Starting Out Simple And Moving On By Shirley Myers

I love guest posts because I get to hear the experience and advice of book marketing experts. They almost always help me expand my own knowledge as I'm sure they do yours. I always believe that if you can find a single lesson in a post or workshop that helps your book marketing, the lessons were worth your time. But I also purposely schedule authors as guests to share their experiences and advice as well. I find it refreshing to discuss with colleagues their experiences and insights. Today, author Shirley Myers will be sharing her insights as she looks back on her publishing experiences.









Starting Out Simple And Moving On

By Shirley Myers



One morning in mid-October, 2010, the doorbell rang. We opened the door to a delivery man who had 16 boxes of books to bring into our very small house. I was elated that after many years my dream of publishing a Bible storybook had finally come true. But as the delivery man drove away, I sat there looking at the boxes, and uncertainty gripped me. What if I couldn't sell them? How would I do it? Because the stories in my book were about the great things God had done in Bible times, I was sure God would help me if I prayed. So I did, even as I had done while writing the book. Here are the simple ways I started. Perhaps some of these ways will work for you also.



1. Be on target. I mostly went to a targeted audience. People who went to church and wanted their children and grandchildren to learn about God and his son Jesus Christ proved to be the most ready to purchase my book, Grandma, Tell Me a Story: 52 Bible Stories for Children. In the two inner-city churches where I preached every Sunday I sold many to people who felt they would make excellent Christmas gifts. You will need to assess the market and choose your own target for your particular book according to its genre and subject material or the appeal some other product might have to a certain market..



2. Be bold. Don't be afraid to ask when you think of something that might work. I looked for churches who were having a special event and asked if I could set up a table and sell my books. One church was having the 200th anniversary of the founding of their church, so I approached a friend of mine who attended there. She asked her anniversary committee and they said yes. That was my first real selling event. I sold 8 books. Approaching Christmas, things got quite busy. I was able to attach myself to two church events that were taking place on the same day. It was a long day, but I sold 19 books that day, and one woman contacted me later to buy a couple more. I didn't even feel tired coming home. I've even sold quite a few in the restaurant where my husband and I eat breakfast.



3. Be gracious. When you get a refusal. Don't show disappointment or anger. Just say, "Thank you for considering it." Then move on to the next idea. Don't let it discourage you or slow you down. I have had a thought that a secondary audience for my book would be the elderly. I went to a local senior center to inquire about selling my books there. They refused me because of the religious slant of my book. I think it was in conflict with some funding they receive. But there are other senior centers with different funding. So I won't give up. My experience with elderly people in churches still leads me to believe they are a target audience. In one of churches where I serve on Sunday, one woman, probably over 80, bought a book. The next Sunday she came back and bought a book for her sister. Still the following Sunday she bought another book for her other sister. All three women were elderly and were delighted to have the book.



4. Be open. The more people learned about the book and bought it, the more they came to me with ideas about marketing. One woman had bought three or four copies. Her husband said to her, "Why don't you take them to the Christmas Gift Festival at church and then see if you could get them in the bookstore for Shirley?" The very large church they attended took 10 books. They sold five at the Festival, and the rest were placed in their bookstore for future sales.



Another friend bought two books for her grandchildren. She was truly delighted with the books, and soon arranged for her large church to place some in their bookstore. Your customers who like the book will have good ideas for you. Keep your ears open and listen to what they suggest.



5. Be innovative. I had another idea that some friends of mine who are traveling singers might be able to help me out. They take the book with them and display it with my fliers on their product table along with their CD's. I have had several sales connected with their publicity. The website is listed on the flier, so several of those sales came by that means. This has also helped me to spread information about the book to additional states, some that are very far away. Faithful friends! How beautiful they are!



I have another idea that my book might be great reading for adults who are learning to read or immigrants who are learning to read English. That's still in its developing phase, but we'll see what happens with it.



6. Be brave. Find some conventions or conferences related to the theme of your book. You may have to lay out some fees for this. You may get a good return on some and not so good on others. Just be thankful for every book or other item you're able to sell, and the total will keep going up. Before you know it, you'll look back and say, "Wow! Look how many I've sold!" An article I read in a magazine said that people who self-publish books usually did not sell more than 100. I felt good that I was beyond that already, and I can soon see another milestone coming up.



7. Be positive. Look to the future. Believe that anything can happen. Everything won't work out, but lots of things will. Keep trying every possibility that comes to your mind. Continue to re-check on possibilities you started working on previously. You never know when something might change, and the time will be right. Don't let it get you down if things are going slowly at times. Last winter things seemed a little slow, but I had a lot of other things to do anyway. So I just kept working at everything as much as I could, and I kept believing that it would soon pick up. And it did!



8. Be up-to-date. I was excited about developing my website, and I had people around who could help me. I've had some trouble getting excited about the social media. But I'm trying to understand how it will help me, so I've got a start with Twitter. That's how I connected with Tony Eldridge who asked me to write a guest blog. I appreciate how he has encouraged me to do this, and I hope it will help my efforts in marketing and that some of my ideas may help all of you as well.



9. Be patient. When things slow down, it may be hard to keep going. Hold on through those slow times. Work on ideas for marketing. Maybe you'll come up with just the right thing to rejuvenate your campaign. I'll admit that winter slowdown seemed a little disheartening. But that was when the orders started coming from faraway places like Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, Maine. It made me believe in what I was doing, and I kept forging ahead.



10. Be grateful. Write thank you notes to the people who buy your product and to those who help you find places to sell, or help you with ideas about marketing. They will love to hear if you had success with an idea they gave to you. If they're a great idea person, they might think of other helpful methods for you to use.



Hope to see you on Twitter or LinkedIn or as a customer on my website: www.GrandmasStories.com.

I wish you success in all your marketing efforts.



Best wishes,



Shirley Myers







Shirley Myers has spent most of her life spreading knowledge of the Bible with both children and adults. She taught Bible clubs and worked in vacation Bible schools in her youth. She also has often taught Sunday school throughout the years.



Shirley was a writer of Sunday school curriculum, take-home papers, and daily devotionals for more than twenty years. Several publishers, including Union Gospel Press, the Church of the Nazarene, and American Baptist Churches have made use of her writing skills. She has received writing awards at St. Davids Christian Writers' Conference and became president of that writing association.



Rev. Shirley Myers also has had a second career as a pastor in American Baptist Churches for ten years and continues to do supply preaching. She is a graduate of Davis College when it was known as Practical Bible Training School. She had additional training for ministry with American Baptist Churches.



Mrs. Myers lives near Syracuse, New York with her husband of 47 years. They have been blessed with five children (now adults) and eight grandchildren.



Twitter @GrandmasStories

Website:  www.GrandmasStories.com

E-mail:  sjmyers@twcny.rr.com







  



























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Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests . His new novel, The Lottery Ticket , was just recently released on Kindle.