Book Marketing 104:
192 Marketing Ideas I’ve Learned from Other People
A Mini-Guide
by John Kremer
Copyright © 2007 by John Kremer
All rights reserved.
Open Horizons
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Table of Contents
While I am considered by many as America's foremost expert on book marketing, I still find that I have much to learn. So I still read about 100 magazines every month as well as five or ten books on marketing, publishing, publicity, the Internet, and more. Below are some of the things I've learned while reading a few other books and magazines or while attending various seminars.
The Rules of the Garage — Ideas 1 to 11
The Meaning of Success — Idea 12
About the Author — Ideas 13 to 20
Seven Strategies in Every Bestseller — Ideas 21 to 27
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers — Ideas 28 to 34
A Bestseller's Take on Selling Books — Ideas 35 to 39
ProfitMaker 5 Seminar — Ideas 40 to 51
How to Gain Paradise … or Some Modicum of Success — Ideas 52 to 57
The Success Secrets of Country Music Stars — Ideas 58 to 64
10 Secrets of Publishing Success — Ideas 65 to 74
How Not to Be a Good Talk Radio Guest — Ideas 75 to 82
Getting More PR by Doing More for the Media — Ideas 83 to 93
Patches of Light Seminar: 21 Pearls of Wisdom — Ideas 94 to 114
Book Marketing Tips I Learned While Watching TV Commercials — Ideas 115 to 150
The Quotable Writer — Idea 151
The Top 5 Tips from Guerrilla Publicity — Ideas 152 to 156
What Are You Worth? — Idea 157
Making Choices — Ideas 157 to 163
What Is Success? — Ideas 164 to 169
Ten Principles of Underdog Marketing — Ideas 170 to 179
Confidence: The Name of the Game — Ideas 180 to 185
Creating Great Book Covers — Ideas 186 to 192
Ideas: 1 to 11
The Rules of the Garage:What It Takes to Succeed
by John Kremer and Hewlett Packard
In a two-page advertisement in USA Today several years ago, Hewlett Packard described the principles which had helped it grow in the beginning — and which it hoped would help its new web initiative also grow. They called these principles the Rules of the Garage (HP having been started in a garage). Let's look at these principles. I believe that we can all benefit from following them in our book publishing and marketing.
Rule 1: Believe you can change the world.
In some way, the primeval impetus of all books is this belief — that we as authors can change the world in some way. As publishers, I'm sure we all feel the same. Otherwise we'd be working for some dot.com and collecting stock options, flashy cars, and a new lingo. We write, we publish, for one basic reason: to bring something new into the lives of our readers. We hope to entertain them, inform them, inspire them, even enlighten them. If you start from somewhere else in writing your book or in publishing it, you are off to a bad start. Somewhere, deep down inside, you need to believe in your book, or you will never weather the vicissitudes of promotion and distribution.
Rule 2: Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
As an author, I know that I can't always control when things will fall into place — and the writing becomes alive with meaning and power. To me, keeping the tools unlocked means being ready at any time to strike when the impulse is hot, to act when I can do nothing else but act. My best work as an author — and my best work as a marketer — comes when I reach down to my toes and bring out the passion in all its undeniability. Then the news releases and catalog copy that I write moves people to act, to respond.
Rule 3: Know when to work alone and when to work together.
There are things you can do on your own because you do them well. But there are many other things you cannot do on your own. You need help. Get to know when you need help. Then seek out the best help you can get. And do not pinch pennies when it comes to getting the best. It is far better to pay $2,000 or $3,000 for a great book cover than to settle for a so-so cover.
We can't do everything in marketing our books. We do need help. We need bookstores to help us sell books to the ultimate consumer. We need wholesalers and distributors to help us reach those bookstores. We need media to get our message out. We need UPS and the post office to help us get our books to readers. While Ken Harper might have sold nearly 9,000 copies of his self-published book, Give Me My Father's Body: The Story of Minik, the New York Eskimo, primarily through his general store on Baffin Island, most of us don't have that kind of outlet. We must rely on others. Personally I am glad I don't have to get out on the street corner to sell my book direct. I can sell far more copies by working through bookstores, the Internet, and direct mail.
Rule 4: Share - tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
One of the things I really like about the publishing community is its general tendency toward sharing. In some industries, no one works with anyone else. No one shares. Everyone is suspicious of others. But in my experience, publishers are different. They share ideas, key contacts, procedures, and resources. I'd much rather live in this world of trust, than in some paranoid world of commerce.
