I walked into a major bookstore in a very popular shopping centre, looking for a copy of my book. I ambled over to the children’s book section only to be confronted with a shambles of titles strewn all over the shelves.
After looking for a copy of The Magic that’s Ours for a while I asked the assistant manageress-behind the counter- if there were any copies available. After checking on her computer she said that there were 3 copies in stock situated in the children books section. I coaxed her to try and find a copy and after about 10 minutes of searching we both still couldn’t find any copies.
So…that was when I knew that I had to find alternative sources to market my books.
I’ve already chatted about markets and fairs which are great to be part of on weekends, but what about the other 5 days I thought to myself?
I have a background in sales and marketing and the country that was usually in the forefront was the USA. So for many a night I sat trolling the Internet seeking out ideas that would help me get my books known.
I found out about Steve Harrison who’s main aim -using tele-seminars and conferences– is to help authors market their books. As South Africa is a bit of a distance from the USA I thought that the tele-seminars would just have to do for the moment.
Once registered on his newsletters I’d receive weekly notifications of tele-seminars he was conducting where he’d interview the likes of Jack Canefield (Chicken Soup for the Soul), Robert Kiyosaki(Rich Dad,Poor Dad), Peggy McColl (Destiny Switch)and Tim Ferris(4 Hour Work week) and the likes. All of these authors are multi million book selling authors and would be interviewed by Steve about their techniques on how they got their books known. These tele-seminars – are also a marketing avenues for Steve’s seminars he holds in the USA for authors, both published and un-published where they can get to meet interviewers/book reviewers -at the top of their game- in all areas of the media.
So once a week I’d call up the tele-seminar- with me being in South Africa- the time of the call would range from 11pm-1pm and would last for about 90 minutes. I’d listen to these interviews and take notes on marketing tips related to book selling.
It was during these talks that I found out the way that was best suited to my personality, to market my books.
This I’ll go into more detail next time.
I still connect to the tele-seminars and have come to realise that they run in a series-with repeats.