The Kama Sutra of Book Marketing

When was the last time you thought about book promotion and making love at the same time? Been a while? Well, by the time you finish reading this post, you may do it more often. (Thinking about the combination, that is. How often you "do it" is up to you :-)

This whole idea started when I ran across an article by Desiree Gullan called "The Kama Sutra of Marketing." It reminded me of an analogy I've used often: Marketing is a lot like dating.

But most self-promoting authors don't think of it that way. And because of that, they struggle to get noticed, connect with readers, and generate increased sales.

So, here are some lessons from the Kama Sutra you can apply to your book marketing, inspired by Gullan's short article:

1) Don't settle for anyone - search for your soul mate.

You've heard the jokes. "He's not Mr. Right, but he's Mr. Right Now." When dating, especially if people feel desparate, they settle. Instead of finding the right match, they pursue relationships that have little long-term potential. "Well, it's better than being alone," they say.

Do you do the same with your book marketing? Are you out to catch the interest of anyone who will listen? Or are you more discerning? The best way is to decide who your ideal customer match is. Who is your book-related soul mate? Then focus only on attracting those types of people.

2) Get to know them first

What do you do on a first date with someone you really think has potential? Talk endlessly about yourself and how great you are? Or do you listen a lot and have a two-way dialogue?

It's the same with book promotion. It's not all about you and your needs. Get to know your audience and what their interests and concerns are. Share some of yourself and your story as you get to know them better.

3) Don't forget foreplay

Okay. You're excited. You met someone new who really likes you. You anticipate the potential pleasure so much, you can taste it. Time to move in for the kill, right?

Wait! Hold your horses, Casanova Carl (or Valerie Vixen). Ease into the blessed event. Warm each other up first.

From a marketing standpoint, that means don't be so quick to ask for the sale. Wine and dine your readers (figuratively) before you flash your "Buy Now" button. Tease them a little with samples and introductions to your work. Leave them wanting more!

4) Be a great lover

When the time comes to consumate the relationship, make sure you deliver the best goods you can. Make it a joyful and stimulating experience. One they'll remember (and maybe even tell many others about) for years to come.

That means you must create a quality product (be it a book, download or audio program) filled with useful information, inspiring ideas or entertaining stories. Make it the best book on your topic. Thrill your partner so much, they'll want to recreate the experience again and again.

5) Call them the next day and ask for another date.

Finally, don't leave them hanging after your first meaningful encounter. Get back in touch soon to thank them and let them know how much you enjoyed the experience.

With books, this is when you follow up after the sale. Why? Because, if it was good for both of you, you want the relationship to continue. You want to interact more and enjoy more positive experiences (and book sales) together.

See, there is a connection between the Kama Sutra and book marketing.

So, from now on, when you're engaged in book marketing activities, I encourage you to think about dating and making love.

But vice versa ... you might think twice about that one :-)

-Bob

P.S. Now you can get FREE access to my Self-Publishing Confidential report filled with my best book publishing advice. Go grab your free report now.

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Are You Breaking Any Book Publishing Laws?

The other day my girlfriend Pooki and I were riding our bikes along the Katy Trail near our house. There were a few times along the route we slowed down to take in the view.

And I noticed something that suddenly struck me as profound. You've probably noticed this too. Let me explain ...

You see, I'm a big believer in Laws. That certainly applies to most state and local laws, but what I'm referring to here are the bigger, more important laws: The Laws of Nature and the Laws of Physics.

What the heck am I talking about?

Here's the thing: These are the laws that power everything. Gravity, the sun, weather systems, ocean currents, the rotation of the earth, even nuclear reactions. Those are some powerful laws!

Therefore, I believe if we behave in accordance with these laws, it only stands to reason that we'll live more natural and harmonious lives.

Okay, back to the bike ride and the big revelation ...

Whenever you reduce your speed on a bike, the slower you go, the more wobbly your balance becomes. The faster you go, the more stable the bike is.

I'm sure it has to do with inertia and the gyroscope effect -- all laws based on physics.

So if this is an irrefutable Law of Nature, how can we apply it to our lives?

That's simple: Keep moving on your quest! Keep moving forward with your book, your passion, your purpose as an author, your pursuit of happiness. It's only through constant motion and progress that you gain your balance and hit a steady, confident stride.

