TaleCatcher - Sales Stampede

Sales Stampede

Bill chaired a session called New Marketing Strategies at the 2003 Washington Writers Conference and had his greatest success to date at plugging a book. It wasn’t his book, but he learned a lot about giving a plug. The book in question was PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK! An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves (Perigee, April 2003). The author, Jacqueline Deval, had come down from New York City just to be on Bill’s panel. She’d written an excellent book, based on her insider knowledge as publisher of Hearst Books, director of publicity for William Morrow, Villard, and Doubleday, and director of marketing for William Morrow. Bill had read her book, loved it, and liked the idea of assisting another author, especially one who was also a publisher.

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by
Jacqueline Deval

Bill told the crowd in all honesty that he’d read a dozen books on marketing and book promotion and found PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK! to be the definitive work. “You must read this book,” he said twice. “There are not enough copies at the conference bookstore for everyone here, so when the session ends, run—don’t walk—to the bookstore.”

He held up his copy of the book as he spoke and Bella Stander, the panelist sitting to his right, held up her copy as well. The next time Bill plugged the book, Jacqueline, sitting to Bill’s left, had retrieved her own copy and all three held up their books in synchrony. The ploy worked. By the end of the next session, the bookstore had sold all the copies it brought and had to turn away disappointed buyers. Bill had given the bookstore advance notice, telling them to bring as many copies of the book as they could, but they’d brought only a dozen. Nevertheless, excepting only the book from the featured dinner speaker, who also did a book signing, PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK! was the best-selling book at the conference.

Based on the rate of sales and his encounters with several disappointed people who didn’t reach the bookstore in time, Bill estimated that a third of the sixty-person crowd at his session would have bought copies. Bill presumptuously generalized the incident into a formula: excellent book + audience need for the information + strong plug = 33 percent rate of sales.

But what about Bill’s book? He’d held it up, too, but hadn’t really plugged it. The plug for his book had come the day before from his wife Jill as she briefed a workshop of eight people on how she designed and built TaleCatcher.com. During her talk, she gave Bill’s book a good plug. One among her class took the bait, the only copy of Bill’s book that sold at the conference bookstore. From this experience, Bill made a few more generalizations

	A good personal plug can sell even a book about computer attacks to one in eight people.
	A great cover and good bookstore placement are not enough to sell a techno-thriller to a crowd mainly seeking how-to books on writing.

Of course, Bill made a cool 39 cents profit on the sale of his book. It is true that this didn’t fully offset the $550 he’d spent on the conference. On the other hand, he needs to sell only two books at the next conference to double his rate of sales.

The woman who bought Bill’s book told him of her purchase at the reception that closed the conference. Bill was finally able to use a line he’d saved for years: “So you’re the one.”

PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK! An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves is available at:

Amazon.com

BarnesandNoble.com