BY DIANE JORTNER
Social: Pertaining or devoted to friendly companionship with others1
Marketing: total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer to the buyer2
Author: composer of a literary work3
About thirty-five years ago, I spend a winter marketing books. I trudged from door to door with several volumes in my big black case. When I found someone home, I tried to make friends. I spoke with them about their families, their hopes for their children, the lack of easy access to information. Only after creating a connection did I lug out my shiny, leather bound green and cream A and C copies of The World Book Encyclopedia. I did my best to convince my new friends that this 27 volume set (plus the yearly updates) would make their children shine in school and prepare them take on law school, med school or international politics.
Although I had never written an entry into those books, I felt like they were worlds. As a young person, I had spent hours and days (possibly even weeks or months) devouring their pages and marveling over the plastic human body transparencies and fun facts about exotic places like Madagascar and Greenland. I loved these books, and my “target market” knew it.
Today we have many ways to “make friends” besides sloshing through the snow, but face-to-face marketing should not be a forgotten art. In addition to commenting on writers’ and reviewers’ blog posts, logging reviews on Goodreads, maintaining and following Pinterest boards, and responding to tweets, writers still need to meet flesh-and-bones people.
A few rules to consider:
Rule 1. Be social, although it is tempting to spend your entire winter hibernating in your cabin, writing away on your novel and never stepping out. No distractions, no obligations, another 10,000 words! Resist! Be it PTA, Lions club, yoga class, poker, Walk-for-Life, old car shows, or the game with work pals, go. Experience life. It will provide fodder for your books.
If you can’t stay away from writing, go anyway and bring your pen (or smartphone) and jot down the quirky saying or describe the Chicago hot dog. You will find a great place to include it in one of your stories. But the most important reason to get out is that if do, you will meet people.
And any person you meet is a potential buyer.
Rule 2. Listen. Listen to what other around you talk about. What are the issues excite or rile them? What activities excited them? What books are people reading? On what social networks are they engaged? In spite of what some want us to believe, we can’t learn everything on the Internet. What can you learn from every conversation? What social issues buzz along the interweb?
Rule 3. Tell people about your book.During that dreaded small-talk-requisite first few minutes of any conversation, don’t be shy. Tell people what you do. Tell them you write entertaining books. Let them see your excitement. It is catching. Watch their responses. Of course, some will be dismissive, but many will look at you with admiration. I have met many who have not written anything longer than a grocery list since they got out of high school. Such people might look at you as a god. Once you find an interested audience, sell. Offer them something, something tangible to help them remember you, to remember your conversation, to remember your book.
Or better yet, sell on the spot—carry a few copies of your book in your car! If someone says they’d like to read your book, jump on it. “I happen to have a copy in my car. Who do you want me to sign it for?” If you don’t have physical copies, carry a business card with an image of your book on the front and your personal contact and purchasing information, Facebook, Twitter, website, blog, and email address on the back.
If you don’t have a card, you still have three choices.
A. The low-tech approach: pull out an index card and write your book title and where they can find it.
B. The brazen approach: ask them to open their smartphone and pull up Amazon or whatever site carries your book. Show it to them and show how easy it is to order by pressing the “buy instantly” button.
C. The best approach to build future buyers: ask for an email address. Write their email addresses on phone or business card. As soon as possible, send a nice note with a one-step button, so your new social contact just needs to point and click to order your book. The best thing about this email approach is now you have their email, and when the sequel comes out (and it will), you send out a blanket email to all your contacts. That will allow your most loyal fans to be the first to know and buy your new book. When they write a review, it will show you as a verified buyer, the best kind!
4. Be sincere. Be open to helping others on whatever quest they are on. If they need a beta reader, be one. If they need a speaker at a conference, show up on time with donuts. If someone needs help with a blog tour, volunteer. Making real friends in the industry is not only fun, but it will pay off in book sales.
In today’s publishing environment, consumers do not have to cough up $286.00 on a set of books, which also require a $150.00 new bookshelf. Readers just need to be enticed to push a little button on their computer and commit to an extra $4.99 charge on their next month’s credit card bill. They might just need a little nudge from a “friend.”
Social Media Specialist Diane Lee Jortner fell in love with the media as a high school newspaper editor. With BA in Journalism/Public Relations from Bowling Green State University and a MALS in English from Valparaiso University, she brings her fifteen years’ experience teaching English Composition and her extensive personal social networking experience to The X Team.
In the past year, Diane launched Kids #5 and #6 who graduated from college, #6, the youngest from high school, written a YA mystery novel, and started to blog. In her free time, besides reading almost all types of fiction, she likes to travel with her husband and children.
1, 2, 3: Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved August 13, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com back to top