Guerrilla tactics for marketing and selling your book

Transcription

1 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book

2 Copyright Ifiite Ideas The right of Ifiite Ideas to be idetified as the author of this book has bee asserted i accordace with the Copyright, Desigs ad Patets Act Ifiite Ideas Limited 36 St Giles Oxford OX1 3LD Uited Kigdom All rights reserved. Except for the quotatio of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, o part of this publicatio may be reproduced, stored i a retrieval system or trasmitted i ay form or by ay meas, electroic, mechaical, photocopyig, recordig, scaig or otherwise, except uder the terms of the Copyright, Desigs ad Patets Act 1988 or uder the terms of a licece issued by the Copyright Licesig Agecy Ltd, 90 Totteham Court Road, Lodo W1T 4LP, UK, without the permissio i writig of the publisher. Requests to the publisher should be addressed to the Permissios Departmet, Ifiite Ideas Limited, 36 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LD, UK, or faxed to +44 (0) Brad ad product ames are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owers. Text desiged ad typeset by Nicki Averill Prited ad boud i Great Britai by Marsto Book Services, Abigdo

3 Cotets Itroductio 1 The ame of your publishig compay 3 Pricig 5 Timig 8 The physical package 9 Pre-publicatio activity 14 Marketig 27 Literary agets 39 Foreig laguage sales 40 Checklist 4 1 Coclusio 46 Glossary of marketig terms 47

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5 Itroductio Cogratulatios, you re about to become a published author. It s a lovely feelig, is t it? You will soo realise though that you re very far from aloe there are some 80,000 ew books published i the UK every year, which you ll probably agree is quite a lot of books. So, i this vast ocea of literature, what do you eed to do to get people to otice ad (we hope) buy your book? This short guide is iteded to give you some basic tactics to esure your book is made available to as may people as possible. Most of it is sesible, achievable advice that comes straight from the Ifiite Authors team of sales ad marketig experts. If you use it wisely, pla your campaig ad are dedicated to your goals it will result i publicity ad sales for your book. It assumes that you do t have the budget to appoit your ow PR ad/or marketig cosultat to help you (though that may ot be as costly a optio as you may thik), i fact that you do t actually have a budget to do very much at all. This is t about sped, it s about effort, ous ad to some extet commo sese.

6 2 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book We wo t recommed that you write a oe-hudred page marketig pla ad back it up with a to of spreadsheets. We aim to give you some basic tools that you ca use immediately ad which come out of our ow experiece as publishers. Ad that s what you are too: a publisher as well as a author. If we help you to achieve success the we ll be very happy, too. If there s somethig that you eed to kow that is t covered by this advice the let us kow, proto. What we re offerig here are some tried ad tested techiques that with a fair wid ca help your book take off. Of course there are o guaratees i this. You oly have to look at the big publishers ad how much time ad moey they lavish o some of their authors oly to achieve poor sales to kow that there are o certaities whe it comes to sellig your book. Further, look at some of the major successes of the least few years (Harry Potter ad Eats, Shoots ad Leaves, for example). They spluttered o to the market with ext to o iitial impact ad the rest, to borrow, chage ad misquote the tragically irritatig Dae, is history. Your sales ad marketig efforts should begi as soo as you ve take the decisio to publish, so let s start with the basics.

7 1. The ame of your publishig compay Hag o a secod, we hear you cry, I am a writer, ot a publisher. What does it matter what ame I publish uder? Well, we d strogly advise agaist such (forgive us) tuel visio. Yes, you re a writer but you re also a publisher. You re settig up your ow imprit ad you should thik a little about what this should be called. Of course you ca take the easy optio ad ame your busiess Norma Bates Publishig if you re called Norma Bates (well, you ca do that eve if you re ot). But that may look a wee bit parochial. It s up to you, but if you ve writte a romatic ovel thik of a ame that reflects the gere you re ivolved i. Love ad Romace Press, for example (c mo, you ca do better tha that! Heavig Breasts Publishig, that s much more like it). If it s a book about dog traiig, call it Dog Lovers Books. You get the picture.

8 4 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Why is this importat? Well, there s still some prejudice i the covetioal world of books ad booksellig agaist self-publishig, so to overcome this it s quite a good idea to at least give the impressio that you re first ad foremost a idepedet publisher whose first book just happes to be writte by you. Who kows, it might be that, buoyed by the success of your first book, you go o to build a publishig empire based o books by other people. There are plety of precedets for this. Household publishig ames such as Dummies, Loely Plaet ad Rough Guides (to ame just a few) all bega from oe so-called selfpublished book.

