Writers must take care of business
As a writer, it’s easier to work in the business of writing than it is in the business of selling books. You need to continue to grow your business by writing more books, while marketing your current catalog to potential buyers. It is an ongoing task. While we’d all love to spend our days creating and writing, we can’t afford to stop marketing to our readers, because hundreds of new books flood the market every day, and voracious readers are always willing to try the latest offering.
The moments of maximum sale of any product are Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Other themed days, such as Valentine’s Day for romance writers, can generate sales if you apply specific marketing techniques.
These heavy business periods are not the time to discount your books or give them away. This is the time to crank the marketing machine up a notch to take advantage of the fact that people need to buy gifts for friends and loved ones, and are looking for ideas. Christmas especially can be a stressful time of year, so take some time early in the year to work on a marketing campaign that addresses specific needs to help readers make a decision. Use terms in your marketing like ‘a great stocking stuffer’ and ‘a book for the man who has everything’ to appeal to stressed-out shoppers.
Instead of cutting into your profit margins by discounting the price of your books, try to add value. If you’re selling paperbacks, offer to wrap your book in Christmas paper and tinsel and ship it directly to the buyer so all they have to do is place the gift under the tree. Print some inexpensive bookmarks and offer a free bookmark with every book purchase. If you’ve written a series of books, from an eBook perspective, make an offer to readers that if they buy the first book in your series, you’ll give them the second book as a gift. That way, the reader gets something for free, and you get the royalty on the sale, so the ‘gift’ has cost you very little. The customer feels like they are getting something for nothing, and you are building a relationship with your readers, who will be more inclined to buy your future books.
Because people are more open to buying new things when they’re in a hurry to fill out their holiday lists, you may attract a lot of new readers, so be sure to keep track of them and add their names and addresses to your email list for that you can can tell you about new releases.
You should have your marketing campaign ready before any peak sales period and also take time afterward to review the numbers. How many more books did I sell? Where did the sales come from? Take time now to get ready for next year.
The effort you put into creating a targeted marketing campaign will show up in your sales figures.
Make no mistake: writing books is a business that includes marketing and sales. Unless you want to pay a professional to advertise and market your books, thereby eroding your profit margin, you’ll need to learn how to get your name out there—and keep it there—if you want to sell books.