Five ways to help your new release fly off the shelves
My number one dream when I first put pen to paper was to see my book in a bookshop. It took thousands of gruelling, miserable hours to get there but when it did, my dream immediately changed to getting the book flying off those shelves and into people’s hands!
If your book has been ordered by book stores, firstly hooray for you, you awesome legend – the odds were ever in your favour! Secondly, you don’t get to that stage unless you worked your butt off. I bet there were times when you wanted to drive yourself to the highest bridge just so you could throw yourself from it. So now that your manuscript is a ridgey-didge book and is going into actual real life shops, it’s not the time to sit back and hope for the best – it’s time to follow through on all that hard work and make sure that baby sells!
If you’re a well-known celebrity or a huge name author, you don’t need to read this article, none of it applies to you. Your book will likely sell thousands of copies within ten minutes of release. Off you go now please to bask in your fame.
This blog post is for the Average Joe/Jane like me who isn’t famous and has a debut hitting the shelves when nobody knows who you are to pre-order it except for your mum and your poor partner who has the misfortune of living with a writer.
If you haven’t read my Marketing and Promotions 101 guide for all authors including eBook only authors or for some self-published authors who sell their own books and don't have any in bookshops, I suggest you read it first because there’s a heap of information in there that you might find relevant, even if you’re with a traditional publishing house and they’re throwing their marketing department behind you. Here’s the link to my first Marketing and Promotions guide for selling books:
http://www.tesswoods.com.au/marketing--promotions-guide.html
And now here are my five top tips for authors whose books are on display in bookshops. It’s my quick guide on how to encourage more people to buy your book and how to build your brand so that your future books sell too.
1. Leave the house and go meet booksellers!
This is the biggest tip I have for you. If you do none of the other four tips when your book is released, I beg you to still do this one. I have quite literally gone from having my book spine out on the bottom shelf at the back of stores to having it displayed on the front counter before I walk out of the shop without any prompting from me. No exaggeration, I have witnesses! If you have a publisher behind you, they will do all they can to get your book prime positioning in shops. But if you want to do your bit to help maximise your book’s exposure to consumers even more, there is NOTHING you can do that is more powerful than taking yourself into stores and meeting the people responsible for selling your book. I estimate that I’ve walked into at least 30 stores around Australia meeting managers and staff.
I know there’s a lot of debate around this and some authors say it’s pushy and gross and makes booksellers uncomfortable when authors stampede their shops. I call bullshit on that. I’ve never once come across a bookseller who hasn’t greeted me with open arms and been delighted that I’ve made the effort to pop in and say hello.
But there are some self-made rules I follow:
2. Be super active on social media in release month.
The first few weeks of sales are crucial. Like seriously crucial! If your book doesn’t move off those shelves in the first month or two, you can bet your sweet self that it’s going to be shipped back to your publisher, with a little note asking for a refund. So your mission, should you wish to accept it, is to make sure that every potential buyer who you can possibly get the attention of in release month, you get the attention of!
One way to get great awareness is through the power of social media. Encourage people to post about your book either with ‘shelfies’ of it in book shops, photos of them with your book in their hands or stylish photos of it worthy of being added to Pinterest boards. Also encourage people to share your posts.
But when you encourage people to promote you, give them something to gain from that. Don’t just take, give too. Find a way to reward them, whether it’s with prizes or some other way you can think of. Remember that every time someone posts something/anything about your book on social media, on average, eleventy million people will see it. It’s true. It is. Well, let’s just call it alternative facts for now. Anyone who says your shared posts won’t be seen by eleventy million people is a lying journalist who, like all media, can’t be trusted. Believe me when I tell you that nobody knows more about social media than Tess Woods. Nobody. It’s true.
Right, hopefully that just offended the Trumpies and they’ve disappeared, so now the rest of you can have the advantage of the next tips…
3. Have a launch!
Launches generate heaps of buzz about your new release. People who attend launches are enthusiastic supporters and they’re great at spreading the word. The more coverage you can get for your launch the better and to get the best coverage, your launch needs a point of difference, a unique angle that will capture imaginations.
