The way I heard it, “This little Piddy went to market”. Apparently, my farm folk relatives(Vegans will appreciate this) couldn’t handle the imagery of a “Piggy” going to market. That’s right folks, the big fat piggy that goes to market gets butchered.
Now, I believe the same thing happens if you send pity to market. In other words if your marketing plan calls for sales to friends and family, you will likely get cut to pieces.
In my approach, pity stays home. If a friend or relative asks me about my book, I GIVE THEM A COPY with a personal note inside the cover. And you know what happens? They appreciate it.
And appreciation tends to get people talking. And their word of mouth advertising is far more valuable than the 5 or 10 dollars of profit I would have made on the sale.
But suppose they hate the book? This may happen. However, if you have taken the time to craft your work and leave a geniune piece of yourself on every page those who truly know you will find something positive to say about it.
But regardless, the object of this particular market game is to generate smiles all the way home and that is one measure of success that ensures you will not be the piddy that has none.
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Book Marketing, B.L.Lindstrom, Considering SomeplacElse, Pity, Piddy, Piggy
As a fellow author, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about giving away. However, not all relatives think alike. I have 32 cousins – gave a copy of one of my books to one of them – at this point (12 months later) 9 have read the book and I’ve made no money. Neither have I received any communication from them about whether or not they liked the book. In the future, I will continue to give away to my friends, the relatives can order online.
Excellent point Linda. I have many relatives and a few of them are freindly enough to express genuine interest in my book. However I can probably count them on one hand (or foot as the case may be)