Welcome to Marketing 101. You may be so involved in the practical side of marketing your book, you've never given a thought to the theoretical side, but it's good stuff to know. It was so interesting to me, I took this course in college as an elective.
After I finish this blog series I'm going to establish a marketing campaign for my books, which are yet to be published. Many writers wait until they have a contract at least, but I believe in being prepared, something Jesus taught us before the boy scouts borrowed the idea.
If you don't understand marketing, you might misjudge some of the tactics, overlook some, or jump into some that are, let's face it, sleazy. Marketing is merely a means of getting your product known and convincing someone to buy it. The oldest technique is probably hawking. According to Webster's the verb came into usage in 1713, though the concept originated much earlier.
Hawking is at least as old as money, maybe older. In its purest sense, hawking is the act of thrusting your product at a potential customer and asking him to buy it. Back when I worked for the government, I went TDY to San Antonio. All of my party decided to go to "Little Mexico," a part of the city with stall after stall of native Mexicans selling their wares to tourists.
Every vendor had hawking down pat, but I ignored that since I had an item in mind and a price. No one was going to take me for a gullible tourist. Almost immediately this little boy came up to me. He was carrying a stack of hats as high as he was. Sporting a wide grin, he made eye contact. "Lady, you want sombrero?" How cute, but a sombrero wasn't the item I wanted. I used the international signal for "NO WAY" with a vigorous shake of the head and turned away.
There was a lot of haggling going on too...the act of finding a price you're willing to take for your product, and the customer is willing to give. There's more haggling going on in book selling than you might imagine. It's just not obvious. I haggled over a big clay bowl, but we couldn't come to a meeting of the minds. Besides, I realized the thing was so big and heavy, it wouldn't be easy to fit in my luggage. Here's another thing you might have noticed about marketing. Size matters, packaging matters, and price always matters.
As I turned away, I found the little boy's smiling face right in front of me. "Lady, you want sombrero?" With another shake of the head, I joined my friends who were all agog over some beaded jewelry. Now why didn't I think of that? Another technique of marketing...the popular item will sell just because it is popular, and knock-offs that compare to the popular item will sell too. Why else are so many vampire books being written? So I bought one of the cheaper necklaces for my daughter for no other reason than it was cheap and popular.
I left that stall and almost ran over the little boy. He stood there, hitching his smile even wider. "Lady, you want sombrero?"
You might be surprised to learn that the theory behind hawking is found in the Bible. In Luke 11, Jesus tells of a persistent friend who needed some bread...at midnight...for someone else. To be persistent you don't have to be repetitious, but it helps. I wonder what I ever did with that sombrero.
Next week another theory of marketing--the power of positive thinking--not an original idea but one that works.
If you have suggestions for how to market, please share.
