What would you think if I told you that the way to sell more books is to never promote your books?
You probably think I have lost the plot. Yet it is true. The worst think we authors do is try to promote our books. The problem is promoting books rarely works.
Sure if readers know us and like us, reminding them of a book they have not read may cause them to go and buy it. Otherwise, you may be wasting your time.
Promote you, not your books
Instead of promoting books – inanimate objects – promote the think people need to recognise to buy your books – you. Or rather, your name.
With your press releases, never promote your books – find something newsworthy to promote yourself. Do interesting things. Have interesting opinions. Join interesting groups. Above all else, be the reason people talk. And when they talk, be sure they mention your name.
When they talk about you in the press arrange for them to say things like “…the author, Matthew Brown…” After that, all you need to do is make sure your books are easy to find. To do that feed the interesting events to the press and make sure you call yourself, “the author, [Your Name Here]”.
Be talked about
There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Oscar Wilde (attributed)
The best thing that ever happened to J. K. Rowling was when members of several religions kicked up hysteria about “real witchcraft in the Harry Potter books“. You cannot have a massive and wide-ranging debate about a book without mentioning the author and the series. I would love to have one of my works banned by a religious group.
For your next blog post, tell an interesting story about yourself.
If you have not done anything interesting, put forth a controversial opinion. Disagree with popular opinion and argue a strong case for something else.
If you have a strong local blogging scene or an active local newspaper. Get involved in something local that people care about. Bring someone along to photograph you and spread that all over Facebook. “The author, [You] supporting [the thing].”
Be interesting. Get people talking.