Natasha Lester’s launch for her 1920’s romance, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, had a Gatsby-esque theme set in a retro-style bar with lots of nooks and crannies just like back in the day. Loads of people Tweeted, Instagrammed and Facebooked photos of themselves at the cool venue and their posts no doubt generated lots of extra interest in the book when their eleventy million followers saw their post ;). At Nicola Moriarty’s launch for her novel, The Fifth Letter, which was about secret confession letters among friends, the guests wrote anonymous letters confessing long held real-life secrets and these were shared on social media where the posts had great traction. I had a Flight themed launch for Love at First Flight with flight attendants, a runway, on board entertainment, the works. I’m not saying anyone has to be as over the top as I was, but having any kind of event to celebrate your release, even if it’s a library event, is better than nothing.
4. Go on a book tour.
It stands to reason that the more people who know that your book exists, the more chance you have of sales. A good way of making people aware of your book is to stand up in front of them and tell them about it yourself. Library events are a great way to get your name out there as are book shop events. If you’re with a big publishing house, your publicist may line up events for you (in which case, for God’s sake, say yes when they ask you to go somewhere and talk). Otherwise you may need to reach out to potential libraries and bookshops and organise your own events. I did an extensive book tour for six weeks after my book went on sale and then for the following five months I’ve kept up one or two events a month. Being a first book, I saw it as my responsibility to get out there and make myself known to people. When my second book comes out this July, I won’t be doing as many events. Mind you, my publicist and I have still planned several events so I’m still getting out there, telling my story and showing my face in four capital cities. This is really, really expensive to do but I work a day job to be able to afford to do this. A local book tour in your hometown with no need for flights can be really effectuve too.
5. Buy lots of copies of your own book and give them away.
Yes you read that correctly, buy your own book. If you're with a publishing house, you'll get copies from your publisher. I was given 10 but I needed many more copies - those 10 disappeared in the blink of an eye between my family members and close friends. So then I bought another 15 copies from bookshops around Perth for the rest of my family overseas who couldn't access the Australian release only paperback copies. And after that, I bought 35 copies and I gave them all away to people, most of whom I've never met - it's expensive to do that, I know. My publicist at HarperCollins was amazing and she sent my book to loads of "people of influence" - bloggers, magazine editors, TV personalities etc. But I couldn't expect her to hand over an infinite number of books whenever I felt like it. So I bought copies for new bloggers I met after release but mostly I bought copies for my readers - a handful of my most loyal followers who had been really active on social media and spruiking my book to their friends all received a surprise signed copy as a thank you and I've given away several copies in competitions on Facebook. It's an investment in my career I'm prepared to make - I will invest in the people that help and support me, whether they're bloggers or fans - I think the relationship has to go both ways, not just them supporting me. I've also given copies to friends who had read it as an eBook but I thought would like a signed copy too, especially if they lived far away. I don't regret buying extra copies and giving them away and I'll do it next time too.
6. Visit Book Clubs. (I know I said 5 - I tricked you so you would read the article, 5 sounded better than 6!)
This a contentious one which is why I left it till last. Unlike library talks, you don’t get paid to visit book clubs and it’s time away from your family, usually at night. Also, it’s really weird to sit around hearing people critique your book and what if they hate it? Some authors think visiting book clubs won’t boost sales because the book club people have already read the book anyway.
I understand why authors baulk at the idea of going to book clubs. But, in my limited experience, it’s brought me some of my most wonderfully loyal readers. I firmly believe I’ve sold more books by going to book clubs because those women have since championed it to their family and friends after spending an evening hearing me speak about it. I’ve met over 100 women through book club evenings and I’m super thankful for the opportunity to spend such quality time getting to know readers.
Book club evenings are low stress and they are lovely and intimate so they provide a special and rather unique atmosphere to share your story.
