How Can Persuasive Selling Help You Sell More Books?

If we’re book authors and we want to sell more books – and who doesn’t – we need to use all the savvy of traditional marketers and Internet marketers to help sell our books.

In my opinion one of the most overlooked book promotion strategies is what I call “persuasive selling.” It’s putting yourself in the potential buyer’s mind.

In other words, instead of saying what you want to say about your book, you say what the potential buyer needs to hear to be motivated to buy your book.

Let’s imagine this scenario:

I’ve written a fantasy novel complete with fairies and elves. And I meet you in the grocery store and tell you I’ve just had a fantasy novel published. You say: “What’s it about?”

And I say: “It’s about a whole invisible village of fairies and elves. They have an over-population problem so the town elder calls them to a meeting and they …”

And you suddenly remember you forgot the sugar four aisles back and you’re out of there.

Now let’s rewind and try this conversation again.

You say: “What’s it about?”

And I say: “A 12-year-old boy suddenly learns he has 48 hours to save his village of fairies and elves, and he must do this even though the evil overlord is gunning for him.”

And you say: “Do you have a card with the book’s website?”

In reviewing these two scenarios, what’s the difference?

In the first one I the author want to tell you all about my story even if you could care less about the town’s problems, etc. In the second one I the author tell you what will most likely interest you – a David-and-Goliath story of good against evil.

If you want to motivate people in person or on your website to buy your book, practice drawing them into your book’s story with a very short and pointed hook – something that will interest them.

Of course, the same recommendation goes for a nonfiction book. You don’t want to start with describing how many people you interviewed to find the secret to living longer. You want to simply state that the book offers seven secrets to living longer – secrets that are easy to do if you only know how. And your book reveals how.

With a little practice you should be able to use persuasive selling to help sell more of your books.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s company has just launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program to help people promote their brand, book or business online at www.WeTeachWebMarketing.com and Phyllis is a National Internet Business Examiner at www.InternetBizBlogger.com. Her novel MRS. LIEUTENANT was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finalist (www.MrsLieutenant.com).