Book Marketing: From a Ripple on the Web to a Tidal Wave by author, Arnold Reisman
By Arnold Reisman, author of TURKEY’S MODERNIZATION: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision
“The more publicity you stir up the more books will be sold.” —Bruce Batchelor in Book Marketing De-Mystified
Using the capabilities of the Web has opened a new era for authors to promote their books, irrespective of how the book was published. It requires much time on the part of the author, but does not require any out-of-pocket expenses. The payoff is publicity that is widely disseminated and easily accessible. No one can purchase a book if they don’t know it exists.
The Web allows for a direct relationship between a book’s author—and reader, and many others in between. Marketing one’s book on the Web is relatively new—and a lot of people aren’t yet convinced of its importance. Misconceptions abound, and the entire field is constantly changing.
This article discusses book marketing using the Ripple to Tidal Wave Theory (RTWT) approach as it is enabled by the World Wide Web. This mode of marketing can be used by any book author regardless whether the book was or is to be published by a major commercial house, a small press, or was self published.
- My point: Authors who ignore the power of the web are truly missing out.
Applying this approach to my own book, the results show that the book (–TURKEY’S MODERNIZATION: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision–) is reviewed—or at least mentioned on a multitude of websites, the web addresses fill 110 single-spaced 8 ½ by 11 pages. They represent at least 31 countries, and appear in at least nine different languages. Another measure of success is the positive feedback I have received from readers on all continents. Like the Tidal Wave Theory suggests, information about the book is coming online at a rapidly accelerated rate.
Sales are another issue. They shall follow but of course are expected to lag behind.
As the name implies, the Ripple to Tidal Wave Theory of product (a book) knowledge diffusion is based upon the concept that awareness of a new product is spread from one knowledgeable person to another in a pattern that is also similar to the spread of a highly infectious disease. Graphically the model can be viewed as a never-ending genealogy tree, or as a set of radiating waves in a pool of still water where a pebble has been thrown. In this latter analogy the waves create their own energy.
Here’s what I have done for my own book’s marketing:
The Tidal Wave Theory model depends on the factors considered. By sending this article to Andrea Sisco at Armchair Interviews, I have made her aware of my book with the logo below my name in the e-mail. Then her reviewers become aware of my book because of the blurb she sends out, seeking a reviewer.
When this article is published its references to my book are available for many readers—teachers, students, researchers, and or librarians. The article’s existence may create an announcement on other websites that could provide information to these same readergroup. It may even be picked up by one or more piggyback blogs or Web sites. Some may write their own articles citing this paper directly or indirectly referencing my book.
Be an EXPERT
I contributed new articles to the sometimes maligned but widely used Wikipedia, as was the case with Hilda Geiringer, a world-class mathematician who emigrated to Turkey in 1933 to save her life, then experienced horrendous difficulty in immigrating to and getting a job in the United States, even though she had support from Albert Einstein and others.
In other cases, I added information to existing Wikipedia articles about a person’s sojourn in Turkey and provided a reference link to my book. These postings were picked up by a number of databases: Google, Yahoo, blogs, and parasite sites.
The Wikipedia articles on composer Paul Hindemith, and the Nazis’ Ambassador to Turkey, Franz von Papen are two examples. The waves that these postings produced are dwarfed by those resulting from three articles I wrote for the History News Network. These were picked up by newspapers in several countries and appeared in several blogs and piggy-back Web sites, worldwide including one run by the Turkish Armenians. They also resulted in several unsolicited reviews of the book. One appeared in Nature, a prestigious British magazine and is widely quoted.
The Google Book Search provides “References from scholarly works” and “References from web pages.” The latter currently number 10. All of this is noticed by acquisition librarians. Among the libraries subscribing to Worldcat the number of postings is 57. Postings are noticed by teachers, students and readers. So far, there are no course adoptions. However 362 Worldcat connected libraries list the journal Aleph: Historical Studies in Science & Judaism which has an article based on the book. Another 286 libraries list The Historian which also has a book-based article, and another 255 libraries carrying the Journal of Public Heath Dentistry acknowledge a book review in Worldcat.
The visibility and availability of the book has brought me an all-expenses-paid trip, plus an invitation to participate in the symposium, “Encounters at the Bosphorus. Turkey during WWII” in Wroclaw and Krzyzowa, Poland, on September 28-30, 2007. The symposium will explore Turkey’s role in Europe and the Middle East during the 20th century. Among the other invited speakers are Mr. Joschka Fischer, German MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. This engagement resulted in a bulk sale of the book.
While in the area I will be giving a seminar to the Czech Academy of Sciences which has invited a the paper “Intellectuals Saved from Nazism by Turkey: The Czech Connection.” This will be published in Dejiny ved a techniky one of their flagship journals.
Have Amazon work for you: Using keywords I provided and a variety of other inputs for their search engines, Amazon and its foreign subsidiaries have done a wonderful job of promoting the book. At last count there are no fewer than 341 differentiated (Amazon) URLs mentioning my book and showing its front cover.
My book was published a year ago, and I have been as busy this past year creating the infrastructure for marketing it as I was researching and writing it. The book’s visibility on the web may have resulted in the fact that both Target, and the Automobile Association of America (AAA) feature it on their websites.
The Ripple to Tidal Wave Theory occurred to me as I reflected on all my efforts and my knowledge of management science acquired during a previous career. The reflection was triggered by Bruce Batchelor’s _Book Marketing De-Mystified. )
I’ll say it again: No one can purchase a book if they don’t know it exists.
About the author: arnoldreisman@sbcglobal.net
Arnold Reisman received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in engineering from UCLA and is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Wisconsin, and Ohio. After 27 years as Professor at Case Western Reserve University, Reisman chose early retirement in 1994. Reisman is still actively pursuing his lifelong interest in sculpting. He is listed in _Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, American Men and Women of Science, and Two Thousand Notable Americans, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among his 200-plus publications in refereed journals and 14 books, Reisman’s most recent book is: TURKEY’S MODERNIZATION: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision. It has received many outstanding pre and post publication reviews._