Here are my tips for successful book club visits (some I’ve learned the hard way!):
I also ask book club members to share with me any juicy stories (about themselves not other people!) that they think will make great little anecdotes in books and I’ve totally taken their stories and put them into my next book. For real! It’s awesome because up until this point I’ve been bluffing about having an imagination and now I can keep right on bluffing. All I have to do is continue visiting book clubs and stealing plot lines from their lives :)
I hope you’ve taken away at least one new idea for how to maximise your new release’s sales potential from my post and I wish you all the very best of luck!
P.S. One final tip. If you’re choosing a pen name for yourself, pick a surname starting with a letter between F and O – you’ll end up in the middle section on most book shelf walls and the middle is where everyone looks first. My maiden name began with M (the ultimate sweet spot letter on shelves) and I traded that in when I got married for W….I’ve been happily gracing bottom shelves everywhere since.
If your book has been ordered by book stores, firstly hooray for you, you awesome legend – the odds were ever in your favour! Secondly, you don’t get to that stage unless you worked your butt off. I bet there were times when you wanted to drive yourself to the highest bridge just so you could throw yourself from it. So now that your manuscript is a ridgey-didge book and is going into actual real life shops, it’s not the time to sit back and hope for the best – it’s time to follow through on all that hard work and make sure that baby sells!
If you’re a well-known celebrity or a huge name author, you don’t need to read this article, none of it applies to you. Your book will likely sell thousands of copies within ten minutes of release. Off you go now please to bask in your fame.
This blog post is for the Average Joe/Jane like me who isn’t famous and has a debut hitting the shelves when nobody knows who you are to pre-order it except for your mum and your poor partner who has the misfortune of living with a writer.
If you haven’t read my Marketing and Promotions 101 guide for all authors including eBook only authors or for some self-published authors who sell their own books and don't have any in bookshops, I suggest you read it first because there’s a heap of information in there that you might find relevant, even if you’re with a traditional publishing house and they’re throwing their marketing department behind you. Here’s the link to my first Marketing and Promotions guide for selling books:
http://www.tesswoods.com.au/marketing--promotions-guide.html
And now here are my five top tips for authors whose books are on display in bookshops. It’s my quick guide on how to encourage more people to buy your book and how to build your brand so that your future books sell too.
1. Leave the house and go meet booksellers!
This is the biggest tip I have for you. If you do none of the other four tips when your book is released, I beg you to still do this one. I have quite literally gone from having my book spine out on the bottom shelf at the back of stores to having it displayed on the front counter before I walk out of the shop without any prompting from me. No exaggeration, I have witnesses! If you have a publisher behind you, they will do all they can to get your book prime positioning in shops. But if you want to do your bit to help maximise your book’s exposure to consumers even more, there is NOTHING you can do that is more powerful than taking yourself into stores and meeting the people responsible for selling your book. I estimate that I’ve walked into at least 30 stores around Australia meeting managers and staff.
I know there’s a lot of debate around this and some authors say it’s pushy and gross and makes booksellers uncomfortable when authors stampede their shops. I call bullshit on that. I’ve never once come across a bookseller who hasn’t greeted me with open arms and been delighted that I’ve made the effort to pop in and say hello.
But there are some self-made rules I follow:
- I never barge unannounced into a bookshop demanding to know where my book is. I never ring ahead and introduce myself and ask if they stock my book either. I subtly go into stores as a reader, look around and only if I see it on the shelves do I then pick it up, whack out my business card and introduce myself. As far I’m concerned, it’s not my place to tell a bookseller to stock my book. If it’s nowhere to be seen, I indulge my inner bookworm (the reason I took up writing in the first place) and I have a good old sticky beak at their new titles. Then I leave. The whole, ‘Do you know who I am? Why isn’t my book in this store?’ author hissy-fit isn’t really kosher in my opinion.
- I always ask, ‘Would you like me to sign a copy or two?’ rather than, ‘Can I sign all your stock?’ Booksellers sometimes have trouble returning stock that has been signed and they then aren’t managing to sell themselves so they might be worried about too many books getting signed that they are then stuck with forever. Btw, nine times out of ten, they’re so delighted that an author has visited, that they’ll give you every book of yours in stock to sign, go out the back to bring out more copies and then they’ll whack an “autographed copy” sticker on each copy and display them somewhere super-dooper prominent.
