This first-time novelist forced her publisher (against their normal practice) to reprint her book twice within six weeks of the novel’s release. The novel became a New York Times bestseller, won the Doubleday New Voices in Fiction award, and also won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Her subsequent novels became #1 New York Times bestsellers, sold millions of copies, and were made into top-grossing movies.
Who was this author?
What was the title of her first novel?
And what was the one thing she did that any first-time book author can do?
Terry McMillan was the author.
Her first novel was Mama.
Terry played the numbers game. She wrote thousands of letters to all sorts of people to get readers and stores excited about her new novel. Any unknown author can follow Terry’s example by playing the same numbers game.
When Terry McMillan’s first novel Mama was published in 1987, her publisher only sent out press releases and review copies—their standard low-level effort for first-time authors. So Terry took the promotion into her own hands.
She wrote more than 3,000 letters to bookstores, colleges, chain stores, African-American groups, and other groups asking them to stock and/or promote her book. She offered to do readings wherever they would give her space.
The response was so great that she ended up doing her own book tour to 39 cities. Her efforts gained plenty of rave reviews for her book as well as two re-printings in six weeks.
The key point of this story is not who Terry sent the letters to, but how many she sent. It’s a numbers game, and few book authors or even Internet entrepreneurs make full use of the numbers game.
For an ebook (rather than a print book), you would send 3,000 emails or letters to online book sites, ebook reviewers, book bloggers, potential JV partners, and other authors who write books like yours.
If you send out 10 emails or letters per day, you’d reach more than 3,000 people in one year—and that’s with time off for good behavior!
First rule: The Numbers Game. Send out lots of letters and emails!
Second rule: Create relationships with those people, websites, and stores who respond.
Third rule: Build from there.
The above story has been excerpted from About the Author by Alfred and Emily Grossbrenner.
A friend on Facebook shared this information after seeing the above video: “My friend got books in nearly 100 libraries by sending approximately 400 emails.”
Website: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-mama-bestseller-video
Again, note that during the next week or ten days, I won’t be reachable via email, phone call, or social media. But I will be back! — John Kremer
Book Marketing Success Story #4: Answer