Book Differentiation: Part 1

This is a three part article.  Part 2 will be published next Friday (3/25) and Part 3 on the following Friday (4/1)

BOOK DIFFERENTIATION

By Hank Quense

ⓒ 2009

This three-part series describes one aspect of marketing and selling books.

With the gazillions of other books available, authors need something to make their book grab the reader's attention.  Book differentiation is one way to do this.

Part one of this series introduces differentiation and discusses the process.

Part two will talk about developing a differentiation message for an individual book.

Part three will illustrate a variety of uses for the differentiation message.

PART ONE: THE DIFFERENTIATION PROCESS

Getting a book published means you can call yourself a 'published author.'  You may not know it yet, but it also means you can add the titles 'marketing manager' and 'sales manager to the title of 'published author.'  In other words, you, the 'published author,' are in charge of marketing and selling you book.  Surprised?  I was.

What do these new titles mean?  As marketing manager, you have to spread the word on your book and create a buzz about it.  This will get some folks interested in or curious about the book.  These folks will visit your selling site.  As sales manager your job is to convert these visitors to customers.  Your differentiation statements are the key to converting the visitors.

These statements tell the world why your book matters and why readers should buy it.  This is a vital aspect of self-marketing.  Consider this: thousands of new books become available every month.  Consequently, your book is competing against all these other books for the readers' attention and money.  Your book has to stand out from all the others and persuade readers to shell out money to get a copy.

I've read a number of books on self-marketing and using the internet as a marketing platform.  While they all contain good ideas, many ignore this subject.  When it is mentioned at all, it is covered rather quickly and shallowly.  I intend to cover the subject in depth because I believe it is of paramount importance.

For many years, I worked selling high-tech telecommunications equipment.  If I wanted to talk about a new product or new features on an existing product, I'd call a customer, explain what I wanted and the customer would set up a meeting with other interested departments.  Later, I'd give a presentation and answer any questions.  The critical point to make is this; I knew the customers and could get a face-to-face meeting whenever I needed to.  Marketing and selling on the internet are entirely different processes for several reasons.  First, you are selling from websites, not in-person.  You don't know the website visitors and the majority of them don't know you.  A second reason is that I presented my product to what amounted to a captive audience.  Website visitors are not captive; they are capricious and fleeting.

To sell your book, you have to devise a sales plan.  Yeah, a sales plan.  You're the sales manager in charge of selling the book and sales managers develop sales plans.  After you develop the plan, you then implement it.  The sales plan consists of two parts.  The first part is to develop your differentiation statement.  The second is to develop the means to use the statement most effectively.  That is, place the statement where potential customers can see it.

The good news about the sales plan is, that unlike many other marketing activities, it's free.  It can also be completed before the book is published.  I start working on a differentiation statement for a new book long before the book is finished.  This gives me ample time to tinker with the messages and to perfect them.

There are three elements involved in developing your book's differentiation.  These are depicted in the diagram and will be discussed in part two.

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