Friday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

SALES THEORY FOR AUTHORS

By: Kim Lambert

Authors like writing (that’s a given).  Most authors don’t like marketing (almost a given!).  But, sigh…, we have to do marketing if we want our books to be a success.

So how do we know what marketing to do, what words to use, when to use them, where to market in what way?  Most people just guess, or ask someone else who has had reasonable success.  That’s OK, but it’s not exactly a solid, well planned approach.

To get the best results, authors need to understand sales theory (Wait!!! Don’t stop reading and run away in horror, it’s worth knowing, I promise!).  People who sell for a living are taught this sort of thing, but others, for whom selling is a side effect of what they really want to do (like authors) are not – it does not occur to them that they need to know, and it usually does not occur to anyone to teach them.

Understanding this will help you, not just once you have finished a book, but also in designing / planning / plotting your book in the first place, to give it a much better chance of selling well.  So, here is an overview of sales theory, as it applies to authors.

Why do people buy things?

Let’s start with the core question: “Why do people buy things?”

Just sit with that for a minute, and think about it.

I bet that you came up with a list of things, about twenty reasons, or more – right?

What if I told you that there was only one reason?  That’s right, just one!  Do you want to know more?  (See I told you that this sales theory stuff would be worth it!)

Here it is – People buy things as pain relief.

What??? What does that mean??? I can hear you saying.

Let me explain. 

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. How to Find Images for Your Book Marketing Campaigns - http://bit.ly/1Cy2GYy by @DianaUrban at @BookBubPartners #bookmarketing #pubtip
2. How to Optimize Social Media Images | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/L81i5
3. Ruby Slippered Sisterhood » Why YA? http://ow.ly/L83lu
4. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: Why Book Publicists Won’t Work On A Royalty-Sharing Basis http://ow.ly/L83BA
5. Fiction University: Grammarly’s Editing Software – How Helpful Is It? http://ow.ly/L83J2
6. When You Know It’s Time to Move On - Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/L842J
7. Writer Unboxed » The Evolution of an Author Website http://ow.ly/L849B
8. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: 57 Twitter & Social Media Tools For Authors http://ow.ly/L86EZ
9. Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: Neil Gaiman on Writing: "Your first draft doesn't count." http://ow.ly/L87mk
10. Muffle Your Muse – Kobo Writing Life http://ow.ly/L87SV
11. Secrets of Bestselling Indie Authors: Crunching the Data | Alexis Radcliff | Lexirad.com http://ow.ly/L8i4M
12. The Write Type - Multi-Author Musings: Scratching That Itch http://ow.ly/L8lVJ
13. Sales Theory for Authors | Book Marketing Tools Blog http://ow.ly/L8nNb
14. Where are all the Children’s Books? | chrismcmullen http://ow.ly/L8ob1
15. What the heck is the Inciting Event? | http://ow.ly/L8ohQ
16. Authors and Goodreads | Glass Highway | Steven Ramirez http://ow.ly/L8prF
17. How to Improve Your Amazon Book Description & Metadata | Jane Friedman http://ow.ly/L8wCe
18. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Get help with self-publishing your book to Amazon's Kindle Store http://ow.ly/L8xgP
19. The Randy Ingermanson Interview - Storyfix.com http://ow.ly/L8ydC
20. #52: How to Use Short Video Clips on Facebook - Amy Porterfield http://ow.ly/L8yzA
21. Self-Publishing: Prioritizing Fast, Cheap, and Good | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/L8WwO

Happy writing and running, Kathy