Life of A Writer

Just the other day I was brainstorming unique ways I could sell books to locals. I tried to think of all the events that have taken place in my community -- events put on by politicians, store owners and others. I wondered how I could tweak their marketing ideas to sell my books to folks in my area. Then I had my "light bulb moment!" I remembered an annual event that most towns host. I knew this event would be perfect all authors. What event am I referring to? A parade of course! And just how easily can you sell your books to locals through your town's local parade? Decorate a float for the parades in your hometown and/or nearby towns. You could design a float related to your book and even have others dress up as characters from your book. In addition to the theme, your float will need a sign letting parade goers know who you are. When you create that sign for your float, include text such as local author, your name, your tag line and your website address. For example, my sign would read "Local Christian author Misti Sandefur. Inspiring With Words to Warm Your Soul. Find out more at www.mistisandefur.com."

On the day of the parade, join many of the others who throw out candy, but be different. While you'll still be keeping with the tradition by giving out candy, you could also include a bookmark, your business card and a brochure about your book. What you need to do is fill a plastic bag with candy, your bookmark, business card and the brochure. Once you've placed all of these items in the plastic bag, tie the bag so that nothing falls out when you throw it during the parade. Another idea would be to figure out a book marketing budget -- and remember, you can always write this off as a business expense on your taxes.

Now that you have a book marketing budget in mind, fill more bags, but this time fill these bags and set them aside on your float to throw to adults who don't have children with them, unless, of course, your book is a children's book, and then you'd want to throw the bag to adults with children. These bags will each include one copy of your book, and since they're for adults, instead of candy place a bookmark, your business card and a promotional item of your choice in the bag with your book. Again, if it's a book for children, substitute candy for the promotional item. By giving away a few free copies of your book, you could gain word-of-mouth advertising, which is more beneficial than any other form of advertising.

There you have it, my "light bulb moment," the one I chose to share with you, my loyal reader, so that you, too could see how easy it really is to sell your books to locals. Do you have any other bright ideas on what to include in the bags authors can throw out during a parade? How about other ideas for decorating an author float? Please share all your ideas in the comments area below.

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You can successfully market your fiction book by learning from the pros. Sure, not all of them will write articles and books that reveal their secrets, but if you take the time to research and study self-published authors who took their books to bestseller status, you'll learn a few of their secrets. Yes, I realize it takes time that you would rather spend on your own projects, but trust me, the time you take to study these successful authors may pay of for you in the long run.

By now you're probably wondering how you're supposed to research these authors to discover their secrets, right? Well, keep reading for two tips that I use to research successful fiction authors.

Google 'Em

Once you find the name of the self-published author who took their book to bestseller status, head to Google and enter their name in the search box (places quotes around their name to search the exact phrase). First, search the Web and click on the links that may lead to the authors' websites, press releases about the authors, news articles about the authors, the authors' books and/or articles and etc.. Once you've discovered those websites and read through the information, search the news section of Google for any news articles about the author as well.

Pay Them a Virtual Visit

Visit the authors' websites and browse their site for news articles about them. Many of the news articles and interviews will reveal how that self-published author marketed his/her fiction book. By reading and studying news articles written about them and the press releases related to their bestseller, you'll discover some or all of the fiction book marketing techniques they used to make their fiction book a bestseller.

As you study the news articles written about the self-published authors and the press releases related to their bestseller, write down each of the book marketing techniques they used, and then add the book marketing techniques that would work for your fiction book to your own fiction book marketing campaign.

Do you need some examples to help get you started and/or to show you what I mean? Following are a few self-published authors who took their books to bestseller status and continue to remain successful. Let's begin with sci-fi fantasy author, Steven Oliverez.

When I learned about Steven Oliverez's success, I interviewed him for Coffee Break for Writers. Then I re-sold my interview with Steven Oliverez to Associated Content. In the interview, Steven said most of his success came from word-of-mouth. He used MySpace and other social networks to connect with readers, writers and many others. He used his blog on MySpace to publish short stories he wrote. He made the stories free and asked his readers to send him feedback. By building a readership on MySpace, his debut novel, The Elder Staves, became a bestseller.

There's no doubt, my friends, that this self-published author's success story proves that word-of-mouth is -- and probably always will be -- the best way to earn an author the title of bestselling author.

Lisa Genova self-published her debut novel entitled Still Alice. Soon after she self-published the novel, she landed a six-figure advance from a traditional publisher. Before landing her advance, Lisa told Tim Wood in an interview that some of her fiction book marketing techniques included public speaking. Not only did Lisa discuss her book, but she also talked about Alzheimer’s, which relates to her debut novel. The main character in Still Alice suffers from Alzheimer’s, so it's a great topic for discussion that helped her plug her book. In addition to speaking about her book and Alzheimer's, Lisa's writes and blogs about this sad disease for the National Alzheimer’s Association.

If you think Steven and Lisa's self-published success stories are inspiring, then let me introduce you to Brunonia Barry, the final self-published author that I'll be using as an example.

Brunonia Barry and her husband self-published her fiction book The Lace Reader. Of course their fiction book marketing techniques paid off when they created so much buzz around the book that it landed Brunonia Barry a sale in a literary auction for more than two-million dollars!

Brunonia and her husband worked hard and spent over $50,000 marketing The Lace Reader to bookstores, something they were told would be difficult to do. Despite what others had told them, they managed to get the attention of a manager from The Spirit of '76 Bookstore in Marblehead. The manager of that bookstore put them in touch with store-based book clubs, and when the members of the book clubs read Brunonia Barry's book, Brunonia attended the meetings and took notes based on feedback from the readers. [Source: Boston Globe]

Now that you have an idea on how to research self-published authors who've reached bestseller status, I encourage you to begin your research and add all the fiction book marketing techniques that you come across to your own book marketing campaign.

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