Ultimately there is only one person who has all the power to make your book a nationwide hit or a local bust. That person is you. You have the power.
It doesn't always have to be you. Sometimes you get lucky, and someone else loves your book so much that they sell thousands or millions for you. For
example, there is a bookseller at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco who has hand-sold
1,000 copies of one midlist novel that she loved so much she told everyone about it.
And there's another woman who bought a copy of 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth for everyone in her community — all 30,000 of them!
And then, of course, there is Oprah Winfrey, who can sell a million copies of a book simply by selecting it for her Oprah Book Club on the Air —
something she has done consistently month after month since starting her club in November, 1996.
Here's one more example of the power of one lone voice. In September of 1984, William Morrow published an exercise book called Callanetics by
Callan Pinckney. After their first round of publicity, they sold about 10,000 copies and reprinted another 5,000. But then they ran into a snag.
About the same time, Simon & Schuster came out with an exercise book written by the actress Victoria Principal. Well, in short order, Morrow gave
up on Callan's book because Victoria was getting all the talk show appearances. In time, Callan also gave up on her book.
About a year later, though, Callan got a phone call from a housewife in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, who asked when Callan would be coming out to
Chicago. In response, Callan said she would be able to come if she could do a television show in the area. A half hour later, the fan called Callan back to
tell her that she'd gotten her booked on A.M. Chicago.
The rest is history. Within hours of Callan's appearance on the show, Kroch's & Brentano's had taken over 400 orders for her book. That was in August, 1985.
From there, Callan went on to do other shows in Dayton, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and many other smaller cities. Each time she created another spurt
of sales for her book. During this time she personally called the major bookstore chains to let them know that Morrow still had books in print, stored
in their New York warehouse. She had to fight with Morrow to get them to put the books into the bookstores.
After about three months of her promotional activity, her book finally hit the bestseller lists (over a year after the book was published!) and remained
on the lists for almost a year. The book went on to sell 250,000 copies and garner a $200,000 advance for paperback rights. All because of one person.
Callan was lucky. One lonely housewife fan in a small suburb of Chicago made all the difference in the world for her book. But her book could have
become a bestseller much sooner if she had not given up on the book herself. Callan could have been that one person. She could have taken responsibility
for promoting her book right from the start. She could have made the phone calls. She could have confirmed the bookings. If she had, her book would have
become a bestseller a year earlier.
The reality is that no one else can love your book as much as you can. Ultimately there is only one person who is responsible for the success or
failure of your book, and that person is you. And the amazing thing is that it doesn't take a great amount of commitment for success to happen. All you have
to do is follow this one rule: Do five promotions a day.
That's it. Do five promotions each and every day (with a day off every once in a while for good behavior). Make a phone call. Write a letter to an
important editor. Send out a catalog to a key sales contact. Handwrite a little note on the news release you send to targeted media. Make a follow-up phone call.
Do at least five promotions a day, and within a year you'll have made over 1,500 prime contacts. I guarantee you that if you make five legitimate
contacts each and every day for a year, you'll make sales. You can't generate that kind of activity and not get a response. As long as you are targeting
your promotions, you should create a tidal wave of response.
But you have to be consistent. Do something every day. Five things every day. Five things every day. Five things every day. That's the inside secret.
Now that you know it, do something about it.
— John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books
