Marketing Books

Great News – I will be library stock!

Not me exactly, but my work. I was delighted to hear from my local library this week that they were happy to purchase stock of my memoir Hurry up Nurse. I have to say that since publishing the kindle version last August, followed by the paperback in September I have been on a very steep learning curve. I don’t know quite what I imagined would happen when I published the book – immediate best seller……………? I soon learned I knew nothing about marketing books.

Marketing – a new lesson

Suffice it to say that I hadn’t anticipated the amount of work that goes into marketing a book once it’s published. It is definitely like learning to drive – it all starts after you pass your test! Many reading this I am sure will relate to this, particularly if you have begun a self publishing journey. After the initial flurry of sales from friends and family died down, it was learn, learn, learn. I think my poor Facebook friends must have got sick to death of the sight of my book cover and I hope that they have forgiven me for going into overdrive! I know this article is about being stocked in a library but I just wanted to write down all of the ploys for marketing books I have had to learn along the way.

Social Media – What’s that?

First of all there was social media! What? I need to create a separate Facebook page, twitter account, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, blog, website! Are you kidding me? The reality is – yes to most of these but it doesn’t have to happen all in one day. I think the first priority for me was to create a separate FB page and then to resist the temptation and stop bombarding my normal account friends with posts about my books! I am almost there, I promise. Twitter I just cannot fall in love with so have not gone there – never say never though! YouTube has been an easier journey for me because I love teaching and training, I did always want to be an actress! Blogging is relatively new but again, because I like sharing knowledge I am starting to enjoy it!. Building a website – not an easy task but I have managed to build one for publishingand one for property investment. Having a website and getting traffic to it are two different things but that is a blog post for another day. As you can see marketing booksis not easy.

Anyway, back to the main theme, this has been a good week for me, as I said, Derby Libraries have agreed to stock my book and I did have an order yesterday from Gardners for normal and large print versions so they have been true to their word. They have also kindly arranged a ‘meet the author’ session in one of my local libraries for later this month.

Contacting a Library

I started by going into my local library, I initially gave one of the staff a copy which they said would be sent to acquisitions – I think that is short for charity bag or bin as it disappeared! Next, I went into the library on a quiet day and asked for the name of the librarian who was responsible for purchasing books and she kindly gave me a contact email address. I wasn’t sure I would get very far, as, like many libraries around the country the county libraries are strapped for cash and some have been facing closures. I sent off a nice email introducing myself and my books and asked for a meeting. I explained that although self-published, the books were of a high standard (following a correction to a faux pas made early on) and would be happy to show examples. I heard nothing for a month and so decided to try again and I resent the message but added a little bit of personal understanding about the difficulties libraries were undergoing – I meant every word because I love libraries. I even offered to donate my books for free as stock. I am not sure whether it was this email or the start of the new tax year that brought a response but I am delighted that it did! They have ordered 6 normal print and 3 large print books and I couldn’t be more pleased about the extra exposure this will bring to my work.

A Great Week

I have had a really good week which makes up for all the plodding I have been doing over the past six months. I had a lovely email from an American reviewer today encouraging me in my work and saying that she had no doubt I could be a Best Seller! Wow, what a confidence booster that was. Whilst this article is about marketing booksand being stocked in local libraries, I am still not totally comfortable with marketing but this week has been good. I am also learning more about outsourcing but again, that is a subject for another day.