Five Marketing Mistakes The Big Guys Make That You Must Avoid At All Costs

Even the big guys make mistakes.  But, they can recover from them easier than you can.  Here are five major marketing mistakes you want to avoid.

1)  Believing your product is suitable for everyone. Everyone uses tooth paste, but one brand varies from the next.  Some people like one kind, some like another.  Some people need a special kind of tooth paste for dentures, some people buy tooth paste for children.  Your booklet may be suitable for everyone, but not everyone will like it or be able to use it.

2)  Trying to market to more than one niche at one time. Twice the marketing equals twice the cost. It’s far better to establish a single, profitable niche first, and then if your booklet can cross over into another niche you can go for it.

3)  Marketing without a plan. Many companies will try one thing after another hoping it will work.  Blind marketing is NEVER a good idea.  You need a solid plan of action based on what has worked in the past.

4)  Expecting someone else to take care of the marketing for you. Big companies hire big marketing agencies to take care of their marketing.  They spend millions of dollars, which are often wasted because these agencies don’t really care whether or not the marketing they do works.  They only care whether it impresses the big company who hired them.  Do your marketing yourself.  Nobody cares about it as much as you do.

5)  Not knowing whether the marketing you are doing works. If you don’t know whether or not it’s working, how do you know whether you should do it again or try something else? Often big companies will spend money on new marketing techniques without knowing whether those techniques will work for them.  Worse, they don’t bother to discover whether that marketing worked or not when it’s all said and done.  A few orders may not necessarily mean success.

To your riches!

Kim

PS: Marketing is really a snap when you love what you do!  Are you ready to write that booklet?  Click here!

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The Right Way To Offer Your Booklet To Your Market

It happened again today.  I received an email from some guru (how DO these people get my email address???) promising that if I attend their online webinar I’ll be told how to get my website on the first page of Google and my sales will soar. His webinar may very well tell me how to get my website on page one of Google, but let me set the record straight by saying that getting your website on page one of Google does NOT guarantee you will make any sales.

He would have been better off to simply promise his audience that they would get their website on the first page of Google (that isn’t difficult to do), and left it at that.  Sales on someone else’s website is something that NO guru can control.

Building A Repoire With Your Audience Takes Time

That Guru made a promise that he will never be able to keep.  His audience might see their number of visitors to their website soar, but that doesn’t mean their sales will.

How many times have you gone to a website and browsed but not purchased -  Especially if you’ve never heard of that company or person before?  People are particularly wary of who they buy from online.  It takes time to build a repoire with your audience.  People buy from people they know, like and trust.

How do you think that Guru’s audience will feel once their excitement dies down from all the traffic – when they finally realize that just getting traffic doesn’t guarantee sales?

Your Number One Goal

As an author and as a business person, your number one goal is NOT to make sales.  Yes, you read that right.  Sales is NOT your number one goal.  Your number one goal is to be someone your customers feel they can trust.

That means giving your best information in a professional product that is delivered in a timely manner.  It also means being honest about what you can deliver and what you can’t.  It means being fair and treating your customers like people, not dollars.

There are many large companies today who spend millions of dollars on marketing their products, and their focus is on the money that marketing will bring in.  They aren’t thinking about the individual PEOPLE who will see that marketing. They rely on their brand or their name because they’ve been around a while.  But, we’ve seen many companies go out of business over the past few years – many of whom had been around for years.

Why Not Having A Brand Or Established Business Is A GOOD Thing

As a new booklet author, you don’t have a brand yet or a company that has been in business for many years, so you can’t rely on these things to bring in the big bucks.  But, that’s a good thing.  It means you’ll have to learn how to do it the right way – one customer at a time.

There is a right way and a wrong way to tell customers about your product. The guru mentioned above went about it the wrong way.  He promised something he could never deliver because he will never have any control over someone else’s website.  There is much more to selling from the internet than simply getting your website on the first page of Google.  In fact, getting your website on the front page of Google can actually hurt your sales if you don’t know what you’re doing.  But this guru isn’t concerned with that.  He’s looking for the fast buck.

When you’re ready to offer your booklet to people, make sure you never promise more than you can deliver.  It’s actually a good rule of thumb to under promise and over deliver.  That means your product and delivery is even better than you said it would be.  This will delight your customers and make them want to buy from you again.

Remember, your goal is to be worthy of your customers’ trust.  If your customers feel they can trust you, sales WILL happen.

To your riches!

