The Ink Tree
Report October, 2004
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Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
What Does Distribution Have to Do With Publicity?
<<This
article was selected from the free article bank on our website here:
http://www.inktreemarketing.com/selfpublishingarticles.htm>>
When publicity firms
consider taking on new clients and developing new campaigns for
books, the first question usually asked of the client is what kind
of book distribution system is currently in place.
You see, publicists
are in the business of helping authors succeed. Without having a
good distribution system in place, a good publicity plan will likely
lead you to nothing more than frustration and disappointment.
Think about this --
you work hard and prepare all of your media materials so they are
perfect and are sure to have the media banging down your door. Your
media kit is incredible and your news release is nothing short of
fantastic. You've set up your whole campaign and plan to distribute
news releases, send out review copies, follow up and persist with
all of the media in your city.
Now you start. You
put the wheels in motion and you're on fire! You're sending out news
releases, pitch letters, and you're following up and getting GREAT
responses.
The biggest daily
newspaper in your city calls to tell you that they LOVE your story.
The editor has decided to feature a full page article on you and
your book. It really doesn't get any better than this!
You give them all
the information, complete your interview and the story is ready to
go. You open your paper that day and sure enough... a full page
spread! On your book!
Now, you sit back
and wait for those sales to start rolling in...
you wait...
and you wait...
and you wait...
What's wrong?! Why
isn't the phone ringing?
Thousands of people
must have read that article. Surely at least a few of them want to
buy the book??
Ahhh... but it seems
you forgot one thing.
You forgot to put
your distribution system in place before the article ran. You didn't
hire a distributor. You didn't contact all the bookstores to ensure
that they would have full stock of your book the day the article
ran. You didn't even make sure your book was available online.
Now, thousands of
people have read about your book and likely a good percentage of
them want it. What do you think those people did? Likely, they ran
down to their local bookstore and tried to find the book. You don't
have a distribution system, so your books aren't there. Then the
customers ran home to see if they could buy the book through one of
the major online bookstores, but that brought them no luck either
because you forgot to set it up.
There's even a good
chance that while some of these anxious customers shopped around
trying to find your book, they found another book that was quite
similar. Not exactly the same, but close enough -- and they bought
it! Well, at least someone made some money from all your hard work.
This paints the
picture clearly enough and here's the moral of the story: if you
plan to launch a splashy publicity campaign for your book (and you
should!), you must, must have distribution in place first.
Publicity is
targeted to the general public. The general public looks for books
in very specific places. If they can't find your book, they won't
buy it.
If you work hard
enough to drive the demand and then make sure you can meet it.
© Copyright 2004 Ink
Tree Ltd.
**For more
information on how to publicize your book.
Click Here **
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Interesting
Stuff
Did you know that
“hard news” tends to slow down during the holidays and the media
starts to scramble for good stories? Want to know how to get free
publicity to sell more books during the holidays?
You can make a major
impact on your bottom line this Holiday season by taking advantage
of a bundle of publicity generating resources that publicity guru
George McKenzie has created.
Click Here to Find Out More
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Mention My Book!
How to Find Work in the 21st Century,
2004
Edition, by Ron McGowan:
www.trafford.com/robots/00-0131.html.
Now in use at over 50
colleges and universities in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
Violet the Pilot
in Canada
(in France and in Hawaii to follow shortly), by Bettina Jenkins
Bathe:
www.violetthepilot.com or e-mail at
violetthepilot@shaw.ca or call 1-403-284-1418
From each book sold $1.00 will be given to the Heart and Stroke
Foundation.
***The intention of our new Mention My Book section is to give self
published books free exposure. Extra publicity never hurts! If you
want to submit your book for mention, please send an email with the
subject line “Mention My Book!” to us at:
info@inktreemarketing.com***
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Inspiration
“Take the
first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just
take the first step.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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For more
information on Ink Tree and our services for authors and publishers,
visit us at:
http://www.inktreemarketing.com
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