Please share your most successful promotion ideas.

[Charles Fetters]

What is the one thing that you have done that resulted in your largest sales bump. 

Many authors bang their heads against the wall for months trying to sell their book only to make a few sales. If you have stumbled onto something or some idea that helped you sell hundreds or more copies then share with us all. 

If we could get several successful ideas together, we could make "Book Blog" members some of the most successful authors and bloggers on the web. 

Charles Fetters

Author of "Grizzly"

[G Earle Gardner]

Your pitch. . . If you do not have a good pitch you will not get good sales. Yes, you may get one here or there, but the pitch is the one thing you must get right.

After you get a good pitch, start meeting customers. Book signings are a good place to work on your pitch since you can see how it works and make adjustments.

Now that you have a good pitch where do you go from here? At this point there is no “one good thing” - it is hard work getting the pitch out to all that you can. Blogs, interviews, book reviews, and more book signings.  You are the best one to tell about your book and you need to do that.

What is a good pitch?

1. You. . . Yes, how you look is part of the pitch. Dress up! Don’t be afraid to wear a costume if that’s appropriate.
2. Short. . . About 60 seconds is good. If it is too long you will lose them.
3. 3 part pitch. . . Hook, Line, and Close.
4. The Hook. . . Do not start off with, “Do you like ‘your genre’ books?” You can try something like, “Can I tell you about my book?” Now they know you are not just a salesman but the author.
5. The Line. . . You now have about 60 seconds to tell your story. You want to build it up to a good ending, but do not end it - leave them hanging.
6. The close. . . Here is where you ask if they like the story or if you can sign a copy for them.

If you want to see how this works go to http://ve-enterprises.webs.com/vjogardner.htm and watch the pitch line, in 9 months she has gone from under 5 books a month to about 100 books a month.

[Charles Fetters]

Thank you G. I will check out the link.

chuck

[Michael Bujtas]

Facebook with friends and creating a Facebook page for your book has really helped me spread the word. That way you're also not spamming your friends constantly, only people really interested.

Twitter is also great too, connecting to people and spreading updates about your novel.

That's what I've been doing at least.

[Charles Fetters]

Michael,

I know it is likely that it is just me but I have had nothing but frustration with Facebook. I have come to believe that it is nothing but a teenage waistland. All they want to talk about is how drunk they got last night and of course, invite me to play some mindless internet game. How could you possibly find compitent people that accually read novels on that site?

[Michael Bujtas]

You must be friending the wrong people. Start by inviting people you know are going to share an interest, the Facebook group can be somewhere people can go if they like your book idea.

If you choose to ignore new mediums of spreading your book idea, you might miss out on some great ways to gain success.

[Isiah Hurts]

Send out press kits, pay for twitter, facebook plugs. I paid a underground rapper a couple hundreds to plug my book on facebook. And it boosted my sales for a whole month. I paid a magazine that had a circlulaction of 100,000 $200 to write an article about me. Send out review copies to diffrent reviewers. Also contact your local new papers and news stations. And radio stations. Go on a blog tour. Donate a couple copies of your book to goodwill. And do a couple give-A,ways to help build a following. If you have a website. Use that as away to build up your mailing list.

[Charles Fetters]

Isiah,

I have given paid advertising a great deal of thought. I have always been afraid that I wouldn't recoup my money. 

chuck 

[Michael Bujtas]

I like the Goodwill idea.

[P J LaRue]

I'm just starting out, but I think I'm making a little progress on www.goodreads.com. You list your book and join discussion groups. You need to get to know people. Based on the books that you mark that you want to read, and your ratings of books that you have read, others will provide you suggestions for books to read. However, it is considered spam to suggest your own books. That is why you need to make friends. They will suggest your book for you. Goodreads also has a feature that allows you to invite friends from twitter and facebook to become your friend on Goodreads. So you can use the relationships you have already developed.