Kim

PS: Do you want to go about creating your booklet the right way so you’ll have a  product that will sell when it’s finished?  Click here!

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Why There’s Profit In What You DON’T Write

Many companies have made their claim to fame with one product.  Starbucks is known for it’s coffee.  But, they can’t serve every possible concoction in one cup.  And, even if you only like one particular combination of coffee and add ins, one cup won’t satisfy you for life.  You will want more tomorrow. This is good for Starbucks, and if you apply the same principle to your booklets, it’s also good for you.

A booklet is a small publication.  You can’t possibly stuff every last detail about your subject inside.  But, this works to your advantage.  Just as Starbucks always leaves you wanting another cup next time, your booklet needs to leave your readers wanting more.

Pare It Down

When you create your first booklet, one of the most difficult tasks you’ll face is deciding which information to include about your subject.  At first, everything will seem important.  But, you must pare down your information to the essentials.

Chose one area of your subject to focus on and stick to it.  Your booklet doesn’t need to be the magnum opus on gardening.  Instead, choose one small area of gardening to focus on – such as how to build a greenhouse, or planting tips for growing tulips.

Make A List

Once you’ve pared down your subject to one small area, you need to decide which information is most important to include. It’s helpful at this stage to make a list of any information you deem important.  This way you’ll be able to see at a glance just which details are essential.

You might start with one list, and then divide it into two – one for information that is absolutely necessary, and one that isn’t.  Doing this ensures that the most pertinent information gets into your booklet.  Then, if you have the space, you can include some information from your non-essential list.

Fill Their Desire For More

After your first booklet is completed and selling in the marketplace, you can create another booklet about another area of your subject.  So, if your first booklet is about how to build a greenhouse, your next one might be about how to grow vegetables in a greenhouse.

Eventually, you might decide that want an entire line of gardening booklets, each one dealing with a different area of the subject of gardening.  You might have titles such as “Gardening With The Grandkids,”  “How To Grow Pumpkins,”  or “The Beginners Guide To Growing Vegetables.”

Just as Starbucks is known for its coffee, yet serves a variety of drinks, so you would be known for your gardening booklets and have a variety of titles.  The potential for growth is HUGE! And the best part is that you can grow it any way you want to, and as fast as you want to.

Always leave ‘em wanting more.  When you do, you’ll have more to create and more to sell.  There’s profit in what you don’t write, because it creates a desire for more.  Few companies ever get rich from just one product.  They have one product that is their claim to fame, and then they expand on it. They create new flavors, different colors, his and hers, different sizes, new additions and new formats.  It’s partly about choice, but it’s also about filling the desire for more.

A good movie will have a sequel if it does well in the box office.  Why?  Because filling the desire for more is profitable. And it will be for you too!

To your riches!

Kim

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Why You Should Be Charging More For Your Booklets

I’d like to begin this post with my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have subscribed to and read this blog regularly.  The membership here is growing steadily and that’s exciting because it means that more of you are discovering just how lucrative and wide open the field of booklet publishing is.  However,  It’s also very humbling.  I hope my posts will continue to inspire you!  Now, on to the post for today…..

Are you concerned about how much to charge for your booklets?  Many small business owners and  independent publishers actually under-charge for their products because they fear charging too much.  They’re afraid nobody will buy from them, especially now with the economy in such a mess.  But, you must charge something for your booklets, and preferably as much as you can get away with.  Here’s why…..

Your Reward Is Up To You

You’ve worked hard (ok, maybe not, but don’t tell your customers!) to create and produce your booklet.  You researched your topic (and if you didn’t need to because you had all the knowledge in your head already – for heaven’s sake don’t tell anyone!!!), and you spent some of your own money to see your brain child come into being (even though it was a mere pittance as compared to full length book publishing – you’d better keep that a secret too!).

The fact is, you’ve accomplished something that most people never will, and you deserve to be rewarded.  But, it’s up to you to decide how much that reward will be.  You’ve done a good job, and if you worked for someone else your reward would be a paycheck.  But, as a booklet author and business owner, you don’t have anyone handing you a paycheck.  It’s up to you to determine the amount of pay you deserve.

You Deserve To Be Reimbursed For Your Expenses

Producing booklets isn’t free.  There are costs associated with both printed booklets and e-booklets, and although those costs are quite reasonable you still have pay them.

