#15 in an occasional series on writing non fiction
The cover image is a bit of fun – it’s not the way to market a book!
Marketing is the really tough challenge and can take as much time as writing the book itself. I’m not a marketing expert and it’s something I have personally struggled with. Many books have been written about marketing, and there are dozens of useful websites out there. As you explore, beware the exuberance of those who have cracked the secrets who can leave a new author feeling dumb. A fair number of websites exist to sell you their creator’s marketing courses or books, which in themselves are excellent examples of how to market. Beware of the numerous scams and phishing traps on social media masquerading as author help sites.
Write a marketing plan and put it into action at least three months before your book is due to be published. You decided your target audience before you started writing it. Look again at the finished book and consider how the audience can be defined. Consider your potential readers in terms of their interests, the region they live in and age/sex demographic. If your book is about Airfix model kits, your audience will overwhelmingly be men resident in the UK who were children in the 1960s and 1970s.
Even if you secure a mainstream publisher, they will expect you to do a fair amount of promotional work for the book. A small publisher may expect you to do all of it, and if you are a self-published author you become a copywriter and marketeer too.
All this said, marketing a non-fiction book can be easier than for a work of fiction as readers in your particular niche will be attracted by the subject alone – provided they come to hear about your book.
Your book needs a good, professional cover that draws the eye.
Your title should be one that will attract the intended audience.
Fix the right price. You need to cover the unit costs and allow for the bookseller’s percentage before you make a penny. However, make it too expensive relative to equivalent books and it will sell slowly, if at all.
The product must be available. Someone interested in your book must be able to buy it or at least pre-order it the moment they have seen your promotional work.
Old-fashioned paid adverts can work if well-targeted, for example in a specialised magazine aimed at the same audience as your books. Remember your margins, though. If you are making £2 profit for every sale, this is wiped out for the first 25 books you sell through an advert that cost £50. If you are spending on marketing, keep a track of how cost-effective each promotion is. Some authors are happy with break-even on marketing spend if it grows their audience.
Develop links with your local bookshop, library, museums, local clubs or other appropriate venues where you can carry out book signings or author events. Public lectures on a subject related to your book are a good way of selling a few copies and spreading your name by word of mouth. Make sure arrangements with the venue for signing/selling books are clear and any splits of takings are agreed. You can do lectures by Zoom to audiences across the globe, at the end of which you can append an advert for your books.
Non-fiction can be a slow seller but can also be a steady seller with long legs. In this case you simply need to maintain a presence in the market, keeping your book on the shelves and in online catalogues. Rather than sell a thousand copies in the first month, it may be a realistic objective to sell a hundred a year for a decade. Archaeology books I wrote in the 1980s and 1990s are still selling in small numbers.
To stop this thread becoming two long I’ve cut the subject into three slices. The next blog considers marketing basics in the twenty-first century.
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