When Should You Stop Marketing Your Book?

So, you've written and published your book. You have bought into the importance of self-marketing, knowing that if you want something done, you can't wait for others to do it for you. Sure, you may employ other to help you, but it's up to you to plan, instigate, and execute the marketing plan for your book.

Then a year goes by and you can no longer say, "Just out!" Then two years, then five...

Soon, you begin to ask yourself, "When should I stop marketing my book?" After all, the shelf life of many books in a bookstore is 2-3 months, unless you are a perennial best seller. Even if you are an author who has beaten the odds and have a publisher who is paying and planning your marketing, it will be a fleeting experience at best.

In my humble opinion, an author never truly stops marketing their book. Sure, the activities and frequency may change, and if you have a new book out, your marketing activities will focus on that book. Still, you should never stop marketing your book.

Remember these tips when marketing a mature book:

• Books Rarely Age: Even though your book may sport a publishing date from a few years ago, to a reader who has never heard of it, it's brand new. Unless your material is dated by content (example: How To Get Your Friends To Vote In The 2010 Elections or The Wonderful World Of Windows 95), then chances are your book still contains relevant material. And if you are a fiction author, your stories are timeless.
  
  
• The Internet Is Eternal: Once you put information about your book on a blog, a web site, or a social media site, it's there for good. The search engines will continue to lead people to it and you will always have a way to send people information about it.
  
  
• New Generations Mean New Readers: Did you know that Disney releases every cartoon they have every 7 years? After that, it's back in the vault for another 7 years. Why? Because every 7 years, there is a new batch off kiddos to market to. But you don't have to vault your book for 7 years. Each year, you will have new people who have never heard of your book. That's why you never stop marketing. You will never get to the point where everyone will have heard of your book.
  
  
• Relaunches Can Be Exciting: Based on the principles above, you can plan relaunches of your book every few years and still capture the excitement of the original launch. Some authors revise their book and do a relaunch. Others schedule a new blog tour to help build buzz about their book. And one of the benefits you will have this time around is a whole lot of readers who can give great testimonials for your book.
  
  
• Dripping On People Is Just As Important As Making A Splash: You don't have to plan a major event to market a mature book. You can do small things like inserting a link to the book in your newsletter, tweeting about your book every now and then, making sure a link to your book is in your e-mail signature, and writing a blog post that mentions your book. Dripping can still do wonders in keeping your book in the public's mind.
  
  
• Speak To Local Groups About Your Writing Journey: As authors, we are fortunate that people seem genuinely interested in hearing about our journey to publication. Whether it's because there are elements of conquering mountains, or David and Goliath battles represented in our struggles, it's easy to deliver an inspirational and motivating story around our journey to publication. And it doesn't matter that our book was published a few years ago. I know authors who still speak about books they published over 10 years ago.
  

These are just a few thoughts that should help you as you ponder the question, "When Should You Stop Marketing Your Book?" You put a lot of yourself and your time into the book. It will always have life as long as you are willing to breathe into it the breath it needs. And that breath comes from the continual activities you engage in to keep it in the public's mind.


 -------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect, an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests.