'How does a writer go about selling his or her product?'

A few days ago, I sent an email to Dora Robinson, one of the hosts of the radio program 'Writing on the Air'. I wanted to know if she received my bio and if there was anything else I should know about the show and our upcoming discussions. She responded with a few questions I should think about, one of which was the title of this posting. I think it's time to dive in a bit deeper.

Seth Godin is a marketing guru, an author of 11 books and an Internet phenomenon. In his daily blog, he writes about ideas that work equally well for businesses and individuals who have something to say or something to sell. So when he wrote about 1000 True Fans, I took notice. The concept came from Kevin Kelly who founded Wired magazine back in the early 90's and now writes many blogs including The Technium. In it, Kelly explained that it might be possible for artists to make a living by pulling themselves out of the shallow end of the Long Tail where there are very few buyers (see my last post) towards the middle of the curve where it is likely to make more sales. For example, if you are an author and can find 1000 true fans that would not only buy any book you wrote but also buy a t-shirt and a mug and drive 100 miles to see you in person and while there buy the hard-cover, out-of-print, signed edition of the same book, you are on your way. According to Kelly, 'the point of this strategy is to say that you don't need a hit to survive. You don't need to aim for the short head of best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. There is a place in the middle, that is not very far away from the tail, where you can at least make a living. That mid-way haven is called 1,000 True Fans'.

Getting 1000 fans require direct and constant communications and exposure for a sustained period of time. This is the greatest challenge facing those who want to leave the very low-volume end of the long tail towards the higher-volume, more financially viable part of the curve. I know this is not easy, but the new rules of marketing are not for the timid. To bolster the point, check out this NYT article about Jonathan Coulton, a musician who has made a living by going viral.

By now, it's pretty clear where I am going with this. In order to sell your creative work online, you need to have an online presence that talks to your readers and be willing to get involved. Since we all like lists, a good marketing strategy should consist of the following:

1. Marketing plan - know your goals, target audience and resources you are willing to commit.
2. A blog - content should be fresh, relevant and informative - readers can tell if you are faking it.
3. Website - include the product, testimonials, your story & cool stuff for the fans.
4. Social Media presence - choose a couple from Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo or meetup.com.
5. Building a fan base - know who they are, stay engaged and find ways to keep them interested.
6. Conversion - Ultimate goal is to convert your supporters from fans to buyers.

I've said this before but it's worth saying it again. Building a reputation on the Internet is hard work and it will take time especially with limited resources. There will be exceptions here and there but for the most part, the momentum will build gradually and steadily.  There is however, a right way (I'll recommend some books later) and a wrong way of doing this work (trial and error).  For my own consulting business, I've done it the wrong way before (i.e. my old website) but I've come full circle and now doing it the right way this time around....

Is there any money in 'The Long Tail'?

Christmas is over and it's time to get back to work.   For years, I used to work for companies that shut down between Xmas and New Year.  So, typically, this time was spent on taking day trips or visits with out-of-state family and friends.  Since I left the posh company life and started my own consulting company, I no longer have that luxury (by the way, major changes are coming to the website and services offered.  More on that project later).  With only 3 days to go until the radio show, I thought I would pass on some information about couple of interesting marketing concepts that have been floating around and could easily apply to any small business doing online marketing but could be particularly useful for authors, musicians, sculptors, painters or artists in general.

The first concept is called the 'Long Tail' of marketing.  This was a concept first proposed by Chris Anderson, the previous Editor-In-Chief of Wired Magazine.   If you want the details, check out a very good read on Wikipedia on The Long Tail.

If you are in a hurry, here is a summary.  The concept is based on some academic research that shows demand curve for markets with a high freedom of choice (like the Internet) favor the top 20% of the most popular items sold -- these are considered to be the 'hits' or 'blockbusters' products.  The 'non-hits' make up the other 80% of the market.  This portion (the yellow in the graph) is the Long Tail.


Most traditional retailers, especially the brick & mortars, focus on the 20% since the cost of storage and distribution to carry the other 80% would be prohibitive to be profitable due to relatively low volumes of sales.  But in a market like the Internet, this 80% could represent millions of underserverd customers.   Businesses like Amazon and Netflix as well as social media sites are successful mostly because of the Long Tail.  Keep in mind, these are aggreators of the work of many authors or film makers, not just a single person trying to sell a book or short film online. 

