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Promoting a New Book

post # 341 — March 29, 2007 — a Careers, Client Relations post

For some time now, I have been saying that a book is a “20th-century artifact” and that the way to serve your market (and to get your market’s attention) is to write a stream of articles. That way, you educate your audience to expect new ideas and thoughts from you on a regular basis.

However, once you’ve written the articles, nothing stops you from going for the double benefit of compiling the articles into a book and issuing it as such. That’s the strategy that worked so well for me in launching my career with MANAGING THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM and TRUE PROFESSIONALISM. Both of those books were compilations of previously published articles, and people really like having them between hard covers.

I think I’m now ready to put together my next book, based upon the articles I have been writing over the past 18 months (and which are all available for download on my website.) With a little rewriting, I think I can bring out my common themes and major messages. (Strategy as determination and courage, management as the willingness to be accountable for the managerial role, going behind the facade of peoplle who claim to want long-term relationships, etc. )

The challenge I face – and the topic on which I’d like your input – is thinking about marketing the book.

Book marketing has always been a complete mystery to me. I long ago learned that traditional publishers are useless, so I’ll be self-publishing (as modern technology allows me to do) with both on-line versions (pdf) available for sale and “dead tree” versions (hard- and soft- cover) sold through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

My past history also taught me that it’s incredibly expensive and completely uncertain to hire specialist book publicists. Over the course of 5 books in the past 14 years, I spent an average of $200K per book on publicists and publicity, and never came anywhere near getting much attention from the audiences I was targeting. All publicists SAY they will get you interviews and reviews in key media, but it never really worked out that way for me. There are over 50 business books published in the US each week, and breaking through the clutter is very hard.

So, here’s my latets thoughts:

Self publish and send out free copies to CEOS and managing partners of key firms

Send out free copies to every business blogger I can think of

Send out free copies to every traditional journalist I can think of

Send out free copies to every university professor in a professional school

Develop a new series of “you-Tube” style videos, 3-minutes long or less

****

So, as I get ready to think about marketing my new book, what activities do you think I should be doing or preparing for?

17 Comments

David (Maister) said:

This came in through email:

David:Make sure you reach the law school deans. As a lawyer with a marketing degree, I can tell you that it is my experience that most lawyers are not businessmen and don’t know how to market effectively. It would be of great benefit to the legal profession to get law schools to offer courses on managing and marketing professional service firms. The law school deans can take the lead on that process.

Best regards, Lorri L. Siwik, Vice President and Counsel,

Risk International

posted on March 29, 2007

Tracey Segarra said:

David,

I think sending out free copies to bloggers, journalists and CEOs is a great start.

But to really help a book sell well, you need buzz. The bloggers may provide it, but it would help if there’s some theme you can pick out of the book that could be controversial or puts a new spin on business thinking.

What comes to mind is Jim Collins’ notion of “getting the right people on the bus.” That isn’t the main reason why his book sold so well, but creating visuals for people, giving them stories to chew on, and coming up with unique phrases like this to crystallize your ideas can give you a leg up on the other business writers.

I think it’s a damn shame that those book publicists took so much of your money and weren’t able to come up with creative ideas.

You might be better off with non-book publicists, like professional service firm publicists Hellerman Baretz in NY (full disclosure – I’ve never used them, but have heard amazing stories about their creativity). These guys recently came up with a blog for an employment law firm that’s sole purpose is to watch “The Office” on TV each week and then write entries calculating the kinds of damages the company would have to pay for each egregious workplace gaffe highlighted that week. It’s brilliant PR and has already gotten the law firm written up in the WSJ and other national pubs.

I’m of the firm opinion that like the song in the Broadway musical “Gypsy” says, “You’ve got to have a gimmick.” As a former reporter, I know that they’re always looking for the newest trend, the most outrageous idea, the first anything, and if you can supply it, they’ll write about it in droves.

Good luck – I think you’re an amazing thinker and writer and you should be selling truckloads of books. (You’re required reading for the CPAs in my firm).

Tracey Segarra, Director of Marketing, Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP

posted on March 29, 2007

Tracey Segarra said:

David,

I think sending out free copies to bloggers, journalists and CEOs is a great start.

But to really help a book sell well, you need buzz. The bloggers may provide it, but it would help if there’s some theme you can pick out of the book that could be controversial or puts a new spin on business thinking.

What comes to mind is Jim Collins’ notion of “getting the right people on the bus.” That isn’t the main reason why his book sold so well, but creating visuals for people, giving them stories to chew on, and coming up with unique phrases like this to crystallize your ideas can give you a leg up on the other business writers.

I think it’s a damn shame that those book publicists took so much of your money and weren’t able to come up with creative ideas.

