Monday, August 4, 2014

Promoting: What NOT to do in promoting your book

We have talked recently about promoting your book; this topic included establishing websites or blogs in which you could enhance the visibility of your book. I think now it’s time to discuss about what not to do in terms of promoting.


You must realize that as an author, you have a different objective about your work than does the reader. An author can write for numerous reasons, they may consider it an expression of art, or emotions. Other authors may which to present an idea or concept to the public. Sometimes an author writes because they enjoy writing. Whatever your intentions of writing, once you are promoting it; you are now in the BUSINESS of selling your book.

A reader of your story is not in the same business as you are. A reader does not buy your book because they want you to make money. A reader of your story wants to be entertained by your story. You must remember this important fact when you stop being an author and begin as a pitchman.

When you start pitching your story to readers, you turn them away. Consumers get bombarded with ads every second of every day. Being transported away from this consumer world is one reason why people read. When you start asking and asking readers to buy your book, you alienate your reader, and it makes you look desperate.

There are many ways you can sell your novel to potential readers without appearing as needy. When you do pitch your work, you must remember the reader does not need to read your writing. Imagine you are a car salesman, when someone comes into the show room; they are usually in need of a car. If you own a grocery store, the customer is there to buy food, they need your product. Who needs to read a story? A book is for entertainment; it is not a necessity of life; it is a luxury.

Remember, you cannot hard pitch a potential reader as you were trying to sell a car or food. This is particularly true to the Internet; the potential reader has hundreds if not thousands, of other choices of books they can obtain, and these choices are just a click away on their keyboard.

When you promote your novel or speak about it, never, never seem like you are trying to get the reader to buy the book. If you constantly, saying “Buy my new book,” “I need sales”, you seem like a pushy salesman, and you will have a reader looking elsewhere to get their literary entertainment.

If we should not be pushy, how does an author sell their books? This is where a gentle and subtle hand, combined with some creativity will pay off.

In my last blog, I mentioned that you should remember this paragraph:

I will say that if you are an author, and you are self-promoting or not; you are never too busy to write. Continue writing other novels, or short stories. Writing can put you in an author’s mood; this frame of mind will assist you in the creativity part of promotion. It was during this time I had written “The Knight’s Last Stand” which was part of the Romantic Heroes anthology.

In this paragraph, I was making a point that you should continue writing, even when you are promoting your novel. Furthermore, notice that when I was discussing writing, I was also pitching my short story. I was not doing a hard sell about my short story; I did not say, go here and buy this book. I did, however, mention the name of my short story and the anthology it’s included in. If you were a fan of my blog, and was intrigued about my writing, you might look this anthology up. This is being subtle and creative in promoting your work without appearing as a salesman.


I am not saying, do NOT talk about your book and where to buy it; you should. I am suggesting you keep the peddling aspect of it down and include (gently) where or how the book can be purchased. Engage the reader about your book, keep them interested in it, and then tell them how to get it. If you have done the first part, engaging the reader, you will accomplish the 2nd and sell your book.

What I just stated is appropriate to individuals who are strangers; it is vital to your friends and family. If you start hawking your book to your friends and family, you will end up with no friends and family members which wished they weren’t.

We will be continuing this topic in the next couple blogs, but I did want to emphasize one more thing. Do not take your readers for granted; remember they are taking the time to buy your book. Nothing is more off putting than an arrogant author who ignores his readers.

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment. If you are interested in joining a mailing list, send an email.

