Interview with author Tara R. Alemany

Self-published authors often struggle with marketing their book. Tara R. Alemany,who works as a consultant for writers and other artists, is using her expertise to advice authors in "The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books".

So, let's find out what Tara has to say about the book.

Q: What would you say to authors who feel that they have to make a substantial financial investment to effectively promote their book?

A: There are always two options when it comes to promoting your book online. One costs time, and the other costs money. If you have the financial resources to pay a professional to get you the publicity desire, that’s a great thing. However, most of us find ourselves with limited budgets that we need a stretch as far as we can in marketing our materials. That means, finding the lowest cost of options that would yield the greatest results. Oftentimes, that results in finding do-it-yourself ways in which to accomplish our goals.

The challenge comes when we find ourselves with both limited time and limited money. That’s when we need to find experts who are willing to shepherd us along the path to marketing our books online so that we don’t have to figure it out all ourselves. The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books does just that. It explains the various strategies for promoting your book and points you in the right direction to get started.

The hidden benefit is this: If you spend money to have someone else do all of your marketing, you’ll need to spend more money the next time you want marketing done. If you take the initial steps to learn how to do some of it yourself, you’ll always be able to do it when you need to. Keep in mind, no one else knows your book as well as you do. So, hiring someone else to manage all of the marketing isn’t really an effective method. You have to be committed to doing some of it yourself.

Additionally, the most important element in marketing a book online is about building relationships. It’s hard to send someone else in as a proxy to do that for you. That’s why, when I work with a client, I do all the one-time set-up stuff so that they have a professional-looking platform, but then I teach them how to use it on their own, so they can build authentic, lasting and potentially life-changing relationships themselves.

Q: Do you think it’s more important for a writer to spend a lot of time on promoting their book or a small amount of well focused quality time?

A: That’s a very good question! It depends on where they are in the publishing cycle. In the few months leading up to a launch, a lot of time is needed to prepare for that launch. That includes the time needed to make connections, secure reviewers, arrange publicity, get a website and social networks ready, etc. You know the old saying “It takes a village to raise a child?” Well, it takes an online community to successfully launch a book.

However, no one likes to be beaten over the head with your message. So, the author needs to gauge the attention and engagement of their community. Leading up to the launch, you may find yourself operating in overdrive. After the launch, the focus and amount of time shifts. Be sure to show public appreciation for your launch partners. Continue to promote the book, participate in relevant discussions, take a virtual publicity tour even. But when the launch date passes, the intensity quiets down a bit, and regular amounts of well-focused quality time are all that’s needed.

During the launch period, the goal typically is to sell as many copies of the book as possible within a designated week, in the hopes of achieving bestseller status and gaining even more visibility. After the sales figures for that week are tallied and the results are in, this is where the long-haul begins.

In traditional publishing, if a book stops selling, it’s yanked from the bookstore shelves. But in today’s publishing environment, your book can be available online as long as you deem there to be an interested audience. This is especially true of eBooks, where there’s no physical inventory cluttering up someone’s warehouse (or guest bedroom). The choice of when to pull it is often yours.

Q: So many authors are busy with a full-time job and other responsibilities. How would you advise authors who are short on time, to get the most out of what little time they have to promote their book?

A: This is where being strategic is important, and that’s a much harder skill to teach than how to write a blog post, what to do with Pinterest, or what goes into a virtual book tour. If you’re busy, you need to spend your time on the activities that will give you (or your book) the most visibility or generate the most sales.

Instead of chasing down one sale, consider who might buy multiple copies of your book. Is it a book discussion group, a company, a church? Let your mind wander and pinpoint who your most likely readers are. Then, be strategic about the connections you make online and in-person so that you network with individuals who meet that demographic.

When you ask most writers who the intended audience is for their book, it comes down to practically “anyone who will read it.” But marketing campaigns don’t work when they’re scatter-shot. It’s hard to track metrics on it and determine the effectiveness of the campaign because you’re sending it out with a hope and a prayer.

Be intentional about your marketing campaigns and clear about who your target audience is for each. While it may be true that your book will appeal to a wide variety of audiences, that doesn’t mean that you can’t market specifically to executive women in their 30s or 40s who are looking to break through the glass ceiling today, and to stay-at-home Dad’s taking care of preschool children tomorrow. But their interests are different, and each marketing campaign has to be designed with their unique traits in mind.

You may also find that there’s one marketing channel you’re already familiar with, and so you’re more comfortable with using it. Perhaps you already have a Facebook profile. You know how to sign in, upload photos, tag people… You’ve got a head-start there. You may decide that learning how to utilize Facebook to the fullest before getting to know LinkedIn makes the most sense to you. The demographics for the sites are different. So, you will have to tailor the marketing campaigns you’re running to account for who is using each site.

Q: Some successful self-published authors say they prefer to self-publish because they have more power and control. Do you think it’s good for an author to have complete control over their book and how it is marketed?

A: There are pros and cons to each scenario. Ultimately, it depends on the individual and what skills and passion they have.

When an author retains complete control over their work, they also retain complete responsibility. If they are not skilled at marketing, publicity and distribution (the primary things they’ve retained control over), they could be setting themselves up for disappointing results.

When an author gives up control, they lose a say in things like pricing, distribution and other key aspects that can have an effect of on the overall success of the book. It could be argued that the publisher has more experience and expertise in those things and, for the most part, that would be true. But many people have achieved success in this world because they did things in unique and new ways, not because they’ve done what’s always been done.

That’s where passion can overcome inexperience. Passion drives people to learn the skills they need and to step outside their comfort zone. If you’re not passionate about your book, let someone else handle it for you. If you don’t, the book will go nowhere. So, gauge your skill and passion levels and decide accordingly.

Q: What is the single most important thing you’d like people to know about “The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books”?

A: This eBook is intended to educate and empower the reader. While there are 22 different marketing channels discussed in the book, you can be systematic in implementing them, doing them at your own pace and based on your own comfort level.

For those who are interested, I am developing a series of follow-on video tutorials that provide hands-on demonstrations of key elements of The Plan that Launched a Thousand Books. For instance, we’ll be releasing a video shortly on how to create blog posts and pages within a Wordpress site, as well as how to upload media and specify keywords for SEO purposes. Each video tutorial series will be geared towards a beginner, assuming they have no knowledge or previous exposure. As such, they make great follow-up materials to the eBook because once a reader decides on a marketing channel to pursue, if they need more support and still aren’t ready to hire out the work, they can purchase whichever tutorial they want and continue making progress building their platform.

The main point of all of this is: You can market your own book, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

Q: What are your future writing plans?

A: A book I co-authored is being launched in September. It’s called “The Character-Based Leader,” and is being published by a non-profit called the Lead Change Group. Then, a piece I wrote was accepted into a Christian love story anthology called “My Love to You Always,” being published by OakTara. So, my available writing time is limited right now by the impending launches of these titles.

However, I do continue to blog regularly, write a devotional piece once a month for my writer’s critique group (I’m the chaplain of my Word Weavers chapter), and I’m working on a personal memoir called “The Best is Yet to Come.”