1. Commitment to Marketing
–Unfortunately, simply having your book available on Amazon is not enough to inspire sales when there are millions of titles competing for the attention of readers. Books don’t sell without marketing. Book marketing requires consistent, on-going effort. Successful authors do something every day to promote their books.
2. Willing to Invest – I see a lot of new authors trying to cut corners. They look for “the best deal” on book production services, attempt to bootstrap their marketing efforts, and end up wondering what went wrong. If you’re self-publishing your book, it is essential that you invest in professional editing—not a cousin or a friend who is willing to help. The fact is that we do judge books by their covers, so your cover design should be award-worthy. Your book should look like it just came off the press of a major publishing house, and then you need to be willing to invest in marketing. Trust me; successful authors don’t just get lucky. They make a financial commitment and do the work.
3. Dedicate Time – The reality is that most authors have day jobs, yet there can be plenty of excuses for not having time to promote books. Successful authors make time to support their books or they hire the right people to do it for them.
4. Pursue Media Coverage – Getting noticed by the press builds credibility and helps you sell books. Successful authors pursue media by hiring publicists, sending out news releases, and being news-worthy.
5. Leverage Technology – Successful authors blog and use social media. The fact is that these are some of the best ways to reach people in today’s technology-driven world. Stephen King used social media to build buzz around his ebook “Mile 81” by giving away copies to influential Twitter users. Wayne Dyer has an assistant who tweets out motivational quotes and event announcements. Jack Canfield has over 150k fans on his Facebook page. Social media helps you build an audience, and blogging drives web traffic. Even authors who have already had a tremendous level of success use these resources for maintaining momentum.
What can you do to step up your efforts and market your books like the successful authors do? We look forward to hearing about your success story!
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