Best Seller Authors

Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Resources

Marketing Book Review: “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”

I was prepping for a class teaching online book marketing and came across David Meerman Scott’s “The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing * online media to reach buyers directly”… and since I haven’t posted a review, thought it would be appropriate to share it here.

The book came out last year, and uses numbers from 2006, but there isn’t anything in the book that wouldn’t be appropriate for authors to put into action right now. As Scott admits at the end of the book “I don’t expect you to implement all of this as I haven’t myself.” I admit the same. There is a lot to keep up with to market today.

The key point Scott makes in “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” is that we should not be pitching media for coverage. There are millions of bloggers, social networking leaders, and other who are already having discussions on your topic. All of them need content, and once you start getting a reputation online, the traditional media will find you in search engines.

The recommend actions for an authors wanting to become a best seller online are much like I talk about here.  I’ve summed these up in terms of author promotion, but companies are advised to do the same things.

  1. Get a blog and post quality content
  2. Comment on other blogs
  3. Issue press releases designed to be read by your readers
  4. Make sure you are present on social networking sites.

If you have a background in PR or marketing, you’ll especially like the Scott’s frame of reference. The book is written in a style that anyone can follow. The examples show how many authors, bloggers and companies have found new readers, launched products, increased sales and made best sellers.

Do these an you will see more traffic, readers and sales of your book.  Post a comment here and let me know how you are planning on getting more web presence, or ask a quesition about book marketing so I can answer

Is It Okay To Sell Your Books?

I just received an email message from a PR person that wanted to drag me into an online discussion on the validity of best seller book marketing campaign.

I responded here

So typical of PR people. They want to follow some sort of rule in a marketplace that they can no longer control (not that they ever really could).

Do leads and subscribers you get from best seller campaigns work? Well, I get most of my new client that way, so I suppose I have some valid opinion on the subject.

Many of the authors (including some big names) do a lousy jog of taking care of new subscribers. You buy a book, give up your name see a bunch of offers and get tired really quick. Why type in your email address over and over?

In fact, most people don’t fill out all the registrations.. they just don’t want every gift. This is a good thing! It means that they readers that have just invested in a book on a subject, now are choosing you if they sign up for your mailing list.

This is your chance to shine. To give real value, and follow up with your new reader/prospect. They chose you, raised there hand, and said they were interested.

Should you mail a cross promotion on every book you get. NO WAY!

Be selective. Build strong relationships by telling your readers what you think is a good find for them. They will respect you for it and keep reading.

Book launch best seller campaigns should be one part of your marketing plans. Build reciprocity with the good authors you meet by telling your list about their books. (the Kevin Eikenberry post here is a example of this… I don’t post it to shill.. he’s an author I worked with last year, he called last week and I love what he’s doing.. will I make money from working with him?  I sure hope so, I want to hang out with this genius.)