Don't Make this Mistake When It Comes to Promoting Your Book

When it comes to public relations and promotion, the key to ongoing success is persistence. Don't let the newness and excitement of a new product or service wane after the shine has worn off. The most successful people whether business people or authors are the ones who don't stop promoting and networking and pushing. The shelf life of any product once it gets past the new promotion and launch is dependent upon the ongoing effort to keep it in front of the public and promote interest.

 

The no. #1 mistake I see almost every author I have ever worked with is this:

 

Losing interest in their own product and moving on to something new and exciting again.

 

I would say that at least 80 percent of the people I work with lose interest in their product/book after about six months. Interest is especially lost once the initial sales finish and the book must now stand on its promotional and marketing efforts to continue to sell. One of the key problems is something I will call "instant gratification syndrome". How does that work?

 

I've mentioned this before in previous issues. Sometimes in publicity efforts one review can do one of three things: 1. Trigger a sudden avalanche of sales if the review hits the target audience 2. Spark a small handful of sales or 3. Spark no interest at all. Here is my advice:

 

Don't stand vigil on Amazon and wait for your Amazon rankings to suddenly soar off one review. I promise you it can be disappointing.

 

When I first began this journey I used to do that very thing - stand vigil over my book's progress on Amazon. The shocker with the book Second Bloom is that despite a truckload of press, it never sold well via Amazon. The book had to find its way, meaning it sold well when I did speaking engagements and workshops.

 

I'm not suggesting you ignore your sales progress. You do need to be aware. Go about each book review, each interview, and every media exposure with the thought that it's great press. Don't get caught up in the often-disappointing cycle of watching Amazon like you would watch TV. Keep a casual eye on it. The nugget here is:

 

Try every possible avenue to promote your book/product and see which one catches on. Don't give up!

 

If I've learned nothing else about sales and marketing it's this: sometimes it won't catch on, but the opportunities it gives you are the real return on investment. If it does catch on, don't stop! You shouldn't stop until you've achieved market saturation. If you know anything about the product life cycle it goes like this: early adopters, second adopters and then market saturation. The goal is to keep it at the second adopters and maintain it. When you've achieved market saturation then you can sail on with a smile. All products run this life cycle, and that's why you see upgrades and new features introduced. The companies now want to take that same product back through a market life cycle.

 

So Friend-Os I hope you sail on through your product life cycle!