My children are both in Scouts. It’s been a great experience for them—they get to try new things and build self-confidence and self-reliance.
The only thing I dislike about it? The selling.
I’m sure the other parents out there know what I mean. In October, my son sells barbeque for his troop. And in January/February, my daughter sells Girl Scout cookies for hers.
And they have a mom who absolutely hates selling things.
This means that I end up buying whatever they’ve got to sell. Yes, I will buy $100 worth of BBQ and $100 worth of Girl Scout cookies just to keep from hovering anxiously behind my children as they sell door to door.
This, however, isn’t such a great idea for books. We’d go broke pretty fast if I had to buy every book I’ve got out, or coming out, on the market.
Tips for the Shy Seller:
Virtual promotion is designed for you. Make sure you’re professional about it. If you’re going to go on a blog tour, have a headshot, pithy bio, and a book description of various lengths (50 words, 100 words, etc.)
Try a variety of different approaches on your blog tour: interview your character, throw a contest, post on the writing craft, and do a straight-forward interview. Try to mix it up online if you’re going to lots of different sites.
You’ll need to have more of an online presence than someone who does lots of touring. A website is the bare minimum—also consider a blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
You need materials to mail out—bookmarks and postcards are best. Postcards can be sent to libraries and bookstores. Bookmarks can be left at libraries and bookstores (get their permission first).
Have a business card that speaks for you when someone asks what you’ve written. Practice a brief synopsis of your book that you can say in a confident way.
Promote in groups. I belong to a promotional group here in Charlotte that does signings and panels and workshops together. It helps me out tremendously.
If you’re part of a group, contribute to donations for raffled baskets for conferences. Many writing conferences raffle off baskets filled with donated books, bookmarks, etc. from different authors.
If you’re tour-challenged (a mother of small children, or have any mobility issues), consider an author appearance via Skype. They’re getting more popular and you may be more comfortable giving a talk while you’re in your own home.
Now if I can set up a virtual method of selling Scout stuff, I’ll be set… :)
Elizabeth – Oh, you’ve hit on one of my real bugaboos – selling. It is hard to go out there and let people know you’ve got books to sell. I think that your idea of blog tours is terrific. As you say, a professional-looking picture and bio help a lot. So does a solid blog post.
I have also found that keeping a blog is very useful. Yours, for instance, is a fabulous blog, and it gives you a wonderful opportunity to sell and to keep us updated on your own writing. Blogging is also a very effective way to get noticed by publishers, agents, etc., for those who aren’t yet published.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of writers are shy about selling (I know I am) writing is a solitary occupation most of the time. I’m so grateful (and still amazed) that we have Internet and social networking.
Enjoyed this post, thanks. (excuse the earlier deleted post, I was signed in on the wrong account:-))
We love our solitary pursuits; otherwise, books remain unwritten. I, too, abhor the hype I associate with selling myself or my work. I will review your tips here regularly. Thanks, Elizabeth.
Wonderful tips for promoting. I can see where it could be hard on an author trying to promoting their current work while trying to write the next book and have a life at the same time.
Yes I feel shy about selling- (yuck), but these ideas are the best. I would suppose cyberspace has freed many a shy writer.
Fabulous checklist, Elizabeth. I hate selling as well and haven’t done well and bookselling events. I am trying to gear myself up to do a virtual book tour. We’ll see…
Karen
Thank you! Fabulous tips. I am a shy promoter – I’ve done one reading and two signings, and they were all psychologically damaging. I like your approaches here much better. :)
I agree – the selling part is the hardest. Now that I’m relocating, I’m grateful that the Internet lets me maintain my contacts, but I need to start collecting those “live” ones as well.
Thanks for giving such a specific list of ways to promote your book. Very useful for everyone. Thanks!
Great checklist! And I’m not much on selling, either.
wonderul tips. The blog tour sounds perfect for me. I love the writing but I am not looking forward to the selling.
I’m a behind the scenes girl, so I’d much prefer to do virtual tours than face to face ones. At least I can hide behind the computer.
Thanks for these terrific suggestions. :-)
I’m not shy but I do find it hard to sell myself. So, what I’ve done in the past with my plays is to really disengage my ego from the play and sell IT. Not hard. Thanks for these tips – I’m scared to look at them too much because I’m not there yet! But I will be.
Wonderful tips, Elizabeth! I’ve certainly noticed my game sales have increased since I started my blog. Book sales are the next step. I get woozy just thinking about it.
I love the Skype idea. With two small children at home, it’s nice to think technology can cut back travel time!
We just got ‘fined’ by one of my daughter’s teams for inadequately fundraising *rolls eyes* I HATE the selling (and we don’t have the resources to just pay)
So I LOVE your advice on the online presence and ‘touring’ that way!
Question–will you do the same level of this for your Memphis as you have for your Beauty ones? I just wondered if when you were part of a ‘system’ the same level of thing was required/helpful. I guess you’re ‘out’ with your pen name.
You listed some good stuff! It amazes me how many authors don’t carry things like business cards or bookmarks on them. I mean, you just never know when an opportunity may arise!
