BEST-SELLERS AREN'T WRITTEN -- THEY'RE MADE

Added : ( Thu Jul 10 2003 )

Writing a book is becoming a trend among today’s business leaders. In fact, over 3,500 business books were published last year in the United States alone, and that number is expected to grow. With so much competition, making the best-seller list is no easy task. So how is it that out of the thousands of business books published each year, some become best-sellers while others never get past the publisher’s front door? The answer is simple – promotion.

“Many authors are so confident that their book will sell itself, but unfortunately, that simply isn’t the case,” says Dawn Josephson, Founder and President of Cameo Publications, LLC. “It takes a lot of hard work and a good promotion strategy to hit the best-seller lists.” Promotion is important because even if an author thinks his/her book is destined to be a best-seller, no one will buy the book if he/she doesn’t market it and set up the appropriate distribution outlets.

The first step in devising a promotion strategy is to create a powerful media kit. Josephson asserts that even the most successful businessperson can fail at making his/her book a bestseller if he/she does not have a strong and persuasive media kit. “You may be able to talk a good game and get people excited about your book, but when they ask for your press kit and see a measly, uninformative packet with a few clippings and nothing more, all your build-up will fall flat,” she says.

A media kit acts as a book’s resume, and if it doesn’t look good, it certainly won’t attract the interest of media, distributors, or bookstores. The kit should highlight what the book is about, why the message is important, how it will help readers, who the author is, and how the book will be marketed. You need to sell the fact that the book is worth your readers’ precious time. With a powerful media kit, you can keep the momentum strong and get people begging for more. This, in turn, will lead them to buy the book, which could ultimately lead you all the way to the top of the best-seller list.

Dawn Josephson is an editor, ghostwriter, and idea development consultant. She helps professional speakers, business leaders, and non-fiction authors maximize their exposure and increase their recognition through the written word. She has over 1,000 published articles and 14 published books.

You can learn more about book promotion strategies and how to create a powerful media kit in Dawn Josephson’s forthcoming book, Putting It On Paper: The Ground Rules for Creating Promotional Pieces that Sell Books. If you would like to interview Dawn on your radio or television program, please contact Paula Duncan at (843) 785-3770 or send an email to paula@cameopublications.com.
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