Of course, you'll hit a few potholes along the way. There will be speed bumps that force you to shift direction. But that doesn't mean you have to stop moving.

And if you do slow down, get distracted or neglect your true calling for a while, things will get wobbly. You'll feel off balance.

And it's only natural. Because it's the Law at work.

So if things have been off kilter lately, ask yourself:

• How have I been slowing down my forward motion?
  
  
• What's been holding me back?
  
  
• And, most important, what can I do to get steadily back in motion?

-Bob

Create a Major Book Buzz Online. Discover how to use the Internet to attract book buyers like a magnet. Learn more ...

Just getting started? Want to jump-start your career as an independent author? Check out Bob's Self-Publishing Success Secrets 101.

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Just Stop It!

Are you feeling fearful about the state of the economy and sky-high gas prices, and how they are affecting your book publishing and promotion efforts? Here's an inspiring, in-your-face message from Joe Vitale that might shake some sense into you.

I first spoke with Joe in 1995 when we was a copywriter and marketing guy in Dallas. Since then he's become an Internet marketing guru who now weaves a lot of spiritual and positive thinking messages into his work. He was one of the teachers featured in the book/movie The Secret.

Here's an email Joe sent out just today ...

Stop it!

Stop paying attention to the media.

Stop paying attention to the doom and gloom of anyone and everyone around. Stop getting sucked into being a victim.

STOP IT.

You won't go anywhere buying into the cultural trance that there isn't enough and times are tough.

You won't accomplish your big goals, or do anything of real greatness, as long as you give in to outer circumstances.

You have to take back your power.

You have to take back your control.

You have to "awaken."

Recently I told a woman who was interviewing me that I was homeless and in poverty only as long as I stayed stuck in survival "thinking."

As soon as I put my mind on what I "wanted" to have instead, I began to shift and get better results.

This can happen for you, too. It took me ten years. You can do it in one weekend.

But you have to stop listening to the media paint a picture of darkness.

The media paints it by finding something dark to report on, whether it's true or not. You and others listen to it, believe it, and before you know it, you have "created" what the media painted.

They predict a recession before there actually is one.

But people believe the media, fall into fear, stop spending, and suddenly a recession is here.

This has to stop. And it can stop right now.

Break free from money worries.

Break free from job worries.

Break free from health worries.

Break free from love worries.

Break free -- PERIOD.

This great message was admittedly sent to promote Joe's Miracles Weekend event in September. But even if you take the event completely out of the picture, there's still a lot of power in his words.

So ... are you ready to STOP IT?

-Bob

Create a Major Book Buzz Online. Discover how to use the Internet to attract book buyers like a magnet. Learn more ...

Just getting started? Want to jump-start your career as an independent author? Check out Bob's Self-Publishing Success Secrets 101.

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Do You Suffer From SPIS?

Old mindsets are hard to undue. Even though we live in rapidly changing times, and even though there are countless success stories of independently published authors and books, there's a nasty stigma that still exists.

Yes, you will encounter people who are leery about books that carry the "self-published" label. I'm talking about librarians, book store managers, and even aspiring authors themselves who all suffer from SPIS -- Self-Publishing Inadequacy Syndrome.

Thankfully, these doubters are shrinking in numbers. But, since you will still run into them, I encourage you to listen to this audio sample from my audio/ebook package Self-Publishing Success Secrets 101.

Take a strong dose of self-empowerment and call me in the morning!

-Bob

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1,000 True Fans to Make a Living as an Author

When Seth calls something the "best riff of the year," people notice. And lots have.

I'm talking about Kevin Kelly's two-day-old blog post titled "1,000 True Fans," which has struck a powerful nerve online. He puts his own spin on what I and many others have been saying for years about succeeding in the arts in this modern era.

I've talked about this in my live workshops and touched on it recently when I wrote about tapping music fans for funding and the benefit of having 10,000 people on your mailing list.

