How Do You Get Your Book Out There To Readers

A couple of days ago, I wrote about focusing on your writing and less on the marketing. As I noted, there are far too many authors obsessing over selling their books and not so much about making sure the product they are selling is truly good. That post brought up a couple of great questions I wanted to answer today.

I have been blessed to be called a gifted writer. In fact my book has been rated a five-star masterpiece. I have been called an artistic genius. I do not know how to market in the first place. So no one knows about the book except the few people who marvel at the work of a first time author. That's me. Can you help? 

But in today's world, how much "selling or marketing" is that author also expected to do while still trying to write the next book.

These are indeed sticking points that a lot of authors face, and, until you become that "mega-author" when you have A) a ton of cash coming in so you can quit your day job; and B) have a staff of people working for you so you can focus on your writing, you will have to find a way to do this on your own.

In simple terms, marketing is simply about name recognition. The more people remember your name, the more they start to equate the quality of your books to your name. In other words, the mind starts thinking, "Hmmmm? This product must be OK since I am seeing the name a lot." We know this works too. Political campaigns have people voting simply because the remember the name of a person and not so much about the issues the person was pushing. Here's one a little closer to home. My kids kindergarten class actually did an activity (an early reading activity understanding symbols mean something) that had the kids naming businesses based on their symbols.

 

I think you get the idea here. The same goes for readers. We remember seeing names. 

So how do we do this? We take a few minutes before we start working on our writing each day to "get our name out there." We Tweet, We blog, We get on discussion boards. It is the small things.

I think the issue that a lot of writers fail to remember is that those "big name authors" got there "nickel and diming" their way to the top. They were, for the most part, not overnight successes. 

So, in terms of the second author's question - don't rush it. Take your time. Getting your neighbors to know is just one small step, but it does add up. And for the first author? Just watch what other companies do to get their name out there. Follow their lead!

But, like I said earlier this week! Make sure you have a great product first!!!!