What gets me is the blank empty stares I get from people when I tell them my book is published. I don't think there are many readers anymore. If anyone out there has any idea as to how I can better market my book please contact me
Thinking About Writing a Book......
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Take boxes of books to pipe shows, pipe club meetings, trucker conventions, Harley rallies, bang a loud drum until someone interviews you, then beat it louder, shake hands, kiss babies...
There used to be a day when an artist, writer, musician would know when they "made it." Galleries are consignment shops that no longer promote specific artists, record labels and publishers are hard pressed to promote "risks" and stick to well known names. Now, its up to the individual to promote themselves. We have the internet, but the days of big name publishers, "pushers" driving the markets with new names is gone.
Bang a big drum!
It can be done.
There used to be a day when an artist, writer, musician would know when they "made it." Galleries are consignment shops that no longer promote specific artists, record labels and publishers are hard pressed to promote "risks" and stick to well known names. Now, its up to the individual to promote themselves. We have the internet, but the days of big name publishers, "pushers" driving the markets with new names is gone.
Bang a big drum!
It can be done.
If you know the history with the OP you realize this train has sailed. As for you pipetraveler, glad to hear you successfully put pen to paper for that long (or at least fingers to keyboard). No idea on marketing but I wish you the best with it. Sounds like an interesting read. You got it in digital copy too?
pipetraveler wrote:
"I don't think there are many readers anymore."
There are. That's why the magazine racks are still full of magazines, publishers release over 70,000 new titles every year (and that's in the US alone), and the text-only Amazon Kindle continues to sell incredibly well. If there were no readers, there would be no blogs, no Internet journalism, no content providers.
But this isn't 20 years ago, either. I make my living as a full-time freelance writer, and I've seen the marketplace change dramatically in just the last 15 years. I've published (through traditional publishers) five nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. But in the last five years, my publishers have sold twice as many digital copies of my books than they have sold printed copies. That's a remarkable shift. But it not only points to how people are consuming the written word these days; it points to how we as writers need to reach those people. Because being a successful writer is only 30% about the writing -- and 70% about the marketing.
I noticed that your book currently has two customer reviews on Amazon. Unfortunately, both are poorly written; despite their kind words, they really aren't helping you. I'd encourage you to ask all of your friends/acquaintances who have read your book to post a review on Amazon. If you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to pitch excerpts from it to Pipes & Tobaccos magazine, if appropriate. You should be an active participant on every forum that has anything to do with pipe smoking. Your book should be mentioned in your signature here, as well as part of the auto-signature in every personal e-mail you send out. If appropriate, you should consider pitching excerpts from your book to trucking magazines. And you should be leaving a free copy at every B&M pipe shop you can find, encouraging the owners to read it and to stock copies. (At the very least, you should also make sure P&T magazine has a review copy.) If your community has a local newspaper, you should write up a press release -- if you don't already have one -- and pitch yourself as a worthy interview subject regarding your new book.
In short, if you want your book to sell, you have to sell it. And that applies whether you're paid for your work by a traditional publisher or you pay to self-publish.
ADDENDUM: I just read the opening of your book on the Amazon site. I don't think the content would work well as a magazine excerpt. But I do think you should definitely pursue the local-newspaper PR as well as the additional Amazon reviews.
Bob
"I don't think there are many readers anymore."
There are. That's why the magazine racks are still full of magazines, publishers release over 70,000 new titles every year (and that's in the US alone), and the text-only Amazon Kindle continues to sell incredibly well. If there were no readers, there would be no blogs, no Internet journalism, no content providers.
But this isn't 20 years ago, either. I make my living as a full-time freelance writer, and I've seen the marketplace change dramatically in just the last 15 years. I've published (through traditional publishers) five nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. But in the last five years, my publishers have sold twice as many digital copies of my books than they have sold printed copies. That's a remarkable shift. But it not only points to how people are consuming the written word these days; it points to how we as writers need to reach those people. Because being a successful writer is only 30% about the writing -- and 70% about the marketing.
I noticed that your book currently has two customer reviews on Amazon. Unfortunately, both are poorly written; despite their kind words, they really aren't helping you. I'd encourage you to ask all of your friends/acquaintances who have read your book to post a review on Amazon. If you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to pitch excerpts from it to Pipes & Tobaccos magazine, if appropriate. You should be an active participant on every forum that has anything to do with pipe smoking. Your book should be mentioned in your signature here, as well as part of the auto-signature in every personal e-mail you send out. If appropriate, you should consider pitching excerpts from your book to trucking magazines. And you should be leaving a free copy at every B&M pipe shop you can find, encouraging the owners to read it and to stock copies. (At the very least, you should also make sure P&T magazine has a review copy.) If your community has a local newspaper, you should write up a press release -- if you don't already have one -- and pitch yourself as a worthy interview subject regarding your new book.
In short, if you want your book to sell, you have to sell it. And that applies whether you're paid for your work by a traditional publisher or you pay to self-publish.
ADDENDUM: I just read the opening of your book on the Amazon site. I don't think the content would work well as a magazine excerpt. But I do think you should definitely pursue the local-newspaper PR as well as the additional Amazon reviews.
Bob
Find one voice and let it do the talking. In life, we assume many different voices, with wife, boss, store clerk, kids,
pets, etc. Twain made friends with a street kid in Missouri and got that voice in his head, and started writing in that
voice, and out came "Huck Finn."
pets, etc. Twain made friends with a street kid in Missouri and got that voice in his head, and started writing in that
voice, and out came "Huck Finn."
Amazon has lots of tools to promote your book. But it takes a lot of work. It sounds interesting however so thanks for sharing. And next time start a new thread. We don't want to wade through stuff we read a year ago.
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