Marketing Books Case Study: Mary Higgins Clark

When it comes to selling and promoting books, Mary Higgins Clark obviously knows what she is doing.  She has written 42 bestselling novels, and she sells 3.7 million copies of her books each year.  She has become such a consistent seller that her publisher figures the sales of her books into their annual budget.

But, you may say, this is Mary Higgins Clark we are talking about.  Just having her name on the cover of the book ensures that her book will be a bestseller.  There is truth to that statement, now.  However, Mary doesn't just write her books and then hand them to her publisher and expect them to sell with no further work on her part.  Far from it.

At the age of 83, Mary Higgins Clark is a marketing powerhouse.  She knows what works when it comes to moving her books.  They are also things that any author can do when it comes to marketing and promoting their own books.

1.  Clark knows her audience.  The marketing of a Mary Higgins Clark novel actually begins when she is writing her books.  She doesn't include an graphic sex or violence in her novels.   She doesn't switch genres and she continues to write the type of novels her readers have come to expect.  Her books usually launch on Mother's Day, so she caters to mothers and their daughters who like to read the same books.

2.  She doesn't completely rely on bookstores.  One of Clark's favorite book signing locations isn't a bookstore at all.  It's the Wegman's supermarket stores.  That's right, this multi-millionaire, bestselling author can be found signing her new releases at grocery stores.  Why?  That is where her readers (woman) are.  Clark knows book signings are not a vanity event for the author.  They are sales and promotional events for the reader.  Always put the reader first.

3.  She still works to sell books.  Could Mary Higgins Clark sell books without doing book signing events?  Probably, but she still wants to remain relevant for her readers, and attract new readers.  At the age of 83, she will still do book signings, even at a supermarket.  She even tried to sell a book to the reporter interviewing her for this recent article. 

4.  She is involved in the marketing of her book.  Even with 42 bestsellers to her credit, Clark takes an active role in marketing her books.  She does signings, meets with fans at every opportunity, and even approves ad copy for her books.

5.  She writes for her readers, not the critics.  Clark doesn't rely on book reviewers to spread the word about the release of her new book.  In fact, she says critics typically ignore her books or give them bad reviews.  Out of the 42 novels she has written, Clark recalls getting a positive review for just one of them.

What can you learn from Mary Higgins Clark?  Know the niche audience for your book, do book signing events at the locations where you would find them, write the kind of books your audience has come to expect from you and be involved in the marketing and promotion of your books.  It has worked well for Clark, and should benefit you as well.

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Why Isn't My Book Stocked at a Grocery Store?

We have already discussed how difficult it is for a new author to have their book stocked in a bookstore.  With more than a million titles printed last year, ebooks becoming more popular and bookstores facing tough times, bookstores just aren't very willing to "take a chance" on a new author anymore.  As difficult as it is to have a title picked up by a bookstore, it is even more difficult to get a book stocked by a grocery store, pharmacy, Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. 

A couple of days ago I was at our local grocery store to pick up some food, and I personally took the picture posted at the beginning of this article.  This is the actual book display at our grocery store.  Do you notice anything that stands out in this photo?

If you answered "all of these books are bestsellers, or written by bestselling authors," you would be absolutely correct.  There were no books by new, unknown authors stocked at the grocery store.  They will only stock bestselling books, or books written by bestselling authors.  The grocery store wants to sell books that they have a reasonable expectation will sell, and sell quickly.  If a title is by a relatively new, unknown local author, the grocery store manager (or more likely, the book distributor for the grocery store)  has no idea how the book will sell.  They are taking a risk by agreeing to stock it, and in these economic times, nobody is willing to take much of a risk. 

The same goes for the big box pharmacies such as Walgreens or CVS, or the big box stores like Wal-Mart, Sam's Club or Costco.  These stores buy in large volumes only, think thousands and thousands of books.  They get the books at steep discounts from wholesalers, and they only get books that they have a pretty good idea will sell quickly.  These stores will not let stock sit on their shelves for long.  If the book, or any other item in their store, doesn't sell then it is going to get yanked from the shelves and sent back to the publisher or manufacturer.

With this being said, I have had authors who have sold books in these venues, but their book was not stocked by the stores.  Instead, they did a local book signing event in their area on a consignment basis.  That means the author had to bring their own books to sell.  The author got exposed to hundreds of shoppers the day of their event.  The store looked good because they were seen as supporting a local author.  However, these events are few and far between.

In order to one day see your book actually stocked on the shelves of these venues, it has to become a good seller first.  That means doing the legwork at smaller, local events, reaching out to your niche audience, attending book fairs and festivals, doing speaking engagements, etc.  Trying to get a book stocked by one of these stores before the author or the title has developed any kind of sales history first is like trying to bake a cake while skipping the first five steps of a recipe.  Those efforts will fall flat.   There are always exceptions, of course, but that is just what they are, exceptions.  They don't happen often.

Develop a plan to start locally first, and then expand from there.  Remember, every author has to start somewhere, but more likely than not, that won't be in a Wal-mart or Costco store.  

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