Do you know everybody can sell at least 100 books with just a little effort?
And each book that you sell goes on to do its own marketing, making people recommend it after they’ve read it, causing a continuous chain of sales.
Build your network:
Selling to your first circle of influence is how you sell those first 100 books. Your family, friends and colleagues fall into this category. You can directly reach them and pitch your book to them. In most cases, people feel uncomfortable at the thought of asking their friends to buy their book, but you’ll mostly find that once people find out that you’ve written a book and they hear a description, they’ll be intrigued enough to buy it, so no overt selling is required.
And it is vital to let your contacts know that you’ve published a book because they form the first link in your networking, then they introduce you to the people they know, allowing you to form an ever-expanding base of contacts.
Apart from this, they also act as your first source of feedback. The high of getting a book published always makes us blind to a few mistakes here and there in the book. Using the reviews and inputs that you get from them can help you fix all those minor errors that would have slipped past in the first edition.
Here’s an action plan:
- Make a list of every single contact you have. Friends, family, associates, alumni, colleagues, etc.,
- Craft a mail to let them know you’ve published a book.
- The mail should include a banner/ poster with your book cover, where the title is prominently displayed, and the blurb of your book along with the link to buy your book.
Identify key contacts in your mailing list, people who have a big presence on the social media and send them a personalized mail asking them to spread the word about your book.