Getting personal...guarantees

In response to my post on how to find and approach independent booksellers, Jarvanpa responded with advice that needed to be shared with everyone (I’m never sure if people are obsessive comment followers like I am).

Being now cozily nested in a used/rare bookstore (and not having to worry at all about author tours) I can smugly sit back and recall my past--I used to manage a bookstore that was in a rural, but educated area, carried new books, and did author dealies sometimes.What I found (Eileen, are you listening?) worked for signings and readings and such was enlisting the help of the author in compiling a likely list of people who might want to come. Now, of course this works best if you are (or have) a local author who has local friends, but if the store does mailers (mine did) and you have an intelligent, sensitive manager (yes, I was) you can come up with such a list, based on knowledge of book preferences and so on. You send these nice people handwriten (2 t's? one? god, I hate spelling) invitations by mail. Need not be elaborate, but they must be at the very least hand addressed. And you put little articles in local papers, and posters, if you can, spots on the radio, and so on. But the real key is that personal touch. And then figure--if you are fortunate, unless the author is, say, a sexy movie star--that you will get about 10% of those you mailed to come to your event. Phone calls are also, sometimes, okay, but can backfire (you must know your clients).

Of course, if you are a blatant outsider simply come to enlighten the local yokels you will have to figure out how to seduce your bookseller (actually, or metaphorically). ‘Tis an art. I did resent the persons who hopped in on a busy day and had a stack of their self published bad book that they wanted to sell me and asked if maybe they could have a signing. (now, if the books had been great, I might have been less sour--but even so, I would have appreciated a preliminary letter, and perhaps an arranged appointment to talk over tea.

Oh--in arranging an author appearance/reading/signing--give yourself at the very least a month's prep time.*

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. If you are going to promote yourself it takes time, effort and that personal touch. This means more than the gimmicks and the bookmarks and adds to the overall impression of your book. Yes, your book should be judged solely on its writing and content, but we’re human and we form our opinions from a multitude of sources, so you have to be the driving force to make your books stick in the readers’ minds.

Someone who does this (with results) is Joe Konrath, the author of the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels mysteries. Here is a man who not only knows he has to represent himself, but goes out there and does it. His advice on having a sales pitch is dead on:

The secret to sales is to not make it selling.Huh?Concentrate on value, and what you have to offer. Focus on the experience you're giving, not the cost.Sales isn't about looking for buyers; it's about finding the people who are looking for your product even though they don't know it yet.Be funny. Be confident. Be genuine. Be memorable. Be enthusiastic.In person, I've found the best trick to sales is listening to the customer. Not only their needs and wants, but what they had for breakfast, how their brother in Duluth is doing, and what their favorite TV show is.

…

Whenever I sell a book, I always use the line, "You'll like this, I promise." This assurance takes the uncertainty out of a purchase, and makes the customer feel like I'm doing them a favor, rather than they're doing me a favor.

Let me make this clear. This isn’t about being fake. This isn’t about being schmoozy in a greasy used car salesman kind of way. This is about letting that enthusiasm that carried you through the writing process, that drive that got you to write those queries, mail those agents and publishers, and finish those revisions flow over to the person you are talking to your book about. You are your own best salesperson because you are the only person who intrinsically knows all the ins and outs of your books.

Because, you know, you wrote the thing.

And promising a person they will like it? That’s not a lie, if they stayed through your presentation they probably will. If you’ve made a connection between the hi, hellos, how-are-yous and what-brings-you-in-todays then you are already in, but people need reassurances. That’s why we have blurbs on book covers, that’s why we have reviews and newspaper articles. People need to know that they are making the right choice, and telling them that you promise they’ll like it works.

I tell customers all the time that if they don’t like a book they can return it.

“Really?” they say.

“Sure, just don’t drop it in the bathtub.”

Suddenly that book they were on the edge about or that author that they weren’t quite sure they would like becomes an attractive and desirable purchase.

“I have the right to change my mind,” they think. “But it must be good because why else would this person offer.”

I’m not asking for you to change your basic personality and become a loud, bombastic self promoter complete with bullhorn. Bookselling on any level is about listening and responding.

It’s communication, a relationship, something that you’re trying to build with your readers anyway through your book.


*Ron, there is a quotes button between the bullets button and the spell check button on my edit/create posts box. I simply highlight what I want quoted, hit the button and then fix any formatting errors that occur.