When publishing a non-fiction a course in miracles, if you have an existing promotional platform in that market, then you can launch any new book with a bang. A promotional platform could be: However, we all need to start somewhere, and if you don’t yet have a promotional platform, this post is all about building those platforms so that you don’t need to depend on Amazon to promote your book, but can drive sales of your book whenever you choose. You could of course pay for advertising to get your new book in front of people, but this post will instead focus on free methods for capturing people’s attention. And since with non-fiction there’s tremendous income opportunities far beyond book sales (courses, consulting… ), promotional platforms can be used for a lot more than just driving book sales.
The core of your promotional platform is your own website. Some people advocate creating a new site to promote each book you write. However, such a site would generally only be two or three pages, and such a small site isn’t going to get any traffic without advertising. So let’s put this minisite idea aside for now.
Since it’s recommended you publish multiple books on related topics, and especially if you’re offering courses and other offers related to those books, having a site you build up significantly about the topic, with lots of great content, well, that can work very well to attract visitors and create new readers and customers. It’s vital you publish fantastic free content on your site regularly as this attracts visitors through:
Millions of people listen to podcasts every day, and there’s podcasts on every topic imaginable. Whatever you write about, you’ll find relevant podcasts for that topic. So just like people listen to the radio when whatever they’re doing doesn’t require 100% of their attention, more and more people have replaced that with podcasts. Either through iTunes, or by simply downloading audio files from websites. If you’re a first-time author, wait until your book is published before you start contacting podcasts. Because their priority is that you provide great content to their listeners. You can promote a little bit, but it’s all about providing value, to help make that podcast great. Then people listening will want to find out more about you, and a percentage of them will become customers.
Or if you already have books published and have established platforms, it will be easier to get the attention of podcast publishers since you’ll have credibility you can leverage. And that’s what’s so important — coming across as credible to the podcast owners so they feel confident that you’ll provide value to their listeners. If your first podcast goes well, it will then become easier as you can mention that to new sites you contact. So simply contact podcast publishers, through email, or even through social channels like Twitter or Facebook. Don’t bombard them, but try to get their attention, and it certainly helps if you listen to their podcast and become familiar with them before you contact them.