How Women Authors Can Sell More Books

By Mark Tewart


You have written a book and are now waiting for the book sales to pour in. Good luck. Writing a book is half the battle, marketing and selling the book is the other half. Unfortunately, unless you are a former best selling author, you may be amazed to find out many publishers will contribute exactly zero to your efforts to market and sell your book. It’s all up to you. The good news is that as a female author you have many opportunities to sell tons of books.

First of all, draw yourself a marketing web. Put your name inside a circle in the middle of a page and then begin to draw others circles all around the outside of your center circle. Each one of these circles consists of a different marketing approach or way to sell your book. Each marketing circle should contain subset circles that are different approaches to that form of marketing which make up your promotional web.

The idea is to create as many marketing circles and subset circles as you can to form a bigger and stronger web. I once heard it said beautifully, “Try to think of one hundred ways to get one customer rather than one way to get one hundred customers.” The more marketing media and approaches you create, the more synergy that will occur. Try to think of what my friend Nido Qubein calls Intentional Congruence. Make sure each marketing media and approach can in some way tie into or support the others to continue to build and strengthen your web.

Once you have created a strong beginning to your marketing web, you can ask questions that will help you tap into the resources available to you as a female author. Ask yourself the following question, “Who does business with who, that you want to do business with?” Look for people and resources that are currently either doing business with women or that have the attention of the female segment of the market. Once you identify these ringleaders and sources, approach them with a winning proposition for them. Think of their goals and problems and how you or your book can be a valuable resource to them. Caution; do not approach these ringleaders and resources with a “me attitude”. Think TLC – Think Like A Customer. In this case these people are your customers. What can you do for them?

Do your research. Find every blog, website, forum, magazine, article directory, newspaper column, product, service, business, association or media that has a high concentration of female customers or followers. Next, think of markets that typically don’t have a high percentage of female customers or followers and make another list. Ask yourself, is there a potential or an untapped market? Offer these resources or businesses a way to reach the female market by utilizing your book. You will want to create an idea for a product, service, premium, contest or giveaway surrounding your book or the target subject of the book.

Ask yourself the following questions. Who is my target audience for this book? What do they do? Where do they go? Where do they live? What do they want? What do they complain about? What are their fears? What are their fantasies? What gets their attention and who is getting their attention already? Is there someone who would buy this book in bulk for their company, group, target audience or members? Is there a company or group that would sponsor a book tour that would create a high profile campaign for their company, product, service or cause? What charities or non-profits would benefit by the affiliation with my book. Think synergistic win-win relationships and triangles. If you can form a two party relationship, there is a strong chance you can form a three party relationship or more.

Women make up more than half the population, they influence an even larger number of purchase decisions and create stronger emotional and logical bonds and relationships to products, services and associations than men do. Because of those factors a female author has huge opportunities to market and sell as many books as they desire.

Mark Tewart is a professional speaker, consultant and author of “How To Be A Sales Superstar – Break All the Rules and Succeed While Doing It” available in book stores and Amazon. You can reach Mark Tewart at info@tewart.com

Mark Tewart’s websites include: www.marktewartlive.com, www.marktewart.com and www.howtobeasalessuperstar.info

To read the first chapter of How to be a Sales Superstar and to receive several FREE bonuses from Mark Tewart, visit www.marktewartlive.com.

Full virtual tour details are posted at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-be-sales-superstar-by-mark.html