I can hear it now, the booing and the hissing as soon as authors read the title of this article. Let me be perfectly clear, I’m a big advocate of authors marketing their own books. In fact, I do a lot of my own marketing. And I encourage other authors including new and aspiring authors to learn everything they can about effective book marketing and promoting, and to put what they learn into action. That being said, here are 5 reasons I’ve found that Authors should consider paying someone to help them market their books.
1. New authors need time to learn the basics of book marketing and promotion. The sad fact is many new authors don’t bother to educate themselves about book marketing and promotion before their book comes out. In fact, many new authors are still set in the thinking of twenty-five to thirty years ago where the publisher does all the promotion for you. They mistakenly believe that the publisher will do everything for them and that they will be able to just sit back and watch the royalties roll in. This is fantasy and new authors need to educate themselves before their book comes out to the public so they can be prepared for the reality of this new book-publishing world.
2. Authors cannot be experts about every form of book marketing and promotion, there simply aren’t enough hours in any given day for them to learn. While it would be nice to believe that you the author can learn everything there is to know about marketing, copywriting and book promotion in time to promote your latest release, it’s just not possible. It takes years of hard work to understand really the ins and out of book marketing and promotion. One of the really good examples of this are video book trailers. While authors can learn to make video book trailers, many don’t bother to educate themselves about the finer details. Not only about what makes a great video book trailer. But how to write a script for it. Or how to take photos that may be mediocre and use image manipulation programs, such as Photoshop, to enhance them. To the point they get the message of the story across. Without these skills, video book trailers not only get clicked away from, but if the trailer is bad enough, readers will choose not to the buy the book the trailer is advertising.
3. Authors have lives and many authors have day jobs, at least until their book takes off, and even then, smart authors keep their day jobs until they have a stable of at least ten books that are selling well. While I encourage authors to do some marketing on their own, if they want to have time to write, and edit and just have a life outside of work, then I also encourage them to find an excellent book promotions company that can help them market and promote their books.
4. Not having to worry about doing a ton of marketing gives authors time to start writing their next book. Again, I’m not suggesting you turn over all your book marketing and promotion to someone else, in fact, I think that’s a bad idea, but I do think having someone else to take some of the burden of marketing from your shoulders is important. After all, writing is what you really want to be doing right? If you don’t write more books, then it’s going to be difficult to build a fan base. One book is never enough. Ten or more are always better!
5. Paying someone to help you do your book marketing and promotion also gives you a professional that you can bounce marketing ideas off. This can be invaluable to you the author. And if your professional is really good, he or she will work with you as a partner to help you with your marketing ideas so they get off the ground successfully. Also, the professional will be able to add their own thoughts and ideas to yours based on their years of experience which will mean your idea will have a much better chance of succeeding when it comes to helping to market your books.
Many authors scoff at the idea of paying someone to help them market their books. But the fact remains. Authors cannot be everywhere at all times. Nor can they be experts on all aspects of book marketing and promotion. So, in my opinion, finding the right book marketing and promotions expert to help is key to a great marketing plan that sells books and gives authors more time to write.
And, if you’re really interested in what I’m using, I have to recommend HeatFelt Promotions for their serious approach, their promptness in delivering the anticipated results, their orientation toward clients’ needs and expectations, their hard-wording approach that gets things done. They don’t just work on increasing an author’s sales. I’ve tried other companies in the past, but have to admit I wasn’t too happy with them after a while. The main problem being they’d concentrate on one aspect alone. Like only sending promo loop e-mails. Or just taking care of the social media promotions. Working with HeartFelt, I’ve come to understand how essential a holistic approach is for the author. ‘Cause you don’t just market a book. You market yourself, first and primarily. That’s why I’m with HeartFelt. They work a lot on improving the author’s image. On spreading the author’s brand, whatever that may be. On increasing the author’s popularity through social medias and a careful mix of all the available techniques. Not promoting through loops alone, but using gadgets, video book trailers, blog posts, interviews, reviews and well-aimed bouncing of information. That’s why I trust them to do my promotion!
Authors, think about it….