AuthorSmart.com Blog

In the past months, I spent some time stepping outside my comfort zone and my routine. You see, I am a creature of habit. This adventure was all about flexibility and being open to the great possibilities and people I had access to for a limited period of time.

It was well worth the first wobbly steps moving from the background (where I am comfortable) to the foreground; to being not just "on" but being present and engaged from morning to midnight. As it turned out, being on opportunity's serendipitous agenda worked quite well.

This week, I challenge you to take a step outside your comfort zone. You never know where it will lead. 

If You Write It, They Won't Necessarily Come

In the movies, it's fine if Kevin Costner wants to "build it" and have faith that "they will come".

Not so with your book. You can't write it, then wait for clamoring hoards to form lines outside bookstores.

What "they" (your public) don't know, will hurt YOU.

Many authors I talk with are very excited about the prospect of a  published book but are under the impression that this whole book promotion thing doesn't apply to them. Could it be that  somehow theirs will be the book that beats the odds, defies convention and becomes a best seller based on merit alone with no thanks to marketing?

Wow, I'd be thrilled for anyone if that happened. But in the mean time, what are you willing and able to do to tell the world, or at least your little corner of it, about your book?

What Gap? What Need? What Problem?

Anyone who has ever taken a class from me or heard me speak knows that the quote from Theordore Parker below is a favorite of mine.. Okay, so it's a favorite that I beat people over the head with, but in my defense, it's for their own good:

"Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film. They advertise memories."

---Theodore Parker

 
Your book is, or will be, a grand achievement.  Hopefully you will celebrate and be celebrated. However, I need to bust your bubble: if book sales are one way you will measure success, enjoy the celebration while it lasts, because in the end, it's not about you, it's not even about the book, it's ONLY about what need the audience perceives the book will meet for them.

As communicators, as people, as authors---we can control the message, never the interpretation. In most cases the two will match. In others, miscommunication will reign. In all cases, learn from what the people on the receiving end are telling you.

You know what your book is about, but do you know what needs it fills for your target audience?
Which of those perspectives do your book cover and promotional materials reflect? What problem does your book solve? What answers does it reveal? What gap does it fill?

Look beyond what you think you wrote about to why readers are drawn to shell out their hard earned dollars to buy it. Then, use that information to sell even more books.

Where Will Your Book Take You

You've finished your book, now what? (Play along with me even if you aren't quite to the finish line).

After so much blood, sweat and tears what will you do with yourself? Twiddle your thumbs? Re-arrange your sock drawer?
Alphabetize your spice rack?

While you decompress, keep this in mind: the book is just the beginning. Where will it take you?

Your book is the tip of an iceberg that represents your knowledge and expertise. Yes, it was an unfathomable amount of work, but just think of where it can lead!

Go ahead and bask in the limelight, or soak in a bubble bath but then... spin off in as many directions as your book can go: a class, audios, videos, and organization, tools and more...just don't stop at the book, let it take you further.