5 Must Haves in Book Marketing

by Malena Lott

So this post is where my two worlds meet. I'm an author marketer. A marketing author. When I'm not writing fiction, I'm creating branded content for clients - everything from brand strategy like taglines and positioning to digital ads, web copy and traditional advertising campaigns. You can learn more about my company Athena Institute here. In 2011, I added publishing into the fold with the imprint Buzz Books USA. We've published 16 titles with 7 more coming this year, which means a whole lot of branding going on because each title or series needs a marketing plan.

Must haves?

1. 4 Ws and 1 H. If you don't know who you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, where you're going to promote yourself and how you're going to get it done, you'll feel lost. A marketing plan can be as simple as that. Work it out and stay the course. 
2. Do something daily to promote yourself. It could be a guest blog or it could be simply having an ongoing campaign running to keep your name in front of your audience, but you do have to have action to make traction.
3. Invest in your brand. This means both time and money. It can be as little as a dollar a day spent reaching new folks on Facebook or a pay per click campaign. If you have enough money to try "lump sum" advertising, go for it and see what results. If you're confident about your 4 W and 1H, then you'll feel better about advertising.
4. Put yourself out there. Including in the real world. Digital is great and online will always be here, but it's actually noisier on here than it is in the traditional space. Reach is wonderful online, but effectiveness and return on investment can come a lot quicker with a speaking opportunity. I'm speaking to a group of young business leaders next Tuesday and I got my new business cards in. Or are they bookmarks? They are business card bookmarks. All business on the front and party on the back. And by "party," I mean my book covers. I'll offer those 60 attendees a card and if they email me, I'll give them an early review copy of my first branding book, The Little Brand That Could coming out in late spring. I'll also co-promote one of my author's books, PR Rock Star, which is the first Little Brand book. Always give them something in return for their time.
5. Persistence and patience. Don't give up. I tell my clients and my authors, just when you're getting tired of your campaign, everyone else is just starting to notice it. Marketing should be ongoing and good brands should never die. You have to keep breathing new life into them and also work on reach and frequency. If you are talking to a lot of people but don't have repetition, you're message will be forgotten. If you talk to too few people, but hit them with frequency, you'll get results but only by those few. It takes both. 

If you're a marketer, small business owner or an author, and would like to read an early copy of either PR Rock Star or The Little Brand That Could, leave a comment below and let me know which title you'd like and your email address. If you have a marketing question, hit me up. I'll answer. 

If you're on Facebook, I'm doing a year-long True-Do campaign on my Facebook author page with tips on living our true purpose with as much peace, prosperity and joy as we can muster. I'm also giving away weekly prizes. 

The Octopus and the Goat

by Malena Lott

There are two kinds of marketing methods for authors emerging in the "new publishing climate" - the octopus and the goat.

The goat stands on the mountain, bleeting his little heart out over the canyons, hoping whomever is in hearing distance will pay attention and do as the goat demands: buy my book! Click this link! Like me! The goat has found a way to "work the system" by continually bleeting, non-stop, sometimes tweeting every five minutes, mixing the content just enough to appear that it's not self-promotional. The goat may have even joined up with other goats in a network of re-tweeters who do little more than post each other's links. They are aggressive, but rarely stray from their daily movements on the mountain. They can be successful simply because they never let up. Or they get so burned out, they give up and retreat to the shade. There are also goats who are so afraid to try anything new that they stay put.

The other type far below the mountain, working the depths of the sea, with a solid center, eight arms and three hearts, is the octopus. The octopus swims to opportunity, builds tribes and utilizes all eight arms for outreach and community building. It's equipped with a funnel to ensure the best decisions are made for its marketing efforts and uses all three heart: two hearts to pump blood through each of its two gills (one for the heart of the story and the other for marketing), and a third one to pump blood through its body - to care for itself.

The octopus is a solitary animal, self-reliant, but uses those eight arms wisely to build a team, a tribe and a loyal following. It's not a one-trick pony like the annoying or fearful goat. Because it's mobile and flexible, the octopus slowly builds success, strategically. The octopus is a promotional machine, but because it siphons all the decisions, it knows the right type of boards to put on Pinterest, the best hashtags to be a part of on Twitter, the greatest advantages of the new timeline on Facebook pages, and feels confident saying "no" to things it isn't passionate about.

The octopus invests time and money in its enterprise and understand publicity and traditional marketing still have its place and face-to-face time is more important than ever. The octopus thinks to answer, "what's in it for me" for the reader so the octopus can provide value to the reader with its events and promotions. Those suction cups come in handy, too.

Face it: it's not easy being either an octopus or a goat, but as authors in this day and age we are expected to market ourselves and be a part of the action. But one invites people in, spinning the person into his world, while the other has readers turning them off or never heard them in the first place. Which one are you? How can you make the dive off the rock and learn to swim?

Malena Lott is the author of three novels, her latest The Stork Reality: Secrets from the Underbelly. She's invited 40 mamas to blog about pregnancy and motherhood over at StorkRealityBook.com. She's a brand strategist at her creative and media firm, Athena Institute, and the executive editor at Buzz Books USA. She is currently working on an ebook, "The Octopus and the Goat" to assist small businesses, and her next novella, The Last Resort, set in Maui.