Book Promotion: 4 Ways to Provide Value to Your Readers

Welcome to Artist Entrepreneur Fridays, where we focus on how to create a successful and sustainable author career from the business and strategic perspectives. This week I have another guest post from Matthew Ashdown, one of my Author Entrepreneur Magazine authors this month. You can check out the current issue here. This month Matthew shares 4 ways to provide value to your readers and potential readers.

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Scan Twitter or Facebook streams, and you will see it over and over again, authors asking for people to support their book, to share it and promote it. Some will even write simply “Buy my book,” over and over again and wonder why nobody does. They are forgetting to add any kind of value to a potential reader’s life.

In order for you to read all the way to the end of this article I need to be sure that I am adding something of value for you, otherwise you will skip over to another article with more that benefits you.

I know authors reading this blog want to be able to better promote their book and it is why I want to provide guidance on how to do that. At the end of the article I may get you to share it and pass it around, but you won’t do that if it has not added value to your life in some way.

So I am going to give you 4 ways to improve upon the value to offer others.

1)    Believe that you have material of value to share with people. Author self esteem needs to be high in an industry that is highly populated, so be willing to working on improving yours if you know you have issues around it. I did, and it took a lot of reprogramming of my beliefs to get to the place where I recognized that I was good at something and had value to offer people.  You are valuable because of who you are as a person and you have information of value. Not everyone will value it, but when you find the people who do, you will find you get a healthy response. For every rejection that you get, or failed piece of content, you will get clearer on what people are drawn to you for.

2)    Who is your ideal reader? You need to know who are your ideal reader. When it comes to marketing your book, you need to speak your reader’s language, and you need to know the kind of material that they would read and pass around. If your audience is retired people, then the language you use will be very different to the language that you use with teenagers, and the content will vary drastically too. There will be different content that speaks to them emotionally. What do they value? If they are in to sci-fi, they may appreciate information about the latest convention. If your book is about gardening, sharing articles by yourself others about gardening would be of value to them.

3)    People love to read blogs and watch informative or entertaining videos with free content. Not just the latest youtube sensation, but also something that you yourself have created that gives them something to talk about. Share some content from your book. (Don’t worry you will not be giving it all away or stopping people from buying it.) Be willing to step out of your comfort zone a little in order to add the value that will have people lining up to follow you online. I used to hate the sound of my voice, or seeing myself on camera, but I got used to it, and realized that people loved hearing my voice and sharing stories that benefited them in some way.

4)    Seek out and find other people who are writing in the same genre as you, or who are promoting books in the same genre as you. These people can help you spread the word. When you approach them, do not ask them to support your book if they have never met you. Be prepared to create a case for them as to why working with you will be beneficial to them. If they sense that it is only of benefit to you, they may be less likely to connect. Think win-win, where everyone wins, and that means knowing who you are teaming up with, and what would be valuable to him or her.

As you demonstrate to people that you have valuable content for them, or other items of value, you begin to build a connection with them, and they are happy to share. If you are simply telling them about your book and where to buy it, you will not be able to form that same kind of connection.

Each and every morning when you wake up ask yourself this important question:

“How can I serve in a big way today?”

And let the inspiration pour forth!

So I hope this has added a little value to your life. It is what I spend hours working on with my consulting clients because it really is valuable stuff, and truly helps them to have a greater level of influence in the world. The best way to attract support for your dream is to support the dreams of others.

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Matthew Ashdown is a personal empowerment coach, best known for his work as a GratiDude, speaking and coaching on the power of gratitude to transform business and life. He is also an avid writer, currently working on his first novel and lives in Victoria, BC. More information about Matthew and his services at www.MatthewAshdown.com.