Open Tips : Book Marketing Tips : Never (ever) Sell Your Book

Never (ever) Sell Your Book

By Penny C. Sansevieri | Open Tips

So you're all ready to promote your book. You've got a great press kit, a polished bio, and a letter-perfect press release. Now you're ready to sell, sell, sell, right? Wrong. One of the biggest mistakes authors make is selling their books. Remember it's not about the book, it's about what the book can do for the reader.

Finding the benefits to your book might seem like a pretty simple task and touting that "It's a great read!" won't get you very far. To determine what your book will do for your reader, you'll have to dig deep, sometimes deeper than you thought. Especially if your book is fiction, this task of finding benefits will require some serious brainstorming. The key here is, be different. If you have a diet book, don't offer the same benefits a million other books do: you'll lose weight. Instead, offer a benefit that is decidedly different than anything that's out there. Or, try to couch a similar benefit in a different way. At the end of the day, it's all about the WIIFM factor: what's in it for me. If your reader likes what's in it for them, they'll buy your book - otherwise they'll just move on.

The idea of not selling your book also holds true when you're doing an interview. Never, ever answer an interviewers question with: "You'll find it in my book." Because the fact is you're an author, of course the answer is in your book, but right now you're there to help them with their interview, save the sales pitches for another time.

The uniqueness of your benefits can also directly relate to the particular audience you're speaking to. For example if you have different levels of readers or readers from different backgrounds, it's a good idea to work up a set of benefits for each of them, that way any interview you do (or speaking engagement) will offer benefits with the audience in mind as opposed to a more generic form of "Here's what my book can do for you!" Creating a list of benefits for your book can aid your campaign in a number of ways, first it'll help you get away from a more "salesy" type of approach and second, it will help you create the tip sheets that can help add substance to your press kit. If you're working on the benefit angle of your book early enough, you can incorporate these into the back copy of your book.

The point is, never, ever sell your book, be a step ahead of the competition and sell what your book can do for the reader and let them know why it's better than the competition. In the end, that's all anyone will care about.

About the Author:

Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed
the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the "roadmap to publishing success." Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright ã 2005 Penny C. Sansevieri

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