A Sneaky Book Marketing Experiment

I did something a little sneaky two weeks ago, as Borders announced it was going out of business for good and closing all its stores–including my hometown original Ann Arbor Borders. I went to the liquidation sale on the first day and took advantage of my last chance to see my book on my hometown bookstore chain’s shelves. Yup, I snuck three copies of my book EcoFrugal Baby onto the shelves of Borders to see if the copies would move, to see if anyone would notice, to see if something as small as having the book on display in one bookstore during a high-traffic week could impact the book’s sales. (Please note that I placed the book in an empty slot on the shelf, so it wouldn’t displace anyone else’s book. This sneaky marketing experiment wasn’t about competing with anyone else’s title.)

Today, I went back to Borders to see if my books were still there. If they sold, I knew I wouldn’t gain any profits, since the books weren’t in Borders’ system. I just wanted to see if they were there, how they had fared compared to books in the same location.

The result?

Nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the liquidation sale, the whole display was gone. I went in search of the books in other parts of the store, finally locating the pregnancy and childbirth section with the help of a staffer and still not seeing my book reshelved there. Were they sold? I hope so. Were they noticed? Someone I know called me and told me they saw my book on the display the first day I placed it on the shelf. I guess we’ll never know. But it was a fun little sneaky experiment, and I do hope those books found good homes.

How is Borders doing 2 weeks into their liquidation sale?

Not so hot. If my books did sell, I take it as a huge compliment as nearly every other book I would have purchased for the mere 10% off the chain offered the first week of its liquidation sale is now gone, with prices only slashed to 20% in most sections of the store. I picked up some lit and poetry that first day as well, more for the sake of nostalgia than any cost savings. After all, anyone can save 10% off a book by purchasing it on Amazon. But as I browsed through the store today, I could see the quality stuff was gone. And so was my book. I hope that’s a sign that it means something to someone.

As you can see above, the poetry section in particular was gutted. I think I may have some kindred spirits around this lit-loving town of Ann Arbor who had the same idea I did: pull the last quality literature and poetry out of the wreckage while there was still time. But did anyone else sneak a book in?

I wonder….

Speaking Event Test #6: Mom & Baby Tea

Besides learning one valuable lesson during my last book signing of the tour, I also enjoyed the peaceful, cozy ambiance of the Crazy Wisdom tearoom.

Yesterday I hosted my final talk and book signing on my drawn out little book tour around Ann Arbor. This time, I repeated a few marketing techniques that worked in the past (flyers in a few choice locations, local event calendar submissions, etc.) but mostly relied on the article in the Crazy Wisdom Journal that had been out for 3 months by the time I did my talk. This is the journal put out around town by the bookstore on local events of interest to the bookstore’s patrons (green, Zen, etc.). I also created a Facebook event for this talk to invite people who might want one last opportunity to come see me, or to invite their preggo friends.

THE RESULTS

One person came. Seriously. Well, unless you count the homeless woman who fell asleep next to my guest and snored through my talk. (I couldn’t make this stuff up.) I attribute the turnout mainly to the fact that we planned the event during the week, so many people were working, but that’s still pretty crazy considering the number of people–a blog reader, friends, local folks–who said they were coming. Well, it was also dismal weather, which never helps. And the bookstore got the date of the event wrong on their calendar twice, but I don’t think many people look at their calendar.

1) As if I didn’t already know this, I learned well and good this time that RSVPs mean nothing. Hardly anyone who says they are coming to your book signing will actually show, whether that’s your mother-in-law, your best friend, or a person who is very excited about your book. Don’t plan a book signing around RSVPs.

2) Good news! I also discovered that the bookstore wanted to stock up on their copies of the book, so after selling 2 books at the event (one to the lone attendee, one to the girl manning the tea counter), I sold several more to the bookstore. That’s actually not bad. Double your sales by stocking up the store whose stock you just depleted. That’s a great lesson!

IN CONCLUSION (OR MEMORIUM?)

I feel conflicted about book signings and talks. On the one hand I sell more books at certain kinds of these events than I would any other way and I’m great at public speaking, but on the other hand it’s a lot of trouble to go to for mediocre results. Next time around, I’m planning to:

1) Focus my book signings on one or two events early on and promote them heavily.

2) Arrange to teach classes at my local hospital, which will guarantee me a certain number of attendees before I have to commit to show up. No more wasting my time, and this will qualify attendees as interested persons and weed out the hecklers (and presumably the homeless).

3) Always bill my book signings as free talks to attract attendees. This was my biggest draw, because people wanted to know the book delivered on its promise of saving 70% off baby’s first year before they would shell out for it.

4) Keep a good attitude regardless. The only thing more demoralizing than having a crappy turnout is pouting about it. I have to keep my spirits up and treat this as a learning experience or it will get me down and suck away the energy I need to get the next book out.