Margot–I think that having a blog is a nice, not-in-your-face way to be in the public eye and sell books at the same time. If I *have* to sell, I favor a soft-sell approach over anything else. :)
Charmaine–It helps SO much. As a mom, I really don’t have too many opportunities to just travel and promote–even if I wanted to!
Glen–Thanks!
Alex–I don’t think many writers are.
Mason–Yes, I haven’t figured out how to do that either! I’ve got an actual appearance this weekend, but it’s a book fair kind of thing, so I’m less worried.
Lafreya–The selling is my very least favorite part. But it definitely keeps us employed. :)
Teresa–Thanks! Yes, I’m so glad the internet is here or else I’d probably do very little promoting.
Lisa–Well, and we reach such a broader audience online. And we save money! It’s all good. :)
Jan–You certainly *will* be there! :) And that’s a good tip–disengage ourselves *from* ourselves and just sell the book.
Karen–Hope you’ll go through with it! You’ve done some great blog appearances in the past. I’d host you–give us some memoir tips and do some promo at the same time.
Portia–Here are great Skype articles by the way: http://www.darcypattison.com/marketing/skype-tips-be-prepared/ and also http://www.darcypattison.com/marketing/more-on-skype-an-author/
insidethewritersstudio–I know what you mean. Solo book signings are painful experiences for me!
Hart–Ouch! A fine for non-selling is harsh…but I have seen it here, too.
Yes, Berkley lets me promote my pen name with my real name, so that helps. I’m hoping I’m knocking out 2 birds with one stone to a *certain* degree, since the books are being published in between each other. Unfortunately, the process is pretty much the same now with the big publishers as the smaller ones…we’re on our own with the promoting to a large degree. I do have a publicist at both publishers, but they represent a HUGE number of writers, so they don’t really set up events, etc–they do submit my name for awards,send out ARCs for me to local reviewers and that sort of thing. I try to let both publishers know what I’m doing, promotion-wise…trying to get a gold star. :) I know that folks at both MI and Berkley read this blog, so they know I’m “out there” online. I want to sell books, but I’m also very concerned about letting THEM know what I’m doing for promoting so they’ll be happy that I’m doing my part.
Terry–And now you’ll have a chance to build up new relationships in your new hometown! You’re widening your base.
Paul–Hope it helps. :)
Diane–So true. And when you can hand someone a card they might actually look your book up–it’s easier than for them to struggle to remember the name of your book.
Thanks for the ideas on how to promote. I’m bookmarking this post to come back to when the book is ready to be marketed. Great entry!
These are good tips – I’ll boookmark this for when I need it. :)
I suspected that may be the case–just another arena where I may have to follow you around, doing what you do so well!
Your blog is a good selling tool even without a word about selling your own books. You offer such valuable information that it makes readers want to get your books and read them.
HelenStraight From Hel
Even though I’m an introvert I can sell. Its like turning on a switch, going through my lines, then turning it off. I feel like I’m an actor performing on a stage during an event like a book signing. When its over I can relax and go back to being somewhat silent Steve.
Stephen Tremp
I am the same Elizabeth. I used to buy all the raffle tickets from my three.
Blogging is the way forward for selling books, I am convinced of it. I have bought more since I have followed bloggers.
Elspeth–It’s a wooze-inducing thing! If only we could just do the creative stuff…but those days are long gone.
B.–Hope it helps!
Hart–Follow away! :) I think I’ve got plenty of errors ahead of me too, though.
Helen–Thanks! I think the soft sell approach is really the only thing that works for me.
Stephen–I think I’m probably a bad actor! But you’ve got a great approach–sort of a disassociation technique? I like it! :)
Glynis–Ooh…and with 3 kids, that’s even MORE expensive.
I’m with you–I’ve bought more books that people I know write than not! It adds another dimension to the read for me.
I hate selling things also. I think I’m going to be giving all my books away for free. I had a garage sale a few years back and my husband banned me because I was giving everything away. Great tips however on marketing online.
ann
Ann–That’s too funny! I’d probably do the same thing.
Jemi–Hope they’ll help! :)
A blog tour’s only useful if the blogs have any traffic on them, trust me on that. Mine turned out to be a complete waste of time because the geniuses who arranged it didn’t even pick blogs in my genre! I guess if you want something done you have to do it yourself. And yes I have a blog, Twitter, and Facebook and it’s sold me exactly 0 books to date. Forget about this virtual selling junk. You’re better off just selling in a parking lot out of your car.
I’m the same way about selling and buying it myself whether I use it or not, which is usually NOT. Selling myself? My work? Also tough. I’ll work on it.
I think I’ll be like you and buy whatever my kids have to sell (when they are older) so I can avoid having them go door-to-door.
Rogue Mutt–I think you bring up a very good point. It does have to be *targeted*. The blog tour class that I took pointed out that we needed to research the blogs we appeared on–how many people visited each day? What was their target audience? Otherwise, we’re wasting our time.
Mary–It’s very hard, isn’t it? I just don’t like feeling pushy.
Carolyn–It’s the ONLY way to sell. :)