So does this model apply to individuals selling a book, photographs, music or other creative works of art online?  Possibly yes.  But as with most things in life, there are caveats.  The Long Tail does not guarantee financial success and it is not a get-rich-quick scheme.   That is because even with the large numbers of potential buyers online, the number of people who will search a specific non-hit item, land on the right site with the right information and eventually make a purchsing decision is still relatively small and will require considerable committment from the creators of those products (see the definition of strategy in the previous blog - a successful one requires goals, plans and committed resources).   Unless you know you are going to be featured on Oprah's Book Club, you should plan on getting your viral marketing plans in place and get ready to go to work.

Twas the night before Christmas and I was thinking about new rules of marketing!

As I read the first few lines of this poem online (we also have the book), I thought how strangely appropriate and timeless this work of art remains nearly 200 years after it was first written. There was indeed 'not a creature stirring' in my house, although there was some clicking from the computer mouse, which I don't think really counts.

To stay with the theme in my original post, let's start by looking at some basic marketing concepts and strategies that can help individuals and small business owners successfully reach their goals. To get this right, I'd like to start with a baseline in the form of a common definition for strategy. Having read many different interpretations, I've settled on strategy as 'plan of action to deploy resources in order to achieve desired objectives'. I like this statement because it spells out what every winning strategy should contain: well-defined objectives, a plan to get from here to there and showing commitment by allocating resources (time, people & money).

In 'The New Rules of Marketing & PR', David Meerman Scott talks about building an action plan that begins by asking yourself 'what is my goal?'. Since the target audience of upcoming radio show is writers and authors, I would assume the goal may be finding a publisher, selling a book online or creating a networking hub for authors and writers in the community. Defining an objective, allows one to take action and make incremental steps forward, sideways and back without losing sight of the ultimate goal. Additionally, knowing the goal is important when it's time to measure the results of the marketing strategy. If the goal is to sell books online, it would make sense to invest in creating an e-commerce friendly website.  Even without a lot of bells and whistles (cool sticky web design or fancy artwork), the marketing strategy should have a reasonable Payback period to be considered effective.  

According to David Scott, the second part of the plan should be 'understanding your buyer persona'. Over the years, I've met many business owners who were not exactly sure who was visiting their companies' websites and who was purchasing their products. Are your readers teens, stay at home moms, business professionals or men of a certain age and demographic? Clearly, the buyer persona has dramatic impact on the design of the marketing material, communications strategy and sales approach (if you are selling anything). Bringing together the buyer persona with your goals is the start of your successful marketing strategy.

The beginning!

A couple of weeks back, I had a chance meeting at my local Barnes and Noble. As I was reading through some material, Dora Robinson approached me to ask if it was ok to share my table. "Please do" I responded and than I think I said "that space has been waiting for you!". Typically, I don't believe in karma but I think some strange forces must have been at work that day. After spending some time talking about what each of us do, she told me that she hosted a show at a local radio station (KOOP FM91.7) and that she would like to invite me to appear as a guest speaker. Indeed, it was my good fortune that she decided to share a table with me that day.

The show is coming up fast, in one week time in fact (December 30th), and I have been thinking about how I can make this experience worthwhile for the listeners . The program is called 'Writing on the Air' and it's targeted to Authors, Writers and anyone in the publishing business. If you are wondering, I am not an author and also not in the publishing business. But I know something about marketing products and building credibility to support marketing strategies. As Dora told me, there are many great writers out there who are struggling to market their products, be it books, articles, or animation artworks. These folks are great at writing but they are not necessarily good at getting the word out, the marketing part, to the masses about their work.

So by now, you are probably asking, why then write a blog? Why not just go on the radio show and tell people how to market books using the most powerful marketing tool in the modern history, one that gives power to the masses and levels the playing field, namely the Internet?

I know I am leading the witness but I believe that 'show me' is a lot more powerful than 'do as I say'. Adding a blog is part of a well designed marketing plan to inform, share, educate, invigorate and to build lasting relationships (ok, there is a hint here on what's coming). I will document my journey as I prepare for the show on Wednesday Dec. 30th with the following goals:

1) Share some thoughts and material about what works (short term goal)
2) Walk through the 'new rules of marketing' concepts that small business owners should know about and practice religiously (medium term goal)
3) To forge new relationships and create a network of like-minded people who can learn from each other and grow together (long term goal)