9 2. Pricig How much is your magum opus goig to cost readers? It s critical to get this right at the very begiig. Our advice to you is to cosider two issues here, otably: The idustry orm for similar books; Your margi, takig ito accout your productio costs ad (where relevat) book trade discout. Start by researchig similar books o Amazo. If you re publishig a paperback ovel aimed at the Catherie Cookso readership, it s ot wise to price it at 30. If the gere you re workig i usually commads a cover price of the pitch your book accordigly. You ca try to egotiate price reductios through the big (probably olie) retailers, but your RRP (recommeded retail price, for the uiitiated) is the crucial figure. You ca of course pitch lower tha the market ad try to attract busiess primarily by price. But we d urge some cautio i doig that. What message might that give off? Could it look a little desperate? It s your call but if the sector usually commads a price of 9.99 ad you pitch i at 3.99 (eve if you ca make moey o this after your

10 6 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book costs) it may well mea that you do t sell may more copies tha if you d stuck to full price. You will probably be just chuckig margi away. Yes, every chai bookshop i the coutry uses pricig as its key marketig tool, but this teds to be for established big-ame authors or TV tie-is where the bookshops are havig to compete with olie ad supermarket discouts. It s your call of course, but we d urge you iitially to research the correct RRP ad stick to it. You ca always discout later whe the book takes off. If you re publishig somethig that is must have ad iformatio based, for a particular idustry sector, be bold. Say it s a book about the complexity of iteratioal tax plaig ad is aimed at a very discrete targeted market of high level iteratioal tax plaers. They are goig to buy your book (well, if you tell them about it at least) almost regardless of price. It s ot uusual for publishers to price certai books very highly if that iformatio is ot available from ay other source. I this sceario cosider yourself as much a cosultat as a author. Would you, as a cosultat, give your time away? No, of course ot. So do t give your expertise away i book form. Agai, look at Amazo ad see what prices are beig charged for comparable books.

11 Pricig 7 As with more geeral books we d urge you ot to be tempted to udercut competitors. Say there s a similar tax book published by a log-stadig competitor at 100. You may be tempted to pitch yours at 50, but what message would this sed to a potetial purchaser? After all, if someoe is iterested i specialist kowledge they ll be prepared to pay for it. Deliberately udercuttig competitors may just look like you re offerig a iferior product ad could have the reverse effect you wat by actually puttig people off buyig from you. Oe tactic to cosider however, might be a pre-publicatio offer. This is used by a lot of big publishers as it geerates cash early i the book s life, which is always a ice thig. It s simple really. Aouce your book two to three moths i advace of publicatio, but offer a discout for advace orders. If the publicatio date is, say, 31 Jauary ad the published price is 125, you could offer the book at 100 for all paid orders received by 14 Jauary, for example. That s great for your cash flow ad is a commo tactic used withi the idustry. We d suggest you oly make this offer direct to potetial cosumers rather tha the book trade. There s more o direct marketig o page 35.

12 3. Timig Is your book time-sesitive? If so, whe is a perfect time to publish? If it s a book o skiig, for example, you should lauch i September perhaps, whe people are cosiderig bookig their witer holidays. Christmas is difficult eve with local press as there s usually so much goig o from bad weather to the local pato. Avoid if you ca publishig whe there are major atioal evets such as a royal weddig, a World Cup or the Olympics (uless of course your book is specifically relevat to the evet itself). Thik (ad sorry if this is hurtful) that your book may be perceived as filler for the media: of some iterest to some of their readers or listeers but ot if there are ay evets of global iterest competig (for more o the media see page 31). Might there be a special day that is particularly pertiet to your book s subject? Natioal Asthma Day or Natioal Sausage Moth might prove a useful platform (if your book is about sausages or asthma, obviously). Special days ad evets ca be foud easily o the iteret.

13 4. The physical package You will already have decided o some of your book s attributes whe you bought your Ifiite Authors package; attributes such as whether the book is i colour, whether it s illustrated, how log it is ad whether it s a hardback or paperback. There are two crucial other elemets to get right whe it comes to marketig your book: The title. Does it make it clear what the book is about? Does the book have a subtitle? Does it eed a subtitle? The jacket or cover. Title Ask people you trust for their respose to your proposed title ad do try to get their hoest opiio. Oe problem with self-publishig is that the author does t have the beefit of askig somebody less close to the book (i.e. a publisher) for advice o decisios such as what to call the book. Somethig may be crystal clear to you but will it be apparet to a potetial purchaser what a book is about, just from readig the title ad subtitle? So ask aroud.

14 10 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Cover or jacket I the golde days of publishig, whe the cyical old hacks at Ifiite Ideas were wee iocets, there used to be a test for a book s jacket. Could it pass the twety-foot test; i other words could a possible purchaser look at a book faceout o a bookshelf from afar ad see what the book was about? Well perhaps i this digital age we should chage this ito the twety-secod test. Will someoe uderstad what your book is about from a cursory, probably olie, glace at the cover, title ad subtitle? Thik of the books you ow. Some have illustrated covers, some typographical. That s your first choice ad as a geeral rule of thumb you ca get away with a typographical approach for books of a academic or professioal ature, where the cotet is key. However, if you re publishig fictio, poetry or travel writig, for example, all geres which typically use illustrated covers, you eed to cosider spedig a little o a professioally desiged cover. Of course, you may be a great writer ad a taleted desiger, i which case you ca save yourself a few bob. Uless you are graphically traied, however, there is a very strog chace that if you attempt to desig your jacket yourself at best it will look like somethig the vet has surgically removed from iside a Germa Shepherd.

