Book marketing: Don’t mix up your peers, your friends and your audience
How many of your contacts have already asked you to like their company’s page, support their professional project or add a like to a promotional post? How many of these projects were actually meant for you? Yes, sure, you’ll like a friend’s page friend to help them build a community, but in the end, are you really part of this community? If the product, service or brand isn’t meant for you, no, you’re not. And liking their page isn’t really helping much either.
Why? Because you’re not the right audience for this “like” to bear fruit. The right audience will not only want to keep following your friend’s activities, but they will also purchase and, most importantly, share with peers who are likely to be part of the right group as well.
Your social circle isn’t your audience
And the opposite is true too. I often hear authors say they have done everything they can: promoted their book on their Facebook profile and/or page, emailed all their contacts and, yet, their sales still hit a rather low ceiling. This is simply because they’re not promoting to the right people! However good your book is, however good a salesperson you are, there’s a very slim chance you’ll sell a book about gardening in Australia to a Parisian living in a cupboard-sized studio (unless the Parisian happens to have a green-fingered aunt living in Australia)
Your friends and families aren’t your audience. Even though they may follow your publishing activities, and even if they buy your book, they aren’t the ones who’ll help your project thrive. Just as buying fake likes to inflate your popularity isn’t a real help in the long run, likes given as a favor by your social circle won’t really help either. They’re not the ones who’ll become passionate readers, share with other members of your audience and help grow your business.
Your peers aren’t your audience
Another common pitfall is to promote your book to your peers. Even though authors and publishers are often prolific readers, it doesn’t mean they are the right people to target for your book.
They’re busy trying to make their own books flourish, and will probably just see your promotion as unwanted noise or competition they wish didn’t exist. Of course, there is a sense of support between indie writers, but in the end, everybody wants their own book to succeed. They may realize that this doesn’t mean yours has to fail, or that helping you could even help them, but their efforts will always be more focused on selling their books, not yours. Posting “please buy my book” in an authors’ forum isn’t the right move.
Define your audience and never forget it
Taking the time to define your audience should be the first step in your book marketing plan. It’ll impact your book’s metadata, the look of your cover and maybe even the tone of the whole text. It’ll also tell you where and to whom you should direct your communication.
Knowing your audience requires knowing your book’s content: who wants to read this? Who needs this information? And who enjoys reading this type of story?
But keep in mind, it’s not just about knowing who your audience is. You’ll then have to adapt your marketing initiatives accordingly. It should have a direct influence not only on the wording and look, but, most of all, on where you advertise.
