A Sound Decision

Everyone knows that audio products are effective for getting people’s attention. The question is, do they sell books? Well, we’re going to try to find out.
Sandra Bowman, Marketing Director for Intrigue Publishing has asked each of our authors to produce a short Christmas commercial to run on Facebook. After about a half-second of consideration I realized it was not only a great idea, but a wonderful first step to see how effective audio could be.
I decided that, while I’m doing that, I’ll just voice a book excerpt. I’ll just do a reading from my newest book, BeyondBlue, and post it on my website. I've noticed that some other authors have an audio file on their sites that loads as soon as you get there. It’s usually more of a “Hi there!  Welcome to my world” type of thing than a sales pitch. I don’t mind encountering such a thing, and it might be a cool idea for you, but I don’t think it’s quite my style.
Years ago I did a weekly podcast, but that doesn’t fit into my time budget these days. I must admit it was a great way to get attention for my latest novel. These days there’s no need to download software and record a podcast yourself. It’s pretty easy to do through BlogTalk radio and other platforms. And if you have the personality, why not engage other authors in interviews? Urban drama author B. Swangin Webster does a weekly show on Listen Vision Live and now draws an international audience. In fact, this afternoon Intrigue authors Penny Clover Petersen and Jeff Markowitzwill be guests on what she calls the We B Swangin show at 4pm Eastern time. If you tune in you’ll get a good idea of how this medium can be used well. 
It might take you some time to build up an audience the way the We B Swangin show has, but in the meantime don’t overlook other people’s shows. I definitely saw a spike in sales when I was interviewed on Conversations Live with Cyrus Webb. Cyrus has been doing this a while so he gets the big names on his show (from Oprah to the cast of The Walking Dead) so being on his show puts you in great company!
Of course, there’s commercial radio too, but there you’re more likely to get a three minute interview, not the 30 minutes you usually get on computer broadcast shows. So you need to prepare differently, with bullet points and short but hard-hitting answers to questions. Quick, pithy comments can drive listeners to the bookstores looking for your book.
So think about how audio can help your book sales and do your research. Of course, I've offered some easy research steps above, so be listening for Intrigue Publishing authors audio spots on Facebook, check my web site in the next couple of days for an audio excerpt, and be sure to tune in to the We B Swangin show today (Wednesday) at 4pm for an example of online broadcasting.

And let me know how it works for you!