ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
How to Schedule a Book Signing
How would you like to sell more copies of your book? Would you like to read excerpts from your book to a captivated audience? Book signings are the cornerstone of an author's post-publication foundation. But how do you set them up? Organizing book signings, readings, and public appearances is one of the most important parts of a successful marketing campaign. A book signing or reading is a bookstore event that features you and your latest book. This is your opportunity to meet potential buyers face to face. Plus it adds a personal touch to your promotion efforts. Many customers may feel more motivated to purchase a copy of your book if they hear it explained or read from your point of view. And the opportunity to get a copy signed by the author doesn't hurt, either! Independent book stores and larger chain retailers both organize book signings. Your chances for finalizing an appearance are greater with the independents. They have to compete with larger chains and are therefore more willing to support local authors. In order to pinpoint potential book stores, check your local newspapers or see if book retailers in your area offer a "calendar of events" or post upcoming events on a public bulletin board. By asking around for the owner of the store or the communications manager you can typically find the appropriate person with whom to discuss your event. In many cases, both the large and small retailers will have their events planned weeks or even months in advance. Plan early. When you have a list of people and/or stores you plan on contacting, prepare your pitch. Have a small script that outlines what your book is about and why people would be interested in meeting you or reading the book. The store manager or PR person will most likely ask. If your subject matter is timely, all the better! Remember, this is the point during which the store manager or book buyer will be screening your presentation skills, either over the phone or in person. If they are not captivated by your presentation, they will have very little faith in your ability to captivate a crowd. Be extroverted and dynamic. It also helps to be concise. Understand that these are busy people. You want to sell them on your event fast. Have your press release and/or sell sheet ready. It's helpful in case they ask for a copy or if they ask about specific information about the book. They may want to know the retail price, the retail margin, and the ISBN number immediately so they can order a review copy themselves prior to deciding. Advise them of the publication date after which they can order the book wholesale through the Ingram or Baker & Taylor databases, or retail from your own webpage address. Provide them with your URL. They might be impressed enough by your initial marketing initiatives to go forward with the book signing. Offer to help them with promotion. Especially if you're targeting smaller book stores, they will be more interested in offering to host an event if they know you will be absorbing some of the burden of marketing it. Tell them all your friends and family will be attending the event (and then make sure to invite your friends and family!), and if it's within the scope of your marketing budget, offer to advertise in the local paper at your expense. Remember, the easier it is for the book store, the more likely they'll say yes. Follow-up with prospective book stores who have not confirmed dates. Selling yourself and your book is a number's game, and as any salesperson will tell you, the amount of contact is directly proportionate to the amount of sales. So be persistent without being annoying. If, after three or four unsuccessful attempts with a particular store or person, move on to another prospect. Brent Sampson is the President & CEO of Outskirts Press Publishing at OutskirtsPress.com and author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Information at http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Why Write Articles to Promote your Book? Reach 15,000 to 100,000 targeted buyers every week Online. That's the best reason I know to write and submit how-to articles to opt-in ezines and top web sites. get more book sales.Now, that's real exposure! And it's totally targeted because these people visit sites and subscribe to ezines who feature your topics of expertise. Your coach now has over 105 articles circulating and these have brought her over one-third her monthly income. Book Signings Are Pure Gold So you've written a book, had it published by a publishing company and you are now facing the dreaded book signing or book launch. Your palms sweat at the thought of facing droves of people and actually having to talk to them. You are a writer, not a salesperson, right? Wrong! If you do not have the guts and determination to sell your own work, then why should anyone else do it for you? Successful Book Marketing The Natural Way - Part 2 Is your mind muddy on book marketing? Do you wake up each day and say, "I'm not a social person and I hate to beat the drum for my book" or "I just wish someone else could market my book for me"? Colour and Book Covers - What You Should Know if Youre Self-Publishing Color is tricky at the best of times. If you want exact color management (such as a particular shade of blue for a university logo) you really should use something called spot color. Spot colors are specially mixed ink colors. Like the paint you purchase for your walls, the spot colors, or PMS colors (PMS stands for Pantone Matching System), are mixed according to pre-determined recipes. Each color in the PMS spectrum has an assigned number. When a client picks a number, the ink is mixed according to that recipe. It's usually more expensive than