15 The physical package 11 Desigig illustrated book jackets is a craft. May are works of art i their ow right. A badly desiged jacket is the first thig that people will otice ad it will put them off. It will smack of amateurism. We ve see it so may times before where authors have tried to isist o usig their ow artwork or photographs. Ivariably it looks terrible. We d urge you to go for a professioally desiged jacket if you possibly ca afford it. It really will help people to take your book seriously ad make it stad out. Now thik about the copy you put o the physical book. Try to describe your book i simple ad succict laguage. Do t overcomplicate the message. Ad thik too of the message your words give to a reader. If you use highfaluti polysyllables all the way through you might thik you re expressig your ow deep kowledge of the Eglish laguage ad geerally beig itellectually terribly impressive. The chaces are though that you might just come across as a verbose, pretetious, itellectual twit ad o oe who is a verbose, pretetious, itellectual twit sells may books except for a certai Mr Fry (sorry Stephe). So do t be tempted to show off i your jacket blurb. To help you i this process, look at similar books published by maistream publishers. What is their toe of voice? How do they attract their readers? Ad what do they say about their authors?

16 12 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Agai do t show off. You might well have a PhD i Applied Statistics from Harvard but is that really goig to appeal to someoe tempted to buy your book about fly fishig? No, ot really. So be truthful, factual, relevat ad restraied. Copy writig is a skill ad to the uiitiated it ca prove very difficult. So oce you ve writte your proposed copy, put it i a drawer ad igore it for a few days. The get it out ad have a reread. Does it express what you really wat it to? If someoe came across this copy o a book i a bookshop or olie might it attract or repel them? Remember too that if people ejoy your first book they will wat to buy more of your work. So, if this book is part of a trilogy, or the character is goig to appear i future works, it s quite valid to iclude that i your copy. I fact, it s essetial. If you have a website, put that dow too the more cotact you ca have with your readers the better. Caveat o. 1 It s very easy as we kow to get a book prited. Ayoe ca do it. But to publish a book, that s differet. As a selfpublished author, people will compare your book with other titles i bookshops published by maistream houses ad so you eed to do everythig i your power to esure

17 The physical package 13 your book looks ad reads as professioally as possible. Some people out there will be lookig to pick holes i your work so that they ca disparagigly say, Oh, it s just a self-published book. You have the ability ad the power to avoid that criticism by workig really hard to make the package you produce as close to perfectio as possible. That s why a professioally desiged jacket is so importat as it is the first thig people will judge your work o (oh, they re a shallow lot, book buyers). Ad do t forget, if you wat advice ad support durig the process, there s always someoe at the ed of the phoe at Ifiite Authors to help. There is o reaso at all why you caot self-publish a book of bookshop quality ad that should be your aim.

18 5. Pre-publicatio activity Traditioal publishers will aouce their ew books ( frot list ) to the book trade ad trade press a log time i advace of publicatio. This ca be as much as a year ahead. There are good reasos for this as it helps geerate iterest amog booksellers ad the press. However, as a self-published author we d suggest that, give the expected level of bookshop support (see page 22), it s good to aouce your book 4 6 moths i advace of publicatio, if possible. At the lowest level this meas gettig the book registered at Nielse. The sooer you do this the sooer the book is out there o bibliographic databases aroud the world. This does ot automatically mea that ayoe will place orders for it but it does mea that your book will be recogisable ad orderable through its ISBN. If you have purchased your ISBN through us the we will register your book with Nielse for you; if you are buyig your ISBN directly from Nielse the their thorough ad helpful site will guide you through the registratio process.

19 Pre-publicatio activity 15 It s best to put the frot cover image ad as much descriptive copy as you ca o Nielse s database to make the book look as attractive as possible, eve if you decide to chage some of the iformatio later o. Oce your ISBN has bee accepted by Nielse the book will feature o bibliographic databases globally. So if someoe walks ito Waterstoe s i Derby ad asks for the book it should be o their system ad they should be able to order it. Iformatio from Nielse also feeds automatically to olie retailers such as Amazo so the basic iformatio will appear there without ay further iput from you. However, you ca do more to help your sales at Amazo by gettig ivolved i oe of their supplier programmes. The Advatage Programme is costly i terms of margi ad really oly worthwhile whe you have more tha oe book to sell. The Associates Programme is more suitable if you oly have oe or two products to sell ad wat to use your ow web site to poit people i the directio of Amazo. All the details ca be foud at if you re UK based. Alteratively you ca register as a seller for your book o Amazo. Start here: sell-o-amazo/how-it-works/?ld=azuksoafooter. We ll discuss trade discout, the margi you give retailers to sell your book, a little later o (see page 21).

20 16 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book The AI Nope, ot artificial itelligece (there s dam all itelligece, artificial or otherwise i this market, trust me), but advaced iformatio or advaced title iformatio (ATI). These are usually oe-page sheets used by publishers ad their sales represetatives to supply all the iformatio that will persuade retailers to stock a particular book. We are goig to address the issue of bookshop support i a little more detail later o (see page 22) but by producig a AI a couple of moths prior to publicatio you ca prepromote your book with some degree of professioalism. We ve provided you with a AI template. Some basic rules for usig this effectively are: Make sure the basic bibliographic iformatio is filled i accurately. This meas that the ISBN is quoted correctly, as are price, bidig, pagiatio, size, publicatio date, etc. Yup, it s dull, dull, dull ad you my fried are so obviously a artist, but it has to be doe ad it has to be doe accurately. So fill it i ad check it. The double check it. The check it agai. Iclude a good quality jacket image. Books are judged by their jackets eve i this day ad age (apparetly 16% of people buy books o the basis of the jacket image aloe), so iclude a good quality image that shows your artwork off i all its glory.