You can’t afford to operate your business at a loss – paying more to produce your booklets than you actually bring in.  You also can’t afford to just break even.  Otherwise, what’s the point of having a business?  If you break even you’ve got a nice hobby you enjoy, but not a business.

You deserve to be reimbursed for your costs, just as you deserve to be reimbursed for your time in putting your manuscript together.  And, that doesn’t mean that you are reimbursed one dollar for every dollar you spend.  You have to take into account things which don’t show up on your receipts – such as travel time and gas.

The Public’s Perspective

The vast majority of the public are completely clueless when it comes to how much things should cost.  Have you ever watched that old tv show called The Price Is Right?  Most of the contestants didn’t even come close to guessing the actual price of the products displayed on that show.

Most people believe that a higher price reflects a better quality product.  Often people will buy a product based on a more expensive price because they think that product is better than another, lower priced one.

One example of this is a well known brand of tennis shoe that sells for more than $100.00, vs. a store brand that sells for $30.00.  In light of today’s economy you would think the majority of people would go for the cheaper shoe.  Not so.  They go for the more expensive shoe because they believe it is superior to the cheaper one.

This means that if you’re afraid to charge a little more for your booklet because you think people won’t buy from you, that thinking can actually work against you.  People tend to buy based on their own perceptions rather than actual facts.

Give Your Best And Reap The Riches

You can’t be a rich booklet author if your prices are too cheap.  You don’t want to present a cheap product.  You want to present a product that is a good value for the money you’re charging.  This means that when you charge a higher price, your market would have been willing to pay still more to acquire your booklet.  It means you’ve given your best, and you deserve the best in return.

To your riches!

Kim

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How To Build A Relationship With Your Readers So They’ll Buy From You Again And Again

Every booklet you create helps to build a relationship with your audience.  You may never meet your readers face to face, but they will come to expect a certain level of professionalism from you.  If they like your first booklet, they’ll expect your next one to be just as good.  Here’s how to build a relationship with your readers that will keep them happy and get them to buy from you over and over again.

Deliver What You Promise

Your booklets won’t sell because they look good or because the font is large and easy to read.  Your booklets will sell because they contain information that is useful to your audience.  The more vital that information is to them, the more likely they are to buy it.

Nobody expects a small booklet to be the final authority on your subject, but it should contain some information that is necessary to know.  For example, a booklet about how to do your own taxes should give people enough information, in a nutshell, so that they can actually do their own taxes themselves.  If your booklet fails to do this, people won’t buy from you again, nor will they recommend your booklet to others.  In fact, they’ll deter others from buying from you.  You must make sure your booklet delivers what you promise.

Make Sure It’s Complete

While your booklet isn’t expected to be the final authority on your subject, it should be complete.  If you remember sitting in English class when you were in school, you might remember being taught that a sentence needs to be a complete thought.  Your booklet is the same way.  It should leave the reader feeling fulfilled, like they can use what they have read, or like they have gained something from it.  Your booklet should not leave readers confused or in doubt. It should give readers enough information so that they feel like they have the basics, or like they have mastered one area of your subject.

Make It Easy To Understand And Absorb

Most people want information that is quick to absorb and easy to understand.  They aren’t looking for some complex explanation, and they don’t care about every last detail there is on your subject.  They want just enough information to take them to the next step, give them a basic introduction, or help them accomplish a single task.  Therefore, you need to keep your information simple.

Don’t use words that aren’t relevant to what you’re trying to convey, and don’t use words that are difficult to understand or complex sentences that are hard to read.  Keep your paragraphs, sentences and words short.  Your information should be easy to read and understand.

Relationship Is Everything

Following the guidelines above will help you to establish a good relationship with your readers.  That relationship is the very foundation of your booklet business.  It’s what will allow your business to grow as large as you want it to be. Businesses don’t fail because of the economy, or because of their competition, or because their logo is the wrong color.  Businesses fail because they didn’t deliver what they promised, and that tarnished their relationship with their customers.

When you buy a widget you expect that widget to work as promised.  Likewise, when you buy a “how to” book, you expect to learn “how to.”  If that widget doesn’t work, you’re disappointed.  And, if that book fails to teach you “how to,” your disappointed again, and it’s unlikely that you would give either the company that sold you the widget or the author who sold you the book a second chance.

Deliver what you promise and make sure your information is complete and easy to understand.  The riches will follow.

To your riches!

Kim

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PPS: Does this blog meet your expectations?  Does it deliver as promised?  Please feel free to leave your comments below.  Thanks!