- I go into as many bookshops as I can in the month or two after release as this is when I’m more likely to find it on the shelves, especially the big department stores like Big W who change their stock over like nobody’s business.
- I always say thank you for displaying my book and never say a thing that’s negative even if there is only one copy of my book spine out in the furthest corner from the front entrance on the bottom shelf. I still thank them profusely for having it in store. And I mean it. My book is in their store – that’s genuinely awesome news!
- I don’t stay and annoy them and ask for things. They have jobs to get on with. It’s a quick introduction, followed by a thank you, an offer to sign copies, invariably posing for photos (cheerfully) and then leaving them in peace.
2. Be super active on social media in release month.
The first few weeks of sales are crucial. Like seriously crucial! If your book doesn’t move off those shelves in the first month or two, you can bet your sweet self that it’s going to be shipped back to your publisher, with a little note asking for a refund. So your mission, should you wish to accept it, is to make sure that every potential buyer who you can possibly get the attention of in release month, you get the attention of!
One way to get great awareness is through the power of social media. Encourage people to post about your book either with ‘shelfies’ of it in book shops, photos of them with your book in their hands or stylish photos of it worthy of being added to Pinterest boards. Also encourage people to share your posts.
But when you encourage people to promote you, give them something to gain from that. Don’t just take, give too. Find a way to reward them, whether it’s with prizes or some other way you can think of. Remember that every time someone posts something/anything about your book on social media, on average, eleventy million people will see it. It’s true. It is. Well, let’s just call it alternative facts for now. Anyone who says your shared posts won’t be seen by eleventy million people is a lying journalist who, like all media, can’t be trusted. Believe me when I tell you that nobody knows more about social media than Tess Woods. Nobody. It’s true.
Right, hopefully that just offended the Trumpies and they’ve disappeared, so now the rest of you can have the advantage of the next tips…
3. Have a launch!
Launches generate heaps of buzz about your new release. People who attend launches are enthusiastic supporters and they’re great at spreading the word. The more coverage you can get for your launch the better and to get the best coverage, your launch needs a point of difference, a unique angle that will capture imaginations.
Natasha Lester’s launch for her 1920’s romance, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, had a Gatsby-esque theme set in a retro-style bar with lots of nooks and crannies just like back in the day. Loads of people Tweeted, Instagrammed and Facebooked photos of themselves at the cool venue and their posts no doubt generated lots of extra interest in the book when their eleventy million followers saw their post ;). At Nicola Moriarty’s launch for her novel, The Fifth Letter, which was about secret confession letters among friends, the guests wrote anonymous letters confessing long held real-life secrets and these were shared on social media where the posts had great traction. I had a Flight themed launch for Love at First Flight with flight attendants, a runway, on board entertainment, the works. I’m not saying anyone has to be as over the top as I was, but having any kind of event to celebrate your release, even if it’s a library event, is better than nothing.
4. Go on a book tour.
It stands to reason that the more people who know that your book exists, the more chance you have of sales. A good way of making people aware of your book is to stand up in front of them and tell them about it yourself. Library events are a great way to get your name out there as are book shop events. If you’re with a big publishing house, your publicist may line up events for you (in which case, for God’s sake, say yes when they ask you to go somewhere and talk). Otherwise you may need to reach out to potential libraries and bookshops and organise your own events. I did an extensive book tour for six weeks after my book went on sale and then for the following five months I’ve kept up one or two events a month. Being a first book, I saw it as my responsibility to get out there and make myself known to people. When my second book comes out this July, I won’t be doing as many events. Mind you, my publicist and I have still planned several events so I’m still getting out there, telling my story and showing my face in four capital cities. This is really, really expensive to do but I work a day job to be able to afford to do this. A local book tour in your hometown with no need for flights can be really effectuve too.