Rule 5: No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
I hate politics. I hate bureaucracies. They don't have a place in most publishing houses. Yes, we have publishers and marketing directors and sales directors and editors, but we also have open lines of communications — or should have. Because some of the people who know the most about our customers are those who sell to them direct, whether by phone or by sales visit. We need to listen to these people. We need to draw them into our planning. That is one reason publishers have sales conferences with their reps — not just to pass on down their thinking about the market and audience for a book, but also to hear what the reps think about the new books. That's also why BookExpo Americacan be so important. The feedback we get from booksellers there can change the way we market a book.
Rule 6: The customer defines a job well done.
Since beginning my company, I've always made it clear to any employees that there is one firm principle when it comes to dealing with customers: The customer is always right — even when they are wrong. I would not change this rule. I still believe in it, even after 18 years in the business.
Rule 7: Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
I'm a firm believer in thinking outside the box. One of the main weaknesses of New York publishers is that almost every book they publish is marketed exactly the same way. Through the same channels, through the same media, through the same procedures. One of the great strengths of independent publishers is that they are willing to do things differently. They are even willing to fail.
Rule 8: Invent different ways of working.
Like Rule 7, this rule requires us to keep asking ourselves how we can do things better. Neither of these two rules, however, say that we can't do many things the same tried and true ways we've done other books. They simply ask us to continue challenging our assumptions. I wrote my book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, so authors and publishers wouldn't get stuck selling books in only a few ways. I wanted to give you options, because then you can be selective. Without options, you have no choice. With options, you can select the best.
Rule 9: Make a contribution every day. If it doesn't contribute, it doesn't leave the garage.
I have one basic rule I give to every one of my consulting clients and a rule that I pass on in every one of my speeches. It is this: No matter what else you do, do at least five things to market each and every one of your important books each and every day. This persistent, continual marketing push is a far better way to handle marketing than a fast and furious two-week blitz — and then on to the next book. I have found that those independent publishers who do the best are those who continue to promote their key books day after day after day.
Rule 10: Believe that together we can do anything.
There are no limits, except those you create yourself. When you feel down, when things aren't going well, when no one seems to be saying yes, that's the time to go out and find someone who will say yes. Ask others for help. Don't carry the burden alone. Create a mastermind group of advisors, friends, and co-workers who can help you through any obstacle. There is no reason ever to do it alone.
Rule 11: Invent.
And have fun. If you don't enjoy marketing your books, do something else. Why waste time doing something you don't like. Create a passion and live that.
Idea: 12
The Meaning of Success
by John Kremer
Hours from the city. A twenty-acre backyard.
Nothing to do but count snowflakes.
Define luxury for yourself.
— from a magazine ad for Lincoln Navigator
At the Buy-Books-on-the-Web Conference in 2000, I was asked to define what success meant to me. That got me to thinking. Here is a version of the answer I gave at that conference.
What does success mean to me? It means having choices, legitimate choices, real choices. It means being able to do what I want when I want. I love being able to set my own schedule, to work at my own pace, to set my own priorities.
What does success mean to me? It means being able to live where I want — which, for me, means living out in the countryside of Iowa. I don't like crowds. I hate traffic. I detest city noise. My wife and I live on a graveled country lane where we call it a traffic jam if two cars go by in the same hour. Our nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. The only noise at night is the sound of crickets and an occasional owl. The air is fresh. The stars are brilliant.
Yesterday I went walking with my dog Lisa, just as the birds were singing the sun down. Lisa scared up three pheasants who whooshed away. I love walking with Lisa. She's a mix between a golden retriever and chow. She is an incredible runner. For every mile I walk, she runs five. How could she live in a city? How could she run free even in a town? And she deserves to run free.
What does success mean to me? It means having enough money to buy the things I need and to take care of my family. I don't need a lot of money. Just enough. I make a comfortable but not extravagant living publishing books. I do just enough to make what I need. The rest of the time I do what I want. I explore new territories. I play.
When my mother was dying of cancer, I was the only one of my family who could take time off to be with her, to care for her. I spent more than a month with her. My business went on without me. I would not trade that time I had with her for anything in the world. It was an incredible time.
What does success mean to me? It means being able to help people, to make it easier for them to live their dreams. Did you know that all of marketing ultimately comes down to just one thing? Do you know what that one thing is? All of marketing is ultimately a matter of creating relationships. Making friends. I love making friends. That's why I love marketing.