21 Pre-publicatio activity 17 I the About the book sectio, try to excite. If it s a ovel do t just summarise the plot flatly, istead try to build excitemet. Agai, read the jacket blurbs of ovels you love ad admire ad see how they deal with the plot. You ll fid they etice, tease a little perhaps ad make the reader wat to fid out more. Your oe or two paragraph summary should do the same. If you have already writte jacket copy that you re happy with you should use this as the basis for the AI copy. But do t be lazy ad just cut ad paste it. It may eed expadig or editig dow. If it s a o-fictio book you eed to thik about how to sell the beefits of your book quickly. For example, if it s a persoal fiace book, you re helpig the reader save or make moey easily, legally ad tax efficietly. If it s a diet book, you re helpig the reader lose weight, drop a dress size ad look great, all by feastig o grass cuttigs. Look at popular books of the same gere ad try to replicate the toe of voice their blurbs use. Obviously if you re publishig a high-level, academic tome or serious professioal book, you do eed to esure the copy you use is factual ad accurate. But still hold i your mid the questio, Why should ayoe be iterested? Is it ew research that sheds light o a old cotroversy? Does it broade people s kowledge? Is it goig to be of iterest to academics ad professioals or the iformatio-hugry layperso, too? Clearly state the aims of ad market for the book.

22 18 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Next thik about your author blurb. Agai you ca use the jacket copy you ve already produced as the basis. If you re publishig fictio or poetry the do iclude ay previous publicatios you ve bee ivolved with, iformatio o where you live ow, ad have lived (see also page 32). It s commo sese really. If your ovel is about a walut farmer i the Dordoge, it makes sese to expad a little o your kowledge of the area. So bee to the Dordoge a lot o holiday might ot be quite as compellig as The Dordoge is her secod home. She s visited every year sice 1982 ad kows the area, its people, its culture ad its cuisie better tha ayoe. I fact she was crowed Quee of the Waluts i the Sarlat Walut Festival four years i a row, kid of thig. Fially, your AI should iclude iformatio about how ad where people are goig to hear about your book. Now obviously this is beig prepared i advace of publicatio so there is a elemet of guesswork if ot wishful thikig creepig i here. Few publishers lie about future coverage ad we d urge you ot to do so either. Iterview i the Suday Times magazie is great to write if it is geuiely goig to happe but assumig it s ot you should t tell fibs as you re likely to be foud out ad your credibility destroyed. What you ca do is tickle up some friedly jouralist (we ll come to your PR campaig o page 42) ad if the Cockermouth Gazette says Sure sed us a copy

23 Pre-publicatio activity 19 whe it s ready you ca had o heart write Review ad feature aticipated i the Cockermouth Gazette. As much as aythig this exercise is about persuadig booksellers that you uderstad the importace of gettig your work out there to be reviewed ad spoke about ad that you re gettig off your backside to make it happe. There, you have a AI. This ca of course be used goig forward as the basis of press releases, adverts ad fliers ad should mea that you do t have to start from scratch every time you eed copy. But of course you ca amed this documet as ad whe relevat ew evets occur that are pertiet to the future success of your book. So what do you do with it? The book trade We eed a healthy dash of brutal hoesty here I m afraid. It is ulikely that your book is goig to be stocked widely i the bookstores of the UK o publicatio date. It is highly ulikely (very, very ulikely) that a Waterstoe s buyer is goig to receive your AI ad thik, Blimey that looks like a fasciatig book from a publisher ad author I have ever heard of I thik I ll buy five thousad copies ad pile it frot of every store. It just wo t happe except i such rare cases that we ll make you a promise.

24 20 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book If Waterstoe s or WH Smith or ay other chai booksellers do cotact you watig to place a order of more tha, say, 200 copies, phoe us ad we ll put you through to our joit MD David Grat who will buy you a bottle of champage ad advise you persoally how to supply the order. But eough cyicism. What ca you do to maximise book trade iterest i your publicatio? Where you start with all of this is to sed your AI (a will do i most cases) to the wholesalers Bertrams ad Garders ad ask them to list it i their buyers guides (fid the curret cotact details at ad What these two compaies do is to wholesale books to the book trade aroud the world. They deal with all the major publishers ad may idepedet booksellers prefer to buy everythig through them. For the bookseller it saves o admiistratio (oly oe mothly ivoice to settle) ad is just geerally a effective way to buy books. Both compaies also ow library suppliers (see page 24). Now, we caot guaratee that they will respod (favourably or otherwise). Eve if they do you may feel that they wat too much discout from you (see page 21), but at least gettig i touch with them should mea they kow about your book. Your book will already be listed through Nielse, but the AI will help to alert buyers to its existece. You may cosider spedig a little moey with these two wholesalers to

25 Pre-publicatio activity 21 promote the book through their various catalogues, but i truth we d advise agaist this as the level of sales geerated by such a advert is ulikely to cover the cost of placig said advert. The poit of havig a workig relatioship with the wholesalers is that they ca service demad for your book quickly ad effectively. We d advise at this stage agaist thikig of them as meas of creatig that demad. Discouts This is the margi the retailer eeds (or at least demads) to make moey out of sellig books. We re talkig about your profit here so thik carefully about how you give out discout. Here s a simple rule of thumb guide that we thik is workable both for geeral books (that s mass market fictio, poetry, biography, popular history, self help the list is edless but you get the drift) ad academic/professioal books: Wholesalers will expect 45% o geeral books ad 35% o academic; Bookstores (chai ad idepedet) require 40% o geeral ad 30% o academic; Olie retailers ask for 30% maximum iitially util you build up a relatioship with them.

