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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

John Kremer : 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

Okay, I admit it I'm a fan. When I interviewed John Kremer on my blog talk radio show, for authors I confessed, and he took the complement graciously. I explained that it was due to his book that I attribute much of my success. I have successfully self-published since 1994, and now work with many authors publishing their books under the Media Angels®, Inc., imprint.

I first read the sixth edition of John's book, "1001 Ways to Market Your Books" on a family reunion in North Carolina.

Everyone else was on a trek to view the mountain falls close up, while I was very happy to view the lake, and mountain view comfortably from the deck of our hotel. There I was, with my littlest son, and my book on marketing. I had been writing and publishing for a few years at this point, in a niche market, and the thought crossed my mind to expand this market into the schools and libraries. I had no idea where to begin and this book, this great resource, was able to answer all of my questions and all the others I didn't know I had!

I am a book purest. I’m coming alongside the eBook revolution very quietly although I am kicking and screaming inside. The idea of a wonderful book in my hands brings a smile to my lips. And, I would never in one-hundred years even contemplate turning down the page corners of any books in my personal library, which easily numbers over a thousand titles. Yet, John’s book broke all my carefully laid guidelines.

In fact I had to take some pictures of his book to show you.



You can see the pages are somewhat faded with age, written upon…



And, the corners are well… I really don’t know what I was thinking at the time. Was the kite-fold really necessary?




When an author begins writing, very few have a mind for marketing. Of course there are the exceptions, such as a friend, Eric Reinhold, author of the Ryann Watters fantasy series for children. Eric is a business man, a financial planner, and knows how to market. Not only does he have three books planned for the series, he has hopes for a movie to tie in with Mount Dora's 100 year anniversary. Mount Dora is the location of the book, a real place in Florida.

For the rest of us, just getting the book written is a huge undertaking. Many of the aspiring authors I work with begin to panic when I outline an underlying marketing plan to work toward, as they finish their manuscript. There are several choices according to John, one is to hire someone to market and publicize for you and the other is to do it yourself. I opted to do it myself and found the information I needed in John's "1001 Ways to Market Your Books".

What kind of information? Let me recount what this book did for me, personally:


1. I saved over $1000.00 on the print run of my book Information in a Nutshell: "Writing and Publishing" by using the printer information in John's book and website. I was able to obtain printing proposals; comparison shopped and asked my local printer if they could match the price. In this case the print run was large enough that they said, "Yes!"

2. Learned innovative ways to market, by including specific information that helped with sales. For example, the authors of book titles I mentioned in my book, mentioned my book to others. In one case the self-published author with a typical print run of 10,000 books, mentioned me in her “Digging Deeper” section. My sales soared.

3. Learned more about niche marketing, in my case the focus was on a particular group, and using my educational skills. I offered to speak to small groups, parent groups and state conventions. I taught workshops to adults and hands-on science workshops to children.

4. Marketing seasons: I found information about the best times to release books and tying this into what his happening locally. A great example is the one by Eric, mentioned above. John gives the author many ideas about how to tie this into your overall marketing campaign.

5. A book promotion time-line that is second to none. In this list, the author knows when to market and publicize and the order that it becomes the most effective. This is worth the ticket price of the book, in my opinion.






For the rest of the points you will need to listen to the radio interview I conducted with John. I am embarrassed to say that the interview went over the prescribed one hour. We clocked in at 90 minutes of excellent information! He was unselfish and generous as he continued to answer without an eye for the clock, and explained such marketing gems as the importance of a good front cover, testing the market, and building relationships.

You can learn more about John Kremer from:
Website: http://www.bookmarket.com
Group Discussion on his “Ning”: http://bookmarket.ning.com/
He has over 5,000 members, and I am one.

Happily, Blog Talk Radio selected this show as one of  Today's Top Picks!

The link for the radio show interview is: http://www.writingandpublishingradio.com.


You are always welcome to join the live event; every Monday at 3:30 ET, in order to ask the guest questions in “real time”… this interview was as much for my listening audience as it was for me. John has the experience of over 25+ years in the industry, and this interview reflected just the tip of his knowledge. Thanks John, from all of us who have profited from your research, time, energy and knowledge. I thank you for writing your book.

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