Hi everyone!
Pamela S. Meyers here with my monthly post about marketing
your books.
I feel like I’ve been in the school of hard knocks for most
of the summer as I’ve worked steadily on marketing my book “in the field.” I’ve
seen some really great results and some not-so-great. But that’s okay. I’m
learning.
Earlier this summer a marketing book by Rob Eager called Sell Your Book like Wildfire was
recommended to me. It’s been sitting on my shelf for at least four months now.
High time I opened it!
Last week I read the first chapter and already I’ve been
saturated with new knowledge!
How many times are we asked when we meet someone new,
“What’s your book about?” I don’t know about you, but when I’m asked the
question, I give them what amounts to the back-of-the-book blurb, seasoned with
additional information like I was raised in my hometown where the story is set
and I’ve had really great reviews.
I learned from Mr. Eager that I should approach this
question differently. He suggests that when a potential reader asks that
question, they are really asking, “What’s in your book for me? What am I going
to get out of it if I buy it?”
My first thought was that for a non-fiction author that’s an
easy question to answer, but what about fiction? He doesn’t leave novelists out
and says we can tell them how seeing the book’s characters overcome difficult
problems in the story, the reader will be helped when facing life’s similar
challenges. (See page 12 if you have the book).
My next task is to take my book and analyze what takeaways I
can bring to the conversation to create an emotional desire to buy the book and
read it. Most fiction writers are familiar with the Goal-Motivation-Conflict
plotting device in developing characterizations and that’s what I’m going to
use as a catalyst to come up with my answer to that question, “What’s your book
about?”
What about you? How do you answer the question? Or more
importantly, how will you answer that question in the future?
Author note: I wrote this last week and in reviewing the
post this morning before publishing it to the blog, I was struck that I didn’t
practice what I wrote. Over the weekend I was in a situation where I had to say
more than once what my book was about, and I forgot all about what I learned
last week. What good is any writing craft or marketing book if you don’t apply
it? I learned two lessons.
- Address a need for the
reader that will be satisfied when they read your book. - Apply all the tips and
lessons you learn about marketing and promotion. Don’t just read them and
file them away in the recesses of your brain!
You can purchase Sell Your Book Like Wildfire at your
favorite bookstore or your favorite online store such as Amazon http://tinyurl.com/lpefy3l
or B&N http://tinyurl.com/n328ybk
I was not given this book by the publisher for review. After
one chapter I know that I’m going to read it from cover to cover!
A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin,
author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago, an hour's drive away
from her hometown which she visits often to dig into its historical
legacy. Her novels include Thyme for Love, and Love Will Find a Way,
contemporary romantic mysteries and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake
Geneva,Wisconsin, released in April, 2013. She can often be found
speaking at events around Lake Geneva or nosing in microfilms and
historical records about Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new
story ideas.
