Go into a bookstore on any given day. How many of the customers do you suppose are interested in a SCUBA book? Not many. What is the profile of the bookstore browser? It is the "recreational reader," someone used to plunking down $24.95 for hardcover fiction. But check out a dive shop and how many customers are interested in a book on SCUBA? Now the thinking-gears are turning.

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Book Publishing Tips of the Day

Daily words of wisdom from Dan Poynter and other publishing industry experts. (Search on "tip" in archives for complete list.) - Today's Tip from Poynter: "Make Sure You Can Locate Your Reader."
PUBLISHING TIP OF THE DAY

"Make Sure You Can Locate Your Reader."

Where is your potential customer?

And your answer is not "I'll reach them in bookstores".

Your book must have buyers and you must be able to locate them. Where will you find a high concentration of customers?

What type of stores do your potential customers frequent? Ask yourself, "What magazines do they read, what associations do they join and what annual events do they attend. Where are they?"

You want your books to be sold in bookstores but you will sell many more nonfiction books in specialty shops, to associations, through magazines and to specialty catalogs. Bookstores are the frosting, not the cake.

Make sure there is an audience for your book. Then promote your books where there is a high concentration of your potential customers.

"To have great poets, there must be great audiences too." -Walt Whitman (1819-1892), American poet.

(c) 2000 by Dan Poynter. For more tips and information on book writing, publishing and promoting, see the Para Publishing Web site.

MARKETING TIP OF THE DAY

Theme: Copywriting

Before a media contact will say "yes" the best publicists are asked "could you send me more information on that?" Don't forget. Media people are journalists. They are writers. The materials you send them had better be well-written. Here are a few . . .

Rules for Powerful Copywriting

1. Words that end in "-ly" can either add or take away power from your writing. Evaluate these words each time they are used to make sure the piece is more powerful with them than without.

It is actually more effective not to use words like actually.
It is more effective not to use words like actually.

(c) 2000 by Tami DePalma. For more tips and information about "Marketing with a Twist," visit the MarketAbility Web site. Don't your books deserve MAXIMUM EXPOSURE?