How to Market Your Book or Product by Deborah Dolen Author Part I of III Parts

How to Market Your Book or Product by Deborah Dolen Author

As an author of 29 books I am frequently asked how to market a book or product.  Almost everyone I run into has a great project, book, or product but very little clue as to how to really get it out there.  And sadly, people who claim to be able to do that for them for a "price" or "fee," only to see little results except a reduction in their bank balance.  

I am writing this on July 4th, 2015 and perhaps poetic because it is Independence Day in the United States!  It is my hope you find your independence in this article if it solves some of your biggest questions, primarily  "How to Market a Book Already Written?" or even "How to Market a Product" because the answer - you will find in my article, is generally the same.  If you want to thank me, retweet this giving me credit, via Deborah Dolen twitter  and/or post excerpts on your blogs with a link back to this work.  Also join this venue and hit the "like" button because I am going to talk about this LinkedIn venue also as being very helpful and why.  You can also like this article on Facebook and/or bookmark it!  Many people want to know how to get their work on the Internet (almost everybody) and this in-depth article will surely show how to do that.  I will also be teaching this at my local church, and clubs I am involved in - so I will be using this article as my basic guideline and continuously adding to the information.  If I am gifted at anything it is "the gift of industry" and I try to share it.  Too many people think if they cannot get a "9-5" they are of no value, and this could not be further from the truth.  

A few years ago I was a Bestselling author on Amazon, in the DIY division and I have written 29 books, created several "how to" DIY videos on Amazon Instant (that matched the content of a few of the books) and churned out thousands of articles related to "How to" and "DIY." My seven video demo's alone on YouTube enjoy almost half a million views, and I signed on with Barnes and Noble in 2012 where my books are still being converted and populated.  I am also on Amazon UK, Amazon France, and most recently Amazon Spain and Germany.  After a decade of learning the Internet, I am asked on a daily basis - how I did it?  For aspiring authors, or even product sales - this really breaks down into two different articles - one being "How to Write a Book or Break into Writing as a Career" and the other "How to Market a Book Already Written? Or a product already created?" A product so great the world wants it but does not know it yet!  Example of a Mobile Page - Deborah Dolen Mobile:

This article will focus on the later, "How to Market a Book Already Written" because my target reader has generally invested a lot of time in writing a book but not sure how to get it out there or give it new life.  Many concepts can also apply to simply "how to market my product on the Internet?"  and I have umpteen friends in that category also.  I will write about "How to Break into Writing as a Career" later, but I will drop some key pointers in this article about that topic also.  Additionally I will also continue to add and revise this article as new tactics arise and some fall in the world of Internet marketing. So, every few months I will revise this entire text.  Knowing me, (fairly well) this will probably be an excerpt at some point to a real book.  There is a lot to say about how to market your book or product! But it is confusing with SO MANY platforms out there now on the internet.

The bottom line is I became very successful on the Internet, but not originally for reasons of seeking fortune or fame. Three years ago I was only trying to protect my personal name and author pen name from two horrible women that were using my name(s) on their web sites, then trying to libel my name(s) more (post lawsuit)  - and trying to permanently label me in a bad way on the net.  I found out only recently they were hired by an ex-lover after I cancelled our wedding.  I cancelled our wedding because I found out he was a devout atheist and was pretending to be a Christian to hook up with me.  I just started having Grand Children and I sure do not want my legacy on the Internet to be written by power hungry losers.  I had a lot of great content (off web at that time) and decided to share some of that to help protect my name.  I reasoned people would rather read a good recipe any day than to read evil lies and trash.  Well, theoretically!  :)   The search engines love evil lies and trash because it translate into clicks!  And clicks translate into dollars.  I never won the lawsuit because it was thrown out just before a Jury could deliberate.  I could not prove anonymous ownership of the worst site-but I sure had the right people. Inadvertently my sales began to really pick up and I learned a LOT about SEO.

The reader I want to attract is never into hurting others as a past time. Some people only derive a sense of power from hurting others because they have nothing else to offer anyone. Or in my case, a way to control me long after I left the relationship.  Give them a keyboard and they can seriously ruin some lives.  Let's return to how to the purpose of this article, How to Market Your Book or Product...