One man worked all his life as a door man at a famous Atlanta hotel. He never made a lot of money. He retired recently, with just a small nest egg. But did he feel poor? No way. As he put it, you can measure a man's success by the number of friends he has made in his life. This man had a lot of friends, including people like Jesse Jackson who insisted on being greeted by this man every time he came to Atlanta. You can't buy that kind of success.
We all have to define what success means to us. In fact, that is one of the first questions I ask of any new consulting client — What is it you want to get out of publishing this book? Or this series of books? What is your goal? Where do you want to end up? These questions can only be answered if you know what success means to you.
What does success mean to you? I know what it means to me. I've just touched the tip of the iceberg. I could go on for pages about the various meanings of success, but that would be silly. You need to set your own standard of success. You should do it now. Probably the worst mistake beginning publishers make is that they have no such definition. Without it, you have no guiding light, no standard by which to judge the actions you take or the options you have.
Sit down today and answer this question for yourself. It could make all the difference in the world. What does success mean to you?
There is only one success — to be able to spend your life in your own way.
— Christopher MorelySuccess to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each one.
— Barbara StreisandThe ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.
— Leontyne Price
Ideas: 13 to 20
About the Author:The Passionate Reader's Guide
by Alfred Glossbrenner and Emily Glossbrenner(summary and comments by John Kremer)
About the Author by Alfred Glossbrenner and Emily Glossbrenner, is a reader's guide to more than a hundred English and American authors, primarily novelists. If you love books, you'll like the authors' stories and recommendations. They devote two pages to each author, primarily focussing on the person's biography and major titles. Every once in a while, though, a tidbit or story would spark a marketing idea. Below are a few of the stories told in the book.
13. When Terry McMillan's first novel Mama was published in 1987, her publisher only sent out press releases and review copies (their standard low-level effort for first-time authors). So Terry took the promotion into her own hands. She wrote more than 3,000 letters to bookstores, colleges, chain stores, African-American groups, and other groups asking them to stock and/or promote her book. She offered to do readings wherever they would give her space. The response was so good that she ended up doing her own book tour to 39 cities. Her efforts gained plenty of rave reviews for her book as well as two reprintings in six weeks.
Lesson: Get your authors involved in the promotions of their books. They can work wonders.
14. Donald Fine, head of Arbor House, liked Elmore Leonard's early novels so much that he decided to go all out for the book. He sent key reviewers Leonard's next novel in manuscript form, then in galley form, and finally in bound format. Each time, he accompanied the novel with a personal letter. As the focal point of his promotion, he repeated John D. MacDonald's blurb, “Who is Elmore Leonard?” Fine's efforts took Leonard from an unknown author admired by a select few to a hot discovery.
Lesson: Buzz can be created if you are committed. Word of mouth rarely starts on its own. It usually takes at least one committed person to take passive enjoyment of a few to the kind of word of mouth that really sells books.
15. Broken Moon Press published Rebecca Wells's first novel, Little Altars Everywhere, and sold 20,000 copies — a good sale for a small press. When HarperCollins reissued the novel after Wells's second novel, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, hit the big time, the book sold an additional 800,000 copies.
Lesson: First, don't be too quick to sell reprint rights to your author's books. Or, if you do, be sure to share in all on-going sales. Second, if you are the publisher of an author's second title and it sells well, look to see if you can reissue their first title to build on the name recognition you have built for them via their second title.
16. Novelist James Michener is quoted as saying, “I have only one bit of advice to the beginning writer: Be sure your first novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.” He was speaking from his own experience. Their movie of his first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, earned Michener enough money that he was able to write full time.
Lesson: Get other people involved in your book. Can you partner with any other person, company, or group who will also benefit from the promotion of your book? You can't get Rodgers and Hammerstein now, but you might be able to get Paul McCartney, Greenpeace, Quaker Oats, or Samuel Jackson to work with you in some way. Be creative. Think of ways these people or groups could get involved. The possibilities are endless, but you must appeal to their interests not yours.
17. Many of Mark Twain's books were published by subscription publishers. Before the book would be published, the publisher would get interested readers to pay in advance. When enough people paid, the book was published. Seeing how successful this method was in getting his books published, Twain published the memoirs of President Ulysses S. Grant through subscription.