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A Writer’s Word of Mouth

Ever wondered how to advertise your book with no budget?  Recently, I attended an Author’s Book Fair at the Hudson Library & Historical Society in Hudson, Ohio.  I had the privilege of meeting some very talented Ohio Authors and one of the most interesting insights they shared with me was that Word of Mouth had been the most instrumental tool in promoting their work.

Although “word of mouth” certainly doesn’t have the fleeting viral impact of a successful internet campaign, I agree with these authors in terms of it not underestimating it’s power.  In order for it to work, however, I believe when you’re discussing you’re book with someone there must be passion and conviction in your voice.  These qualities must be genuine or your discussion will not radiate.  Remember what Maya Angelou said:  “People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Being the book’s author, you are definitely the SME (Subject Matter Expert) of its contents.  However, are you prepared to summarize your book during an on the spot discussion with a stranger?  A good way to equip yourself for this more finite discussion is by composing an elevator speech.  This is a quick synopsis used to communicate some of the key highlights of your book.  I have heard some incredibly impactful elevator speeches as well as some real doozies.  For example, a smart elevator speech could simply be a paraphrased version of the summary that’s printed on the back or inside jacket of your book.  It might also include a snapshot of what inspired you to tell the story.  Make it clear, concise and most importantly, interesting.  You want your elevator speech to beg more questions of the listener.

Remember THREE THINGS:

1. ‘Practice Makes Perfect’

2. Allow yourself to be flexible.  The first elevator speech you create doesn’t have to remain set in stone.  As you use it throughout your encounters with people, if something doesn’t feel right our sounds awkward, revisit it and revise.  The more fluently-sounding your speech becomes will enhance the passion and conviction in your voice.  This will make people feel excited to read your book and it’s that feeling that will be their biggest take away – NOT the words you’ve chosen.

3. Have fun!  This also ties directly into how you will make your listener feel.  If the tone of your voice and the words you’ve chosen are dry and unexciting, you will elicit zero intrigue to run out and buy your book.

In closing today’s blog, I want to give credit to the three particular authors who clued me into this piece of advice:

Jody Casella:  Author of ‘Thin Space‘

Mindy McGinnis: Author of ‘Not a Drop to Drink‘ (soon to be a movie)

Natalie D Richards:  ‘Author of ‘Six Months Later‘

These books, along with my first novel Extra Innings: The Diamond Thieves, can be found online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com

Enjoy and PLEASE share your feedback on Goodreads and their individual Amazon page.  Authors really need the review support from readers like you.

July 30, 2014 by
Publishing

Identifying an Author’s Target Market

Targeting a specific market essentially means you will aim your marketing efforts and cater your storytelling towards a specific group of consumers.  The consumer marketplace is like a giant beehive of billions of individuals each with their own unique set of interests.  When you are a new author (like me) it’s critical to obtain a clear sense of where your market opportunity lies, or else we can waste a lot of precious time and money executing initiatives that produce little, if any, return.

WEEK1:

So what’s a smart starting point in identifying your target market?  I would say it’s probably safe to assume that you as the author fall within this group of consumers who would read your book(s).  Ask yourself: what type of consumer am I?  When I am looking to read something what are my propensities and where do I go to find it?  I typically read young adult, historical fiction novels that deal with social and psychoanalytical factors such as social justice, radial injustice, defense mechanisms, coping and so on.  I also look for stories with core elements of drama and action.  I’m not much for fantasy, sci fi or romance.  Sometimes I’ll pick up the occasional biography or autobiography.  However, this is not a theme of my writing so I would exclude it from my key word list.    I would suggest conducting a consumer segmentation analysis on yourself and most importantly: take notes!  Once you have a list of your buying behaviors double-check that it’s relevant to your book as well as narrow (keep it between 4-5 key words).  A list that’s all over the map is going to defeat the whole purpose of a target market by stiffening your competition and losing control of your prospective customers.  Title this list “Key Words.”

For example: the genre of my Extra Innings trilogy (The Diamond Thieves) is historical fiction and young adult.  Also search Twitter for #newauthor and #author.  I search for Tweets and blogs with these key phrases.  When I find a Tweet or blog that I enjoyed reading or (even better) learned something from, I comment, therefore, trying to build a relationship with this individual Twitter user or blogger who shares the same relevant interest.

Next search Google, Twitter, Amazon and Goodreads for those key words.  (Note: when using Twitter hit the pound sigh before each word with no spaces.  For example: #historicalfiction or #socialinjustice Google’s search engine connects you with millions of advertisements and services.  Some of these services are blogs and by narrowing your search down via key words, look specifically for people writing blogs about that topic.  Twitter is a social network for connecting people, organizations and businesses with in-the-moment updates.  Amazon.com is a MSP (multisided platform) connecting consumers to purchase goods and services.  Craigslist does the same thing.  Networking on these sites can gain you access to a segmented audience that may otherwise be unattainable.

Once you have found a blog that falls into the same space as one of your keywords, then read it.  If you like what it has to say, leave a comment with your website address inviting the blogger to check out your site.  Your # search in Twitter will bring up a list of Tweets referencing that specific keyword.  Read the Tweet, if you like it click on the tiny star symbol below the Tweet. If you wish to comment Click the left-pointing arrow to message the initiator of that Tweet.  Or click the double arrows to Re-Tweet the post and it will appear on your Twitter feed. This process is called networking and I recommend doing so with at least 1 blogger and 3-4 Twitter users per day.  We will get more into using Twitter on future blogs as today’s focus is Identifying Your  Target Market.  As a beginner, I kept a log of the bloggers and Twitter users I was following.  I also recommend saving blogger sites in your Favorites so they are easily accessible.