Make Sure Your Content or Product is Popular and Has Longevity

This actually goes in the "How to Break Into Writing Category" but I will repeat it here.  If you noticed, all of my books and videos were designed to be always in style.  They discuss essentially short term vocational skills that should always help people advance.  You may have the next Stephen King type novel, and horror will always be in style.  Most writing is entertainment and the worse an economy becomes, the more people demand a distraction and they will turn to books and film. The only writing that is probably not in demand is something that has long passed interest to the general public.  One example could be the pet rock - if you even remember that era.  You can always go on Amazon and see how much competition is out there for your idea, product or book topic or find out if that market is very saturated.  This is where I go to figure out potential popularity of a concept and/or if an area is saturated. I also read the reviews carefully to see what kind of audience that area or topic attracts?  

"One Product" Theory - My BEST advice I Have to Offer

Since I am on the topic of Amazon, I will say I learned the "one thing" or "one product" theory on Amazon. 

I used to make a huge line of natural products and orders became very hard to fill a year later when all of those various products became popular as a "line of products."  I was all over the place trying to make a little soap for one order, a little face mask for another, and hand creme for another.  I could have been far more successful if all my previous marketing, sales and time went into marketing just ONE product and expanded on that one product later with more products. 

It would also be easier to fill just one product or take a loss if the idea never generated a profit.  This is because I did not invest as much as  I would with several products.  When I narrowed my entire line down to a natural liquid soap that was part of the range...I made more income and had far less stress and expenses.  Note: I picked one of my products that few people would want to bothering copying because it was the hardest and took the most effort.  Making a natural liquid soap is like making wine, and it takes time and patience.  So I re-focused all of my resources there.  It used to be whatever I was teaching and selling, suddenly everyone was selling that item (candles, soap, lip balm) and I would loose revenue after awhile.  But let's get back to how I figured this out...because it may refine your plans and help you focus better.

One day I was looking at Amazon's 100 best selling beauty products and in

position #30 or so (means they sell a LOT of that one product) was "Egyptian Miracle Cream" and it was at that moment I understood to pare everything I ever created down to one good product and throw all of my resources at that one product.  I looked further at this company and it really did not have any other products - and it was not really even a company.  It was just a cute label, a little "story" and a lot of reviews. I cannot even say the packaging was great, other than "different" and "mysterious."  I am positive the actual ingredients were not that great as I am a botanist and organic chemist.

So honing in one just one of your best ideas and putting all of your energy there can often be liberating as well as exponentially increase your chances of success in your target area.  If that works, then you can add umpteen complimentary products-prudently.  Books are VERY different!  A customer generally will not buy a fiction book unless they see a new or aspiring author has a series. Why? Because they fear if they love the book there is no "nest" book to read next.  So I often encourage a new author of one good book to go ahead and get to writing #2 and #3.

Develop a Strong Profile and Blog

I cannot emphasize enough that this is where your first impression is usually made.  Spend time on a fascinating 300 to 600 word description of you and/or your product and invest in dynamite photo enhancements of you and/or your product.   The more content the better.  Pay people a few dollars to do re-writes, photo touch ups, and or editing.  A picture does say a thousand words.  Here is an example of how I had my best photo touched up. If you saw the actual photo you would see a pile of dishes behind me that had to be washed!  Notice the background is powerful and makes a statement.  The entire photo is powerful and can be used for almost any book or product. Now look at this photo below--I took the same photo and themed the background more for the October article it appeared in.  Again, I only paid $5 for the back ground swaps, and this was actually cheaper than taking a whole new photo by far.  Note, I also could have changed the color of my shirt if that is what I wanted to do.

Hello Fiverr Dot Com

Before I go much further you will begin to state and ask: "I do not know how to do all of this stuff.  How do I find skilled people to do all of these small jobs?"  My answer, initially was sharing and bartering, because I did not have a lot of extra cash after the Florida real estate crash in 2007.   Then I came across Fiverr.com where you can purchase small jobs for $5 from many talented individuals.  It was not long before I hired people for $5 a job to 1) Edit my books, 2) convert my books to eBooks 3) Drop a background to a photo 4) Enhance the back ground of a photo 5) Set up sites I did not want to learn like powerful Word Press 6) Create editorial reviews 7) Create basic press releases 8) Issue actual Press Releases around the web 9) Give me a second opinion on my work 10) Do some web site html work I did not want to do 11) Post or broadcast my work on platforms I did not understand like Digg, Reditt and Delicious and the list of "power" you can draw from Fiverr is truly limitless.  In my early days a few Fiverr vendors put me on Amazon Dot Com because I did not know how to create an account or load my book onto the Amazon platform.  I will discuss what platforms to be on later in this writing.  There are many sites that are like Fiverr, but I have been sticking with the original concept makers.

