269 | 3 Tips for Marketing Your Book in 2023 with Paul Zelizer
This week on the pod is our montly solo episode with Paul Zelizer. Paul is the Founder & CEO of Awarepreneurs and the host of the popular Awarepreneurs podcast. He's also been a coach for social entrepreneurs and conscious business owners for more than 15 years.
Marketing Your Book in 2023: Solo Episode with Paul Zelizer, Founder and CEO of Awarepreneurs
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul (100%)
Paul Zelizer
0:02
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your positive impact, your profits, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app that helps more people learn how to have positive impact or values based business. Thank you so much! Today, I'm your guest. It's time for our monthly solo episode. And our topic today is 3 Tips for Marketing Your Book in 2023. My name is Paul Zelizer and I'm the founder of Awarepreneurs and the host of this podcast. We have … I don't know 270 episodes almost, and been doing the podcast for about five and a half years and an impact focused business coach for almost 15 years now. So let me tell you a story about why I think this is important. In the past, I don't know, month or so I've talked to three different people who are considering hiring me for launching a book early in 2023. I've booked several guests just went back and forth with somebody this morning, who's launching a fabulous book on women and impact businesses. A previous client who's launching a book just reached out and said, You helped me get the word out about my book, you get the idea books around the mind. And it's not uncommon in a new year, in the first quarter, so for lots of new books to be launched. So it's on a lot of people's minds. And I just wanted to, you know, share with you some strategies and some tips for success. Before we get into the marketing part of it, one of the biggest things you can do, which is beyond the scope of this episode, but I'll tell you story, is to make sure that book itself is a really quality book, and is speaking to the needs of your intended audience. And if you're looking for somebody who's doing that, in today's marketplace, I just wanted to point you in the direction of Alex budak. Alex just recently launched a book called Becoming a change maker. And I talked to him at a great networking conversation with Alex. He's about a month into launch. And he's getting fabulous results. It's a book on people who are looking at our world and saying, Wow, we're really in trouble. The world is burning. And I want to do something in the realm of making the world a better place, but I'm not really sure what to do about it. And when Alex and I were chatting, I asked him, I said, Alex, the book is selling better than people had hoped better than you had hoped. And what do you think is contributing to that? And he said one thing, but I also having read the book now and you know, getting to know him a little better. I have two things that I think he did in the book itself, that are really helpful to the sales. Number one, when I asked Alex, why do you think the book is selling better than most books, right? It's not easy. People aren't reading as much. There's lots of forms of content from YouTube videos to podcasts, books aren't selling like they did 20 years ago. Why is this book selling better than average? And Alex said, Paul, the reason is, is I interviewed 50, great change makers, and their wisdom I baked in into every chapter. That's why it's selling so. And I think Alex is really smart there to really like, make sure you're in touch with what's happening in your field. And it's not just an intellectual exercise of reading some articles, but really talking to people on the ground, who are leaders in the space, and baking their wisdom into the book, I think that makes a lot of sense. And it's really helpful to folks who are trying to get an idea how really smart people are successfully navigating the issues that you're writing about. I think that's one of the best strategies of what you can do in the book itself to ensure there's a lot of value there, and people get really excited about it. The other thing I think Alex has done really well is he's a great storyteller. And he balancing storytelling with theory of change making. He's a professor at Berkeley business school to call the house business school at Berkeley. So he's balancing the storytelling, his balancing theory and academic knowledge. And he's really giving some very concrete tips and strategies. So those three buckets, storytelling, making it engaging and learning from real world experience, some theory or some background or some academic knowledge, and some really concrete strategies and tips, balancing those out. I think it's a really helpful strategy. So that's all I'm gonna say about the actual process of what goes in a book. But suffice it to say, if you write a book that nobody wants to read, or people don't get excited about these marketing strategies are you know
PZ
Paul Zelizer
5:00
They're not gonna do that much for you. So I wanted to give you an example of a book that I think that's doing it well, right here at the end of 2022, as we're thinking about 2023, so I'll put a link in the show notes to Alex's book becoming a change maker.