26 22 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Just so that we re all agreed o termiology here, these discouts are off et prices. If your book is published at 30 ad you offer a 40% discout to a customer you will be ivoicig them for 18. These are suggested figures oly. They ca vary ad circumstaces arise where you should icrease or lower your terms; i particular a local store might be icetivised to support you if you offer them a geerous discout. More o that i a miute. Booksellers As discussed you re ulikely to be dealig with a head office buyer for a atioal chai (see the promise above if you do, you lucky perso). But idividual stores withi chais do have some degree of autoomy whe it comes to stockig books from local authors. Here s where your AI comes i agai. Fid out the ame of the perso resposible for local purchases the sed or better still take i perso your AI ad icely ask them to stock the book. Offer to do a readig, produce posters ad metio their shop i the local press you re guarateed to get(!) Most will support you to some extet. This ca mea aythig from takig two copies of your book, puttig it o a shelf at the back of the store ad payig you for them whe ad oly whe they sell a copy ( cosigmet stock ) to offerig

27 Pre-publicatio activity 23 a widow display ad a veue for a lauch party. It really depeds o the bookseller, how they relate to you ad your book, ad of course the local market, but as a geeral rule of thumb you will be supported if you ask icely ad do t expect too much. Would they ru a lauch evet for you? If they do you ll probably be expected to buy a couple of cases of Norwegia Merlot ad some Cheesy Wotsits to help get the evet rockig. This will be moey well spet i our opiio (we love Cheesy Wotsits at Ifiite Authors). If you do arrage somethig the please, please, please do t expect that the shop s PR machie will geerate so much iterest that the crowds will be jostlig dow the High Street. It wo t, trust me. It s dow to you to beg, cajole ad hassle everyoe you ve ever kow to come alog. Childre too mortified to atted? Well threate the little mokeys with a starvatio diet ad decimatio of their pocket moey uless they tur up accompaied by their etire school. Get the local press alog, have someoe take photographs, get your frieds ad their frieds to support it. Thik of the free listigs i the press ad olie ad get icluded if you ca. If you do wat to have a lauch evet, it may be just as effective to have it somewhere relevat to the subject of

28 24 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book the book. If it s a book about fire egies, the local fire statio might be a good place to cosider. If you do wat the support of a local bookseller the at least give them the opportuity to sell your book for you o the eveig. Caveat o. 2 There s a bit of a myth that goes o withi publishig ad booksellig that says the key to a successful book is to pile it high i bookstores. Well, to a extet that s true (the Booker Prize wier would t sell thousads of copies if it was t available through supermarkets ad bookstores), but there is truly more to it tha that. It is about creatig demad ad as a self-published author that has to be your mai aim. If your book is specialist i ature the there will probably be subject specialist booksellers aroud the world. Doig a Google search such as archaeology book retailers or maritime book retailers will throw up a list of potetial customers world wide. Visit their sites ad see how best to make cotact with them. Very ofte all you ll eed to do is sed your AI ad a coverig . ig a AI to such outlets (they ca be foud i the mai simply o Google) is a very productive activity. I truth you will fid specialist booksellers coverig archaeology to yachtig ad they re usually resposive as it is their busiess to be.

29 Pre-publicatio activity 25 Fially there are library suppliers i the UK. These are compaies that, usurprisigly, supply libraries. This is all about iformatio flow. They will simply take your AI ad sed it o to their purchasers. They may or may ot order. I the UK public libraries ted to be serviced through Holt Jackso ad Askews (owed by the aforemetioed Garders ad Bertrams, icidetally), whilst academic libraries source from the likes of Starkma, Blackwell s ad Dawso Books (ow owed by WHSmith, which i tur ows Bertrams. Icestuous busiess, this, you kow). If you re buyig ito our full marketig package, the we will your AI to key buyers ad keep you i the loop with their resposes. Caveat o. 3 (quite a few of these i this wee book) Most of the UK book trade works o a priciple of SOR. This is a ghastly horrible system that ages publishers, turig them grey, mad ad dribbly. It stads for sale or retur ad essetially meas that most booksellers will retur to you for a full refud ay book they have ot bee able to sell. So, be cautious. If you wat bookshops to stock ad support you, you have to maage the issue of returs (some geeral publishers expect back as much as 30% of what they ship, so it s a serious issue). Alteratively, you ca ask for cash with order ad supply them o a firm sale

30 26 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book basis oly but you are likely to lose quite a lot of bookseller iterest this way. It s your call ad it does deped o the gere of book you ve writte. As a geeral rule, if your book falls ito the impulse buy category, where the bookseller will stock it speculatively hopig that their customers i tur will buy it, the it s the awful ucertaity of SOR for you, my fried. But if your book is factual i ature, ad you re sellig to a supplier who has probably presold it to a library or a busiess, the it s usually acceptable to isist o supplyig it o a firm sale basis.