You are Selling You

If you have not figured it out yet - you are not selling a book or a product, typically you are selling YOU.   I cannot think of any literary bestsellers or products that at some point in "its" success did not default back to who the actual author or creator was.  If you think you are not that interesting, then why would you think your work will be?  Ask a few of your friends and they will point out things they feel interesting about you.  Even if they are small attributes - amplify them 1,000 times in a photo or a good write up.  For example, maybe you are not that interesting but maybe the town you grew up in or near - is of interest.  I grew up near Amityville NY, but I am not into writing horror books either.  If I was, you bet I would emphasize that town in all of my text-even if I just "passed through" that town!   

I used to speak at seminar's and command a few thousand dollars for a three day series per person.  It was about how to market yourself or product.  Students would say "I just do not know how to sell myself" and I would simply ask "Well, you are married are you not?"  And they would smile.  They knew how to sell.   

Stephen King lives not far from me in Florida.  He is extremely ordinary in daily shopping and movie going - local activities we do near Sarasota, FL.  But on the Internet, and if you ask him he "is the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries!" And it is TRUE!!!  His book "The Shining" was so genius and so different, Stephen King put the "E" in the word entertainment and the "H" in the word Horror.  The movie "Cary" was also written by Stephen King and definitely touched me as a teenager.  But in the end, all of his work came back to who HE was and he had a good profile already in play for who HE was. I guess what I mean is that his work became very well known before he did.  But when the spot light was cast onto him, he was ready!  Needless to say I checked out "how" his official web site was laid out as I did mine years ago.

Kid Rock is another great example of self promotion.  I found his story fascinating and learned so much.  Unlike King, Rock could not get people interested in his work at first.  He had to really grasp onto what his image was, ignore the nay sayers and pay people to say he was great.  Basically.  I was very moved by Kid Rocks self invention and commitment that initially offered a few years of set backs and disappointments. Kid Rock finally met his goals and then exceeded them-still managing, like Steven King, to be a normal and giving person post fame.    

Be on the Important Platforms

Once you have your background "aura" set, get your book photo and solid description or product on platforms like  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and SmashWords. 

Most platforms accept .ePub as a common conversion - so aim to have your work converted to ePub.  For years I have written most of my material in Word which is .doc or docx.  When I desired to go on the various platforms it became confusing very quickly as to what format is generally acceptable, how to convert Word docs over and then the obvious, what program should I write my future material in?  Amazon and Barnes and Noble have made this FAR FAR easier to convert from almost anything the last few years.  

Back to Developing a Strong Blog and Profile...

The outlets above are what  I call "final platforms."   You may have an actual web page that is one "final platform" where a sale is actually made for yourbook or yourproduct.com .

All final platforms need support pages, more so if you want your final platform to rank for its specific keywords.  This could also be called "back links" but I like to consider it more varied than just one link pointing to another.  Blogs are great for support pages (back links.)  Many blogs, however, can just sit there and look pretty.  At best they provide a back link and protection of your name or brand if you secure it first.  Backlinks help you site or keyword move up in the search engines and this is what you want to have happen.

Where Should I Secure My First Blog Then?

Hello LinkedIn  And I like WordPress also.   I am on just about any blog platform you can think of.  Unless you already have a following or friends on Blogger / BlogSpot I would not consider that my first choice.  My Blogger / BlogSpot pages never move and stay usually on page two slot nineteen of a search for me or a keyword I am trying to promote, even after years.  I do not think it would matter if I had a photo of me naked and setting myself on fire that those Blogger / BlogSpot pages will ever move.  Plus I cannot always sign in or leave my own comments because behind the scenes are down a lot.  Still, have some Blogger / BlogSpot page - if not just to own your own name or brand name protection for free and of some back link value.

LinkedIn  is now my favorite platform because it is the only platform that after I write (something decent) it gets indexed right away in the search engines-usually in 24 hours.  

Click here for Part II by Deborah Dolen