You might be better off with non-book publicists, like professional service firm publicists Hellerman Baretz in NY (full disclosure – I’ve never used them, but have heard amazing stories about their creativity). These guys recently came up with a blog for an employment law firm that’s sole purpose is to watch “The Office” on TV each week and then write entries calculating the kinds of damages the company would have to pay for each egregious workplace gaffe highlighted that week. It’s brilliant PR and has already gotten the law firm written up in the WSJ and other national pubs.

I’m of the firm opinion that like the song in the Broadway musical “Gypsy” says, “You’ve got to have a gimmick.” As a former reporter, I know that they’re always looking for the newest trend, the most outrageous idea, the first anything, and if you can supply it, they’ll write about it in droves.

Good luck – I think you’re an amazing thinker and writer and you should be selling truckloads of books. (You’re required reading for the CPAs in my firm).

Tracey Segarra, Director of Marketing, Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP

posted on March 29, 2007

Lora Adrianse said:

David,

Take lessons from the marketers behind “The Secret”. Every time you turn around there is another live interview with someone from The Secret. They’re doing tons of free teleconference interviews, they’re forming Yahoo groups, they’re packaging little previews in PDF files, and letting people spread it like wildfire.

Get to the A list bloggers as well as others. Offer reciprocal interviews, teleclasses, webcasts etc. Use your network of thought leaders to suggest book reviews and spread the news.

All the best! I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing it!

Lora Adrianse

Essential Connections

posted on March 29, 2007

Ed Gabrielse said:

Suggest going to traditional publishers once again with the trackrecord of previous books in hand. Let them do a cost benefit analysis of your project. If they bite, you may be surprised at what they are willing to spend to make the book a success.

In my experience, self publishing is a costly and time consuming nitemare. While it may be the only way to ensure that the book gets published, use it only after exploring your alternatives – once again.

posted on March 29, 2007

Lance Dunkin said:

Who is it that you want to buy your books? Who is your target?

Then ask yourself if these people still read books?—this is becoming a problem, especially if you are trying to reach managing partners and CEOs (and even business students).

If you’ve made it this far, then what would incite them to buy these books—why do CEO’s buy books? Why do managing partners buy books? Why do staff consultants buy books? Why do business students buy books?

Do they read blogs, watch you-Tube, do their spouses pick them up, are they suggested by managers/subordinates, are they suggested by professors, etc. ??

It seems to me these questions are all very target sensitive—so who are your trying to reach? It may be all of them.

As far as what you have asked:

Self publish and send out free copies to CEOS and managing partners of key firms—if these executives actually read them, this could be great, but this depends on how many you think will read. The nice thing here is that executives that read could potentially buy books for the whole office (rather than suggest to subordinates and then the subordinates one by one buying the book themselves).

Send out free copies to every business blogger I can think of—this seems like a good bet—people that read blogs are in the habit of reading for information—if the bloggers read they will promote for you.

Send out free copies to every traditional journalist I can think of—what happens next? This could arguably be as effective as the blog, but it seems like promoting a book is a more natural blog topic than journalism topic.

Send out free copies to every university professor in a professional school—if you are trying to get business students to read then I think this could be a great idea—again though, will professors first read the books? If they do, will they pass the info along? If they do, will the students buy the books? As a business student, I think this might be a long shot.

Develop a new series of “you-Tube” style videos, 3-minutes long or less—videos are definitely “in” right now, but then you have to figure how to promote the video.

Anyway, I’m not trying to be bleak. I think you have a great opportunity here. These are just some things that should probably be addressed. Hope it was helpful.

posted on March 29, 2007

Barry Wilkinson said:

Maybe using the bloggers will help.

I know I have persuaded at least 30 of my clients over the years to read a book of yours, as a start point to our discussion.

A few hundred more like me and your sales are assured!

posted on March 29, 2007

Bill said:

A friend of mine had a virtual book tour that was promoted on different sites on different days. I’m a bit sketchy on the details but I think he thought it worked out pretty well.

posted on March 29, 2007

Krishna De said:

David – I would encourage you to continue to do more of what you are doing here and with your podcast – building a community. These are probably some of the people who will be interested in purchasing your book in the first instance as avid followers of your work.

What is your goal in publishing your book? Is it to become a best seller in your category? If so you may want to partner with someone who is an expert in Amazon campaigns – I can certainly direct you to someone who works with authors in this way far more cost effectively than your previous experience.

If you self publish, please do sure that you book continues to be onbrand and ahigh quality in terms of publication – in other words investing in your layout, design, book cover.

There is in inbetween model – not true self publishing, but entrepreneurial publishing where you partner with a compnay who can help you with all the logistics and getting you into book stores.

I have just completed a series of interview with experts for my online community about how to write, publish and market your business book so would be delighted to provide you the names of the people who can guide you in entrepreneurial publishing, self publishing and marketing of your book if this would be of interest – I interviewed some leaders in these fields – just drop me an email if you would like their names and an introduction.