31 6. Marketig This is all about how you attract people to the book ad make them wat to part with their hard-eared cash ad actually buy a copy. We ll assume you do t have a 25k budget to play with, so what ca you do that s cheap ad effective? First thik about your target market. At whom, whe you first started this mighty work, were you aimig the book? Describe them. Where do they live? How old are they? How ca you let them kow about your book? Oly iclude target markets that you are cofidet you ca reach. It is importat to aswer these questios to try to get iside the heads of your potetial readers. Now thik about what goals you hope to achieve through the book. It is importat that these goals are specific, that they are measurable agaist existig iformatio, that they are attaiable ad realistic ad fially that they are withi a set time-frame. This might iclude thigs like get ito the top 100 books o Amazo about Presto Bus Statio withi three moths of publicatio (grated, a ulikely goal uless your book features Presto Bus Statio).

32 28 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Next thik about your book ad where it fits i the market ( situatio aalysis i marketig speak but we do t really do marketig speak here). Begi with a short descriptio of your book. What might be the key to gettig to the market? It might be your expertise as the author. It might just be that it s a very etertaiig read. Or it might actually be that it is the oly book o the importace of the vole i aciet Roma religio. Describe i geeral terms the challeges your book might face. What differetiates your book ad what are its competitors? Be hoest ad do your research sayig it s the oly book i its area may ot be a killer poit eve if true. I a recet survey some 32% of people said they bought a book because they were iflueced by reviews i ewspapers, magazies ad olie. A further 20% will buy o the recommedatio of family or frieds. So how ca you make sure people read about your book i the press? You do have to be prepared to be shameless ad make a lot of oise to geerate ay iterest. The first place to start is with a professioal-lookig press release. Creatig effective press releases We ve icluded a template that will help you produce a effective press release. It should have a story about you ad your book, a brief syopsis ad a cover image, ad

33 Marketig 29 do t forget cotact details! It eeds to be as puchy ad as compellig as possible. Ad it eeds, ultimately, to be flexible. The same message to the local press i your home tow is ot ecessarily goig to work if set to a jouralist i the tow of your birth. So oe size will ot ecessarily fit all. The core message ca remai the same but be prepared to do some getle maipulatio to esure it resoates with each targeted media. The mai purpose of your release is likely to be oe or more of the followig: To achieve a review of your book; To aouce yourself as a published author or let people kow that you have a ew book out; To place a article about the subject your book covers, with you as the expert o the subject. Ifiite Authors has a extesive database of jouralists both local ad atioal ad we ll sed your fiished release out o your behalf. Speak to us to discuss which sectors it should be set to so that we ca provide a well researched ad targeted list of jouralists who will wat to hear your message. Timig is importat. Newspapers ad broadcast media, whether atioal or local, work to fairly short lead times, maybe a couple of weeks. Natioal magazies, especially the

34 30 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book big cosumer titles, work may moths i advace, so for example if Cosmo or Red were goig to ru a feature o your book i their Christmas editio, they d eed to see a copy or perhaps just proofs if you re lucky sometime i July. That obviously causes you a logistical issue. Do you prit advace copies for them aloe ad delay actual publicatio by four moths? It s tricky good atioal coverage is difficult to come by so if you were to get serious iterest from a big title you may have to cosider lauchig to suit them. The issue here is that they are highly ulikely to feature a book that has already bee out i the market for four moths, as they wat cuttig edge, ot yesterday s, ews. You will be fudig this activity with physical books ad there s a cost attached to that. Some big publishers sed out hudreds of review copies to the press (may appear o Amazo as used copies withi days of publicatio but that s aother story). Uless you have a ulimited budget, you eed to make a call o how may books to sed out. Your press release ca offer a review copy to be set separately. We d suggest that you oly sed a physical copy to the most obvious media. So, if it s a ovel, the sed it with the release to the media local to where you live as well as to ay other locatios metioed i the book or pertiet to you as the author. If it s more specialist the sed a physical copy to the leared jourals or trade magazies oly.

35 Marketig 31 A iexpesive way to reach a lot of jouralists ad bloggers at oce is to sed your press release as a ewswire release through the Press Associatio. Your release will be delivered directly ito the ewsrooms of every atioal ad major regioal ewspaper, ad every TV ad radio statio across the UK ad Irelad as well as over 100 govermet departmets. These releases are also see by thousads of freelace jouralists ad bloggers. The Press Associatio is difficult to cotact directly so i order to guaratee the distributio of your release you eed to cotact oe of their distributio parters such as PR Newswire ( PR Web (uk.prweb.com), Marketwire ( or Busiess Wire ( Media coverage Books of a specialist ature will usually be reviewed i the academic jourals (prit ad olie) ad as this is your field you re likely to kow which these are. Be aware that reviews through such publicatios ca take a log time (moths, if ot years) to appear so be patiet. Before you sed aythig make sure that they do ideed review books, the sed a press release, iitially by . You ca legitimately follow up o this by phoe or if you hear othig. Usually local media are the low hagig fruit o the publicity frot so do expect to start o BBC West

36 32 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Peterborough FM ad the Grimsby Fisherma s Herald. It may soud like slightly depressig activity but it is essetial work. You might well prefer a slot o The Oe Show or Adrew Marr, but everyoe s chasig that space. Put politely, it s ulikely you ll get atioal media so thik local ad appreciate what this ca brig you, at least iitially. You ca always cotact Mr Marr s office oce you ve made a splash locally. Thik about local agles for your book. There s a scee i it set i Presto Bus Statio? Well be prepared to discuss your coectio with that fie city with the Lacashire Eveig Post. For a first time author, local is usually a good way of geeratig coverage simply because everyoe everyoe chases the atioals. Ad here s a very simple but terribly importat piece of advice whe you do get ay iterview space. Metio the book by title as may times as you possibly ca. It may soud obvious but you d be amazed at how may authors, dazzled by the excitemet of beig o the 6 am Saturday slot o Radio Rhyl, forget to ram the title of their book dow their audiece s throat. I additio there are some very good self-publishig ad creative writig magazies out there that may be iterested

