Selling Books: Marketing and Promotion, Know the Difference

When it comes to selling books, there's a fine line between publicity and marketing. Whether you're a self-published author or published through a traditional, royalty house, it's critical to understand the difference.

Marketing is anything that would involve money - such as buying an ad, a catalog spot, merchandising, billboard, direct mail, brochures, catalogs, etc. When speaking of marketing, you are referring to things that cost money to alert others to your book. The savvy author always builds and budgets for a marketing plan.
The old adage is true; It takes money to make money.

Marketing could also be explained as your organized efforts and expenditures to sell your book. If you're working with a publishing house, their Marketing Department is a unit traditionally charged with carrying out specific tasks of paid advertising or outsourcing to publicists. The Marketing Department designs ways to sell your book and is probably motivated by two questions: How much must we spend to sell books? and How much is available to spend to sell books? When a book is released, either your Marketing Department or you as the self-published author needs to spend enough money to position your book in the minds and hearts of the target audience.

Free promotion such as media interviews, booksignings, email campaigns, print reviews in newspapers and magazines, articles that you write, book pages on MySpace or Facebook, etc. fall under publicity. Publicity involves giving away information about your book, product, or company. Publicity is a key to your overall marketing mix.

As a writer, you'll often be invited to speak on your book. These non-paid, personal appearances can stimulate the demand for your book. So get out there and plant significant news about your book to the public.

Sometimes this fine line blurs. I've found that most of my booksignings are more PR or a goodwill gesture (publicity). I make friends, meet and greet the public and hopefully sell my book. But, in my experience, booksignings are not profit-makers. The image of people lined up, out the door and around the block to buy your book is only on TV. Likewise, exhibiting at a trade show or conference may be free (publicity), but I end up selling books (marketing) or I may have to pay a booth fee (marketing) and my day is spent meeting and greeting, building relationships (publicity) rather than selling any books.

Author John Kremer says when you make more friends, you "sell more books, and have more fun." His site is designed to give away resources and information to help you do that. Check out John's site at www.bookmarket.com.

Either way, if you want to sell more books, you must work at it. Books do not sell themselves . . . well, unless you're J.K. Rowling.