By printing review copies you could then get a key people you would like testimonials from to provide them.

Consider making a chapter of your book available for download asap so that you build a list of people who you can then market to once the book is published – you could also pre-sell the book taking pre-orders as the publishing date will be completely in your control.

As you know David, writing a business book is not going to get make you rich. What is will do is further enhance your already great credibility and leave a footprint/legacy of your knowledge.

The thing to do is to build the marketing plan around your book from webinars, to podcasts, from teleseminars and virtual book tours to articles – some of which can be free and lead generating and some being revenue generating.

posted on March 29, 2007

James Taylor said:

Phil Rosenzweig (author of the Halo Effect) had a great tactic. He found people who reviewed similar books on amazon.com and offered to send them a copy of his book to review. The idea that someone is an “influencer” simply because they review books on amazon was a new one to me but made perfect sense.

JT (http://www.aboutjt.com)

posted on March 29, 2007

Tim Burrows said:

Slightly off the topic (sorry), but it struck me yesterday that, whether or not one actually goes ahead and writes a book, every consultant should have in their head a clear picture of the book that they “would” write, if they were to write one.

I think this helps to define and focus what it is you do.

Any comments on this?

posted on March 29, 2007

Jörg Weisner said:

David,

I just finished a review of a new book about innovative ideas over here in Germany. The authors are offering a tour, which they call “40 gigs in 40 days”.

They offer a speech for free, if someone buys 2000 books and pays for their expenses.

They will hold these speeches in a short period of 40 days. First come, first serve.

Seems to be a good idea.

posted on March 30, 2007

Mark Shead said:

I’d have to disagree with the idea that a stream of articles is replacing the need for books. I am constantly being frustrated by the fact that there are many topics that are only dealt with superficially. It is difficult to go into as much depth with a stand alone 800 word article as you can in a 300 page book. Once you’ve read several hundred articles on a subject it starts becoming increasingly difficult to find content that actually takes you deeper.

If you want to send a copy of your book out to people for free, I’d suggest doing some prep work before just mailing it out. Most people have a stack of books they want to read already, so if your book comes unannounced in the mail for free, it may be perceived as less valuable than the book they know they want to read that they paid $30 for.

posted on March 30, 2007

Tamara Paton said:

All great ideas in your post and comments above. As someone who works for a traditional publisher (of women’s fiction), I wish all of our authors had the kind of promotional platform you have built. A few thoughts…

1. Definitely find the right influencers – business bloggers, book reviewers and the like. Seek their permission to send them a book. Sending one to all business school profs would likely be a waste. You’ll get more from sending the book to someone like me.

2. Those in new media (again, like me) are happy to receive pdf versions. You can save a bundle by not sending hard copies.

3. Consider ways to “unleash the ideavirus” a la Seth Godin. Make it easy for people to forward samples and full pdf copies to other influencers. We’ll still want to buy a hard copy as a souvenir for easy reference.

posted on March 31, 2007

David (Maister) said:

Thanks to everyone for contributions here. A big pow-wow will be taking place in the next few months as I put the book together, so great thoughts like these are still wlecome.

I hope other authors (and potential authors) are getting as much out of this as I am!

posted on March 31, 2007

Doug Ferguson said:

David,

Several of the comments so far to this posting really resonate and you may want to expand on them. In particular three themesare emerging:

1.) Many people stress “free” copies of your book and the ability to forward as a way of creating buzz. You have an avid following in your blog site – what about putting in a compensation scheme similar to Google and Amazon referrals for people who create a sale for you? It doesn’t have to be cash (that would be good) but you could create a league table or Maister points or some other reference system (much like eBay uses to evaluate the credibility of buyers and sellers.)

2.) There is a difference between physical and electronic copies. Many people use physical books as proof points and reminders to themselves and others that they have read an author (then again, maybe they haven’t actualy read it). Recognize this difference in how you create the book. For instance, on the electronic book you might want to create a set of electronic interactive worksheets or templates that get posted to this community or to you for review and comment. The book could be offered in two formats – a paperback to be stuffed in a briefcase and a glossy for the bookshelf or the coffee table.

3.) There are many different channels of distribution for you. A book is just one of several ways for you to get your ideas out there – pod casts, articles, videos on YouTube, blogs etc. – are all being used by you brillaintly. The trick is to make sure the content fits the medium. The videos of you giving a lecture using an overhead projector are a start but don’t fully exploit that medium. Think of the start of MTV. At the beginning music videos were just films of regular concerts and studio sessions. Better than not at all but not as compelling as the Thriller video. Think of what you could do as the Michael Jackson equivalent.

posted on April 2, 2007

worm said:

Really. mowerdays it’s more easy to download a book that to buy it. ANd when you download, you:

1. Do not pay

2. do not have to carry heavy thing in your bag

posted on May 3, 2007