Book Marketing Success Stories

[John Kremer]

This is a forum to allow people to showcase the things they've done that have worked well for them in marketing their books. Please share your stories here. Then we can all read them and learn from them. If we work together, we will all be much stronger and more successful in marketing our books.

[Ariadne Green]

I have had great success in getting articles published both online and in print. As a spiritual writer, name recognition and giving a reader a flavor of my writing and the topic seem important. It sells books. So along with my books I try to publish as many articles as I possibly can on spiritual sites and online magazines that get a lot of readers and traffic. A few places I have been published recently: religionandspirituality.com, new age journal,
I Village (where you can take a soulmate quiz I wrote) and just yesterday at the esolibris website
Esolibris, an online magazine on esoteric wisdom, put an amazon associate ad with a link to purchase my book.
Rather than continue to push my book to email subscribers, I invite them to read the published article which then directs them to Amazon to purchase my book, Divine Complement.
Writers love to write... so write articles.
Ariadne Green

[June Austin]

Will check out those sites Ariadne, as I too write spirituality. Thanks.

[Diane MacEachern]

I've had a great string of promotional successes with Big Green Purse. My publisher is Penguin, and they're doing a terrific job getting the book to bookstores and before corporate audiences who are willing to buy copies for their employees. I'm also doing a lot of radio interviews. I've had to change my sales pitch a few times to take advantage of current news stories, but that's fine with me. For example, my book focuses on ways consumers can use their money in the marketplace to protect the environment. Right now, as gas prices reach record highs, I'm focusing specifically on the gas-savings tips I've included in my book. Lots of radio shows are interested. I'm also lucky that the timing for my book has been so good. I have an environmental book out just when interest in the environment is at its peak. I'm doing eleven radio interviews today - Earth Day - and more to come the rest of this week.

[Alicia Castillo]

I self-published my first book (as a sole author) in my mother tongue, Spanish, on the topic I already have a name: business and innovation. My goal is to sell 500,000 books, which is harder in a language other than English. So, the only way to do it was by thinking large volumes in unsual ways.

I am using a system that I've used before called 'capital less funding'. with trials an errors as this is an industry unknown to me, I'm starting to get results.

Capital less funding is based on three principles:
1. Know the uses and amount of capital that you need.
2. Find natural collaborators
3. Create irresistible propositions.


1. I know that to sell half a million books in Spanish I would need to spend either a year finding an agent or US $80,000 in promotion costs (that was my calculation - please don't beat me about the number).

2. I looked at who would benefit from the success of my book, and it was MY company, and the University where I did my MBA, as well as the University where I currently teach part time (in Australia.. a book in Spanish? Hellow!). So I figured that MY goal was to sell a lot of books so then it woudl be easier to find an agent, making money on the book was secondary, YET loosing money on the book was a no-no.

3. I contacted Babson and offered them half the royalties to go specifically to an endowment fund for the fellowship I received (latin american student financial needs based) . Babson was thrilled. Then I took it further... to have a student from Babson write a great book and help promote it was completely aligned with the goal of promoting the University as well. The book is for business owners and entrepreneurs.. That is what Babson teaches. it is a match made in .. the back of my mind in Perth.

what is happening now is that I want to do a Latin American tour and we are talking about:
1. Purchasing the book for Latin American students that come to Babson on summer programs.
2. Offering the book to large banks in Latin America as corporate gifts to their clients.
3. Using Babson's alumni network in Latin America to help a book tour in those countries. ( then I need to find how we are going to pay for the trip).

Babson's benefits are inmense and so are mine.

the story is yet to continue as I am struggling to involve the National Association of Hispanic Professionals, and my efforts with the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce were not successful.

I don't know the outcome of this story, and I don't know if what I am doing will get the books selling.

I will be very interested in other's opinions and suggestions.

thanks, I mean, gracias,

Alicia

[carol stanley]

I think the best thing about this forum...is the inspiration it brings...Hearing success stories always get me going for the day...I have found in past marketing experiences two things work well...One is spending at least two hours aday at your marketing pursuits and tell everyone what you have done or are doing. I have made my best contacts this way...

[Gail Z. Martin]

I was lucky to come to publishing after over 20 years as a marketing professional, so that was a huge help. I'm a big advocate for online publicity. Last year I did a global online sneak peek for my upcoming book that involved seven genre websites around the world rolling out excerpts, interviews and giveaways on the Summer Solstice. I ended up with over 200,000 hits to my site over the following couple of weeks, and their sites benefitted also. We're doing the event again this year to debut book 3.