How To Gain Instant Credibility To Skyrocket Your Booklet Sales

Are you concerned that nobody will be interested in buying your booklet because you’re an unknown?  Every author has to start with their first manuscript.   Nobody is born a known author.   But, there is an easy way to gain credibility right from the start, which will make people want your information because they’ll view you as the best source to get it from.

It’s Not About What You Say

Your credibility has little to do with your booklet or with what you say about it.  It also has little to do with what you say about yourself.  Nobody really cares about how long you’ve studied or been in your particular field, nor do they care about your experience or your degrees.  Sure, those things are important.  They do show your expertise.  But, there are plenty of people with expertise who have no credibility as experts.

So, what is it, then, that gives you credibility?  It’s what other people say about you.  Other people’s words about you will have more weight in the minds of the public than your own words will, especially when you’re an unknown.

Piggybacking On Someone Else’s Credibility

While all words spoken or written about you or your work are important, the words of a few are really your goal.  These chosen few are those who are already specialists or experts with an elevated status in the eyes of the public, and more specifically, your market.  They may work in a field that is related to your booklet’s topic, or they may work in a completely unrelated field yet have clout through their association or their status.   These people have the credibility you need, and if they say your booklet is excellent, then your booklet will be thought of as excellent.  If they say you are a genius for bringing something new to the table, their word is as good as gold.  These people can literally stuff your bank account with money just by what they say about you or your work.

As a new author, you’d be foolish to try to build credibility on your own when you can have someone who already has credibility vouch for you.  This gives you instant credibility.  It doesn’t mean your work isn’t really that good or that you don’t deserve credibility.  You should always strive to put your best into every booklet you create, or any other product you produce.  What this is, is a short-cut to riches.  If someone credits you and your work doesn’t stand on its own, you’ll eventually lose credibility.  But, if it does, you’ll simply keep the credibility that you received from the person who gave it to you.

Individuals Aren’t the Only Ones Who Can Lend Credibility

Can’t think of any individuals that might be willing to lend credibility to your booklet?  Individuals are not the only ones who can lend credibility to you.  You can also gain it through a business, association or corporation as long as the entity is publicly known.  This doesn’t mean that the company or association needs to be famous world wide.  It does mean that the entity should be well known and well respected within your particular market.

The Key To Making Instant Credibility Work For You

The key to making instant credibility work is choosing the right people to give it to you.  These people are not going to come looking for you.  You’ve got to seek them out.  But, you’re not looking for just anyone who is well known or famous.  You’re looking for those who are respected and well known within your market.  For example, if your booklet is about how to grow roses, one type of entity you might want to pursue is associations having to do with gardening, and specifically roses.  An entity you would not want to pursue is a retailer that sells roses.  The first is considered an expert source, the second is not.

When it comes to your credibility and expert status, you don’t have to start from scratch.  Find those who already have credibility and are willing to lend some to you.  When you do, you’ll skyrocket your sales!

To your riches!

Kim

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Selling Booklets – How To Avoid The Kiss Of Death

Do you know what the kiss of death is for a writer?  It’s being boring.  No matter how great your information is, if it isn’t presented to your market in an interesting way they won’t bite.  Today, more than ever, it is important to get your market’s attention, and if you bore them you’ve lost them forever.  Here is how to grab their attention.

Your Front Cover – Attention Getter Or Snoozer?

It can’t be stressed enough that your front cover is the first thing a potential buyer sees, whether they are looking at a physical copy of your booklet, or an online photo.  Your cover must compel the reader to want to read what’s inside.  It should NOT say, “psssst!  Over here.  Take a look at this.  You might just find something of interest here.”  Instead, your cover should SCREEEEEEEEEEEAM, “HEY!  YOU!!!  THIS IS FOR YOU!  THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!  RIGHT HERE!  YOU NEED THIS!  YOU WANT THIS!  YOU GOTTA HAVE THIS!  IF YOU DON’T, YOU’ll KICK YOURSELF FOR PASSING IT UP!”

Every aspect of your cover, from your title, to any photos or artwork you include, to your cover’s colors, should make the potential reader want to know what’s inside.  If they don’t care about what’s on the cover, they won’t care about the content inside either.

Your Content – Does It Deliver And Hold Attention?

Your front cover will create a certain expectation in your potential reader.  Once the reader opens your booklet, that expectation should be met, and if at all possible you should deliver more than is expected.  Giving your readers something extra is a good will gesture on your part and makes them like and trust you.  Your readers will know that they will always get more than their money’s worth when they buy from you.

