Wednesday, February 25, 2009

February 25- Question

I'm wondering about book promotion- here's the question: How short is the memory/attention span of the consumer? Why am I asking this? I am wondering if promoting six months or even six weeks before your release date does any good. Studies show that book buying tends to be mostly an impulse buy-which means if you can get shelf space near the checkout counter you're in!

Seriously, only 20 percent (That might be a high estimate) of books are purchased on-line today. Which means if you have a small press or on-line book you need to reach the 20 percent of on-line buyers. Now there is all kinds of advice on how to reach them-as previously discussed. Tons of hand selling through blogs, social networks and groups- but there are also hundreds of authors doing the same thing-on the same spots. So-the question is-is it better to promo the book six months out(Yes, yes, I know about the studies where they have to hear the title so many times to know it-what is it up to 50 times now? ) OR is it better to network and become "friends" then remind and repeat thirty days out?

Because anecdotal info is that we might remember the title- the author- but still forget to buy-why? We become busy. We think we've bought it and it's on our to-be-read shelf. Or we've seen so much promo that our brains start to skip and delete-

Opinions? What makes you buy?

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