With the Christmas season upon us—we all want to sell those books. Westerns are some of the most popular presents during the Christmas season, and the publishing houses Outlaws Publishing and Dusty Saddle Publishing reported that last December was their strongest month in the year for sales of paperbacks. It must be exciting for every author to know that their book may lie wrapped up under the Christmas tree waiting to be given as a seasonal gift.
But how can you make your book stand out? Just like any other product, it’s all about placement. When the publishing companies ask how new releases are going to be promoted throughout the run up to Christmas, I always tell them KECC.
KECC?
What’s that?
Keywords
Editing
Cover
Connection
Keywords:
We all know what keywords are and how they are used. Are you using the right keywords online to give your Western a boost during this busy buying season? Look at your keywords and make sure they are giving you the right visibility.
Editing:
Yes. We all take editing very seriously, but products released during this busy selling season have to be top-notch and perfect. This is because you’re likely to reach a much wider readership. Make sure you go through your product and correct those tiny little errors. We all like to think our babies are perfect—but it doesn’t do any harm to sew up those holes in their socks from time to time.
Cover:
Is your book cover going to draw attention? Fred Staff, a great selling author, called me earlier and asked me what I thought about his new cover. It was a fine cover… a fine cover that went into the trash. The final cover for his new product turned out to be much bluer, much more action-packed and much more engaging. I suspect this new hit of his will be a smash throughout the season. Think along the lines of the audience. What stands out to the audience when they are faced with thousands of choices? Are they going to go for the mundane or for the exciting?
Connection:
Everything about your book, blurb, forewords, afterwords, title and story must scream out to the reader. With Staff, we tweaked the title to make it fit the current desires of the readership, the blurb had to be trimmed and tidied up, we added two new forewords, re-vamped the chosen keywords, added a new afterword, culled a couple of chapters, added some extra content and now the product is ready for market, likely to be his biggest hit yet.
It just takes a little KECC to turn a product into the next Western favorite. Take some time, think as the reader thinks, look at your book as a product they’ve been given to look at and try to gauge their reaction. You may find yourself making changes.
Now, it’s wintertime, and I need some new books to read. What’s currently on your list? Let me know what you’re reading by dropping a note below. You can also ask any question you’d like about my blog above. I’d be happy to help you.
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