Giving your readers more than they bargained for is only half the equation, however.  If you give them more information than they expected but it bores them to death, they won’t come back for more.  You must present that information in a way that is compelling and engaging, and that won’t put them to sleep.  This means avoiding long, drawn out sentences and large blocks of text.  It means writing snappier and getting your ideas across in as concise a manner as you possibly can.  It may also mean adding design elements to your pages for eye appeal.

Your Back Cover Counts Too

Your booklet’s back cover is nearly as important as your front cover.  It should be attractive, and any text on your back cover should be interesting to read.  That text may not only appear on your back cover, but you can use it online as a short description of your booklet – so it had better be good!

Writing that is boring, whether on your cover or in your content, is the kiss of death.  Make sure yours gets and keeps attention!

To your riches,

Kim

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New Opportunities To Explore For Increasing Your Riches With Booklets

When most booklet authors begin writing their manuscript, they have a specific audience in mind they are writing to.  They imagine selling thousands of copies to thousands of individuals, one at a time.  This can certainly be done, but there are so many other opportunities for making sales.  If you don’t know about these opportunities, you’re at a great disadvantage because you’re missing out on a great deal of money.

Selling Booklets To Businesses Large And Small

If your booklet is one that would appeal to a particular type of company, either for it’s customers or for it’s employees, you have the possibility of a large quantity sale with each company that falls within that category.  Large companies will buy hundreds of thousands of copies from you at once, while smaller companies may only purchase a few hundred, but both are equally wonderful in that you can make a larger sale and reap a bigger payday at once, rather than only selling to individuals.

How will these businesses use your booklets?  They can use them in a variety of ways, from package inserts to employee incentives to customer appreciation gifts.   If your booklet is of an informative nature and falls within something the company teaches it’s employees or it’s customers, your booklet might even be used as a teaching tool.

Selling Booklets Through Retail Establishments

It is possible to sell booklets on your own through retail establishments.  The key is finding establishments that match your booklet’s content.  As long as the establishment sees a benefit to their customers as well as to themselves, they’ll probably be willing to give it a try.

When thinking of a retail establishment, you might think of a book store.  Some book stores may be willing to offer your booklet for sale to their customers, but it’s important to think beyond the book store.  Retail applies to many other kinds of businesses, from business supply stores to discount stores, to coffee bars to tire stores.  Whatever you have written about in your booklet, there is probably a retail establishment somewhere to match.

Using Catalogs To Sell Booklets

Catalogs provide a great opportunity for sales both to individuals and in quantity when your booklet’s content is a good match for a particular catalog.  Your booklet may be featured inside the catalog, or it may be offered by the catalog company to new customers as an incentive to buy something or as a thank you for a purchase.   The best way to sell to catalog companies is to do so in quantity with a single sale, rather than being featured in the catalog itself.  But, being featured affords an opportunity for sales when you are unable to go the other route.  If the catalog has a large circulation, having your booklet inside can be very profitable for you as long as your content is a good match for the catalog’s readers.

Direct Mail Provides More Opportunities For Sales

Direct Mail is the junk mail you receive in your mail box, and there are too many businesses to name who use this method of advertising.  Often, companies using direct mail to reach customers will offer something inside the envelope to entice people to open it.  If your booklet is a good match for one of these companies, or if it fits in with a particular campaign they are creating, these companies will welcome your booklet as an addition to their mailing.  This can result in sales for you of hundreds of thousands of copies, or even in the millions depending on how large the mailings are that the company does.

Sometimes, these companies will want to test your booklet to see if it enhances their mailing or sales in some way before they purchase a large number of copies from you.  These tests can still result in a significant number of copies being sold – anywhere from about 500 to 5,000 or more.

Using The Internet To Make Sales

The internet offers vast opportunities for selling booklets.  You can sell them as a download from your own website, or you can offer them through other people’s websites.  You can license your material for sales online by others, or for others to give away.  There are endless avenues to pursue on the internet.

Generally, online sales tend to happen between the author and individuals, but there are times when quantity sales are made, such as when licensing your material to someone for use on their website.

Selling to individuals is one way to sell booklets and it should always be pursued.  But, knowing other ways to sell your booklets is important too, as it can significantly drive up your profits.  You should sell your booklets as many ways as you possibly can to as many people and places as you possibly can.  When you do, the riches will follow.

