each of the four parts of a marketing mix: Promotion, Pricing, Distribution and Product Development. These are each depicted as one document suitable for editing here: https://bit.ly/37tZx5z . Complete the brackets as you would for the NCAA Final Four and at the same time your final marketing choices will set your Final Four marketing strategies and actions for the next three months.

Book-marketing success is like working on a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and you create the pieces. Your outcome is what you envision it to be, and only you can see what it is supposed to look like.

In 2009 Brian Acton’s application to work at Facebook was rejected. That same year he co-founded WHATSAPP. In 2014 Facebook bought WHATSAPP for $19 billion. What will you do the next time you are rejected?

 In special sales (non-bookstore marketing), you are marketing to people, not businesses. Creatively interpret their needs so you understand the problems they want to solve. A marketing manager may want to offer a gift with purchase. An HR manager may want to motivate employees. The membership chair at an association may want to use your ebook to thank people for joining. How can prospective buyers use your content to solve their problems?

Bigger is not always better. Your book does not have to be hundreds of pages long for you to cover your topic effectively. Similarly, your sales literature and press releases should be only long enough to describe the benefits of your content and entice prospective buyers to make a purchase. Similarly, your answers to questions during your media performances should be brief and to the point. Be concise. Make every word count.

When most people see a new idea they feel uncomfortable and have a natural, negative bias. Instead, think of the acronym PIN when you have a new idea. First make a Positive comment, then something Interesting, and if necessary make a Negative observation. And when making that observation, be “positively negative” by offering a twist that could make the idea potentially successful. An idea is like a round peg that will not fit into a square hole. It needs some re-shaping. What is positive about your latest “round” idea?

When considering the places in which you will sell your books, first think about the people who will buy them and where they shop. Do they shop in supermarkets? Gift shops? Airport stores? Discount stores? Pet stores? That is where your books should be.

Regularly I will post a book-marketing tip, usually with questions to stimulate your strategic thinking. Here is the first one: It took Thomas Edison more than 10,000 attempts to invent the light bulb. He said, “I have not failed. I finally ran out of things that wouldn’t work.” He succeeded because he persisted as he learned from his mistakes. What are the biggest errors you had in the past year? What did you learn? What opportunities did they create for you? What mistakes might you make on your current project? How can you use that information to help you reduce errors this year and sell more books?

We received a poem from one of our members. Thank you, Bobby R.!

An Ole Time Christmas Tale

Ole time Christmas

in the hills

And as the snow falls

We snuggle up against the wi inter chills

We hitch our strong

Course to the sleigh

And with sleigh bells ringing

We're off and on our way

And the snow flies

Kicking up so

In our Christmas mugs

We share hot coco

So CRACK Gettie up

And as we dash along

Christmas in the hills

We celebrate singing a carol, a Christmas song.