One of the things that has bothered me since I started my journey of being a writer and author is how to market my book to an audience when I’m virtually unknown. Beyond my small hometown and my circle of friends, coworkers and family, whom I have told about my book, how do I get it out there?
There are lots of ways that people use. Before I try any or a million things, I’m one of those people who likes to do my research and concentrate my efforts in ways that I think have the best chances of working. So I’ve read dozens of articles and web sites online that tell you what you can do, and I’ve picked up David Meerman Scott‘s newest edition of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” as an e-book.
I’m hoping that I can go through this book in the next couple weeks and find some new ideas and ways that I can market myself as an author and my books in the future, taking from the many examples he has in the book of the ways companies, small businesses and others have used marketing and pr efforts online and through social media to accomplish their goals and be heard. (After all, being an author is basically being a small business owner.) As part of that, I will have a few posts that will share what I think of those examples and the possibilities they might have for an author publicizing their novels. Hopefully you’ll find them interesting and useful.
One of the first things I pulled from the book (I’m about 14 percent of the way through, currently) was to avoid doing what traditional marketing does – targeting the masses – and instead focus on your niche audience. As an author, your basic niche audience are those that read books. What kind of a book is it? Fiction or nonfiction? What genre? Answer those questions, and you’ve got your niche audience. Your content (and having good content that people could possibly be interested in) should be targeted at that particular audience.
What should your content be, then? Well, I can tell you what it shouldn’t be: a direct sales pitch. No “Buy my book! Please buy my book! My book is the greatest!” Those turn people off right away. I know I don’t even look at any content that is just a sales pitch. You have to make readers like you first, respect you, see you as an authority or at least as a real person, before you can start to interest them in your book.
I’ll have more as I delve farther into Scott’s book.
Side note: we’re about halfway through #NaNoWriMo! I’m not quite where I should be, but I’ve made a promise to myself that I would get there by November 30. I intend to keep that promise. How is it going for you?
I'm a lover of writing and books. I graduated from South Dakota State with a master's degree in communications in 2011, the same year I was first published. I'm a wife and mom, and I work in content and digital marketing in South Dakota.
Me and my writing life 
Hi Brittany, Thanks for reading my book. I hope it proves helpful.
I was an unknown author myself a decade ago and I have used the ideas in the book to market my own work. I’ve sold close to a million books in over 25 languages to date.
Basically,, don’t focus on bookstores nor mainstream reviews. Instead target bloggers, forums, and readers directly.
Good luck, David
[…] reading David Meerman Scott‘s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. As I said in November, I am going to post a few different posts about what I learned from reading it and how what I […]
[…] experience reading David Meerman Scott‘s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. As I said in November, I am going to post a few different posts about what I learned from reading it and how what I […]