What I Won't Be Doing to Promote My Book

(Beijing, China): A small story in today's China Daily caught my eye. Not finding a link online, I've reprinted it below:

Money to Fall from Sky
"An Indonesian businessman will throw 100 million rupiah ($10,740) from an airplane on Sunday as part of a marketing ploy for his second book, organizers said. Tung Desem Waringin, author and motivational speaker, whose first book was a bestseller, is known for his unorthodox marketing methods.

A spokesman for the organizers, Diki Sidik, said Jakarta police had refused to issue a permit for the event but Tung would go ahead with the plan outside the capital. 'Rather than spend a lot of money for unsuccessful marketing, better give the money to the people,' Sidik said. Millions of Indonesians live on less than 2 dollars a day."

If I had $10k and an airplane to throw it out of, I'm still not sure I would do it (well, yeah, maybe I would, just 'cause I could). Instead, much of my book promotion strategy is revolving around relationships, developed in person as well as online.

Networking isn't just for finding a new job, or gaining more customers. It can help move you forward on any important goal you have. But you have to focus on the relationship first, so allow time to get to know people and what they're interested in. And more importantly, give them enough time to get to know you and your work at their own pace.

Otherwise, you just might have to resort to bribery to get attention...

Comments

[Scott Bradley]

Liz,

I would have to disagree with you.

I would do it because just think how remarkable that is.

I can hear it now..."Did you hear about the author of that networking book and what he did...."

The press and attention you would get would be 100x worth what you spent for the airplane and the paper.

It all depends on how you look at it...

[networkingexcellence]

Scott,

Very good point. However, it would be easy for a stunt like that to go the way of most Superbowl commercials that evoke water cooler talk the day after, but no one ever remembers the product that was being sold. And in this case, the article doesn't even mention the name of the book.

Thanks for the comment! Looking forward to catching up with you once you're in the Big Apple.

Liz

[Andy Lopata]

Your final point, about networking helping you achieve any goal if you allow the relationship to build first, is absolutely right.

When I published my last book in 2006, my co-author, publisher and I each contacted people in our networks who we thought would be willing to help us. In turn, those people, who knew, liked and trusted us, told their networks about the book.

As a result of this support, we reached a ranking of Number Two on Amazon.co.uk on the day of launch, and stayed there.

We didn't need to throw a single dollar (or pound...or rupiah!) from the sky to achieve this. We succeeded because we had built trust with our networks over time.