Thinking outside the box when it comes to book sales

Okay, as promised here’s more about last Saturday's Digital Author's Conference.

Another thing Elaine Wilkes talked about was developing a list of outside the box businesses to approach about placing our books. In my post conference emails with her, she suggested I write a list of fifty such places – and I must say that is a tough assignment.   I got this far:

Magpie gift store

Soothe the Soul gifts and aromatherapy

University classes

Speaking engagements

UCLA Psych Department

Other mental health organizations

Book clubs

LA Times Festival of Books

Harmony Works gift store

Things Remembered gift store

Our House grief counseling organization

Grieving and suicide prevention sites’ recommended book lists

But I’m going to continue. I need to start reading Elaine’s material about how to get my book into all types of stores right away. Perhaps that will help me get to a list of fifty outside the box places.

 

And I’d love your help as well. Where else do you sell your books – besides brick and mortar and online book stores?

What makes a book sell?

I attended the Digital Author’s Conference this past Saturday, sponsored by West Coast Writer’s Conferences with special recognition and discounts to Greater Los Angeles Writer’s Society members. Coincidentally, both are headed by Tony N. Todaro.

Tony and his staff do a great job in getting interesting and informative speakers to their events. I found some of the information presented on Saturday so beneficial to my writing life I thought I’d share a little bit here.

One was a mention of a blogger I recently started following (at the suggestion of Marketing the Muse’s Marla Miller) Seth Godin. I have been marveling at how much meaningful information Seth can impart with just a few lines of short sentences, short paragraphs, and a lot of white space on the page.

And Elaine Wilkes, Ph.D. who spoke about ways to place our books everywhere and how to write emails and books that get results said this is the kind of writing that is selling best right now:

Short – even one-line – paragraphs.

Two or three word sentences.

Not every sentence needs a subject and verb.

Another thing she stressed:  Our books are judged by our:

Cover

Title

Subtitle that states the book’s benefit

Guess why? Buyers looking for books to place in their stores don’t have time to read book synopses.


Please see the right side bar for a link to Elaine's course on how to get your book into stores or click here. 

Okay you be the judge: does my cover, title, and subtitle pass her test?

That’s it for today. I’ll get into more of what I learned last Saturday in the next few days.