The Weird Worlds of Politics and Selling Books

I am new to this whole book writing business and quite frankly it was never anything I ever intended to do. Outside of the occasional speech I wrote for myself, during my long political career, I can honestly say I have never even done much writing.

So, when I published Draftee: A High School Teacher Goes To War and subsequently co-authored three children’s books with an old political pal, I was truly a ”stranger in a strange land.”

If writing books was a foreign experience, it was nothing compared to my lost feeling as I prepared to go out and market these books once they were published. The only experiences I had ever had, that remotely resembled marketing, were the eight political campaigns I had run when I was involved in politics.

With no background or experience in the world of literary selling, I decided to apply my campaign experiences to marketing books. I was amazed at how similar these two processes were. 

COMPETITION: In politics there is incredible competition for the voter’s attention. From the presidential race, right down to the guy running for school board, the candidates are clamoring to be seen and heard. Obviously, as an author, you know the same environment exists in selling books.

ORGANIZATION: In any campaign I ever ran there was never much money and almost no staff for research, scheduling or press. As a candidate I was the proverbial ”one man band.“ So I literally hit the road, going from town to town, stopping at newspapers and radio stations, organizing events -- no matter how small. I would do anything that would put my product, me, in front of the voters. Much like a political campaign, I tried the same approach with marketing the books; a process where you go out and put your product, in any way possible, before people.

Book signings, press contacts, school presentations, conferences, emails and anything else to shamelessly promote the books are all parts of my new ”campaign” existence.

During a political campaign I would set daily goals such as giving out 1,200 brochures before the day ended. I do the same type of thing with the books. I never let a day end without doing at least one thing, no matter how small, to market the books. I carry business cards that tell about our books and have our website address on them. There are very few days that go by that I do not give some out.

As I mentioned, the competition for people’s attention is fierce in both politics and book selling. Consequently, I have always thought it was important to be innovative and try and do things that will “set you apart from the herd.”

Through an old Army buddy who works with Chinese business associates, we are currently exploring the option of having our children’s books translated.

We are in discussions with a student at the USD Film School to have our children’s books made into short, educational films.

Recently, a friend who is in the legislature hosted a regional Council of State Governments Conference, and he put our children’s book in the conference ”welcome bag.” I have now contacted convention bureaus across the state about doing the same thing.

I have websites for both Draftee and the two kids’ books, and recently sent an email to 4th grade teachers to announce we have added lesson plans on the two subjects -- glaciers and tree rings -- covered in the books. The sites are:www.drafteegoestowar.com and www.sdkidsbooks.com.

Although email postdates most of my political campaigns, I did use it effectively in my last campaign. I sent a campaign message to friends and then asked them to forward it to their friends. I have huhave also recently joined the world of Facebook and got a nice post from a friend who had read and enjoyed my Army book, and saw a jump of visits to my website.

The one thing I know for sure is that if I send an email, or have a book signing, or get a little press or do a school presentation ”hits” on the website spike off the scale. Conversely, if we are not doing anything to contact people about the books our ”hits” go flat-line.

Obviously, one of the biggest differences between a political campaign and book marketing is the fact that although there is an end date (election day) with a campaign, you can market your book forever. That is not to say there aren’t important time periods for selling books, which is why I get especially active before the holidays. From my limited experience, trying to sell books in January and February is downright grim, and I view Christmas as ”election day” with regard to selling books.

During my many political campaigns I ran into a lot of long days filled with dead ends and unsuccessful experiences. I once drove over 200 miles from the capitol city of Pierre to a hamlet in the northwest corner of South Dakota and had five people show up for my event. The same is true in marketing books, and for every idea, press coverage, or event that works, there are any number that do not. The press release on the new children’s book got almost no coverage. Tenacity, however, seems to be the key in both political campaigning and book marketing and if you take enough swings eventually you’ll get some hits.

Click here to see a copy of the email sent out to announce My Grandpa's War.

As I mentioned previously I am very new to the book business and certainly do not hold myself out as an expert in either writing or selling books. Additionally, I have never believed much in the "one size fits all” theory and cannot say I have read many "how to” books. We, as a people, are all so incredibly unique that what works for one person may not work for someone else. However, I did want to share with you some useful similarities that I found between politics and selling books, in the hopes that you might find something of value.