Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Here are three easy ways to market your book using mail: either email or snail mail.
1) Only use personalized stamps with your latest book cover on them. This is an easy way to spread the word about your book without saying a single thing. The stamp will not only be seen by the recipient of the letter but also by postal workers. You might as well use them to pay bills, too. Perhaps the person processing your bill will purchase your book.
Cost: The price of the software (on sale for $16.99 right now) + the price of stamps (which you are already paying). Here’s the link to the software if you are interested.
Rewards: Exposure without doing word-of-mouth marketing.
Has anyone done this before? It’s probably nearly impossible to track the results of this effort, but if you have tried it, was it easy to do?
2) The second way to use mail to market is to include your new release in your yearly Christmas letter. Your friends and family should be happy to hear about your latest release as long as you don’t come across as a braggart or like you are asking them to purchase a copy. Leave the decision to purchase the book to them; just announce how excited you are about it.
Cost: None. (The cost of stamps, but you will already be spending the money if you are sending Christmas cards.)
Rewards: Sharing exciting news with people who should be pleased for you can lead to word-of-mouth marketing.
3) The last way to use letters to market is to send a mass email to all of your contacts the day your book releases. If you have a reader list, be sure to send the letter to them, but also put a note on Facebook and send an email to your personal email contact list. Include the cover and the title of the book. Be sure that you don’t spam people. Only send the announcement to personal contacts and to those who have subscribed to your reader list or Facebook list.
Cost: Just your time.
Rewards: Potential sales. Your readers will be informed about the new release, and your friends and family can pass along the news to their friends as well.
Have you used either the postal service or email to promote your book? Were you able to track any sales as a result?
Interesting about the stamps. I had no idea you could do that. If you had postcards done up, then you’d also have the cover and back cover copy read as well.
Filing all this weeks post in my marketing folder. Thanks!
Rachel, I can see already that these posts will be a tremendous help as I prepare my proposal. Trying to “think outside the box” for the marketing information can be daunting.
As for yesterday’s post, don’t forget hairdressers and barbershops.
Ah! I love these ideas so much! I had no clue about the stamps, either. What a cool concept! Keep ’em coming, Rachel! 🙂
I love this idea! I don’t have a book to promote, yet, of course, but I’m keeping this one on file for when I do!
More new (especially with the stamps) nd useful ideas! Thanks, Rachel. I’m adding these to a list of options as well.
Didn’t know about the stamps either! VERY creative.
Great ideas, Rachel. Since I saw most of my family two months before Christmas, I sold to them there. I would never have thought to include it with my annual letter.
The idea for including book covers in your Christmas mail is a great idea. I have postcards I can include with a Christmas card. Better yet, I can make up a Christmas letter with the book covers embedded to let people know what I’ve been up to.
I’ve done the emailing to Facebook friends and email subscribers. It was not hugely effective, but I plan on reminding people of my books before Christmas the same way…maybe with a discount coupon for the books since coupons are so popular right now.
A group I belong to of Christian business women has a branch called Mommy Bags. The concept is, I send my postcards with a giveaway on it and the Mommy Bag marketers put them in to hundreds of bags for events like large Christian conferences, seminars for women, MOPs groups,etc. (in their state). The MB marketers get a nominal fee and I get my postcards dispersed to large groups of people. I have had good feedback on that.
Rachel,
I hadn’t seen the software for the stamps…great idea.
I’ve heard of similar promotional ideas like the “Mommy Bags.” When I owned a tea room, Taste of Home sponsored a seminar and several businesses contributed items and post cards with coupons for the take home bags.
I am wondering whether Facebook and Twitter are effective for a book promotion. Donna mentioned that it didn’t work too well for her, and I have read some authors who say their own website yielded better results. I’m not implying these social sites should not be part of an overall marketing plan. Just wondering about time spent vs results.
How do you handle family members? Do they expect a complimentary copy of a newly published book? Or do most authors count on family to purchase their own copy?
Do you think it’s better to promote your book after it’s accepted for publication or wait until it’s released? It seems if there is only a six month window to acquire an acceptable number of sales, a pre-release promotion is a must.
Of course, all these ideas can be incorporated into a marketing plan. Thanks Rachel.
Love the stamp idea.
Another relatively inexpensive “silent marketing” method is to print or purchase customized return address labels (a little larger than the traditional size) with your book cover image. The image will be itty bitty, smaller than a stamp, but does offer that sight-recognition subliminal marketing feature. No software required…although I’m personally downloading that stamp software in a few minutes. 🙂 Using mail to market fosters relationship-building too. If I have cool book cover return address labels, I’m even more motivated to send that note of encouragement or that thank-you card. Imagine the power of sending a physical birthday card rather than texting “hpy bd 2 u!”
Love the stamp idea, but noticed that the program comes with a gift card for the first 20 custom stamps free. When I checked the price for other custom stamps, a sheet of 20 seems to go for $20.95. Is this the price only if you use their artwork, or would it be the same if we order stamps with cover art? At 44 cents postage, 20 regular stamps ought to cost $8.80. That’s quite a mark-up!
Just ordered my personalized stamp software. Thanks for the great idea, Rachel!