Three Author Platform Strategies to Add to Your Book Marketing Plan

What can you do to get better results from your book marketing efforts?  Of course inherent in this question is how to get better results but still not break the bank doing so. Here are some out-of-the-box ideas I have seen have worked and some I have initiated that have worked that might help you.

Let’s start with the author who took to the streets in New York selling his book like some kids sell lemonade at lemonade stands during hot Summer days. According to this author, he was able to sell more than thirty books each time he trekked out to sell on one or another street corner. Of course, you can riff off of this idea and hold an event using a tool like Eventbrite or Meetup to create a buzz around the topic of your book. You could sell your book at a clothing store as I did with the book I helped three young women co-author, “Shy-Town Girls.” Here we held a fun event at a young women’s clothing store in Chicago and ended up with 50 or so book buyers. The store was also happy as they were able to get in new people who might become long-term customers. This strategy for us also led to our book being picked up to sell in their store.

Second, try hosting a radio show on a site like Blog Talk Radio. I have been using this strategy for years and it has brought up our numbers (see the Blog Talk Radio link to the right of this page) to more than 10,000 listeners on some shows. Most people are actually getting tired from lots of reading and opt to listen to podcasts-radio shows like this as a nice break from the continual eye strain from reading.

Third, consider groups on LinkedIn that match your area of expertise and locate people there who might be interested in doing a book review of your book. For example, if you have a book on leadership, check out a group that focuses on leadership discussions. Look at the people most active in the group to approach to consider doing a book review. Of course, you can also write reviews of other authors’ books that complement yours and then request a review. I have also had great results asking people who ask to link with me if they would like to receive a free review copy of my latest book, “Networking is Dead” and if they like it I ask if they would be so kind as to write a review. So far I have had over 50 people offer to review the book in the last few months.

What other strategies have you used that have worked? Want to learn more? Join us for a free tele-chat Tuesday, May 7th at 11 Central.