Book marketing has changed rapidly over the last couple of decades. However, the basics of marketing remain the same. In Your Book Your Brand, Dana Kaye talks to authors about the basics as well as the micro level tasks that they must commit to, to create their brand.
Creating an author brand and author platform are one of the most important tasks a new author must take up. Bagging a contract from traditional, big publishers is getting difficult every day. Moreover, these publishers too now look at the author brand and measure new author’s popularity before making a decision on offering a publishing contract. The days of writing a book, pitching the book to publisher and then sitting back are over.
As the head of her own independent PR firm, Kaye Publicity, Dana Kaye has worked to get books into the hands of as many readers as possible. She has been a driving force behind many bestselling authors across all genres, from thriller authors like Gregg Hurwitz and Jamie Freveletti to children’s authors like Liz Climo and Claudia Gray.
Your Book, Your Brand: The Step-By-Step Guide to Launching Your Book and Boosting Your Sales
Author: Dana Kaye
Paperback: 238 pages
Publisher: Diversion Publishing (September 20, 2016)
ISBN: 1682303802, 978-1682303801
The book starts with the basics. The author considers her audience to be completely alien to the concept of digital marketing. The initial chapters explain what digital marketing for authors can include. She presents the pro and cons of hiring a marketing consultant and others to build your author brand. But she also provides all the information you need, if you decide to walk this route on your own.
Getting reviews and reaching out to influencers is an important part of digital marketing. The author explains what this means and gives specific metrics or shortlisting criteria that authors should consider when contacting bloggers and social media influencers. For example, she shares how a targeted blog with higher ‘time on web’ metric can many times be better than a blog with low ‘time on web’ and ‘high bounce rate’. Here, she provides the readers with links to specific tools that authors can use when they sit down to make a list of people they want to reach out to.
Most authors find it challenging to reach out to people in traditional media or are not sure of the right way to approach. The author provides sample pitches and also shared the typical email subject line that have got them replies from journalists. For those who are not social media savvy, Dana Kaye gives a handy glossary to brush up your lingo.
Your Book Your Brand is a short and handy guide that will take you from the basics to the best kept secrets of book marketing. With resources, tools, and advice, new authors can save a lot of time hunting for this all important information online, and spend the time on actually building a brand and marketing the brand. Definitely a time-saver for a new author.