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Finding Your Readers

March 31, 2009 by Kat Gautreaux, Account Manager
Selling books is, in the beginning, about building buzz for your book. Later on, as your book builds momentum, you won't have to work so hard to tell everyone about it. In the early stages, though, you need to get that elbow grease (or the scroll-y ball in your mouse) working for you.

Building buzz for you book means building up a network of people who are interested in you, your topic, and finally your book.

This is true for fiction and nonfiction.

It's more obvious with nonfiction because your book is specifically about a topic we can point to: bridges, bottles, sales, education, etc.

With fiction it's about the themes of your book.

Let's say your book is about keeping cockatiels as pets. Where do you begin finding people who might want to buy your book?

The easiest place to begin is online. It's fast, it's inexpensive, it never closes, and it doesn't require assembling people in a physical room at a particular time.

Using online opportunities like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter is the best way to find people who are talking about cockatiels.

You can do this by simple keyword searches: on Google, you can search cockatiels (and specify to only search blogs if you want), on Facebook you can search specifically for groups to join, and on Twitter, you can search at search.twitter.com for the phrase cockatiels.

As you find virtual sites that talk about cockatiels, begin joining in those conversations. As you grow relationships there, you can begin to say things like,

"in my book that I am just finishing, I talk about certain feeds that have shown to cause kidney trouble with them. I'd say, my advice, is to stick to low-fat seed-based diets."
Does it say to read your book? Nope. Is your book out yet? Nope. Did you offer valuable information to people who may in the future want to read your pending book and establish trust with them? You betcha! Did you leave room for more questions like, What kind of feeds can cause kidney trouble? Aha! Yes, you did, you wily commenter!

With all of these networking forays you want to establish certain things.
  • you are not ONLY trying to sell them something
  • you DO have something you might want to sell them
  • you HAVE the information they are interested in
  • you ARE TRUSTWORTHY and HELPFUL
  • you ARE AN AVAILABLE RESOURCE that has MORE TO SAY

There is nothing more irritating to a blogger, groups on Facebook, or those following you on Twitter than to be deluged with comments that are only aimed at selling something. You'll be blocked, unfriended, and removed from comments with a swift kick as a spammer.

So how do you go about selling them your book? You provide a link to your website or blog that has lots of information available on it about cockatiels. And there just happens to be a link on that website or blog about your book coming out soon. And you can even write stuff on that website or blog where you mention your personal excitement about your upcoming book release.

This accomplishes a few things:

  • establishes that you are an information source freely available
  • gives readers a chance to experience your writing style
  • gives readers a chance to be converted into book buyers without the hard sell
  • makes them feel like you are a cohort or friend

In the end you want to establish a report with interested communities that are using the web to discuss the topics you've written about. They will be a key ingredient to spreading the word about what you've said, your writings, and most importantly, your book when it happens to be for sale!

Tags: book sales, facebook, twitter, google, audience, social media, search
Filed Under: Marketing


Comments

Regarding the part about not just selling: testify. You don’t want to buy stuff from someone who does nothing but advertise at you, and neither does anyone else.<BR><BR>Besides, it’s more fun to spread the word by just talking to people.

                    posted on 3/31/2009 by Susan Wenger

Exactly. I mean, last night I was watching The Biggest Loser and they kept saying the brand names of all the products. Instead of it feeling like thoughtful tips, it felt like a hustle.<BR><BR>Your audience is sensitive to the sell. Information will lead them to your product.

                    posted on 4/1/2009 by KatG

I can see this totally for non-fiction where you are offering information. Can't quite fathom an equivalent with fiction. You can offer up themes as 'you might find this an interesting take', or 'you might be amused by', but it doesn't have the same authority as with factual stuff?

                    posted on 10/6/2009 by Sulci Collective

I think that's a good question there, Sulci Collective. Fiction is, overall, harder to market because your niche audience isn't always immediately obvious.

However, I think that a well-researched fiction novel will lend itself to the same kind of theme marketing. For example, a book about addiction, whether fiction or nonfiction, is going to have a similar audience. Reading about how a character overcomes addiction and the emotional story that goes with it can be just as powerful for people as a nonfiction book that explains how to deal with addiction.

I'm painting this with a huge pneumatic paint sprayer obviously, but a fiction book is often either plot-driven or character-driven. Both of these devices lend themselves to details that can help create a niche for your audience.

                    posted on 10/6/2009 by KatG


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