But this concept of attracting what Kelly calls True Fans (a diehard subset of a larger group of Lesser Fans) is very intriguing. Here's an excerpt:

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day's wages per year in support of what you do. That "one-day wage" is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let's peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

Again, this all dovetails with the indie message I've been hammering home for years. You don't have to be a household name to be successful. Thousands of authors, musicians, artists, photographers, filmmakers, bloggers and more make a nice living serving their unique slice of the population. I proudly count myself among their ranks.

These self-empowered creative people work outside the traditional structure and usually make smart use of the Internet to bypass middleman roadblocks and take their craft directly to the end user: the fan. Reach enough fans this way and serve them well ... and you will eventually have a solid list of True Fans -- people who will reward you often with their time, attention and money.

Read Kelly's entire blog post and the reaction to it around the Net. Then get busy building your fan base ... and serving them well!

-Bob

Check out Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, the classic guide to indie music promotion. Now revised and updated, with four new chapters on Internet and Web 2.0 music marketing.

Derek Sivers, president of CD Baby, calls it "The most directly applicable, start-tomorrow, creatively inspiring book I've ever seen on promoting your music!" Get more details here.

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Q&A: How Can I Use LinkedIn to Promote My Books?

An author friend recently emailed me the following question:

"Bob, I just created a profile at LinkedIn. I know what it is, but I'm not sure how to effectively use it. Any tips?"

My Answer:

I recently joined LinkedIn myself and, while I have a respectable 166 people in my network, I haven't done as much with it as I have with MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, and others.

But all of these social networking sites have one thing in common: it's another way for people to connect with other like-minded people. Facebook, Myspace, etc., each have their own unique qualities you can use. But the main thing is building a "friends" network of people who are already involved with the subject of your book or have some reason to be interested in what you're doing.

With any of these sites, there's a lot of work early on setting up your profile, building your network, and sending friend requests. After that, send people personal notes here and there to stay in touch and build relationships. Once you've built up a network, more people will seek you out as they see that you're friends with one of their friends. Then it multiplies.

On LinkedIn in particular, one good thing to do is post "Recommendations" for more established experts in your field. These recommendations will be featured on that person's public profile, where others will find your name and words of praise.

Another smart thing you can do is create "link bait" to lure potential customers. Let's say you're a photographer and you've published a book of photos taken at U.S. National Parks. You could post a photo and commentary about your experience shooting scenic views of Glacier Point at Yosemite.

Make sure and use "Glacier Point" and "Yosemite" within the titles of any blog or photo you post about it. That way, people searching for these specific topics are more likely to find you.

That's the idea: It's a two-way interaction. You can be proactive and seek out like-minded people on LinkIn, MySpace, Facebook, etc. But you can also set yourself up to be "discovered by" like-minded people there as well.

MarketingProfs has a great "Social Media Starter Kit" article with a lot more info that I encourage you to read. (Free registration required to access it.) And for music promotion on MySpace, consider my own book, MySpace Music Marketing.

-Bob

Create a Major Book Buzz Online. Discover how to use the Internet to attract book buyers like a magnet. Learn more ...

Just getting started? Want to jump-start your career as an independent author? Check out Bob's Self-Publishing Success Secrets 101.

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Cellphone Novels: Bestsellers in Japan

Want to see an example of the rapidly changing world we live in? Here's the lead paragraph from an article in the New York Times called "Thumbs Race as Japan's Best Sellers Go Cellular":

TOKYO -- Until recently, cellphone novels -- composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens -- had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, "The Tale of Genji," a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.

Who knew you could even write a book on a cellphone, much less become a celebrity doing it? From the article:

One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote "If You" over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or whenever she found a free moment, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a popular [Japanese] Web site for would-be authors.

Crazy. Here's another passage worth noting:

The writers are not paid for their work online, no matter how many millions of times it is viewed. The payoff, if any, comes when the novels are reproduced and sold as traditional books.

Lesson: Whether we're talking cellphones, typewriters, or spray paint as the writing instrument, the principle remains the same: widespread exposure and awareness can lead to cash flow and opportunities.

Think twice the next time you get out your Blackberry.

Read the entire article here. (Free NY Times registration required.)

-Bob

Create a Major Book Buzz Online. Discover how to use the Internet to attract book buyers like a magnet. Learn more ...

Just getting started? Want to jump-start your career as an independent author? Check out Bob's Self-Publishing Success Secrets 101.

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