37 Marketig 33 i reviewig your book ad we d recommed you sed them a physical copy as well as the release. Similarly, the orga of the book trade (their descriptio ot ours), the Bookseller, does review forthcomig books but usually several moths i advace (as it is aimed at bookshop buyers plaig their stock). The Bookseller also rus advertisig-led supplemets o specific subjects. Puttig yourself about a bit We ve discussed a book lauch at your local bookshop or fire statio, but there are some other physical evets you ca thik about too. If you ve writte a childre s book, might the local school be prepared to let you come i ad do a readig? It s a great way of gettig your work out there i frot of your core audiece. You will obviously have to liaise with the school itself to arrage this for reasos of security. If you ve writte a busiess book, might the local Chamber of Commerce be iterested i a evet at which you talk (ad sell your book, of course!)? What about your local library (assumig it s ot bee closed dow ad sold to Starbucks as a result of govermet spedig cuts). Could you do a readig there?

38 34 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Social etworkig ad digital media Are you o Facebook or Twitter? If so start promotig your book a few moths prior to publicatio. If ot, set up a page for your book or yourself o Facebook ad ecourage as may people as possible to become fas. It is easy to do (trust us, eve we maaged) ad eve if you have ever maaged to get to grips with all that iteret osese your kids or youger frieds should be able to help you attract some umbers. Create a web page too ad thik what should go up there. Excerpts? Or perhaps the whole book? It may soud couter ituitive to give away somethig that is meat to geerate reveue but there s a huge amout of evidece to suggest that free e-cotet stimulates hard copy sales. Cosider blogs ad bloggig. If your book is about a specialist subject, say tuig ieteeth-cetury Latvia piaos or, yes, voles ad Vestal Virgis, there will probably be blogs o these subjects. Register ad blog about your book. If oe does t exist yet set it up. Lastly thik about how you ca use Amazo. You ca register as the author ad make commets to support your book page. What you ca t do of course is maipulate the Customer Reviews sectio by ecouragig everyoe you kow to register

39 Marketig 35 ad post fabulous reviews thus givig you a five star ratig. Why ot? Well, it s simply ot right, is it? No self-respectig publisher or author would ever demea themselves by such chicaery. Ever There are other powerful olie retailers out there too. Check out ad www. play.com to ame just two. The seal of approval Edorsemets, although ow arguably overused, ca still be very powerful especially for a first time ovelist who has o profile with readers. Do you kow ayoe vaguely famous whose ame may resoate with jouralists (ad readers, obviously)? If the aswer is yes to this questio ask for a quote ad splash that quote all over the book jacket (with the celeb s agreemet of course). If you re a academic, what about peer reviews they ca be very powerful (if positive, of course!). Sellig direct If you re lucky eough to be able to get to cosumers directly (for example through social etworkig, book evets ad your web site) that s great. You just eed to decide what you wat to do about discout for bulk copies, how to charge for postage ad packig ad also of course how you take paymet. Use the price the book appears

40 36 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book at o Amazo as a bechmark. Offer to persoalise the book by sigig it, too. Readers really do value that (ad remember first editios of Harry Potter ad the Philosopher s Stoe sell for thousads siged or usiged). You could cosider makig cotact directly with potetial cosumers by or telemarketig. If you re a ovelist or poet it s pretty hard, ay impossible, to idetify potetially iterested parties i this way. But if you ve writte a busiess or a local history book, the you ca research potetially iterested parties ad try them direct. Telesales is ot for the fait hearted but addresses ca be easy to access ad this ca prove a successful approach. Nothig vetured, othig gaied! Cash or cheque with order still just about works but you may wat to thik about a secure olie paymet system such as PayPal ( That is very easy to set up ad has the advatage of beig very secure. Book prizes ad literary festivals Do some research regardig prizes ad festivals. Are there ay book prizes you ca submit your work to? It s probably best to look for smaller specialist prizes ad leave the Booker to Mr Jacobso et al. But there are plety of other competitios out there so you should research them.

41 Marketig 37 Simply Google `literary prizes or `literary awards ad you ll get details o competitios, large ad small, to eter. There are several subject-specific prizes, for example i busiess, travel ad medicie, ad the beauty of the smaller prizes is that they are probably more ope to the idea of a self-published book wiig or at least beig properly cosidered. A quick trawl through Google will flag the competitios you should cosider goig for. You do t have to aim for Ediburgh or Chelteham whe cosiderig a festival. There are ow lots of smaller local oes phoe the orgaiser ad offer yourself up to do a readig ad to talk about the joys of self-publishig. Advertisig Advertisig i the atioal press is horribly expesive ad usually costs more tha it delivers i sales so uless you have a few thousad quid burig a hole i your pocket we d advise agaist it. Specialist or local press for a specialist or local-iterest book ca work, however, ad remember, classified adverts are relatively cheap ad for the right book (usually o fictio) ca be effective Thik too about advertisig your book with baer ads o appropriate web sites. This will work better for a specialist

42 38 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book book as you ll be able to lik the subject to Google search terms. To summarise, if you re serious about promotig your book you have to put the work i. People i the mai will ot fid you, you eed to fid them. Work hard, explore every aveue, always carry a copy of your book with you, or at least a attractively desiged iformatio sheet about it (you just ever kow who you ll bump ito who ca help) ad ever tur dow a opportuity to promote your work.

