Sell More Books Through Segmentation

You want to find out, "When do they buy?" If you're selling a job-search book, well, they're going to buy around the periods of graduation. So you know when you have to get them to schools and to parents around graduation. Find out, "Where do they buy?" Do they buy your books in supermarkets? People say, "There's no way I can sell fiction." Well, there's a lot of places you can sell fiction in special markets—supermarkets, airport stores, cruise ships, specialty shops or libraries. One of my clients sold 3,000 of a novel in two months just doing a library tour. There are reading groups and book clubs, in which you can sell a lot of fiction.

... Take a sheet of paper and [put] it in three columns: The left-hand column is headed "Problems"; the middle column is "Actions"; and [the] right-hand column [is] "Results." Then, [if you're selling a job-seekers' book, for example], you list, "What problems do my readers have with job searches?" They want to know when to use a certain kind of resume, what kinds of questions they can ask or expect to be asked [on an interview]. Then the middle column is "What action do you recommend in your book to solve that problem? And what is the result?" I recommend that different types of situations need different types of resumes. The result is that they get a job more quickly. That's what people want ... . When you focus on that right-hand column in your marketing, then you're solving the problems. ...