| In the movie City Slickers, Curly (played by Jack | | | | code until a good friend of mine said he had read it |
| Palance) tells Mitch Robbins (played by Billy Crystal) | | | | and that he thought it was very provocative. Just |
| that he has to find the "One" thing. The dialogue goes | | | | about every book I've ever read has been the direct |
| as follows: | | | | result of Word of Mouth. |
| Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and | | | | Generating Word of Mouth actually begins before we |
| the rest don't mean [nothin']. | | | | even write the book. If your book isn't interesting, it |
| Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?" | | | | simply won't create Word of Mouth and selling it will be |
| Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out. | | | | difficult. But once your book is written and you begin to |
| The "One" thing for a book to sell well is that it must | | | | employ the tactics listed above to promote the book, if |
| generate Word of Mouth. The goal of every tactic you | | | | you keep in mind that your primary objective is to |
| employ to sell books is to create Word of Mouth. Why | | | | generate Word of Mouth, it helps you choose how to |
| does every author want to get on Oprah? Because | | | | deliver your message. |
| she's the biggest Word of Mouth in the market. Look | | | | For example, I was coaching an author who had |
| at the brief list below of tactics you can use to | | | | written his first novel and was conducting book |
| promote your book: | | | | readings nearly every month with little success. I asked |
| - Podcasting | | | | him what sections he was reading from and then I told |
| - Book Trailers | | | | him that the sections he was reading were not the |
| - Book signings | | | | most interesting sections and gave him suggestions on |
| - - Websites | | | | which parts of the book I would read. |
| - Landing Pages | | | | The same rule applies when conducting interviews. |
| - Blogging | | | | You should control the message of any PR message |
| - Book Reviews | | | | and any interview. What's the hot spot of your |
| - Book Giveaways | | | | message? That is the message that needs to be |
| - Press Releases | | | | conveyed. You have very little time to get the word |
| - TV interviews | | | | out on your book. Think like you are standing in an |
| - Radio interviews | | | | elevator and someone wants to know why she should |
| - Newspaper interviews | | | | buy your book. You've got maybe 30 seconds to |
| The purpose of every one of these tactics is to | | | | convince the potential buyer to buy your book. What |
| create Word of Mouth. The Da Vinci code is, of | | | | would you say? |
| course, a huge success, but I didn't read the Da Vinci | | | | |