Author Name: Jay Thomas Willis
Book Title(s): Implications For Effective Psychotherapy With African-Americans; As Soon as the Weather Breaks; The Cotton is High; Born to be Destroyed; Paranoid but not Stupid; Why Black Americans Behave as They Do; Hard Luck; When the Village Idiot Get Started; Educated Misunderstanding; The Devil in Angelica.
Marketing Subject: Five Practical and Inexpensive Strategies to Use in Marketing Your Book
We all know by now that you should just sit back and not actively market your book. If you do you’re guaranteed not to sell very many copies. The thing is to find some practical and inexpensive ways to market your book. Here are five practical and inexpensive strategies that I feel could be helpful in marketing your book.
First, send everyone you know a copy of your book, and ask them to share the book with their friends and associates. If they send money for the book, good, if they don’t, your main purpose is to get your book to begin circulating in the marketplace, achieve product recognition and exposure. How many books you sell will depend upon your relationship with these individuals. If it’s too inexpensive to send copies of your book try my second strategy.
Second, you should have an email-contact list of friends and associates. If you don’t have one it’s time to develop one. Email each of them with a copy of the front and back cover of your book. Give any details in the email which you feel are important. It would be helpful to include an order form that can be downloaded. Ask each of them to forward the email to everyone on their email-contact list. This could be the start of something big. Again, it depends on your relationship with this initial list of friends and associates. Sometimes this initial list for some people can be a big one--the bigger the better.
Third, many people have large family reunions. At these family reunions someone usually get the names, addresses, and emails of everyone who attend. Find out who that person is and be sure they send you a copy. Send everyone who attended an email with a picture of your front and back cover, along with a short description of your book, a letter of introduction, and an order form.
Fourth, try to get a list of everyone who attended your high school or college reunions. Follow through as with the family reunion. To make it more personal you might want to set up a booth at your high school, college, and family reunions. In most cases individuals will be glad to know you have written a book, and you will likely get many purchases. The arrangement for the booth must be set up ahead of time with the reunion committee.
Finally, send a press release at least to your hometown newspaper, and any other papers you feel might be receptive.
I have found these strategies practical and inexpensive. Some of them depend on how well you are regarded, but most situations do. I have read about many strategies but find these most suitable to my particular situation. If you try these strategies they should help to get the ball rolling with your marketing plan.
Photo by: uitdragerij
