On Writing: Marketing Post Number Eight

Today we’ll discuss several of the more expensive ways to promote your books. Remember, I’ve said it takes money to make money, and when you promote and market yourself, it does take bucks.

How many bucks you want to invest in your marketing strategy depends on your financial situation. Mine is quite limited, but here are three techniques that have worked for me over the years:

1. Rent vendor’s space at conventions, conferences, or gatherings of like-minded folk. One of the best places I’ve sold books is at the annual PA state homeschool convention held every May for two days in a huge hall with over 150 vendors. Yes, the vending fee is expensive, and each year I just about break even, but as I’ve said before, “exposure is the key to successful book sales.” Thousands of homeschoolers attend this event every year. Usually, if families buy one or two books, they come back for more the next year or buy others online or at book stores. One year, even with the poor economy, I sold 200 books at the homeschool convention over a two-day period. I’ve also had vending space at craft fairs and “horsie” events, most with reasonable vending fees, which paid off in the long run.

2. Offer special deals with your book sales. I have all kinds of special deals. These three are the most popular:
a. If a set of two or more books are bought, I can tie them together with binder twine (used on hay bales) or ribbon and bow at Christmas time and include a free bookmark and a tiny plastic horse party favor tied onto the front of the set. I also void the state tax (which I cover).

b. If a set is bought, I’ll include a gift like a 3″ horse model, a calendar with all horse pictures, or koozies with “KEYSTONE STABLES” and a horse emblem embedded on it.

c. If any four books are purchased, the fifth one is free.

3. Buy ad space in magazines. This venue I’ve used very little except in local craft fair booklets or regional homeschool ad books. I can handle $25 or $50 per quarter of a page, but horse lovers’ magazines? Writers’ magazines? Farm or ranch magazines? Kids’ magazines? They start at $300 per quarter page, $1200 for a full page, which is far beyond what my budget can afford, so I stick with the “small stuff.”

So there you have it. Decide how much money you want to invest in making money and get busy.

Next time, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of self publishing.
Marsha Hubler
Best-selling Author of the Keystone Stables books
(Web) www.marshahublerauthor.com
(Writers Tips)
www.marshahubler.wordpress.com
(Writers Conference Information)
www.montrosebible.org
(Horse Facts Blog)
www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

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On Writing: Marketing Post Number Seven

I’ve had several writers ask me about “local” marketing and what are some effective methods to use to promote yourself and your book(s) locally.

Of course, marketing this way involves a lot of bucks, legwork, phone calls, and time that you’d rather spend on writing. Nevertheless, to get your name out there, here are a few suggestions that have worked for me:

1. As soon as your book is released, contact all the local newspapers. Newspapers are usually VERY eager to write an article about local authors and their books. When the first two books in my Keystone Stables series came out, the local newspaper sent a reporter AND a photographer to my home and did a nice lengthy article about me. After that interview, the reporter joined our local critique group!
After my other books came out, I’ve written my own articles and have provided my own photograph every time I had a new book released. I found out who did that genre of reporting for the newspaper and submitted the press release via email to that person with these words typed at the top of the page:
READY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The paper has always printed within days the article I sent them almost word for word.

2. Unfortunately, it takes money to make money. Although I don’t have “money” in that sense of the word, I’ve spent quite a lot buying my own books (which you have to do whether you self publish or royalty publish) and giving them away to promote myself. I’ve given books to:
a. All local libraries – WITHOUT autographing the books. A librarian told me once not to sign the books because they’d be stolen because of the autograph.
b. Leaders of churches, clubs, or organizations that would like your book. I give my prayer Bible study guide to every missionary wife who visits our church. Talk about worldwide exposure!
c. Give books to your target clientele. When a new family visits our church, the children get a free book from me. I also usually carry a book with me when I go to a restaurant or grocery store. If I see a kid who’s in my target age group, I introduce myself, give the adult my business card, and give the child the book. (Yes, it hurts the pocketbook, but often the family buys more of my books because the kids love the ones I give them.)

So, there are a few ideas to get you going locally with your book marketing. In the next post, I’ll continue with a few more ideas. Keep on writing, and keep on trucking!

