Don’t Let Your Books Rot on the Shelf

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Writing is a solitary activity, for the most part.  However, most writers have an audience in mind.  They have some hope that what they have written will reach the hearts and minds of others.  Usually, they hope that what they have written will make the lives of others better in some way.  Don’t you feel that way?  Of course, it would be even more exciting to know that you have reached into the lives of thousands and perhaps millions of others.  In today’s world, that would mean that you have become a best-selling author.  Those sales represent more than cash in your pocket.  They represent the fact that your ideas were found to be valuable by others, not just yourself.

To accomplish your mission, you must do more than just write well.  You must find a way to put those words into the minds of  people who need them most.  For an author such as Benjamin Franklin, he could fire up his printing press and make several copies at a time.  He could then mention the books in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette.  Today, we launch the book through Kindle Direct Publishing or Createspace and have it displayed among the millions on Amazon.  We use our blogs to attract some notice of our piece of literary brilliance.  Sadly, these efforts often only reach the ones who would have already known about the book.

So, what else can be done to make sure our books don’t get lost in the haze of Amazon history?  We can use social media, web pages, virtual book tours, free or paid promotional sites, Amazon’s internal promotion tools, Google ads, or other tools.  But a frantic effort to use all the available resources will not work well without a plan, a marketing plan that targets specific people who have the needs your book is intended to meet.  One of the most certain ways to do that is also one of the hardest to implement.  It is through the use of email listings.

You’ll find out more about a book marketing plan when you read my book PREPARE! PUBLISH! PROMOTE! Book 3: Promoting Your Book for Growing Sales.  It is expected to be released in early July.