One of our bestselling authors, Tunde Leye, gave an insight on how authors can have sold out copies of their books. He answered a few questions asked by other authors who wanted to know the success behind his past book sales and preparations for his new book, AFONJA: The Rise.
1. How do you guys raise funds for Promotions?
From personal funds. Promo/PR is part of the publishing budget.
2. Where do you run promotions for people to go to your website and buy?
Social Media, my blog subscribers (there’s 4,000 of them, email and all), book clubs, and my friends in the media. Event attendance also increases visibility and gets bookstores to display your book(s) where eyes will see them.
3. How do you create awareness for people to come to the Book Fair to come and buy?
Building the brand before the events is important. What has helped me is 3 years of blogging weekly which ensured people knew and remembered my name by the time the books started coming. Also, book club really help.
Another author and coach, Ilusanmi Awele, chipped in the discussion and gave a very helpful advice on how to build a brand as an author.
4. How do you build your brand as an author without having a book to show?
There is building the Author brand before the book is published. You have the Pre-launch Stage, Launch Stage and Post Launch Date. It is all in the Preparation for the Author to have a Successful launch. You can be communicating with your audience via email/blogging before the launch date with online training and offline too. Why this step is necessary is because it is good for the Author not to have a published book on ground that is not needed. If you can afford without worrying about debts, the Author can publish but if there is no platform with the audience, then I advise that the Author builds a platform that will buy the book when it is comes out. This is deep wisdom that is sometimes difficult for Authors to understand. – Ilusanmi Awele
If you need assistance in making your publishing dream come through, please send us an email services@okadabooks.com or fill out this form to request for any of our author services. We will hold your hand and take you down the road of not only being published, but also being a successful author.
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