Book promotion |
Internet Authors Network | marketing books on the internet | Internet book marketing |
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Book promotion |
Internet Authors Network | marketing books on the internet | Internet book marketing |
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| Xenite.Org News | Marketing Books on the Internet |
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What does 'marketing books on the internet' mean?
If you're marketing books on the Internet you're looking for an audience of potential readers. You want to tell those potential readers about the book and why they should buy it. This is not exactly selling the book. In the offline world, marketing and selling are separated by the fact that the marketer promotes the book to the right audience and entices them to visit a retailer, and the retailer makes the sale. The retailer may have to do nothing more than set the book out for display. But many a bookseller has had to pitch books or make recommendations based on customer questions in order to sell books. On the Internet, the marketing and sales processes become mingled. Once you find the right audience and tell them about the book, you have to convince them to make the purchase. The ease with which a customer can purchase and receive a book goes a long way toward determining whether a sale occurs. Some people will go the extra mile, but they are not going to make or break a book's sales. If you're an author trying to promote your book on the Internet, you need to focus on three marketing goals: finding your audience, approaching your audience, and informing your audience. If you are selling books directly yourself, then you also have to make the sales pitch and close the sale. That makes your job harder but not impossible. Finding your audience on the Internet is not the same thing as making it easy for people to find you. You need to identify resources where you can initiate contact with potential readers. The available resources include Web sites, Web forums, mailing lists, Web advertisements and email advertisements, and news groups. "Approaching your audience" translates to advertising. And you are advertising two things: yourself and your book. You have to advertise yourself because you need to build up name visibility. You have to advertise your book because people don't have any idea it exists, or that it might be something they want to read. Name visibility (for your book) is important because it lends your book credibility and gives people a reason to look for your Web site. Informing your audience about your book goes well beyond building a Web site and submitting it to search engines and directories. If you have promoted a book offline then you know authors need to get interviews, reviews in newspapers and magazines, talk show visits, book signings, convention and conference panels, readings, and advertising in print media. Promoting a book is a time-consuming and expensive process. Many people are turning to the Internet to cut corners, costs, and time. You need to understand right now it still takes hard work and patience. How effective is Internet marketing? The jury is still out on this issue. Entire fortunes have been bet upon the Internet and lost because the business community is still trying to figure out what it takes to succeed online. Some people have, in fact, made their fortunes on the Internet. There is always someone who gets rich in every field. But if history is any indication of who the most likely online winners will be, keep in mind that most of the gold rush fortunes were made by the people selling shovels and pans. The miners usually ended up broke. The publishing world is in a mad scramble to get onto the Internet for many reasons, but the potential for getting rich is not one of them. Protecting intellectual property rights and developing effective marketing tools are the two chief reasons large publishers and authors are now involved with the Internet. The Internet is fast becoming the most popular entertainment medium of all time. And in the world of books, promotion now includes the Internet. A traditional marketing campaign takes advantage of the extensive industry of book stores which actually stock books. The publisher (or the author) can send out promotional materials to help booksellers inform their customers about the books in stock. But booksellers don't want to promote books they don't offer. They usually don't mind taking special orders, but an online bookseller can promote each and every book it has access to with a dedicated Web page. |
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