Get the Word Out – Marketing Your Book Through Viral Marketing

So you’ve published your manuscript through Wwaow, and you even have your first five (or fifty) copies in hand.
Now what?

Now is the time to get the word out to your potential buyers.  Self publishing requires the author to do most of the footwork in terms of promoting their books.

Fortunately for you, Wwaow has given you a head start by providing you with an online bookstore to sell your work.  We will also send you a set of 25 postcards with your book cover on the front to help you begin your marketing campaign.  

But have no fear. The power of the Internet is a valuable tool for anyone serious about promoting and selling their work to the masses. Blogs, E-mail campaigns and Web hosting are just a few of the tools that can take your manuscript from the eyes of the few to the many. We will post over the next several days tips for how you can use the Internet to your advantage, as well as other mass-marketing techniques you probably thought you could never do. 

Viral Marketing

“If you do anything, always concentrate on your strong points,” said Matt Coers, Internet Marketing Specialist based out of Denver, Colorado. “One strength that most people have is their immediate social network.”

 The concept of utilizing one’s relationships to gain exposure is termed viral marketing. This technique is the same as the popular “word of mouth” approach to gaining public acknowledgement about a product, service and the like. It makes use of pre-existing networks on the premise that, eventually, awareness of your message will spread like a “virus” to the masses.

It is a general business concept that a satisfied customer will tell an average of five people, whereas an unsatisfied customer will tell nearly double that amount. The methods of viral marketing are many, including e-mail, text messages, image files, and the ever-reliable “hot gossip.” The theory behind this method of advertisement is that it is our nature to talk, and it has proven to be successful as a grassroots approach to marketing.

“The Internet has a number of ways to utilize your social network,” Coers said. “Blogs and e-mail are easy to use to get the word out about your self publishedbook. There are also social-networking sites that enable you to create groups through networking.”

 One social-networking website Coers said every self promoter should utilize is FaceBook.com. With more than 175 million active users and growing, the site enables users to share messages among a variety of user networks, create groups designed for a specific cause or interest, and continuously add users (also known as “friends”) to their immediate circle on FaceBook. The capability of viral marketing with this  website is invaluable to anyone trying to promote themselves, Coers said. “The site is not anonymous at all,” he said. “With FaceBook, you create groups, and anyone who’s your ‘friend’ can be invited to join. The neat part is that as soon as they accept your invitation, everyone on their list of contacts is alerted to the group they joined, and are prompted to join as well.”

 The key to making viral marketing work for you is to target the social networks that would most appreciate your material. Writing groups, clubs, and message boards pertaining to literature would provide the best audience for your message, but anyone else who cares about your success (such as friends) also would prove helpful. The point is simply to make yourself known to as many potential buyers as possible.