Avoid the Temptations of BIG Promises with GUARANTEES!

Brightly colored technicolor flags -- not just red -- should pop into your brain as soon as you see the words:

"We can guarantee book sales"
"We can get you into the top search engines"
"We can get you media exposure now"

Or anything along those lines. I've said it before and I say it again. There is no magic silver bullet, people. Hard work and a little luck (many authors have shared with me that luck is actually part of the equation when starting out) gets you into the book sales limelight. Not listening to some expert who wants to sell you something.

Nothing in marketing and public relations can be guaranteed. There are too many variables. Even the best campaigns sometimes fail due to circumstances beyond the marketer's control. For example, maybe the title of the book isn't on target to what the reader wants to buy. The title is important. It needs to be memorable and POP in the buyer's mind. Tremendous buzz can be stirred around good titles. We have worked with authors whose publishers chose titles that were... questionable. But the publisher thought it was a good idea and the author was locked into that decision. When book sales waned, the number-one reason for that non-interest from readers is the title. Think about it. If you don't know an author's work, and you see a book that might LOOK interesting, and even the blurb on the back cover looks appealing, one of the decision points is the title. The title must be appealing and memorable.

Marketers can't do anything about a poor economic climate either, though fortunately books happen to be one of those entertainment products that are a bit recession-resistant, especially certain genres, such as romance and most recently horror. Let's call the most popular sellers in that genre what they really are... a crossover between horror, fantasy and romance. Hey, that is a killer combination during turbulent economic times. Instead of dwelling on whether we have money for our mortgage, let's curl up with a good vampire romance that will take our minds off our troubles. That is how the human mind works. We want distraction. With this in mind, authors, know this ... you are in the right profession now and in good times to come! No matter what, you can sell books. You just have to take the right marketing steps. (And they don't have to cost you an arm and a leg!)

Now, let's touch on the ol' search engine optimization (SEO) pitch. You may be thinking you must have this elusive SEO, because you've been told by the experts selling the service that you need it. We're all for using some level of SEO tactics, but we are here to tell you that you do not need to spend gobs of money on what you can actually do yourself for a WHOLE lot less.

Remember playing as a child where you slapped your hand over your friends to stay on top.  Keep that image in your mind. There are literally millions upon millions of web pages being published and updated day around the globe. Do you REALLY think you've got the money to slap your "website hand" over others to stay on top? SEO advocates will sell you on the importance of being found and cite your website statistics as examples of poor performance. Here's a tip … don't confuse data points (i.e., page views, bounce rates and rankings) with the behavior of real people. Can you really distinguish a "web bot" visitor from a real person?

If you're currently being solicited by an SEO Expert, here's a simple test. Go to Google. Search on "SEO," "SEO Services" or "Internet Marketing." Do you see them on the first page?  If not,  how can they help you?  Still not convinced? Do the math.

Calculate how much you need to pay per month for the SEO service and compare that expenditure to your per-book profit. This gives you an idea of your spending limit. For example, if you find that you are paying $900 per month on SEO and your per-book profit is only $3.00, how many books would you need to sell each month to pay for that magical SEO? (I know... it's like a story problem, and most writers I know hate story problems or math in general! I'm there with you.) I think you get my point. SEO may work for publishing houses and online retailers (i.e., Wal-mart, Borders, Barnes and Noble) where it really is a numbers game, but for the rest of us writers it's building relationships with your readers that wins over time.

So what can you do? You know what's coming by now. Viral marketing, rolling up your shirt sleeves and doing the hard work -- or letting us do it for you -- and building your audience. Start simple. Pick one social media site that fits you (i.e., MySpace good for outbound promotion, Facebook for friends and family networking, RedRoom for networking with your peers). Then keep in touch with that audience through simple correspondence and information sharing. What's great about investing in a social media platform is that unlike traditional marketing techniques (i.e., emailers, SEO, book signings, interviews) that have defined start and end dates, your social media platform will yield residual returns month after month and year after year.

So what's my GUARANTEE? There is none regarding book sales. I'd be lying if I were to guarantee that, though we have seen proof that the added exposure does translate to sales. How's this? What am I saying? Simple. I will not GUARANTEE you book sales success, but I can GUARANTEE if you shift your focus from book selling to audience building that book sales will follow. Never forget that most people buy books based on the personal recommendations of friends and family. Brute-force, hard-sell techniques just don't work online when it comes promoting books. Most of us (myself included) are so desensitized and numb to commercialized sales hype that we just tune it out.

Moral:  Nothing in life is guaranteed. But you can guarantee a promise to yourself to avoid over-the-top promises and temptations  just to reach the "front of line" via a short cut.

I invite your questions and comments:  bookcandysandy@aol.com or 949.613.2099