“I’m an author. How do I get my book out there?”
Cut up your credit card. Today, I’m speaking to you as “Product Manager – Emerging Authors”.
I’ve marketed and distributed financial products for some of the largest banks and retailers in Australia. I have no experience in the book business but I reckon I’ve got transferable skills & knowledge that can help you. You want to sell your book? Let’s break this problem down.
We’ll make a few assumptions that we can build upon over this series:
- You’re an emerging author
- You have not signed with a publisher
What problem are you trying to solve?
What problem? Don’t people just read books to read?
Consider this. When your reader picks up your book, what do they think and feel?
“I want a light hearted feel good summer read. I can see myself sipping a cocktail reading this by the pool…”
“I want to improve my networking skills. “Never Eat Alone”. Well, that sounds promising…”
“I can’t get enough science fiction stories but I’ve read all of Asimov and Clarke. Could this be the next best thing?”
Each of your readers brings a different problem (frame of mind, genre preference) that your product (book) solves. It’s actually a really interesting product because there is potentially infinite user stories. I’m not suggesting you need to solve for all of them, I’m making the point that you need to consider this before we start to build our product strategy out.
I’d encourage you to think about your book in terms of genre, length and style and think about what the top 2-3 reasons are that customers will choose YOUR book over the others on the shelf.
What’s your objective?
Your primary objective is to sell your product (book). Or is it?
Let me challenge that statement with this: your primary objective is to build your brand (that’s you, the author!).
You’ll start to see what I mean by this when we turn our attention to our marketing plan. For now, let’s keep things simple and focus on the objective you all care about: getting your book out there.
I’m happy to share my experience with you. Reach out to me on:
Ooh, this is interesting! I’m dipping my toes into self-publishing and know nothing about marketing, so you’re blog is very timely for me!
I’m so glad this post found my target reader! Thank you for your comment, that is great! You’re blog is already a good marketing tool – I loved your post where you made the story out of the crossword. I’ve also downloaded your short story, I’ll be sure to leave a review. Hopefully my next few posts can be helpful or inspirational to you. All the best!
Aw, thanks! Feedback is always good, even when it’s not (if that makes sense?).
I’ll also share your blog post on my social media. I’m sure other writers will find it just as useful!
that makes complete sense, totally hear you! it’s always important to get balanced feedback from as many sources as possible. I will do my book related posts over the weekend and I’ll let you know what I think – excited to read it and see what else you come up with.
thank you so much! I really appreciate your support and love that it can be helpful to people