The first time I had the need to research book marketing for myself, a publisher told me to purchase 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer. I immediately purchased a copy of the book and have been referring to it ever since—and telling other authors to do the same. So, when I contacted John to ask if he would be willing to participate as a WNFiN guest blogger this year and he said, “yes,” I was thrilled.
Today, John takes us farther into the world of book marketing. Don’t’ cringe, though, or click through to a different blog post or website. If you want to become a successfully published author, you need to learn how to become a book marketer. Plus, once you understand what this job entails, it won’t feel so difficult or uncomfortable. After all, even writers have relationships…
Marketing Nonfiction Begins with Creating Relationships
By John Kremer
The essence of marketing is very simple. It comes down to one thing: creating relationships. And that, in turn, can be broken down further to simply making friends. If you can do that, you will be successful as a book marketer.
I know many authors who only want to spend time in the garret writing their great American novel or the self-help book that will change people’s lives. And, personally, that’s what I enjoy doing most.
But, as an author, you can’t hide away. You must engage people. You must get involved. You must interact. That’s how you build an audience and create true fans.
The two most effective ways to create relationships in today’s book world are to speak and to build an audience online.
If you haven’t spoken in front of an audience before, the best way to start is by working with local bookstores, libraries or groups. Begin by speaking in front of small groups so you can develop a comfortable speaking style and have time to write one or two talks you can present regularly. Start with short talks (a half hour or less). In time, you’ll come to love speaking in front of larger and larger groups.
The great thing about speaking is that once people hear you speak (and like your talk), they become bigger fans than they would have been simply by reading your book. That means they will tell more people about you and your book.
Speaking also gives you a great opportunity to interact with your readers, to find out whether or not your book meets their needs or answers their questions. Indeed, their questions could easily help you develop a new edition or even write a completely new book.
In the second part of this blog (which will post tomorrow), I’ll describe a few of the actions you can take to build relationships online.
About the Author
Book marketing expert John Kremer is the owner of Open Horizons. He is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, The Complete Direct Marketing Sourcebook, High-Impact Marketing on a Low-Impact Budget, Do-It-Yourself Book Publicity Kit, and Celebrate Today.
As a book marketing consultant, his clients include a self-published author who has sold over two million books, a new age publisher with 60 titles, and a $100 million publisher with a rapidly growing list of 1,000 titles.
John Kremer, President
Open Horizons
P O Box 2887
Taos, NM, 87571
575-751-3398
JohnKremer@BookMarket.com
http://www.bookmarket.com
http://www.TenMillionEyeballs.com
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