Marketing Your Book

                Congratulations! You have finally finished your book and it has been published. The next step in seeing sales in your book is marketing it. The first step you will have to do is come up with a plan.

                Your plan should outline how you plan on selling your book. It should be the guideline as to where you want to go with your books. Your marketing plan should answer some questions. You have to ask who the audience of the book is. Why do you feel it is important the people read this book? What makes your book so different from the others in the same genre? What made you qualified to write the book? How are you to go about promoting the book? How much money do you want to spend marketing your book? Your answers to these questions will tell you just how hard you are willing to work for your book. There are things you can do to ensure your book sells.

                Using your personal network is the first thing you can do. You have to make sure everyone in your personal network knows that you have a book coming out. Encourage them to tell everyone in their personal network. Take the time to use social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, or Goggle +. Make up business cards and hand them out to people you meet. You can even give out a few extras to those people, so they are able to spread the word. Using word of mouth can be very effective and is one of the most inexpensive ways to market your book.

                You have to get your book onto the bookstore shelves. When you are a new author, this is a hard task. The spots that are on the shelves are generally there for the author’s who have a proven track record. You will have to show the bookstore a record of sales and a marketing plan that you plan on using to move the books off the shelves. There are a few ways you can get your book onto book shelves. Go to your local bookstore and talk to the buyer of the books. There are many stores that have a local author section and will be willing to carry your book just base on that. Make sure that your book is returnable and is sold at the standard bookstore discount. These are the magic words to bookstore buyers. You can also apply the bookstore’s acquisition department directly to ask if they are willing to carry your book. The criteria may be different from bookstore to bookstore. You will need to provide the department with all the information they will need to make their decision.

                Plan on having book signings, seminars, and talks, these three things are great for you to sell your books. There is no one who knows your book better than you do. Having a seminar about your book will give you the opportunity to sell it to potential readers. If you are going to opt for a book signing, then you will need to speak to the community relations manager. You will both need to come to a decision as to when and where you have it. The bookstore will be interested in holding the event, because they believe that it will bring customers into the store. You will need to be sure to invite as many people as you can to the event.