- Book marketing is a massive subject and many authors
are doing book marketing that doesn't get results.
There's a simple fix for a lot of authors.
So, if you're doing book marketing
and you wanna avoid the mistake that messes many authors up,
then this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey, there I'm Julie, the Book Broad founder
of Book Launchers, a fabulous self-publishing services firm
where you're getting the service of a publisher,
but you're the CEO and control the content
keep all rights and all royalties.
One of the big things with our service is providing
marketing strategy and marketing tactical execution.
And in doing that, and in speaking with a lot of authors
who need help, I can tell you one of the big challenges
authors face is matching their marketing tactics
with their marketing strategy.
Many authors are doing the all important work
of brand and platform building.
They're getting on podcasts.
They're doing outreach to get speaking gigs.
They're connecting with reviewers.
All of these tactics are vitally important
in the long run for your book and your brand's success.
If you're like most nonfiction authors,
you are writing the book with a bigger purpose
than just book sales.
At least, let's be real, I hope your singular goal
isn't to make a living off one book.
There are very few authors that generate most
of their income from one book.
(laughing)
Even the ones that have written many books,
they are almost always making money in other ways,
whether it's from the sale of rights in other formats,
consulting, coaching, writing books for other people,
and so many other ways.
Well, I am sure there are the odd unicorns out there
(horse neighing) that have done it.
For almost every non-fiction author and even fiction,
one book is not going to generate an income
that you can live comfortably off of year after year.
So, the first thing you need to do is get clear
on the strategic goal you've got,
and then you wanna get clear on the metrics
you'll use to measure that goal,
and then the tactics you'll use to achieve that goal.
Let's use the very common goal of starting
or expanding a speaking business from a book.
The goal, right here, is speaking gigs.
Sure, the more books you sell,
the more likely you'll uncover speaking gigs,
but if the goal is speaking gigs,
you need to use the book to get those gigs.
What does that mean?
Well, first your number one metric
shouldn't be book sales.
It's booked gigs, or even before that,
you should be measuring number of speaking proposals sent,
or number of exposures to people who can book speakers.
Do you see how that's a different metric than book sales?
What you measure matters because if I'm measuring exposures,
speaking proposals, and booked gigs, my tactics
and efforts are going to be put more towards using my book
to get those numbers up versus focusing on book sales.
In other words, I'm going to be looking for podcasts
that focus on the problem I'm solving
or the audience I'm helping,
but I'm also going to be looking for associations
or groups to speak locally or virtually in front of,
possibly using a chapter from your book
that may open up that opportunity.
I'm gonna be looking around for conferences
that have breakout room speakers,
and I'm going to be using the content in my book
as opportunities to speak and credibility for my proposals.
If I'm an established speaker,
I'm using the book as a reason to reach out to places
that have booked me in the past.
I'm refreshing my speaking materials with the book.
I'm contacting places that paid me in the past
with an offer to get a copy of my book
for everyone in their organization or at their event,
in exchange for webinar or Zoom training.
I'm mailing copies of my book to people I've worked
with in the past with a short note.
Book sales can get you the speaking engagements you want,
but if you aren't doing all these things,
you're leaving it up to luck.
Now, if you're focused on book sales,
you are more interested in making sure the metadata
is on point to drive success with Amazon ads
and BookBub ads.
You are pursuing promotional opportunities in ebook sales.
Most authors need a combination approach where
you're doing marketing tactics that drive towards
the most important result, build your brand
and your audience and doing some tactical work
to drive some sales to your book.
Ultimately, you need your book to have reviews,
and you need as many people as possible
to know your book exists in order to achieve
overall success, so sales do give you some indicator
of how these tactics are performing, as do reviews.
But here's where I find a lot of authors get frustrated.
They don't have an audience or a platform
and they need to build that.
And so, they're doing all the things they need to do
to build the brand and the platform.
They are creating consistent content
and putting it into the world.
They're getting in front of other audiences
with articles, video, audio interviews, newsletter swaps,
and they're networking as much as they can,
but they're watching book sales,
wondering why the needle is only moving slowly each month.
Measure the thing that matters the most
and focus on the tactics that will move the needle
on those things.
For most non-fiction authors book sales are a bonus.
What matters are reviews, new clients, new leads,
influencer connections, opportunity to get in front
of other audiences through media, speaking,
podcast interviews, articles, platform growth,
whether that is your email list,
your social media or more.
Do a variety of things.
Drive sales to your book, but measure success
on what's going to matter the most in two to five years.
When books launch to a large boom,
it's almost always because of five to 10 years
of audience building before that happened,
before the book launch.
When you haven't done that,
you're using the book to build it.
Having the book is a bit of a shortcut,
but don't mistake a shortcut with instant.
The authors that launch (rocket taking off)
a book with a specific goal,
need to invest in making that something,
that specific goal happen,
and matching the marketing tactics with that goal.
That's the key to success.
What tactics are you using to achieve
your marketing strategy goal?
Let's chat about that
in the comments below. (bell rings)
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet, hashtag,
no boring book swag.
Now, you might be thinking, okay, Julie,
but I really do want book sales.
So what do I do?
Well, how about an ebook promotion?
Well, this video right here will help you do that,
and if you're thinking, okay, this is great for post-launch,
but my book hasn't launched yet,
so what is my pre-launch strategy?
Well, I've got a video for you on that over here.
Either way, I would be absolutely delighted
to spend more time with you.
So. go ahead and click on over to the next video you need.