Looking for a better way to sell books?
Not comfortable with standing on a street corner and waving your latest edition in the air?
How about doing something that authors forget to do?
It works perfectly for the introverted author who’s more comfortable listening than speaking. In fact, that is what the way is. Listen your way to selling more books.
You see, most people would rather have someone listen to them than listen to someone else.
Wouldn’t you like someone to listen to you? Really and truly listen?
In this day of mass communication and social media overdose, many people are overwhelmed with tons of words being thrown at them from every direction. Everything is coming in mega doses. Email boxes overflow, Facebook contacts pop in from every corner of cyberspace, and Twitter, text and instant messages multiply faster than the national debt. Who’s listening?
If you give some quality listening time to your readers, you will actually sell more books. Here’s how to listen your way to book selling success.
If you have a blog, ask your readers to share their story or comments. When they do, prove that you have listened to them by answering with a thoughtful reply. Of course, it takes time, but listening does.
If you listen and respond to others, they will listen and respond back to you. That is how author/reader relationships develop.
Concentrate on making friends, not cultivating customers.
The next time you are in a conversation with someone, listen to what they are saying.
Enter into the conversational topic that is on their mind. If you listen well and establish a rapport, you will find that an opportunity to talk about your book will open up at some time in a nonconfrontational and natural way. It may not be in the first five minutes, it may not happen with the first conversation or even the second or third, but it will happen. And, when it does, your new friend (because that is what develops when people listen) will be much more open and willing to hear about your book.
So think of it this way. You could tell a hundred people about your book who have no time to listen to you and it goes over their heads, or you could tell a much smaller number that will result in sales. Of course, I know you want to sell millions of books and you don’t have time to “listen” to a million people, but, surprisingly, if you become a friend to a few who become willing and eager to tell their friends about your book, you have started that most important factor in successful bookselling.
That small number of friends can quickly grow and expand into a large fan base that eagerly buys every book you put out.
Start small, be patient and slowly grow your audience one conversation at a time.
At Wheatmark, our work with authors does not stop once their books are published. In fact that is just the beginning. That is why we place an emphasis on educating our authors about book marketing.
