Innovative Approaches to Book Sales
In my last Blog, I listed some ways of where and how to sell your book. In this week’s Blog, I will discuss more innovative ways to get your book noticed. In today’s world, unlike how it used to be before computers and the internet, there are so many different, unique ways to get your name and your book out there. Some of these ways are not for everyone. That’s okay. Some of them might not be for me either. However, I do think it’s important to inquire and maybe pick one that is innovative, once you have established more traditional ways.
Doing a weekly podcast or having a YouTube channel are two popular ways in which you can sell your book. People who have podcasts record and publish them weekly. You can either do this by yourself or you can find another author to do the podcasts with you. Podcasts are very popular, and they bring in people who are interested in the genre of children’s books, and if you are lucky, book buyers. I have not done a podcast, but I am looking into it for the future. In my research, a podcast usually sticks around about a week to a week and a half. Most people will watch podcast episodes within the first week after it comes out, and then the numbers go down from there.
Having a YouTube channel is another way to promote your name and book. Some people (just like with social media) have great success with this, and other people do not. Again, I do not have a YouTube channel yet. However, I have also been looking into adding this to the other things I am doing. You do not need much. Again, from researching, it is fairly easy to do and pretty straightforward. In order to set up your channel, you will need a Google account. This is free. If you have an existing Google account, you will sign in to YouTube using that account. If you do not have an existing account, then you will need to create one. You will want to create an account using a different name, not your personal name. In this Blog, I will not go into the steps involved, but they seem to be fairly easy.
Having a successful YouTube channel is up to you. You need content that is educational and valuable to the listener/viewer. However, one does not just make a YouTube account and start recording. The content needs to be planned. There are niches and sub-niches. The niche should be the specific topic you are going to be talking about in your YouTube Videos. For example, since you are a children’s book author, your niche could be writing children’s books. The sub-niche would be everything that falls under writing children’s books. This is a broad subject, so you might want to narrow it down a little; however, you do not want to be too general either.
When creating a YouTube video, you want to understand who your target audience will be. In other words, who are you making your videos for? This will help you create content to your audience’s needs. The first thing you will want to do when planning is to think of ideas for your video. Put them in an outline, or write a script to ensure your content will be easily understood, and what the message is that you are trying to convey. The second thing you will want to do is make a posting schedule and be consistent in uploading your content. Usually, this is done once a week. This is important when building a following of viewers, and it also creates trust not only within YouTube itself (which is important), but with the viewers interested in what you have to say.
The best thing to do with either one of these is to start out small and build from there. Also, if you are doing a newsletter at least once a month and blogging every week, as I do, I would suggest picking maybe one more thing, such as doing a podcast or a YouTube video, but I would not suggest that you try both at the same time. You want to have this process be fun, not a dreaded chore or just one more thing you have to do. And, if you are not sure which one to choose, watch some videos or listen to some podcasts and see what other authors are doing. After you research these, you might feel like it is something you want to try. And, if you don’t, that’s okay too. There are so many ways to be innovative when it comes to letting people know who you are, and about your book. You just have to research different avenues and pick a few that you are interested in doing. Each of these takes commitment, so you want things that you can easily keep up with. And, who knows, you might just come up with an innovative way that no one else has thought of yet!
