More than 70 percent of all new businesses fail within the first year. Approximately 30 percent more will fail within the following five years. The upsetting part of this is, it has NOTHING to do with any economy. In fact it is unnecessary. It is due to the fact that the owners of these businesses did not properly promote themselves and their businesses.
How does this regard you as an author? As being an author or entrepreneur is being a business owner, it is vitally important that you aware of this …
Many aspiring authors and entrepreneurs tend to assume that buyers and clients will just automatically “know” there is a great new book (or product or service) available. And once their book is launched into the mainstream it will be gobbled up by society — automatically.
I believe this to be the greatest misunderstanding in business!
Launching a new book is nothing like what is depicted in the movie, Bull Durham; where, “If you build it they will come.” That may make for a good Hollywood screenplay or intriguing novel. But in real life, it is more accurate to say, “Market it and they will come,” or “promote it and they will come.”
Understand that you, the author, are the face behind your book; which is to say, you are a commodity. And your book itself is a product. Positioned together, (you and your book), you must make yourself and your book widely known. That is if you want to be more than a one-book wonder.
Simply put, you have to own a niche, brand yourself and build a platform. This involves creating a following or social base. This is your audience and you want to grow it continuously.
You don’t want to take a shotgun approach where you are marketing and promoting to everyone and anyone, assuming that what you have to offer is for everybody. You want to target the people who already want what you have to offer, even if they don’t know it yet.
Aspiring authors must be vigilant, ferocious tigers about their books and their careers through an effective approach. Creating your approaches, building your audience, and promoting your product(s) takes a continual process over a number of years. Seth Godin was spot on about this in his lectures and presentations.
You aren’t going to have 50 thousand books sold overnight. In fact, you won’t have any sales until you introduce yourself and your product to them. You can’t do that until you define who your potential buyers are, figure out where they dwell and introduce yourself to them in a way that the will allow you to communicate with them.
The fact is, it will take “at least” three years, if you know what you’re doing or you hire someone who does. If you are new to the internet and marketing and you have no audience, it will take MUCH longer. What’s important is hat by having a correct estimation, you will not become disenchanted and give up. Let’s face it. Expecting to become a bestselling author overnight is a wrong estimation that would discourage anyone from ever creating the success that awaits them IF they persist with the right actions.
Thank you so much for this. I have been trying to consider both the nice my current manuscript addresses as well as marketing/branding myself outside that box for later projects.
This is great food for thought.
Renee, we will be posting much more information on marketing/branding and defining your niche. Hope you stay with us. Did you sign up for the newsletter? We give good information in there also.
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