Rob Grede of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin writes:
The Second Edition of “Naked Marketing–The Bare Essentials” is hot off the presses.
Back in 1997, when Prentice Hall first published the book, it became a bestseller. It is still used by universities and advertising agencies as a basic primer on marketing and promotion. But Prentice Hall is out of business and the publisher of the second edition, Marquette University Press, has no budget for promotion.
The website at http://www.thegredecompany.com is also complete and allows browsers to order off the site with a link to 800 CEO READ.
“My question is: How does an author publicize a second edition of a successful book? Do we tap the same TV and radio stations as last time? Does anyone care about a second edition?”
As Joan said, Rob Grede should go back to the television and radio stations that interviewed him for the first edition. Updates in the second edition would make great “then and now” news for marketing and publicity trade publications. Plus, producers/reporters/editors like sequels to success stories almost as much as sequels to doom/gloom. Grede can further segment his pitches to specific industries and present those updates as “great new and effective ways to market whatever-the-subject.”
The simplicity and conversational tone of the first edition of ‘Naked Marketing…’ made it one of my favorites. I’m psyched to see the update!
Rob, congrats on getting your book updated and published!
I think it’s safe to assume you have updated several things in your new edition. So the first thing you should do it make a list of everything you updated in the second edition. Reiterate what you included before, too. For instance, say something like “with *15* new resources, and a quicker, easier way to keep track of your marketing results.” Take a look at Joan’s web page on her Kick Butt ebook: http://snipurl.com/so2b. You’ll see what you should be doing. Make yourself a web page to promote the book; it should include everything you discuss in the book (benefit driven).
Then take that list and create your news release or pitch letter. All the new resources and ideas will give you something new to talk about with the same media you spoke to before. Marketing isn’t easy for most business owners, so it’s an evergreen topic. Keep pitching!
You’ll also want to write a series of articles using a few tips from your book, and post them on various article directories and in people’s ezines to pull people to your website sales page (that you create from the list above).
Good luck!
Lois Carter Fay, APR
Marketing Idea Shop, LLC
http://www.MarketingIdeaShop.com
Subscribe to Brainy Tidbits and get “67 Ways to Promote Your Business” free!
Hey Rob,
One more thought. Why don’t you create a teleseminar series from your book and sell that as a compatible product? Then you have even more to talk about.
Lois Carter Fay, APR
Marketing Idea Shop, LLC
http://www.MarketingIdeaShop.com
Subscribe to Brainy Tidbits and get “67 Ways to Promote Your Business” free!
Rob, in your pitch for the second edition, tell the media you will also discuss “The Top 3 Marketing Campaigns That are Creating the Biggest Buzz” but don’t mention what they are. The tease might encourage them to call you for an interview. And your top 3 choices can change from month to month, depending on what kinds of marketing campaigns are under way
I agree with all of the above comments and suggestions.
We stress that the thought process should always begin with asking yourself, “Who is going to buy this book?” And “what do these people read, watch, and listen to?” The answers will identify your key media.
Then familiarize yourself with those media – do they do straight book reviews, do they like success stories, do they like lists of tips, might they interview an author as an expert and mention the book. This then tells you how to approach them. One size/approach will not fit all.
As long as the information in the book is helpful, it doesn’t matter what edition it is. In fact, getting to a second edition shows that it has been successful enough to stick around. Find some of the key nuggets of information (starting with the newly updated items as suggested above) and use those as your hooks.
Remember, the publication of a book or new edition is not news, but the information in it can be made newsworthy for today and tomorrow.
Best of luck with it.
There are sometimes advantages to retitling and relaunching a new edition. My book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, is a greatly revised and expanded version of my 1993 Marketing Without Megabucks: How to Sell Anything on a Shoestring–but the revisions were so extensive, including a complete reorganization as well as expanding from 24 to 39 chapters (plus I had a different publisher). So we launched the book as a new title.
Now I’m experimenting with building a brand around that well-recognized book. My forthcoming Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers may be the first in a series of Grassroots marketing books for specific audiences.