process color printing. Discover 3 Easy Ways to Promote Your Articles Are you using these methods to promote your articles? Sell More Books on Amazon.com Why Should Your Book Be on Amazon.com? Credibility. If your book is important, it should be available at the world's biggest book store. Extend Your Books Life With a Sales Letter Authors, publishers and business owners are great at getting their books written and launched. But after the initial one-year honeymoon, sales slow down. To counter this, make sure to let your audience know about your book's benefits and how it can help them in their lives. Keep your book alive and selling well for years when you write a sales letter. Book Marketing 101 - Setting up Author Events and Book Signings -- Get the Most from Book Publicity We all have at one time or another had the fantasy of our books being absolutely indispensable to readers - and that our genius is immediately recognizable even without the benefit of creating awareness or self-promotion. Well, for some very famous authors this may be true - but then again, publishers still spend millions of dollars promoting even the greatest writers' books. Having your book recognized for the high quality endeavor that it is, and selling some in the process, really is ALL about an awareness of both you as an author and your book. One of the hard truths of the self-publishing industry is that authors must work diligently to create a market for their books - and all without the multi-million dollar budgets of the big publishers. 28 Reasons Why Publishers Will Buy Your Book Editors will buy a book for one or more of the following reasons. By knowing what these reasons are, you can then design a marketing plan with those features in mind. The Bible Of Self Publishing Any book that is in its 14th edition must be doing something right. Such is the case with author Dan Poynter`s, The Self-Publishing Manual: How To Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book. Five Secrets of Winning Book Proposals Working in the publishing industry comes with a high expectation, especially from complete strangers. After the causal 'hello' progresses to 'what do you do,' and my answer is 'I am a publisher,' the words, like fairy dust, work magic; and in the eyes of my conversation partner, I'm transformed into a glamorous Advice Goddess-would I mind reading this stranger's book proposal? Increase Book Sales: When a Sale Is No Longer Just a Sale Do you have books sitting in your garage that you haven'tsold yet and looking for ways to move them? Then you willwant to know about these five outrageous ideas that aren'tdifficult and can be just plain out fun. Know These Five Audiences to Write a Top Selling Book To create a saleable book you need to know your preferred audience or audiences before you write your book. This essential "hot-selling point" helps you write focused, organized, and compelling copy your audience will appreciate and talk about. You, Your Book and the Internet! Authors, especially self published, small press and Print on Demand authors should understand the power of the Internet when promoting a book. There is POWER in cyberspace authors and it's only getting bigger and better. More users will be online buying books next year than this year. More people are buying books today online than they were yesterday. Writers: The Truth About Advertising, Publicity, and PR Many of us are trying to do business and don't know how to define these words. We read articles and think, this could have just as easily been about me! We wonder why the reporter picked that person instead. We wonder how someone got into magazines and onto radio shows. We attribute big successes with an expensive publicist. We are not sure what a publicist does but since the guy on Entourage has one, they must be a good thing. Some of use have publicist and secretly wonder why they can't get us on the Today Show or Good Morning America. We have written books and wonder why we are not on the Oprah book club/ How Many Ways Can You License Your Tips Booklet? You've been thinking about writing a tips booklet. After all, it's shorter, faster, and easier than writing an entire book. A single tips booklet manuscript can be recycled over and over again, developing a new income stream with each deal you make. The booklet can be distilled from a book you've already written, a newsletter you distribute, or from sound bites you continually share with clients, audiences and anyone who will listen. How to Grab the No.2 Spot on Amazon for Advance Book Sales When my first book was published way back ten years ago, I thought that was it. Sell Your Book with Pennies Is Traditional Book Marketing Getting you Down? "Are you disappointed and tired of time and money down the drain using traditional book marketing? How would you like to sell more books than you ever dreamed of in less time and never have to leave your office?" Would you like to do it all for free? 8 Ways to Find Good Reviewers for Your New Book Review Your Reviewer: You will be sorry if you do not take the time to get a pretty good picture of your reviewer. Use e-mail, snail mail or anything else you've got to pop a few questions to your reviewer. If the review is on radio or TV place a few phone calls in advance. Why? You must get a fix on your reviewer's position and general inclination. If your writing is in religion, check the doctrinal position of the reviewer. A Pentecostal book is bound to come up short in a conservative catholic review. If your book is written with a conservative political bent, it will not do well under the scrutiny of a liberal democrat. You must check out every aspect of the reviewer's mindset that you can by any means you can. If you disregard this advice you will suffer for it.
|
|
|
|
|
