Marketing Intro

Made my first posting on the Pentalk Blog this morning. It's on Marketing your book.  Take a look if you like. Click here.

Repost from Pentalk......

You've worked hard on your story and it's finally coming to an end. For most of us we're succumbed by bittersweet emotions. Part of us happy the story has been told and part of us sad that it about finished. Writing the book is fun, laborious and tedious. It takes a lot of time, stress and most of all dedication. I hope you enjoyed the ride because your work has just begun.

"So, what do you do now?" Well hopefully you have already started marketing. If you have other books, then your marketing strategy should not have ended when the new book began, but should have simply rolled over into the new book even before you start writing it. It's never too early to start building up hype and letting your followers and readers know what you are up to, how it's coming along, and the joys and the struggles you’re having throughout the process. If you involve your followers/readers in part of the process, even if it's just responding to their comments, their more likely going to want to see and/or buy the final result.

"I believe in the book business you don't
just market your book, you market yourself."

There are many reasons why people buy and read books and it’s not just for the story, although a good story will help bring your readers back. One of the reasons why people buy books is because at one point in time they found you, the author, to be interesting. They'll want to know more about you, and they know there are pieces of you in every story you write. You maybe written clearly in the message or subliminally hidden within, and sometimes you are simply hidden in between the lines.

This is why it's so important now days to be involved in as many social media platforms as you possibly can, and there are plenty of them out there to choose from. Make sure you start with Facebook and Twitter, two of the best and they work hand in hand pretty well. Try and take advantage of all the free advertising opportunities that the World Wide Web (WWW) has to offer. In the past to be successful you had to advertise. Which meant huge advertising budgets. Not anymore. The Internet makes it an equal battlefield for competing against the big shots and best of all it can be FREE. Did I say battlefield? Maybe that’s not the best choice of words. I believe there is room for all writers and every book written and we all should help spread the word about each other’s books and successes. Word-of-mouth advertising is still the number one way to advertise and the Internet makes it so easy to tell thousands of people about you and your story with just a single post. Tell them who you are and what you're up to. They will eventually respond.

I will go into this and a whole lot more in greater detail in future posts. In the mean time go out and make friends, gather some followers, and create some hype. Remember, no one will sell more books than the author.

Believe in yourself and believe in your work.

Dan Waltz
Editor, Marketing/Resources