To your riches,

Kim

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How To Make More Profit From Your Booklets By Discovering All The Angles In Your Market

A booklet is like an orange slice.  It is a small part of a larger whole.  When you create a booklet, you’re giving information about a topic, but the information you’re giving is just a small bit of all the information available.  Likewise, the market you are giving that information to is but a portion of a much larger and broader market.

One Topic Has Many Angles

Here is an example to help you see this more clearly.  Imagine you want to create a booklet about divorce.  The subject of divorce has many different angles.  You might write about the emotional aspects of divorce on children, or you might write about the emotional side for the adults involved.  You could write about the legal implications of it, or you could write about the costs involved, such as legal costs as well as the costs of living on one’s own income instead of having combined incomes.  The subject of divorce is the orange, and the aspect or angle you choose to write on regarding divorce is the slice.

Even The Angles Have Angles

While choosing a subject may be easy, choosing an angle is often more complex.  For example, if you wanted to create a booklet for women about divorce, women would be your angle, but within that there are many other angles.  You might decide to write about raising children alone, offering tips to help the budget or quick meal ideas.  Or, you may create your booklet around the emotions involved with divorce and offer tips to help the mother cope.  In the same vein, you might offer tips for helping the children cope.  There are many angles you could write about that would appeal to women who are contemplating or are already divorced. These different perspectives are like taking the orange slice and slicing it even further.

Using The Angles To Generate More Profit

Once you have created your booklet, you can look at the other perspectives of the same angle and create another booklet from one of them.  If you now have a booklet about budget tips for raising children alone, you might create another one that offers inexpensive meals that are quick to prepare for single moms.  This second booklet would sell to the same women who purchase your first booklet.  This booklet is for them too.  It’s the same broad topic of divorce, and it’s the same broader angle of women, but it’s another aspect of that angle.

This works with just about any subject you can think of.  Every subject has a very broad market, which has different segments within it.  The subject of divorce has a broad market, but there are many segments in that market from the men and women who divorce, to their children, to extended family and co-workers, and even to clergy members who might try to help in such a time.  And then, within each segment there are many angles, and each angle can have many different perspectives.

Once you begin to see all the layers that exist in that orange, you see the ripe opportunity to profit from it.  Creating a booklet about a broad topic, for one segment, and from one angle and perspective leaves many other segments, angles and perspectives available to you for creating more booklets, and perhaps other materials as well.

Don’t just look at the whole.  Look inside and see the layers.  Then, glean the riches from those layers.

To your riches!

Kim

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Two Reasons Why Paying A Book Marketer To List Your Titles In Their Catalog Is A Bad Idea

Yesterday I talked about the book/booklet marketing gurus who want you to give them money to market your titles for you.  Today, I’m going to tell you why their catalog approach is one you should avoid.

These marketers often include your booklet in a printed catalog, marketing it right along side all the other booklets or books they have to offer.  This works against you for two reasons.

The first reason is that it is very likely that the intended recipients for the catalog will ever even see it.  They may not have opted to receive it, and so the catalog arrives in the mail and must first pass through the gate keeper’s hands before being passed on to the gate keeper’s boss.  The gate keeper’s job is to throw out all “junk mail” and unless the catalog was requested and the gate keeper knows it is expected, the gate keeper will perceive it as junk mail trying to sell something and throw it away.

Think about the catalogs you receive in the mail.  If you look through them at all, you probably thumb through them and then either toss them out or set them aside to look at again later.  But, for most of us later never comes, and at some point the catalog is tossed out.

The second reason is that these catalogs will have categories, and your booklet will be placed in a category along with all the other booklets that fit into that category – and these other booklets are competition for you.  It’s like the yellow pages – ever notice how many attorneys, doctors and plumbers there are in the yellow pages?  They are all there on the same page or pages, in the same category, competing together for your business.  If you choose any you will only choose one.  So, all the others lose out.  What is the chance you’ll be that one should a prospect decide to buy from your category at all?

Paying a marketer to list your titles in their catalog is a bad idea.  It’s like playing Russian roulette.  You’ll miss more often than you’ll hit, if you ever hit at all.  These marketers make it sound so wonderful – give them all the work and all the hassle and you can just relax and collect the checks.  Don’t be fooled, my friend.  It’s a gamble at best, and you stand to lose much more than you stand to win.  When it comes to marketing your titles, one size or broad category does not fit all.

To your riches!

Kim