5. Buy lots of copies of your own book and give them away.
Yes you read that correctly, buy your own book. If you're with a publishing house, you'll get copies from your publisher. I was given 10 but I needed many more copies - those 10 disappeared in the blink of an eye between my family members and close friends. So then I bought another 15 copies from bookshops around Perth for the rest of my family overseas who couldn't access the Australian release only paperback copies. And after that, I bought 35 copies and I gave them all away to people, most of whom I've never met - it's expensive to do that, I know. My publicist at HarperCollins was amazing and she sent my book to loads of "people of influence" - bloggers, magazine editors, TV personalities etc. But I couldn't expect her to hand over an infinite number of books whenever I felt like it. So I bought copies for new bloggers I met after release but mostly I bought copies for my readers - a handful of my most loyal followers who had been really active on social media and spruiking my book to their friends all received a surprise signed copy as a thank you and I've given away several copies in competitions on Facebook. It's an investment in my career I'm prepared to make - I will invest in the people that help and support me, whether they're bloggers or fans - I think the relationship has to go both ways, not just them supporting me. I've also given copies to friends who had read it as an eBook but I thought would like a signed copy too, especially if they lived far away. I don't regret buying extra copies and giving them away and I'll do it next time too.
6. Visit Book Clubs. (I know I said 5 - I tricked you so you would read the article, 5 sounded better than 6!)
This a contentious one which is why I left it till last. Unlike library talks, you don’t get paid to visit book clubs and it’s time away from your family, usually at night. Also, it’s really weird to sit around hearing people critique your book and what if they hate it? Some authors think visiting book clubs won’t boost sales because the book club people have already read the book anyway.
I understand why authors baulk at the idea of going to book clubs. But, in my limited experience, it’s brought me some of my most wonderfully loyal readers. I firmly believe I’ve sold more books by going to book clubs because those women have since championed it to their family and friends after spending an evening hearing me speak about it. I’ve met over 100 women through book club evenings and I’m super thankful for the opportunity to spend such quality time getting to know readers.
Book club evenings are low stress and they are lovely and intimate so they provide a special and rather unique atmosphere to share your story.
Here are my tips for successful book club visits (some I’ve learned the hard way!):
- Only agree to visit one or two book clubs a month so it doesn’t take up too much of your time. Book clubs are always happy to wait for a special guest to come. Because of my self-imposed rule of one book club a month for 2017, I’m visiting a book club this May and that's after a July release last year. So there really is no pressure, visit only when it suits you.
- Find out how many people are in the book club before you commit to going. I have a rule that I won’t attend if there are less than six members present. And I make it clear that I expect them to all have bought and read the book.
- If you're a sensitive soul, make it clear that under no circumstances do you want to hear critiques of your book. Let them know beforehand that they can go and write reviews on appropriate forums or send a private email with a review if they wish. If they are desperate to discuss the book openly on the night, they can wait till you leave and then stay back and dissect the book once you’re out of earshot. Sitting there with a fixed smile while you listen to people discuss which part of your books suck isn’t a fun night out so spare yourself.
- Let them know before you go exactly what they can expect from you on the night. For my book club visits, I’ll talk to them about my journey from writing the story to having it published and they can ask me questions. I’ll sign copies, take selfies and hang around for a cuppa before heading home.
I also ask book club members to share with me any juicy stories (about themselves not other people!) that they think will make great little anecdotes in books and I’ve totally taken their stories and put them into my next book. For real! It’s awesome because up until this point I’ve been bluffing about having an imagination and now I can keep right on bluffing. All I have to do is continue visiting book clubs and stealing plot lines from their lives :)
- Stalk people you haven’t met in real life if they invite you to their book club, especially if it’s at a private address. Speak on the phone, look them up properly, do what you can to guarantee you aren’t turning up to a serial killer’s home. Always share the address with someone you trust and then message that someone through the night to let them know you’re alive and well.
I hope you’ve taken away at least one new idea for how to maximise your new release’s sales potential from my post and I wish you all the very best of luck!
P.S. One final tip. If you’re choosing a pen name for yourself, pick a surname starting with a letter between F and O – you’ll end up in the middle section on most book shelf walls and the middle is where everyone looks first. My maiden name began with M (the ultimate sweet spot letter on shelves) and I traded that in when I got married for W….I’ve been happily gracing bottom shelves everywhere since.