Marketing Books the Hard Way or Easy Way?
By DianeSeth Godin makes a very good point in his post about “Marketing to Strangers“:
You can see the marketing problem of every business just by glancing at the plight of the typical author.
Once a year, once every other year, he has to come out of his university office/hovel/apartment/rural enclave and go on the road. He has to do Leonard Lopate and the Today show, a spate of blogs, book readings, Tedx appearances and sleep on whatever couch he can find, use whatever media will have him.
Why?
To reach strangers. To reach people who, if they only knew about the book, would gladly buy it, read it, share it, listen to it, download it.
Selling a book to friends is a totally different story. You send an email to your fans and you’re done. You blog it on your blog or tweet about it once or twice and you’re done.
Selling [a book] to strangers… that’s getting harder and harder and less effective every day.
The old model of marketing books is what Seth describes. Still, mainstream publishers are doing it–though less and less often.
It truly IS easier to sell to friends. So, where should you put your book marketing efforts?
(Hint: It’s one word, and something else I learned from Seth Godin, that I mention here.)