43 7. Literary agets Icreasigly authors use self-publishig to attract the attetio of literary agets who they hope will ultimately secure them a publishig deal with a maistream house. It ca prove a effective tactic. A literary aget should act as your metor, fried ad trusted parter lookig after every aspect of the commercial ad (if you re lucky) emotioal busiess of beig a author. A pretty full list of agets features i that fie tome The Writers ad Artists Yearbook. It s possible that your beautifully published book aloe will persuade a aget to sig you up ad kick-start your lifelog relatioship with HarperCollis. It s possible but ulikely. We d advise that you cotact agets a few moths after you ve published your book whe you ca wow them with sales figures, media coverage ad edorsemets from adorig readers throughout the lad. There s a lot of evidece from the US that maistream houses are lookig to sig successful self-published writers. The key word is successful achieve that iitial success ad fidig the right aget will follow.

44 8. Foreig laguage sales This kid of falls ito a similar category to literary agets. Iitially, as a ukow self-published writer it s ulikely that spedig time researchig ad the cotactig a large umber of foreig publishers is goig to be fruitful. Foreig laguage publishers look to buy rights to books that are already prove successes. Make the domestic sales ad the your foreig rights aget will be much better able to help you to sell iteratioally. Alteratively you ca go it aloe by cotactig publishers directly. If you do go dow that route the website for the Frakfurt Book Fair is a very good place to start as you ca search publishers by coutry ad subject area ad i a lot of cases make cotact direct. (But the truth is you re more likely to be successful abroad if you have a good aget represetig you.)

45 9. Checklist We re goig to fiish the guide with what we hope is a hady marketig checklist. Let us kow if it helps. Good luck! The package Sixtee per cet of people buy a book o the basis of the appeal of the cover aloe, so work hard to esure yours works. Look at comparable ad successful books i the market ad thik what has bee doe well through the overall desig. Do t copy, lear. Ad remember, if your book eeds a illustrated jacket, do t be tempted to try to cobble oe together yourself uless you re a traied desiger. Pay for somethig that looks professioal. Remember, you re a publisher ad a author. So thik about the ame of the publishig compay you re startig. You ca use your ow ame of course, but it s probably better to thik of somethig that suggests you re a publisher first ad a author secod. So thik of somethig that relates to the subject you re writig about. Esure that the desig, price ad format for your book are appropriate. Agai a little research o Amazo ca ad will go a log way.

46 42 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Use the desig elemets throughout all your marketig, from the press release through to the marketig material ad advertisig. Pre-publicatio promotio PR Make your AI powerful, well desiged ad persuasive. Get the AI out early. Wholesalers ad bookshops will all eed to be iformed about the title several moths i advace. Create a buzz. Talk up your book, tell people about it, show them the AI ad be as excited about it as possible. Excitemet is ifectious! Cosider advertisig with wholesalers if you have budget to spare ad your book eeds broader bookshop support. Usig the tools we ve supplied, create good marketig material ad sales collateral. The more professioal you look, the more you will be take seriously by everyoe, the book trade icluded. Hook the media from the outset. Have a iterestig headlie ad make the copy stad out. These days jouralists will take about 15 secods to look at a release so you have to egage with them quickly.

47 Checklist 43 Work paistakigly o your author biography util it is iterestig (assumig it is t already). Make sure that it tells the reader a story as well as expressig your subject expertise. Get quotes ad edorsemets for your book if at all possible. Whe targetig the media, do t focus exclusively o the maistream media. Most of the time small pieces i the papers are better tha bigger pieces. Sometimes big pieces of coverage give away too much iformatio ad give readers too may reasos ot to buy a book. If you ca possibly afford it cosider hirig a professioal PR to help you. Most publicity is built o relatioships with the press ad sometimes you eed to buy somebody s time to access those relatioships. Cosider presswire releases, which are a effective way to aouce a ew publicatio to a large audiece of jouralists ad bloggers. Do t be siffy about the local press. The chaces are it s the oly attetio you ll receive iitially so if the local radio wats you o the 5.30 morig slot the go ad do it with good grace.

48 44 Guerrilla tactics for marketig ad sellig your book Web Buy a domai ame ad create a simple but well desiged website or blog. Add extras like audio dowloads, competitios, extracts ad reviews if you have ay. Submit your URL to the search egies ad cosider search egie optimisatio techiques. Select key words ad make sure that they are embedded i your meta tags. You may eed to ask someoe uder 30 what this meas or buy a copy of Get ito Bed with Google (published by Ifiite Ideas, icidetally). Use social etworkig tools (Facebook etc.) to help your web site or blog throughout olie commuities. Remember that olie marketig takes time. A log tail approach requires patiece, cosistecy ad persistece. Cosider cross-promotioal opportuities icludig affiliate liks, cotet sharig ad RSS feeds (better ask a 16-year-old about this part). Use media such as YouTube. You ca upload a video describig your book for othig. Participate i discussio boards ad blogs. Cosider promotioal freebies. Give free PDF versios of your book to review websites ad bloggers.