Each month, the Nonfiction Authors Association asks a burning publishing question of the industry’s best, brightest, and most innovative experts. Here’s what they have to say!
NFAA: What are some of your favorite strategies for marketing your book?
Stacy Fisher
I’ve used a number of different strategies to market my books, Uppward and The Self-Care Planner, but my two favorites include using videos and images. Being able to show readers how to use the planner has been an essential part of the sales process. By uploading videos to my website and other social media platforms, like YouTube and Facebook, I’ve been able to demonstrate the value of the planner in ways that words can’t quite describe on their own. I’ve also shared images that readers have submitted to offer additional social proof.
Stacy Fisher is a registered dietitian, coach, author, and founder of Living Upp, a lifestyle design company that uses an 8-dimensional self-care framework to help over-functioning women do what they’ve been secretly dreaming about before they run out of time. Her books Uppward and The Self-Care Planner offer guidance on how to create more ease, better health, and a little adventure. www.LivingUpp.com
David Hancock
Your enthusiasm for your ideas and your books, and your ability to communicate your passion, is essential to your success.
It’s been said that no man is a hero to his biographer. So regardless of how enthusiastic you are when you start to write a book, remaining passionate for as long as you want your book and the talks based on it to keep generating income may become a challenge.
The one and a half or two years from now that it will take your book idea to reach the bookstores is a long time, yet it’s only the beginning of the life of your book. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of publication and promotion. As difficult as it may be to guess how long your enthusiasm for a book will last, make a careful judgment before committing yourself to living with the book.
This is another reason to test-market your ideas by giving talks and writing articles. This will help you decide how much you enjoy writing and talking about your book, gauge the response your books will get, and establish your credentials with agents, editors, and book buyers.
If you are doing all you can to achieve your goals, you have a right to be optimistic. Assume that your career, like that of most writers, will continue to flourish over time. Assume every book you write will be better than the last, bringing you closer to reaching the critical mass of readers you need to break out and become as successful as you want to be.
To keep your publisher happy, you have to keep doing the following:
- Giving presentations around the country based on your books
- Using your speaking schedule to increase your national visibility in the media
- Building your stature in your field
- Making sure there is an uptick in the sales of every book you write
- Ensuring your past books continue to sell
To keep yourself happy, you need optimism to help sustain your enthusiasm and determination to bounce back from setbacks. You can’t allow the problems you will confront throughout your career to affect your positive outlook.
Optimism is contagious, and you want to infect everyone you meet with it. It’s been said that when we talk, only 7 percent of what we communicate is words. The other 93 percent is everything else about us, including tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, and clothing.
You want to exude optimism, so that when people think of you, they think of someone who loves life and lives it with hope and gusto. People would rather be around an optimist than a pessimist. That’s one of the reasons talk-show hosts will invite you back, and why the people in your networks will always be glad to hear from you. A bonus: Optimism is better for your health.
David Hancock is the founder of Morgan James Publishing and has co-authored sixteen books, including Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and The Entrepreneurial Author. NASDAQ cites David as one of the world’s most prestigious business leaders, and he is reported to be the future of publishing. David was selected for Fast Company Magazine’s Fast 50 for his leadership, creative thinking, significant accomplishments, and his significant impact on the industry over the next ten years.
Silvia Zsoldos
1) Reach out to experts who are likely to have use for the program
2) Radio and television interviews (I have a contract)
3) Use Chambers of Commerce for contacts
4) Use newspapers’ OP-ED for publicity
5) Have a basic presentation ready for delivery (I am a Toastmaster)
6) Testimonials
7) Always look for new opportunities and keep a log of what works
Silvia T. Zsoldos, Ph.D., DTM. President, Success Programs, Inc. www.successprograms inc.com
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Juana M. Ortiz
One of my greatest strategies for marketing I Made It! is talking with my family and friends. My second strategy is to post important details about the book on social media weekly. Finally, I send text messages and emails to all my contacts.
Juana M. Ortiz is the author of I Made It!, a personal memoir. In her book she share her struggles with cerebral palsy. I Made It!
W. Terry Whalin
Readers need to learn about your book over and over before they will actually purchase it. I have an active social media presence (over 200,000 followers on Twitter and over 13,900 on LinkedIN). I say something about my Billy Graham biography every day on social—but I promote it differently. I’ve done over 50 radio interviews on this book and then saved the audios on my website then they never disappear). I continue to promote interviews that may have happened months ago. I appeared on In the Marketplace with Janet Parshall (simultaneously on 700 stations) and promote this appearance at: https://terrylinks.com/jparshall I use different images and different links to get multiple views.
A second strategy I recommend would be using book trailers. In the last four years, my book trailer on Billy Graham has been viewed over 11,000 times. http://bit.ly/2FEqV0r Notice this trailer is short yet punchy. I worked with Misty Taggart at Trailer to the Stars to make it and she is a former Hollywood screenwriter who knows how to grab readers. It is not something made from Fiverr but something with a lot of thought and energy put into it which pays off (another lesson for each of us).
W. Terry Whalin is the author of more than 60 books and is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing http://www.terrywhalin.com). He has over 200,000 Twitter followers http://twitter.com/terrywhalin. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist. You can learn more details at: https://BillyGrahamBio.com
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