Press releases, a good press kit and a lively presence on social networking sites has worked really well for me. I have a very active MySpace page and now also am on Facebook and Squidoo as well as Shelfari. I just started videoblogging at Ravencon last month, and it's been fun as well as a great way to partner with other authors and publicize my tour. I've also been very pleased with the results of having a quality book trailer done by Circle of Seven Productions. Podcasting is also a great promotional tool. I do the Ghost in the Machine podcast with other fantasy authors, and that enables us to cross promote.

Live appearances have been successful, but they're expensive and draining. After doing a week-long tour in 2007, I decided to keep the bookstore signings closer to home and focus on Renaissance Festivals and conventions which work very well for me with my genre. Online appearances for writers' groups has also been successful, and I'm hoping to do more of it.

Please friend me! I just updated my profile with the podcast, videos and photos. If I can be of any help, email me--always happy to lend a hand.

[Jessica James]

I teamed up with an equine artist to bring a horse owned by the main character in my book Shades of Gray to life. This cross marketing idea has snowballed into an entire store on cafepress where you can find "Justus" t-shirts, totes, coffee mugs and other assorted gift items.

Because I've found that starving artists are a lot like starving authors, this cross promotion has worked perfectly with neither of us having to lay out any cash. The artist (Kristen Queen) takes my literature with her to art shows and equine events, sending people to my website to find out the story behind the art.

I, likewise, promote her in all my literature and advertising, sending readers to her site to buy "Justus" gifts. (Justus stands for "just us" and is the horse owned by the main character in Shades of Gray).

I am now in the process of sending out press releases about this "unique fusion of art and the written word" to newspapers, horse publications and magazines. If nothing else, it puts both of our names out there (and actually, it was tons of fun).

You can see what Justus looks like on my website www.jessicajamesbooks.com or visit the store at www.cafepress.com/kristenqueenart.

[Stacey T Pollock]

I have setup my own website with information about myself and my book and a sneak preview into my book and information about my concepts and ideas. What I have also included are free articles that I have posted to some of the free article websites which has been drawing in more poeple to my website. With the use of these small articles they are getting a taste of what my writing is about. It is only the beginning but I can see already that it is producing results.

Also through free article websites is the option for book reviews and blogs, so even if you did not want to write your own articles or setup your own website you can just review you book on these sites...there are hundreds of them. If you do not have the time to subscribe to so many sites then you could also purchase through some websites a program that does the subscription for you to all the sites at once.

Another thing that I find good if you have your own website and want to know how many people are visiting and interested in your site or book page, you can setup a google analytics page. It will show how much interest is being drawn to your site and where the interest is coming from.

Through this setup I have noticed how many people are coming from free article sites to view my website and also my book page. It has been alot of work setting it up myself but slowly rewarding.

[carol stanley]

I think what you are doing is great. What I have found out about internet marketing..(and I am no expert on the computer at all)....One things leads to another...y ou learn of a new website, you find someone towrite to, you get information and activity...It is basically about doing it everyday..Keep your name out, keep yourself revved up about marketing...I got over 1000 hits on my new website by just being active...carol stanley..www.carolstanley1.com

[Bobby Ozuna]

Chrissy:
One thing you can do to help yourself and your book project--prior to the release date(!!!)--is submit your book to various magazines, e-zines and organizations that review books prior to the books actual release to the public. Do a search on Google for book reviews and do some heavy reading...compile a list of organizations and associations that want FREE copies of the book to review and start sending them out. Another thing you can do is try to contact Top Reviewers on Amazon and even submit blog information, detailing how readers can get FREE copies for reviewing. Be aware however, that just because you send readers free copies does NOT mean they are under any obligation to review them on Amazon.com, B&N.com, etc... Doing this will (depending upon your book) spite just enough interest to get people wishing or wanting your book before the release date.
Lastly, you can try holding a virtual book release party...create an event (Use Facebook.com, MySpace.com, etc) to schedule the book's release--let's say, on Amazon.com--and get subscribers, friends and readers of your blog to note the date and time...then when the book comes out, you can have some instantaneous sales!!!
I hope this helps a bit...

~Bobby Ozuna
"Drawing Stories...With Words"

[Lara Green]

hello all,
I wanted to remind everyone about using personalized magnets----as a part of your campaign. They can be made the size you like, with all the information for people to remember the details. I heard of them being used on the table at a book signing; she sold more books online later as well as in store.

for fridge, cars or water coolers.....magnets

[carol stanley]

It is difficult to tell exactly what works...I just do stuff everyday...Call radio stations, blog, comment, write articles, call bookstores, look for venues to speak...It is daily activity and tenacity that hopefully will pave the way to some significant sales.