Next Time: What to DO in promoting your book

19 comments:

  1. I am not a writer but I think your ideas also applies to blogging and that is not push your blog down someone's throat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting topic. It is hard to know how to generate interest in your book without appearing arrogant. I had a very long and successful career in sales and marketing, so I underestimated how difficult it would be to sell my book!! Part of that discomfort was that the product was not only of my own making, but my heart and soul. Second, where I felt my product in sales could benefit everyone I called on, that is not true for a book. Readers have specific tastes, even varied tastes...they could like genre, or even specific writing styles. You simply can't tailor your writing to meet every taste. It's a tough one...but a great tpoic for discussion:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gosh, this is a good post. I find the way that feels most natural for me to self-promote, is to write more about what is in the upcoming book. In my case with a book ready to be released, contractually I cannot just copy and paste, nor would I want to. What I find is that, there is always more to say about a particular topic covered! Thanks for confirmation, and some darn good tips.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I attended a seminar this winter about how to set up and manage portable displays for book promotion.The instructor suggested the book pitch you want to give to potential readers is 30 - 50 words (one sentence or two) relayed in 30 seconds or less that conveys the genre, who the protagonist is, what her or his goal is and why (reason/inciting incident), what the barrier is and an unclear wrap-up (the hook - i.e. Is he guilty? Does she dare to keep going?) Whether you have displays set up at events to promote/sell a book or not, having this pitch ready is a good way to tell people about your book when they ask or opportunity arises. If they ask further, more can be discussed. If not, you haven't come across as pushy or boring.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is a great topic. It really is hard to know how to generate interest in anything with out turning the very audience you're trying to attract off. I was fortunate to have had a very successful career as an executive in sales and marketing. When I started blogging you would think I would have been able to translate that into what I do. Not so. part of that is it was a 180 from what I done before. It was a resurrected passion from my past. You learn that all readers have varied tastes and writing styles. Knowing what hits the mark is a tough one for sure. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent reminder that readers hope to be entertained, educated or enlightened, not sold something. Learning to walk that line is definitely an essential part of the writer's journey. Thanks for the insights.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for some ideas about promoting my book. I haven't really started trying to increase sales and you gave me direction in figuring out how to describe it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi William,
    Your advice about promoting is spot on. You certainly don't want to turn off those you are trying to win, and yet many people sabotage their own efforts by disregarding common sense practices.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yep, there's nothing more off-putting than a writer on Twitter who's like, "Hi, great to meet you now buy damn book!" The polar opposite are writers who don't even make announcements when they gave new releases, and that I don't get at all, although they'll spend a great deal of time professing how much they dislike advertising. It's all part of the times we live in.

    ReplyDelete
  10. A lot of this advice could really apply to promoting pretty much anything. You want people to feel that they have made the decision that they want to read your book, not to feel that you sold it to them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Such a good topic, William. Promoting is definitely a tricky area for me (and many others)…good to have some helpful hints like the ones you list here.

    Michele

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love your advice and it's nice to know that you care about your readers too. Yes, these days a book is a luxury for most people and the author has to find just the right balance for promoting it. Once you become a best seller - things get easier - I suppose?

    ReplyDelete
  13. While I'm not authoring more than my blog, I do wholeheartedly agree that there is such a delicate balance in self-promotion where semantics are everything. How you phrase something can mean immediate interest or turn off. And as you so skillfully explained, mentioning your work creatively can be the perfect vehicle to attract readers. Great advice that can really be applied to a lot of situations.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great topic for discussion, particularly in a market that is becoming increasingly saturated by conventional and non-conventional sources / mediums. That delicate balance of generating exposure while recognizing the fine line between consumer intrigue, and irritation.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hello; I think you did a fine job making th case for the right way to promote your book. and i would have been okay with your including a link to either the short story or the anthology. best of luck, max

    ReplyDelete
  16. William, I hope you find success with your book, because your ideas on publishing seem to be right on and I think you could help a lot of people with your experiences. Maybe your next book should be about making a book!

    ReplyDelete
  17. You have great advice. I try to remember I don't like to be forced into buying products so I don't want anyone else to feel that way. I haven't written a novel but I do want people to read my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks everyone for you kind words of good luck. I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have never thought to write novel as it is not an easy task I believe. Your advice is good. As we never want to be forced by someone to buy something I feel we must think same for others.
    Good luck with your book.

    ReplyDelete