Customer Reviews

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 No-Cost, Low-Cost Weapons for Selling Your Work (Guerilla Marketing Press)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Guerrilla Marketing For Writers" offers proven, non-traditional marketing tactics to help authors sell their books before and after publication, based on the "The Fifteen Most Important Marketing Secrets":

1. Content that delivers
2. Commitment to a marketing program
3. Investment in your marketing campaign
4. Consistent marketing
5. Displaying confidence
6. Patience with your marketing plan
7. Using an assortment of marketing strategies
8. Understanding that profits come subsequent to the sale
9. Providing convenience for customers
10. Adding an element of `amazement' to your marketing
11. Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaign
12. Involvement with readers
13. Interdependence between you and your alliances
14. The technology and skills to promote
15. Consent from the people you market to

The authors begin with an overview of how the publishing industry works and then delve into the most powerful weapons in your arsenal for selling your book:
* You
* Your Networks
* Word of Mouth
* Viral Marketing
* Platform
* Talks
* Tours
* Publicity

The book details 100 low-cost and no-cost marketing strategies including: your elevator speech, TV, radio, and print interviews, satellite tours, media/speaker's kit, press releases, strategic alliances, webcasts, giveaways, surveys, reading and discussion groups newsletters, articles, audio, and video. Each strategy is accompanied by "guerrilla tactic" tips, such as this one related to business cards, "Double the width of your card and fold it in half, so you have four sides for information. And if you leave it flat - voila! - it's a bookmark."

The authors intersperse real-life "war stories" throughput the text and include an information-packed resource section with a Sample Media Kit, a Publicity Campaign Timeline, a detailed Publicity Questionnaire, and a list of the Top 100 Markets in the U.S. For authors needing a few more marketing "weapons", "Guerrilla Marketing for Writers" delivers.

I was interested in this book because it says it offers ways to help sell more of your work (and I am a writer). This is misleading. This book, and the information in it, is ONLY for the book writer. Not all writers are book writers! There are magazine writers, commercial writers, copywriters, etc. This book sounds like it is for all writers. But, it is not! BEWARE of this. It was of no use to me when I cracked it open, because I am not a book writer. This book will only pertain to you if you are a book writer and have books published (whether through traditional or self publishing routes). But it pertains to no other type of writing. Plus, the information is kind of basic in telling you how to promote your books (e.g., giving speeches, having a passion for your books, telling everyone you meet about them, being excited about them, etc.). This is a book you should first find at your local bookstore or library to thumb through to see if it is of interest to you. Then if you want to purchase it, log on to this site and buy (as it is cheaper here). I also think there were too many authors for this one book. I found so much repitition of ideas and messages that it lead me to believe they split up the chapters, all working on different ones, but covered much of the same thing in many places (just saying it differently).

This book feels like a unending list, mostly expressed in bullet points with lots and lots of space between them to get the page count up.

Rather like the "Chicken Soup" books of which the authors are so in awe, this book makes you feel good for a while -- look, it can be done! -- until you want to know *how* it can be done. Twitter, a massive potential marketing resource for cash-strapped writers, is despatched in a pullout box. But how do I become effective on Twitter? What are the dos and don'ts? Do I just open an account and start bashing away?

And it is riddled with errors, the sort of errors that look like they come from sloppy formatting as the manuscript is converted to an ebook.

So, if you want a huge list of things you can do, provided you're willing to go away and research them further, this is the book for you. For me, I would have preferred if they'd stuck with a couple of things and done them well, giving a start-to-finish guide to accomplishing them.

I confess, I debated back and forth about this book, but finally I gave in and bought. I expected a list of concrete ways to market your book, but I was disappointed. Most of the content is vague, and feels like fluff flying in the wind. The one thing I did like about the book is that they gathered up some really awesome quotes. The quotes were interesting, humorous, and / or thoughtful. I enjoyed the quotes, but that isn't why I bought the book. I kept looking for something solid I could bite my teeth into. The book was a bit "feely, touchy" rather than "meaty". The book seemed aimed more at "you" the author, rather than "do this, do that, get these results". Maybe it's because I've already read so many books that this book did not ring with me. For those new to marketing this might be something worth reading, expecially if you are able and willing to speak or participate in radio/tv interviews. Much of the book is geared towards the traveling author (which I don't mind), but there was nothing new to gleam from the book or to actively apply. Take what I have to say with a grain of salt, because it really depends on where you are in the process as to whether or not you will get something out of it.

I am a first time author and this book has given me some excellent ideas and tactics to successfully market my book.
All four of the authors of this book have written numerous books and have several years experience in the writing arena, as well as media and publishing industry. This book offers a wealth of their combined knowledge, that will add value to any writer who is interested in making their book a widely visible success.

This book offers a detailed listing of about hundred "weapons" which can make a difference between a longseller and a book failure. It can. But just knowing these weapons alone will not make you a bestseller-author. You need time and a lot of energy to try all the ideas and tipps the authors offer. You already have some of them like your book (of course) and others but most need to be created from the start.
I haven't finished reading the book yet and I already adapted some of the ideas.
The book is fun reading but for me as an Austrian author there's a lot that's not going to work like it does in the United States.
Also, most of the ideas work best with nonfiction books.
(How do you prove your expertise when you have published a picture book for children?)
Nevertheless I think this book is very helpful for authors who haven't thought about self-marketing yet.

The book is filled with valuable informations. The how's and the why's are very precisely explained. The book opens up a lot of knowledge to the reader. It gives "wings" to the author. There is a line in the book that reads:" You can't grow by what you already do." The authors of Guerilla Marketing for Authors, tell you from their experience "what" to do.

Any writer needs to purchase this book long before they publish their book. The authors give many usable tips on how to market your book for little or no money. The book is organized well and easy to read. This is the self-published author's instructional guide.

I read this book in about a week and left tons of pages highlighted. I am about to launch a book preview and I have been given a lot of resources and ideas. Excellent book and easy to read.

"Guerrilla Marketing" is especially helpful to authors who have not had books previously published. It is also useful in that it has been updated to include the latest technology explaining digital and Print on Demand sales. It has been instructive to me as I am writing "Ordinary People: Extraordinary Heroes," about 9/11 in NYC.