About The Book Marketing Equation

You may be surprised to learn that successful book marketing can be mathematically represented by an equation.  It doesn’t make the marketing easier, but it does simplify the concept.  The equation looks like this:

SBM = ((QBP+ ∑R + Esub(lp) + ∑(A + P)+ EsubM + ∑SM))L

where

SBM stands for Successful Book Marketing

QBP means Quality Book Package

∑r is the summation of all book reviews

Esub(lp)  stands for the  effectiveness of book’s  Landing Page

P is for Promotions

A is for Ads

(A + P) means the summation of all results for ads and promotions

EsubM is for email reponsiveness

∑SM means the accumulation of all your social media effectiveness

L stands for the Luck Factor (note: Luck can be a negative number)

This equation is one of the more useless pieces of information you’ll ever come across but it rather nicely illustrates the complexity of the situation.  Simply put, book marketing is a complex project involving a lot of disparate, moving parts.  Once you accumulate all these components in the equation and mix in a bit of luck, you’re on your way to a successful marketing campaign.

The rub here is accumulating all the components in the equation. That’s what marketing is all about: working the components and updating them.

Now the luck component may sound like a downer, but consider this: almost everything in life requires a bit of luck either good or bad, so why not with marketing.

Here is another equation: No Marketing = No Royalties

And here is a marketing  mantra:  Marketing First; Royalties Second

Print these to two pieces of information out and place them close to your desk. If you need help with your book marketing, I suggest you visit my page on this subject: https://www.hankquense.online/bookmarketing

Self-publishing: What to do?

Ebook? Print book? Both?

As you might expect, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages in publishing one or the other type of book or both types.  For that reason I compiled this comparison list.  It shows the pros and cons for print books and ebooks.  I’m sure there are many more bullet items that can be added under each header, but these are the major ones to my way of thinking.

Ebooks: Plus

• Less expensive covers

• Faster publication cycle

• Instant global distribution

• Instant download and availability

• No book production costs

• Author gets higher percentage of sales revenue (on a lower book price)

Ebooks: Negative

• Some readers don't like e-readers and prefer to read a print book

• Some ebook seller sites are reader-hostile in that they are difficult to navigate

• Difficult to sell at book fairs and other personal appearances

• Book prices will generally be much lower than print book prices resulting in lower revenue per sale

Print: Plus

• Can be given as gifts to family and friends

• Can be sold at book fairs, etc.

• Bookstore sales possible

• Library sales possible

Print: Negative

• More expensive cover

• Slower distribution

• Distribution may be restricted geographically

• More expensive production costs

• Distributor sales suck up almost all the revenue leaving little for the author

• Book store returns can be a problem

As you can see from the list, ebooks and print books do have significant differences. As a self-publishing author, you'll have to make a business decision on this issue.

There is a lot of valuable information on self-publishing at https://www.hankquense.online/self-publishing

Book Marketing Basics: Book Reviews

Book reviews are probably the best sales and marketing tool you can have in addition to a great landing page.

Granted, reviews aren’t easy to get, but they are worth the effort because there is no such thing as having too many reviews. They tell a landing page visitors that other readers liked the book. That eliminates the visitor's suspicion that she may be getting tricked into buying a piece a junk.

You can get reviews on your own, use review sites and by buying them.

On your own

Every author does a bit of this. You contact your relatives and friends and ask them to read and review your new book. Another approach is to send out social media posts asking for contacts to review the book. This is quite iffy. Many of the contacts who respond have no intention of ever writing a review: they are simply after a free book. Still, you will get an occasional review this way.

Review sites

There are many sites that will, for a fee, spread the word about your book to their list of potential reviewers. Many of these sites will only promote ebooks on Kindle. Of those sites, many will only promote ebooks that are heavily discounted. Others will only accept ebooks that are free. Note that any reviews that come out of these promotions are not paid reviews. The fee does not buy a review: rather you’re paying for access to the site’s list of potential reviewers

Buying reviews

Sites such as Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews will review your book for a fee. A large fee. Amazon will not allow paid reviews to be posted for your book. These reviews can however be added to the book’s content using the Amazon Central Page feature.

While getting more reviews can be a frustrating and time-consuming chore, it’s an essential task in an author’s basic marketing plans.

There is a lot more material about book marketing on my site: https://www.hankquense.online/bookmarketing