Day 29 Author Blog Challenge

Who would be the perfect person/company to partner with to sell your book? It might be another author, a performer, a shop owner, a seminar facilitator, a teacher, etc. Pretty much, the answer to this question is limited only by your imagination. How will you reach out to that person/company? What’s the hook for your pitch?

 

I’m responding to this question as an indie publisher and keeping this at a realistic rather than an imaginative level.

 

The perfect person to partner with to sell my book would be any other author who understands the passion that drives the writing, who understands the amount of time and effort that goes into creating every sentence, paragraph, page and chapter, who shares the drive to market the finished product and appreciates the commitment required. Even better if this person has an outgoing personality (to make up for my own deficits in this area).

I once participated in a ‘meet the author’ event where there were three of us peddling our wares, each with a different skill set that complimented the other. The most extroverted, with suitably loud voice and a presence that could fill a room, had he not made way for us of quieter speech, drew the attention of the crowd in our direction, then it was up to each to engage with individuals or groups as the situation presented. We were able to work collaboratively to promote and sell each other’s books as well as our own.

 

Having a book selling partner means you can also, well almost, be in two places at the one time, acting as selling agent and promoter for each other’s work. Whether it’s having a presence at a book fair or doing media interviews, there’s always an opportunity to ghost for another writer while still promoting your own work. It’s all in finding the right person, the one who thinks outside the square of their own writer existence, the one who knows how to share the joy of someone else’s success.

 

These people can be found within your own writing network, those who have shared the writing and publication experience with you in one way or another and in whom there is a mutual trust and respect.

 

Should I have to pitch to this person I would begin by pitching the relationship and the benefits of this in selling books, moving on the how the differences in our work could be complimentary in a selling and marketing environment using the power of dual promotion.