Last week, I attended the Book Expo America Convention (BEA) in New York City to launch my new book, Sell Your Book Like Wildfire. Unfortunately, when I arrived at my publisher’s booth raring to promote my new title, I was greeted with these words, “We’re sorry, but we forgot to ship your books. There are no copies here for you to sign and give away to the attendees.”
As you can imagine, I was disappointed. But, in that moment, I had a decision to make. I could let my publisher’s mistake get me down and assume that the show would be a disaster. Or, I could take matters into my own hands and proactively look for other marketing opportunities. I chose the latter. Even though I didn’t have books to show people, I used my time to walk the convention floor and meet new people, reconnect with leaders I already knew, and tell them about my new book’s value. Long story short, those conversations wound up helping me get booked to present at three major speaking engagements:
Digital Book World’s Marketing and Discoverability Conference – September, 2012
ECPA’s Publishing University (PubU) – October, 2012
O’ Reilly’s Tools of Change event for authors – March, 2013
Besides these great speaking and promotional opportunities, my publisher helped me make new connections with the directors of several large writer’s organizations. All things considered, the Book Expo Conference wound up being a marketing success in my mind, rather than a failure or waste of time. That’s because I didn’t view the initial problem as a wall blocking my promotional path. Instead, I just had to find creative ways to go around the wall.
Life will always throw you some occasional lemons. Let’s face it…Publishers will make mistakes. Literary agents will forget to call you back. Leaders who promise to help promote your book will get amnesia. Get used to it. Don’t let your marketing become dependent on the actions of others. Take responsibility to promote your book yourself.
Lemonade wouldn’t taste good without lemons. Likewise, success tastes better when it’s fresh-squeezed by your own hands.
Big News:
New book available and selling like wildfire! Kindle e-book also offered.
In the first week, my new book completely sold out of stock at Amazon. Other retailers, including Barnes & Noble, placed above-average initial orders and the book is on their shelves across America. I’m also happy to announce that the e-book version is available for the Kindle and Kobo e-readers (Nook version coming soon). For details to purchase and get my free bonus book updates, go to: www.BookWildfire.com
I want to thank everyone for supporting my new book right out of the gate. Please continue to spread the word and help me the spread the wildfire!
Reminder: I’ll be conducting a 1-hour teleconference session for authors this Wednesday, June 13th at 8:00pm Eastern. The topic is:
Authors & Amazon:
How to Market Your Book on the World’s Largest Bookstore
If you can’t join the live call, that’s fine. I’ll provide an mp3 audio recording of all the material that I present. Register here
Really appreciate your lemonade! How awesome that you didn’t let the lack of books turn to a lack of faith in the fact that you could still make excellent use of the Book Expo opportunity. And congratulations on your book. I’m delighted I’ve got my copy in hand!!