Marsha Hubler
Best-selling Author of the Keystone Stables books
(Web) www.marshahublerauthor.com
(Writers Tips)
www.marshahubler.wordpress.com
(Writers Conference Information)
www.montrosebible.org
(Horse Facts Blog)
www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

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On Writing: Marketing Post Number Six

Before I took a social networking class to learn how to start and manage blogsites and “connect” to promote my books, I spent little time online trying to market my books.  My royalty publishing companies did most of the work, which included posting my books on Amazon and getting the books reviewed. So, I took quite a long time to make some plans of my own to get the word out.

One thing I did that proved to be very successful was contact Choice Books, the Christian book distributor that is responsible for placing Christian books in all Wal-Marts, hospital gift shops, truck stops, and other similar places of business in much of the northeastern USA. Choice Books picked up my books for over a year, and that attributes a LOT to the 250,000 sales of this series.

A little background on how this all happened: When my first two Keystone Stables books were released, I naively went to our local Wal-Mart and asked to speak to the manager. Of course, I had this big spiel ready to try to convince him to place my books on his shelf. What I was expecting was for him to tell me that I had to contact the store’s headquarters in Arkansas. Remember, I said I was naive?

He told me that Wal-Mart is not responsible for placing any books on their shelves. That decision is made by the distributors, the Christian books done by Choice Books. Okay, I got it and left red-faced.

I went home, went to Choice Books website, and emailed the company, telling them about my books.(Unfortunately, Choice Books no longer accepts proposals from authors. Rather, the publishing company must approach Choice Books.)

Well, miracle of miracles, shortly thereafter, I started to see my books on the shelves of Wal-Marts and gift shops up and down the northeast coast. How did I know the books were in more than our local Wal-Marts? Friends and relatives were telling me they saw them on the shelves.

Wal-Mart carried my books for a little over a year, which thrilled me and helped make the first one a best seller. Every time I went to any Wal-Mart anywhere, I hunted out my books, autographed them, and placed an “AUTOGRAPHED COPY” sticker on the front of each one. Ask me if that was exciting. You bet cha!

I did some research and found that in K-Mart and some large stores in other parts of the country, a company named Anderson does the Christian book distribution. I also contacted that distributor, but to no avail. They never returned my email, snail mail letter, or phone call.

But I am pleased to say that one email to Choice Books helped get my books a place on some frequently visited shelves for over a year, and for that I am quite grateful.

Marsha Hubler
Best-selling Author of the Keystone Stables books
(Web) www.marshahublerauthor.com
(Writers Tips)
www.marshahubler.wordpress.com
(Writers Conference Information)
www.montrosebible.org
(Horse Facts Blog)
www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

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On Writing: Marketing Post Number Five

Marketing your book(s) can be a very expensive endeavor, especially hard copy printing of advertisements and promotion.One way you can save bigtime is to buy some quality cardstock and design your own “paper trail” using a desktop graphics and print shop program. I’ve designed and used all of the following:
1. Flyers/posters to hand to book store managers. If you’re fortunate enough that the store carries your books, the manager is usually willing to display your attractive posters somewhere in the store.
2. Brochures to have on your table when you do book signings or speaking engagements or to mail to prospective fans. Make sure the brochure has your name, address, phone number, and email address on it.
3. Order forms: I include an order form in my brochure, which features all the books’ covers with a short blurb about each one.
4. Business cards to “scatter abroad.” (I’ve already discussed in a previous Marketing Post  how to use business cards effectively both directly and indirectly such as leaving a card with your tip at a restaurant and/or including a card with a paid bill if you still pay the bill with a check via snailmail.)
5. Your own letterhead for stationery that features you as an author and, maybe, a graphic of your book cover.

All these “paper” marketing ideas require little time and a lot of creativity to produce attractive “ads” to promote you and your book.

So, jump on the self-publishing band wagon and get your name in print in all these different venues. You’ll be surprised how effective this type of campaign can be.

Marsha Hubler
Best-selling Author of the Keystone Stables books
(Web) www.marshahublerauthor.com
(Writers Tips)
www.marshahubler.wordpress.com
(Writers Conference Information)
www.montrosebible.org
(Horse Facts Blog)
www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com

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