I Would Be Better Off Writing Porn, or Speaking Event Test #5: Library Authors Day

New rule: no photos for events that feel demoralizing, even if it does make for a prettier blog post.

Yesterday I took part in a local library’s local authors day. This is the second to last event I have lined up to promote EcoFrugal Baby: How To Save 70% Off Baby’s First Year before I come out with the third edition. I didn’t expect much from this event, because:

1) The event was not targeted toward green living or toward parents.

2) There was very little promotional work put into it, by me or the library.

Frankly, I’m running out of steam on this promotional stuff until I have a new edition of the book to promote. I’m looking forward to my last speaking event in 2 weeks, which is a mom and baby tea at the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor (April 19th, 3:30 pm), but a generic authors day wasn’t something I wanted to throw my promotional energy behind.

The Result

Pretty much as expected. I talked with a lot of people and was complimented several times for giving a good talk, but I got the following responses:

From the older set: “Oh, this is about GREEN parenting?” *snicker snicker*. Right. So glad my lifestyle amuses you. Next.

From the younger set: “This is great! I’m getting married this month, so I may be back later to check out your book when I have kids.” That’s great, but no short-term results. I did get some sign-ups for my blog email list, though.

From the middle-aged set: “There aren’t that many people in this area who want to save money, but let me think of people I know who are about to have a baby… (still thinking)….”

That last comment taught me something, because I had expected this area north of Ann Arbor to be more family-oriented, but it turns out most people in this particular area have too much money to bother with frugality, and the culture isn’t oriented toward green living the way Ann Arbor’s is.

Lessons Learned

First, next time I promote this book, I’m focusing on Ann Arbor’s green-minded new parents plus online sales. It’s a total waste of time to try to convince people why green parenting is important in the space of 5 minutes.

Second, I’m targeting my efforts toward green living fairs, baby-focused events, or talks/book signings where I’m the headliner and where I can command a speaking fee where possible. These were the speaking events where I got real interest and results.

Third, I would be better off writing porn….

8)

I kid you not, the most successful author at the authors day was a romance writer who writes everything from erotica to paranormal romance to urban fantasy romance to steampunk romance. She writes an astonishing 10-12 books a year and is under contract at multiple publishers, including a subsidiary of Harlequin Press. She was friendly and intelligent, too. Damn. If only something in me didn’t resist writing books people are embarrassed to buy….

 

Speaking Event Test #3: Library Hosted Talk

No professional photographer at this event, sadly.

On we march in the book marketing test environment otherwise known as my life. This week I hosted a free talk and book signing at a local library. I got a decent turnout of just over a half-dozen people. I consider this decent because:

1) I am no celebrity.

2) It was a Wednesday.

3) I didn’t have any coverage for the event in a local paper this time like I did for my first book signing.

4) The size of the little crowd was comfortable, and things seemed to go well.

The library paid me a small speaking fee for coming, which was nice because it made it worth my while regardless of the number of books I sold, which eased the pressure. I do still care more about sales numbers on this book than income (so she says now), because I have a traditional fiction publishing contract in my sights this year for a trilogy I’m working on, and a successful track record of even non-fiction would help make me look like a more attractive prospect. I sold three books at this event. Not many, I know, but that’s a 50% sales rate for the number of people attending. I can scale that up to more significant success with bigger crowds. I think it may mean I have an effective format for presenting good info but letting people know my book is cover-to-cover resources so it’s worth picking up for $20 in addition to the talk.

What did I learn? Well, I learned that if I listen, my audience can teach me as much as I can teach them! For one thing, I had a massage therapist show me how I could sign up for a program called Square Up that provides mobile credit card scanners to folks like me who would like to be able to accept credit card payments in the middle of a library or other non-retail environment. Duly noted! I might have been able to make more sales if I had worked that out ahead of time. I also learned some things about my audience and had a good time. I actually wish I had been less nervous so I could have taken a breath more often and listened more. Still working on that. My talk was a little less organized than my first book signing talk, but funnier, so I also learned that this will vary from event to event and that’s okay.

Verdict: Library talks are worth pursuing if they come with a speaking fee. Otherwise, they’re only good for publicity.

I just contracted with a publishing company to re-publish Ecofrugal Baby (yay!), so I may never get the chance to take all these marketing tests to the limit and see how far I can take this on my own–but that’s okay. I signed up with a publisher whom I’m confident can make this book more of a success than I can on my own–even if that just means they open up more opportunities for me to market it myself. I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to reach more parents with this book, which really does deliver on its title to save new parents 70% off the average cost of baby’s first year. Hooray for moving forward into the new year!

 

Changing Tacks, Or Learning How To Create a Bestseller

"Changing Tacks" comes from the sailing term for sailing upwind by charting a zigzagging course against the wind. Doesn't that sound just like what any good book marketing campaign needs to do to beat the odds?

I thought that libraries would be the slam dunk for selling Ecofrugal Baby and getting it out to all the budget-minded new parents who need to know how to save 70% off baby’s first year. But when I started emailing libraries and telling them about my book, I commonly was told that the library I had emailed only buys books recommended by Book List or the [fill in the blank] Library Association, which in turn only recommend books submitted to them 15 weeks before publication. This means I need to set up a third edition of the book to go out 15 weeks after I get some high-profile trade reviews, but the prospect of doing all that work just to get libraries to buy one or two copies each left me drained of energy. Maybe libraries will be a big part of this book’s success after all, but to keep my momentum going and meet my sales goals this month, I decided to change tacks.

I also just received a letter from Barnes & Noble saying that they never order copies of self-published books for their stores unless the books are already a sales success–unless I contract with their own print-on-demand publishing company. Blah. I may look into that option, too, but it just reinforced the idea that I need to invest in my own loyal blog fans and the people already supporting me to get this books out to new parents across the U.S. and Canada.

And so, I decided to start my own grass roots word of mouth marketing campaign, offering a free copy of the book to several dozen of my most loyal followers on 29Diapers.com and asking them to take part in this WOM campaign to help me get the word out. I know better than most that ordinary people, moms in particular, have tremendous power as brand ambassadors: otherwise, none of the companies who sponsor giveaways on my blog would want to give away free product for PR. And really, all I’m doing is trying to get information out to other parents like me who need it, so I think it is other parents who need to carry the message for me. Fingers crossed! This is new for me (like everything I’m doing lately!) so I just hope that if there is some tipping point of getting the book into the hands of a certain number of people in order to start a fire that won’t fizzle out, I have reached that invisible point. I’ll be back later with updates on how this works. Stay tuned!

Learning something new every day,

Laura