New here - need advice on marketing

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chimkris

Hi all, it is nice to be here. I found this site while browsing the web and have found it informative so far. Here is where I am at. I spent all last summer and fall putting my book together. I had already done the content in the prior years. I learned how to use InDesign and layed out the book. I designed the cover. I edited the book and made a trial run of 30 copies. I sent those to family and friends who critiqued it. Then I went through a good size overhaul, found all the spelling errors and printed the final version. I had 500 copies printed. I've sold about 100 or so and given away another 30 or so to family, friends and some businesses. I am stuck now. I have it on Amazon, I have it on my own website. I sent it to Borders and was ignored.

Any ideas about what to do now. What it seems I need now, is a marketing company. Is a publisher the way to go? Though, the book is already done, so not sure if that is even viable. Is there a marketing company that knows books?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
 

ResearchGuy

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. . .
Any ideas about what to do now. . . .
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
A few comments, one useless at this point (but for future reference) and others possibly useful.

1. Self-publishers must develop a marketing plan BEFORE having the book printed. Too late for that in this case . . . but next time . . .

2. Depending on the nature of the book and your skills and interests as a speaker, perhaps you can present talks on a related subject and offer the book for sale at those events. Depending on the type of book, it might be something that could be offered in a package deal: $xx.00 for a seminar that includes a copy of the book.

3. Do you have opportunities to write articles for local newspapers or for newsletters or other outlets? If so, an "about the author" note could mention the book and how to buy it.

For the next time, you might want to study Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual -- or consider doing the whole query-proposal-submission cha-cha with agents or publishers. For that matter, you might be able to use feedback on the current book to revise into a better book, and do the query-proposal-submission cha-cha with it. Who knows, a good agent might be able to work the self-publishing background into a positive. Dunno. Maybe worth some thought.

Good luck.

--Ken
 

Lauri B

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Hi all, it is nice to be here. I found this site while browsing the web and have found it informative so far. Here is where I am at. I spent all last summer and fall putting my book together. I had already done the content in the prior years. I learned how to use InDesign and layed out the book. I designed the cover. I edited the book and made a trial run of 30 copies. I sent those to family and friends who critiqued it. Then I went through a good size overhaul, found all the spelling errors and printed the final version. I had 500 copies printed. I've sold about 100 or so and given away another 30 or so to family, friends and some businesses. I am stuck now. I have it on Amazon, I have it on my own website. I sent it to Borders and was ignored.

Any ideas about what to do now. What it seems I need now, is a marketing company. Is a publisher the way to go? Though, the book is already done, so not sure if that is even viable. Is there a marketing company that knows books?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Hi there,
Welcome to AW!
Okay, so you have 350 books you need to sell, right? I don't know if your book is fiction or nf, but I'm going to assume it's nonfiction. Do you have a means of promoting your book through your profession? Is your area of professional expertise related to the book's topic? If so, you can attend trade shows, conferences, conventions, etc., as an expert in your line of work and promote your book onsite.

Have you done any promotions to your target audience? For example, if your book was a business book for jewelers, you'd obviously research that market and try to pitch trade publications for reviews or excerpts. Find out what the trade publications for your market are, and offer these pubs review copies of your book with a free excerpt, especially if the excerpt is an immediately useful one for the reader (i.e. a checklist of what to look for when buying a used computer or whatever).

I'm assuming that you wanted not only to sell the 500 original books you printed, but to sell far more than this. Unless you have some sort of distribution plan, you won't be able to sell through to bookstores. Self publishers have a notoriously hard time selling into the chains, although most independents are pretty nice about taking copies as long as the books are returnable.

Ingram (a book wholesaler) has recently started a sales/distribution program for small and self-publishers which you may want to look into.

I hope these quick hints help--good luck!
 

Talia

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Basically read everything you can find on "platform" and that will tell you how to sell the book. It includes online presence and speaking engagements, tapping into other people's mailing lists etc
 
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