PZ
Paul Zelizer
5:16
So the first tip I have for marketing your book in 2023. And this would be for those of you who do have a traditional publisher, this isn't really going to apply if you're self publishing, although the other tips very much so well, if you are going with a traditional publisher, get clear with your publisher about what kind of marketing support and PR support they are going to provide. And dig a little deeper than the surface here. Because sometimes there's some confusion as I meet with people, and they say, oh, but you know, they said, My publisher is going to do X, Y, and Z. And like, how much are they going to do? Let's say a strategy, we're going to talk about later getting booked on podcasts, or are they going to pitch your book, to online publications and print publications like how much one publication per month, it's probably not going to move the needle that much, or they're going to get you booked on 10 podcasts a month, or 20 podcasts a month. Sometimes authors come to me and they haven't done that work to get really granular in when a publisher says they're going to do certain things, and then it's not to the frequency, it's not really going to move the needle, and the author didn't know it. And they don't find out until six months into a launch, well, then it's not as helpful. And let me go back and say I should have said this earlier, that when you're marketing a book, you want to come out of the gates as strong as you can. This single biggest predictor of the lifetime sales of a Bucko is what happens in the first 90 days. So what happens is, if you start to make some nice sales, compared to other books in your category early on, then the algorithms, you know, these algorithms, whether it's the algorithm on social media, or the algorithm on a book selling platform like Amazon, they start to show your book more than a book that isn't selling as well. So to come out of the gate strong is really important. And if you're expecting your publisher to do certain things to help you come out of the gate strong to really lean in and provide a lot of support, but then it's actually very light touch, then you're likely to be disappointed. And that can have a really big impact. And it's harder to change. Course in terms of book sells, like I said, three months or six months in and you're like, oh, wow, we're not having the sales, I was hoping and you don't know that until three or six months in, it's a much bigger lift, to try to change that than to be really clear up front. So have those conversations with Nuance. And when your publisher says if they are going to do and some publishers are very upfront that they'll do very little. The other thing to know is that a lot of publishers, it's like going through rounds. I jokingly but wish it wasn't so true. Talk about Hunger Games, capitalism comes to the publishing industry. In other words, if you survive a first round in terms of like what a publisher is hoping they might come in fairly light in the first two or three months and see how you're doing. And if you're getting some good sales, because the idea of that book, and it's a great quality book, or maybe because you help that happen with some of the things we're going to talk about later you leaned in and did some lifting, then they'll add each round that you survive, like The Hunger Games, when you survive, you know, you get additional food or additional support. Unfortunately, that's the way a lot of publishers approach books these days. It's like venture capitalism, right? When a VC fund you early, early on in a business, they give you just a little bit of money to see what happens. And then if you survive, and you grow, and you make it to, you know, the seed round, they give you very little money, Series A, they give you a little more money series B, they give you more money Series C, they give you more money. A lot of publishers treat books like that, they do just a bit at the beginning. And then those books that are selling the best, then they lean in and do more and more and more. And if you're one of those folks who doesn't know that you're expecting your publisher to do a lot of work up front could be really disappointed. So the point is Get really clear. If you do have a traditional publisher, try to get as much information about what realistically are they going to do and what are they not going to do? And don't just kind of check a box if they say something that you'd like to have on your list, like a pot
PZ
Paul Zelizer
10:00
Has casting strategy or like pitching you to print in online publications, how much of that are they going to do so you can make an informed choice.
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Paul Zelizer
10:10
The second strategy is to really lean into your network. This was an email I got from a former client today, launching a book. And it was very well done, the book is coming out on such and such a date, it would be really helpful if you could put it out to your network, you know, in this date window, here's pictures, here's copy all in an online folder, it's very well organized. The technical name for this in the marketing world might be called influencer marketing. And what I would suggest is doing an assessment of who's in your network, particularly about the issue, the topic your book is on, who are some of the people you know, who have some influence in that ecosystem, whether it be impact entrepreneurship, or leadership or relationships or a wellness topic. Or if it's the intersection of a couple topics, maybe it's wellness for impact leaders, whatever your topic is, who do you know who has some grabby toss in those circles, and to, you know, make a list of them, make sure you're aware of who they are, reach out, give them time, don't do it, the day of the launch, or three days before the launch, these are busy folks. And if they're going to post it on social media or included in their newsletter, some folks marketing calendars are booked out for months in advance. So knowing who the influences are, can help move the needle in terms of book sales whose recommendation can make a difference. For instance, I really liked Alex Alex's book, becoming a change maker, I posted it on LinkedIn said, Hey, here's a really great book in the impact space. And a number of people right there on the Post said, I went out and bought it because of this recommendation. People in the impact space, know my name. And if I say book is helpful, some people are gonna go check it out a number of them did and hit the buy button. And having people like that, knowing who they are in your networks, to prepare them, give them the assets they need in terms of images and copy. And to do all that at a, you know, with some lead time, from when the book goes live, really going to make a difference. And if you have enough time, if you know, hey, I'm going to launch my book in six or 12 months, then you have time, you can go out and make connections specifically with other thought leaders in the space and have enough time to develop some relationships so that when the book does launch, you know more of those leaders. It's a wonderful strategy that not that many authors use. I wish more people did. But if you're one of the folks who are being smart about your book launch, I think there's a real opportunity there. The last suggestion I have for you is guess what? I'm a podcast host podcast guesting. Why do I say that? Well, a book is 50,000 70,000 90,000 words, right?
PZ
Paul Zelizer
13:15
It's really hard to get the full power in the nuance of a book squeezed down into a 13 word Instagram meme or a 32nd. Soundbite video. The beautiful thing about podcasting is the average episode is somewhere like 22 to 25 minutes long. And there's still quite a few long form podcasts, my podcasts is 50 to 55 minute episodes, you have time to go into the nuances and the intersections of things and to talk about different aspects of your book in a way that few other media really allows you. In addition, podcasting is by definition, it's a, it's where people gather I like to talk about as like an online campfire, people who are excited about blank, whatever the topic is, whether it's soccer, or leadership, women's entrepreneurship, or diversity, equity and inclusion, whatever your book is about, there's podcasts out there, and those podcasts already have listeners, you don't necessarily need hundreds of 1000s of downloads to really make a difference. An example might be something like golf, if you have an innovative golf product, maybe you have a golf club that is really different in terms of how you've designed it. And maybe it's a golf club for women and really helps women. You know, it's just designed for women's bodies. Let's think about that for a moment, right? You don't necessarily want to just randomly put an ad in a big newspaper that isn't necessarily as targeted as like getting on a golf podcast where people are already passionate and excited and obsessed about golf. And here you have a new innovative product that they would understand. And even though I don't know USA Today, as a newspaper has hundreds or 1000s, maybe millions of people reading it. It's not as targeted as let's say, a golf podcast with 5000 listeners, but they're all by definition obsessed about golf, because they, you know, listen to this podcast every week, week after week, 30 minutes at a time. I think podcasting the combination of the long form nature of most podcast episodes, the relational back and forth with the guests, it's just more fun. It's not like it's not as much work, you come on to the show, the host interviews you and then they take it from there, they do all the work of, you know, processing the episode, and then circling back around when it goes live with the assets you need to do great marketing, like an episode graphic, and maybe an audio Graham, little clip of 30 seconds. So those clips can help people listen to the episode, but in the episode itself, you have time, and the space and depth to go into nuance. And the host if you pitch podcast Well, the host has already done the work of building an audience for you. You don't have to build for years, it takes years to build an engaged and a sizable podcast listenership. But if you're coming on as a guest, you want to be a great guest, it's important to have a strategy to know what you're doing as a guest. And not just like golf is great, or women's entrepreneurship, that's great, it is great. Women's Entrepreneurship is awesome. But you want to be more targeted and more specific in what you're doing on that podcast
PZ
Paul Zelizer
16:53
about women's entrepreneurship and why you feel so strongly about it and connect it up with what you're talking about in the book and the further tips and strategies and the stories and the experience and the benefits that somebody who reads your book is going to get when you're on the show. So there's some strategy there. But if you've done your homework, you get to leverage the existing audience that the host has spent years building up. And if you're smart about that, I think it's one of the most highest return on your investment in terms of your time, energy, and money, that any opportunity out there in 2023 is going to present to sell here. If you need some help getting on podcast sounds awesome. And you want some help with strategies of what do you say on the podcast? I offer a strategy session that we could tell her just to making sure you're ready to go know what to say which stories to tell which aspects of your book are going to be most attractive to the audience. So check out the show notes. And check out my strategy session. I think it could be really helpful. I will also put links to several podcast booking agencies. I just got off the phone with one of them pod city Daniel Harris and folks at pod city they have a the most affordable category of podcast booking services that I've yet seen $250 a month. It's quality. It's great. If you want more than that. You can also check out some of their up leveled opportunities for podcast booking I'll share to other services as well. This isn't about any one particular service. But just the idea that podcast guesting is an incredible opportunity. And if you could use some resources for that, like I said, I can help you when you're on air, what do you do? How do you make it work? How do you move the needle by being a guest being prepared as a guest that I can really help you with with a strategy session. If you need help getting booked, there will be several resources in the show notes. So that's what I got four tips for you in terms of marketing your book in 2023. It's a very exciting time, congratulations on your book. And if you could use any help, please reach out with anything that I talked about. Before we go I just want to remind you we love listeners suggested topics and guests. Because if you have an idea for a story or a guest, please go to the AWARE printers website. And check out our contact page. And we have three simple guidelines that will help give you a sense of who we're looking for what kind of stories we like to tell if you look at those and say yeah, I think this fits, please send it on in we'd love to hear from you. So for now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our
19:56
world.