5) Good riddance to authors days at libraries or any other event that doesn’t focus on my subject area. This is too niche of a book to sell any copies at a generic authors event. The only reason my initial book signing was successful despite being part of a multi-author event at Barnes & Noble was that I promoted it on my own steam as an event featuring moi.

6) Along the same theme, always host my events in a venue that attracts pregnant women and their relatives who are already interested in green parenting. It’s a waste of time to try to convince someone of the merits of keeping chemicals away from their baby if they don’t understand what I’m talking about.

7) This one is unavoidable with this book, but in the future I probably won’t publish a book targeted toward people who want to avoid spending money, or who don’t have money to spend. This makes it a much harder sell and is probably why the publishers I approached early on turned me down. The guy at the library authors day who had published a book on zero cost living said it nicely: “If you ever publish a book, publish a book for people who have money.” Touche, sir.

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….

 

Well, Nevermind: Publishing Contract Cancelled….

That sun is gonna come up over the horizon any minute now. Welcome, the most remarkable year yet!

This week has been hilariously weird. The kind of weird that comes from things going on that are clearly connected and clearly not coincidences, but I don’t have enough information to decipher the pattern. Add this to the list of weirdness: my publishing contract was cancelled ONE DAY after I signed it because the managing partners in the publishing company are getting a divorce.

Now, divorce is awful and I’m bummed for them. I know contracts are cancelled all the time, too, and I guess I’m just glad they’re letting me out of the contract rather than dragging this out. But this means I have to find another way around the roadblocks in my path to distribution and sales. This is not the part of publishing that gets me up in the morning, so I need to regroup here and make a plan before heading out to publish edition three of Ecofrugal Baby.

I have to say, though, that God has been pretty clear with me lately that big things and good things are coming soon, so I’m not as upset as I possibly should be about this. I have a sort of peace about it, and it wasn’t a total surprise–just a let-down. God has been faithful enough to me for me to know I can trust him to take care of this (maybe he just did?) and to give him a grownup response instead of rolling around in self-pity. Yeah, this is a bummer. But it’s still early days, and there was so much spiritual activity going on in my vicinity last night that it was like it was too noisy to sleep until 1 am (I told you that the more I tell you, the crazier you’ll think I am). Something is up lately, and I’m just a part of it. On we march into the dawn of 2011, a strange beginning to be sure.

 

Publishing Contract!

I briefly mentioned this in my last post, but now it’s official: my nonfiction book Ecofrugal Baby: How To Save 70% Off Baby’s First Year was just picked up by a traditional publishing company, Kenrose Media!

I have learned so much by publishing and promoting the book myself so far, but I’m super excited about where this new opportunity can take the book. It will remove some roadblocks for selling the book and give it the credibility and backing of a traditional publisher. I will still be doing a lot of promotional work myself, but now the path is clear and open. According to the publisher I was doing everything right to promote it myself (flattering and encouraging!), but I was discovering along the way that many doors were closed to me–even ones that in theory were open. My POD publisher was painfully slow to get my book into Baker & Taylor to make it available to libraries and bookstores, my options for cover design and layout were limited, and so on. Now we really get to see this book realize its potential!

Part of me feels like this is just a practice run, not the destination. That’s probably appropriate, because most authors have to write several books before really getting noticed. But who knows where this will lead? There certainly is a market out there for this book, and I’m having so much fun blogging and doing speaking engagements. So, now I ramp up to do the promotional work all over again, adding a few new to-dos to the marketing list and scaling up all promotional tools where possible. Wish me luck, and may you start checking big items off your bucket list early in the year, too.

 

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!

 

A Look Back at 2010, The Year of Acceleration

Look out 2011! We are coming in hot!

I tend to focus on my goals obsessively, so it’s good for me to take a moment to look back and enjoy what I have experienced and accomplished in 2010, the year in which my dreams began to come true. Will you celebrate with me? If only you knew how far I’ve come!

1) I launched my first blog. I have known I could run my own blog for several years, and I finally found my niche! (Cloth diapers, of all things, lol.) Not only that, but I figured out how to promote it on a dime, and as of this posting have 18,000 monthly hits. Next year I think I can easily increase this 10-fold.

2) I published my first book. Could end the list right here and be happy. HUGE step for someone claiming to want to write for a living long-term.

3) I wrote my first novel/fiction book. This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was, like, 8 years old. In 2009 I started putting it together, and in 2010 it’s coming together nicely! In fact, I’m turning it into a 3-part novel or trilogy, and I have written the first 10 chapters of the second book in the last 2 weeks. Talk about acceleration!

4) I called myself a writer. In public. At parties. On my email signature. We’re getting there in my head too.

