Skip to main content

Why Niche Authors Should Not Advertise

Effective book marketing involves becoming a rock star in your specialized industry. You may have found your place in a specialized niche. Though the general population may not know you, you should be well known within a specialized industry. The funny thing is the fame could be possible from all the free campaigns you should be involved in and never paying for advertising.

Personally, while niche publishing, I’ve seen no results from some of the wasted funds committed to advertising and marketing meant for wide customer bases more traditional products.

When is such traditional advertising effective?
When there is an appeal to a massive audience. Those in this position can spend millions of dollars for premium advertising space knowing that their product will sell and they will recuperate the expenses. For example, everyone in the civilized world wears clothing, lives in some sort of dwelling, enjoys some form of entertainment and expects a certain quality of life.

Watch TV, listen to the radio, and open a magazine. You will probably see the similar types of products advertised. The products aren’t typically introduced for the first time to the market. Instead, similar products are jockeying for their position at the top of the sales within their category. Providers of household cleaning products, food and beverages, restaurants, automobiles, airlines and other products with mass appeal pay with confidence knowing their advertising will result in low risk sales. Chances are that the majority of viewers, hearers and readers of the advertisements will have a legitimate need to buy the product. They will be able to measure a return on investment. There aren’t many who advertise books or niche products; it’s too hard to find a customer.


Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Great Reason to Self-Publish Two

Market Your Way-More and more publishing companies rely on the author to market books. Just look at the latest book covers and see which is larger the author's name or the book title? It's the author who sells books. As a niche professional, you have a built in market and your efforts can easily reach them. You know what works, so go to it. Many people are put off by marketing as I was when I first began. When a niche author serving in an industry with peer-customers, the last thing you want to do is bombard them with sales. Your role is the be the expert and provide answers. Cold calling is also not necessarily the answer in niche marketing. If you've developed a blog, newsletter or social media following, then you have your customer database. Your marketing efforts flow as you provide advice and answers to those following your posts, comments and articles. Many authors teach, speak, volunteer or are otherwise active in their professions. It's hard to remain o...

There, In The Jungle...an excerpt from Commitment-A Novel

     The sun painted streaks of pale blue and yellow through the morning sky. Birds were awake, singing to anyone appreciative enough to listen. The moon was full and bright as it still sat high in the western sky.      John listened intently. He was used to the sounds of the jungle, something he would actually miss. Gone were the distractions of machines. However, he prayed that they would soon be getting back to the plane that would take them back to their world–civilization.      Suddenly he was aware of something new–silence. The singing had abruptly stopped, but why? Birds go silent as a survival instinct, he thought. He listened more intently, as the ground would be soft, muffling any footsteps.      There! In the brush – a slight movement. He focused his eyes to one side of the dark, heavily vegetated area hoping to catch something in his peripherals. Behind about fifty yards, vines and branches moved...

Why authors might choose to work with a publisher instead of publishing themselves

  Why you might prefer to publish with another company instead of do it yourself. There are a lot of blog, newsletter, training and podcast information telling the good news about current publishing opportunities. Most tout the benefits of putting your own book on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). It is a great resource, but contrary to the popular discussion, it’s not the only option. It seems most information coming out seems to publisher shame anyone who does not “do it yourself”. It’s as if the expectation is to self publish and anyone who does not, is a publishing pariah. There are so many published articles describing benefits to putting your own content out though KDP, heck, even I do it. Most build entire businesses around the KDP instruction or consulting opportunities.   However, I’m more concerned with the author who just wants to write and publish their books without the hassle of the publishing business. The author who wants an outlet to make their book ava...