At the end of Week 1, review your log and make sure that everything lines up with your original key word list.  Anything falling outside of that give it a full review.  If the list becoming too wide it needs to be scrubbed for non-relevant relationships.

WEEK 2:

Now we’re going to dig a little deeper to define the more specific segments of our target market.  Scan your book for any specific places, year or decades (ie. the 60’s or 90’s) brand names (especially ones that are unique or if you are writing an historical novel brands or products that are no longer being produced), ethnic backgrounds of your characters, special events or holidays, special interests, hobbies or activities.  You’re allowed to have more than one niche market, just remember not to allow your consumer segments to become too broad of it defeats the purpose of targeting.  Try and stick with common themes used throughout your book versus obscure ones mentioned only once or twice.  For example, if your main character is a writer or poet or dancer or real estate agent or banker then this would be a key word falling within the special interests, hobbies or activities category.  Two common themes used in my first book (The Diamond Thieves) is baseball and social injustice.  Write these down.  These will also become key words.  Now, use Twitter or Google to search for those key words.  Begin to network with these users as you did in Week 1 with your first key word list. Hopefully after these three targeted weeks of networking you are identifying your target market and learning something about your relevant segmentation of readers.

During the following 2 weeks I would recommend individually repeating the networking steps in Weeks 1 & 2.  Once you a comfortable you can begin merging them together.  Hopefully this gains you some viral traction on these sites.  I would also recommend reading the works of your Twitter followers and posting something positive on Goodreads.com or Amazon.com to help promote them. Notify them on their Twitter page when you’ve done this.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to share.  If in reading this you share the same interests as mine check out my first-ever published book Extra Innings: The Diamond Thieves at www.bwgibson.net.  If you like it, I would love to hear your thoughts on Goodreads.com.

July 6, 2014 by
Publishing

Top 2 Mistakes Authors Make with their Target Market

I am pumped to be able to talk about a topic that is so important to the success of a writer’s novel. Defining your target market is the most important first step for an author. It’s also one of the most difficult. It involves an understanding of who is your ideal reader (notice I have not puralized ‘reader’).

First start with asking yourself: What is the genre of the story you wish to tell? This is should be simple as most stories typically fall into one bucket. For example, the Extra Innings trilogy is Historical Fiction. Other book genres include:

  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • Mystery
  • Horror
  • Children’s
  • Biographies
  • Poetry
  • How To/Self-Help
  • Cookbooks
  • Comic Books (which is what I grew up mostly reading)
  • Travel
  • Religion
  • Art History
  • Science (I think you get the point)

On an interesting side note, publishing houses consider trilogies to be a genre of their own. I, however, disagree. It’s sort of like a journal or diary where an author’s fictional or non-fictional work is told with a certain style or platform. Styles would be first person, second or third person narrative style. Platform is the mode in which the story is packaged (ie. journal entries, a single novel, a series or a trilogy).

So anyway, let’s get back to defining your story’s target market.   Among the authors I have researched, are are the Top 2 Mistakes being made with their Target Market:

#1 Mistake is NOT defining a target market.

#2 Mistake is not defining a CLEAR target market

Believe, this occurs quite often with new authors. They have an interesting concept for a story and they may have even completed storyboards or an outline of each chapter and the may have created all their characters and even given them al names. But if you don’t know specifically who you are targeting this story, these chapters and these characters to you will run into a multiple difficulties when it comes to fine-tuning the details of the story and even more difficulties when it comes to marketing your finished product.

So we are going to solve the #1 problem now by accepting that you MUST define your target market. Now that we’ve gotten that out o the way, let’s move onto #2.

Defining a clear target market can quite frankly be a real pain. I, personally, really struggled with this because, like most new authors, I was in love with my book and truly believed that EVERYONE would love it too. However, that is simply not the case. Sorry fellow authors! But your ideal reader (meaning the customers that help you the most to get the word spread with positive feedback) is a specific niche of individuals that you need to identify. Focusing on them will not only save you time but also save you money instead of marketing to groups of people with other interests. I also want to point out that when you are trying to define this target market, disregard “friends and family” as a target group. Your friends and family will (most likely) support you.

When deciding your target market there are two general families of consumer groups you want to research.

  1.  Demographics
  2.  Psychographics

In order to answer what group your readers fall into, you must identify 3 or 4 books similar to yours and identify the specific groups that are interested in that genre.

DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP: Age, Gender, Education, Social Class, Geographic Location and Occupation

PSYCHOGRAPHIC GROUPS: Special Interests, Activities/Hobbies, Occupation (I believe falls in both categories as some people are stuck working a job they have no interest in), Social Factors, Cultural Associations and Philosophical Beliefs.

For example, your research may show that your Target Market is Young Adults (which are people between the ages of 16 and 28), primarily females, who are in high school or at least high school educated in the United States. Primary interests include staying active, family-oriented, social disorganization in communities, social prejudice and environmental racism in America with a particular focus on the US Deep South.

Secondary Target Market could include family-oriented adults who grew up in the United States during the Cold War period with at least a high school education.

Identifying the demographic and psychographic groups in which a typical fan of your book’s genre will gain you faster and more productive results when you go to market your book.

Once you have mastered this, I also advise tracking all feedback you receive on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads.com as well as your own website. Reach out to your first batch of responding, liking and sharing with your followers via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, or email and conduct some deeper research.

Collect this data and then get out your microscope. This is where you are truly going to be able to define your customer. This is called consumer segmentation. We can get more into this in future blogs, but I will say that understanding your consumer segments will help you to fine-tune your next book. It’s that fine-tuning that produce a story that appeals directly to your existing fans and that’s when they will really start to spread the word and your legacy will begin.

Best of Luck to you all!

B.W. Gibson

Author of Extra Innings: The Diamond Thieves (Book 1 of the Extra Innings trilogy)

July 4, 2014 by