Survey Says…

The feedback for my nonfiction book has been incredibly positive. “A must-have for new parents!” “Packed with useful information.” “Really delivers on its title.” “I LOVE Ecofrugal Baby! It has been such a life-saver (MONEY-saver!)!”

My novel made the two people critiquing it cry. Given its difficult but non-sensationalist subject matter, I’ll take that as a hearty two thumbs up! My mother, a ghost writer and book editor, will be reviewing it on the plane to Austin next week. On first perusal she assures me it looks neither bizarre nor boring (and this mother does not sugar coat). Fingers crossed I can find a publisher next year once I finish the whole trilogy.

29Diapers.com’s popularity just landed it its first advertiser, hooray! I may make money at this thing yet, lol. But I am also trying to separate income from my idea of success, since many of these projects are just seeds for future success that will take time. But here’s an email I received yesterday: “I am so excited to have the chance to tell you just how GREAT this website is. I am new to cloth diapering and have learned just about everything from this site! From how big my “stash” should be to what all the different words mean!” That’s exactly the mission of this website, fulfilled.

But I have big dreams! The website is expanding next year, I’m already working on a fundraiser and two huge giveaway events, figuring out where to take Ecofrugal Baby from here in the third edition of the book, and aiming to finish the whole fiction series I’m working on and decide on the next project.

What are you proud of that you accomplished in 2010? What are your goals for 2011? I have found in the last few years that it really does make a big difference to write it all down (no pun intended!).

Many blessings in the new year.

–Laura

 

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

 

Speaking Event Test #2: Mom’s Night Out

Pictured: Laura K. Cowan. Not pictured: my fabulous shoes.

As part of my local test of various formats for giving a talk about Ecofrugal Baby and selling books, I agreed to participate in Children’s Orchard’s Mom’s Night Out last night (gosh that’s a lot of apostrophes in a row–sorry!). The event was hosted at Children’s Orchard, a used children’s clothing store in Ann Arbor that has an email subscriber list of customers who receive special offers for invite-only sales and such. They had been invited to this closed-door shopping and pampering event that involved prize drawings, snacks, and shopping. I was joined by several other entrepreneurs with products that would appeal to moms, but for some reason–I suppose because of the appeal of having an author at the event–I was given the table front and center. That’s a good start, right?

In participating in this event, I wanted to achieve the following goals:

1) Further develop my ability to talk with people at an event without overselling my book

2) See if this format for an event sold more books than my book signing

3) Gain more local publicity and word of mouth for my book.

Here is what I learned:

1) Women who shop in used clothing stores are often very interested in the topics covered in Ecofrugal Baby, but they weren’t really prepared to purchase the book at this event, either because they weren’t physically prepared to pay for the book or because they weren’t mentally prepared to buy a book when they arrived. Both these problems could have been solved with more advanced planning and marketing.

2) Some women love to talk forever and ever about saving money or green parenting or being a mom, but others clearly feel like they’re being sold something even when you’re just trying to engage them in basic conversation. I understand that defensiveness and I want to respect it. I feel like I’m getting better at identifying these women very quickly so I don’t come on too strong.

3) The first woman who visited my table said she had seen the book in the local paper. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! There is a tipping point somewhere, after which people will start to buy my book because they’ve seen it enough places and heard it recommended enough times that they want to check it out. I’m still working toward that point, because that woman walked away.

4) I didn’t sell a single book at this event, but I did have four women say they would likely pick it up from my 29Diapers.com blog later. I know the key to sales is to close the deal before the prospect walks away, but I just don’t like to be pushy about these things and I hadn’t qualified these leads before they walked in the door, so what could I expect? Once I realized the low potential for sales for the event, I focused on meeting people, whether they were customers or employees or my fellow entrepreneurs manning tables at the event. We had a great time, I met a woman who has a similar mission as me that I may be working with for some cross-promotion of each other’s writing, and I got the store manager’s permission to leave brochures at the counter for employees to stuff in customer’s bags on an ongoing basis. Given the situation, I think this will be a much better way to get the word out to even more people, without having to spend any more time in 4-inch heels (though the shoes got as many compliments as the book, lol).

So, the conclusion is that I will likely skip any similar events I was planning at other local used clothing stores, unless those stores heavily promote the event and my attendance in particular. I could do it just for the extra publicity and heavily promote it myself, but it doesn’t seem worth the effort of making my husband watch my daughter for two hours and keeping her up past her bedtime. In a few years that won’t be a big deal at all, but she’s still nursing so I’m constantly aware of not being with her, and I think she feels the same way. Baby girl and husband come first! And you know what? I told my husband I was hoping that this event would either be a great success or a total flop sales-wise, because I need a clear winner for sales that I can then focus my efforts on and scale up nationally. As a one-woman show I definitely have to work smart and not spread myself too thin.

