Spreading Your Books Far & Wide

This pebble in a pond thing to describe the best way to get your books “out there” seems awfully small and slow going!

If you are a super-star of some kind, and your name is already all over the country and beyond, you would have been working on that “name” for quite a while. People wouldn’t have known even you, at first. So then if you write a book, you tap into that major following you have built and your books would get moving that way. If you aren’t that well known, you have to build from where you are just like they did.

If you have developed a method that people have heard about, or you are a recognized authority on something and have made a name for yourself that way, of course, people would love to read your book. But how did those people find out about you? You may have signs on the front of your business, they may have heard about you from friends, you may have advertised on the radio or social media. Those ways are all normal and all of that growth took time and it’s probably solid if you offer a great product. Your book sales will be able to fall right into what you have going on.

But seems like there is an idea that something magical happens when you write a book. If you have the right publisher, your books will suddenly appear all over the country; people will buy them and you will be rich and famous! If it doesn’t happen that way, are you off track? Have you been scammed? Well, no matter what, it doesn’t happen that way. That is illogical.

Publishing a book is a business venture, on your part or the part of a publisher who thinks your books will sell well. Then you or they try to get the word out that your books are on the way. And then you see what happens! Sometimes, even with all the effort applied, books just don’t sell. People are free to buy books or not. Books are shredded every day because for some reason, they just didn’t sell. There is no guarantee.

So, well before deciding to publish, start doing marketing research by talking to your friends, family, followers, colleagues. Give them a few pages or a chapter of the book you are working on and see what they think. Would they love to read it? Your question before doing all this work; is this book likely to sell? That’s the starting point and you go from there. Write the book, working with an editor to increase quality. Find someone like Red Horseshoe Books to help you create a great product and then put it out there! You have as good a chance at success as anyone!