Publishers rely heavily on author's own audiences to drive sales of their books. The same thing happens in music. The most aware and avid customers are the ones already familiar with the content source. It only makes sense. But, obviously some people have larger audiences than others, so how do you build on that - in quantity and quality?
Robert Scoble wrote a great article in the April 2008 edition of Fast Company magazine called "Meet the Press." Using Timothy Ferriss as an example, a year ago, no one knew who he was, and now, he appears everywhere from CNBC to Maxim magazine, spreading the idea from his book. Easier said than done? Scoble details Ferriss' strategy.
Ferriss wrote down the names of his favorite bloggers and made a goal to meet them. He attended blog conferences where these people either spoke or attended and set up dinner meetings with them. At dinner, he told some engaging stories about things he had done. By the end of dinner, he was connected, and went on to post comments at their blogs and linked to them from his site, which they in turn reciprocated because the bloggers were now familiar with him. In this process, the bloggers (the media voices) got to know him, but more importantly, so did their audiences.
Scoble writes, "A couple of months later, when he asked those bloggers for permission to send them a copy of his book, most said yes. Within a week, he had dozens of blog reviews - because he got to know us first rather than just firing off a pitch."
There's a big lesson there, folks, straight from the journalist's mouth. Pitches are a dime a dozen, but connections are worth a whole lot more.