I hope this was interesting and helpful to any of you planning similar events. Please let me know your best tips for book sales, publicity, or any questions in comments. Blessings!

Bucket List: Book Signing–Check!

Signing a copy of Ecofrugal Baby for a fan.

I hosted my first talk and book signing last night at the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble as part of their National Authors Day, and it was a resounding success! I had 2-3 dozen attendees to my talk while the five other authors on the floor had maybe one person to talk to at a time. This was no accident. I’m glad I read up on how to host a good book signing before the event, because several key tips made all the difference, and I wanted to share those, plus what I learned from doing the signing, with you:

1) Arrange to speak as well as sign books. I billed my event as a free talk as well as a book signing. Not only did this attract dozens of people who wanted to hear what I had to say before buying a book, but it meant that the bookstore prepared for the event by giving me a table 3 times the size of the other tables on the floor, brought balloons to identify the table as the location of the talk, and agreed to set up chairs for my event. Now, they didn’t actually set up the chairs, but this ended up being a great thing because so many people showed up (right after the event planner apologetically told me that traffic was nearly dead that day and she didn’t expect anyone to come) that they moved my table to the other side of the floor where there was enough space for everyone. How cool to be able to say in my post-book signing press release, “Local author Laura K. Cowan’s book signing such a draw for Barnes & Noble’s National Authors Day that event had to be moved to location with more space”!

2) Never sit down. This is one of the tips I picked up from Jump Start Your Book Sales, and I’m so glad I read it because I always imagined authors at book signings sitting behind the table signing books. The table is really a barrier between the host and the attendees, so I didn’t even put a chair behind the table to tempt myself. I stood in front of my table and greeted people, offered them a brochure, asked them if they had any questions, told them about the giveaway I was doing for a cloth diaper and invited them to put their name in the box, and so on. The other reason this was a great move is that I’m a little shy and it would be hard for me to approach people and stay in the groove of being sociable if I were sitting behind a table looking authorly (no, that’s not a real word, but it should be).

They did make a sign with my mug on it for my own table, at least. I saved it and will frame it over my desk as a memento.

3) Promote your own event. I’ve been told before that neither bookstores nor publishers put much effort into promoting book signings sometimes, so it’s important for the author to be involved in promoting their own event. Well, in my case my print-on-demand publisher won’t be doing any promotional work for me, and I could tell from my interaction with the event planner that the bookstore wouldn’t be doing much of anything either. She encouraged us authors to email our contact lists and invite them to the event, so we would have a good start to some traffic for the event. Yikes. When I got to the event, there was one sign in the atrium that said “National Authors Day” with the covers of five books, none of them mine, below the text. Double yikes. If I hadn’t promoted my own event, no one would have come at all. So what did I do? I posted or distributed 150 flyers; I got a local natural childbirth education center to email their customer list about the event; I sent out press releases to the local media (I ended up with one article in my local “paper,” AnnArbor.com, which was reprinted on the front page of their Sunday print edition) and obstetricians at the local hospitals and called the TV and radio stations; I blogged about the event on my cloth diapering blog 29Diapers.com and posted about the event on Facebook and Twitter using both my personal accounts and my 29 Diapers fan accounts; I told EVERYONE who seemed remotely interested about the event; and I cross-promoted the event with my Christmas giveaway event on 29Diapers.com via press release and blog posts, billing the book signing as a virtual book signing as well as a talk, so my more remote readers could “attend” as well if they were interested. It takes a lot of work to gather 3 dozen people to a no-name new author’s book signing.

4) Rinse and repeat. I have learned from planning other events that most people who say they’ll come will not, for one reason or another, so I didn’t stop promoting my event until the day before, when I took a short break to rest before I had to be on-stage. Sure enough, dozens of people who promised to come had surprise funerals, worked late, didn’t feel well, forgot–my book signing was not on the top of everyone’s priority list.

5) Book signings are not for selling books. No, really. Book signings are famously bad for selling any real quantity of books. My sales goals are modest since I’m just starting out, so I was happy with my small returns, but I actually did the event to help me get my foot in the door for other speaking engagements and signings. Being able to say I had a successful book signing with Barnes & Noble when talking to someone who has the power to let me use their facility for a class or book signing is a gold key that opens doors to more opportunities. I also did it because I wanted a local debut for the book with some visibility that I could use to not only build a loyal local fan base (who doesn’t love to be part of a “local author makes good” story?) but also as material to send out more press releases after the event and keep myself in contact with the media, who will mostly ignore me until I have half a dozen worthwhile news stories I’ve sent them.

Do you have more tips for me to use for my next event? I’d love to hear your feedback on these tips in comments. Thanks for reading!