Most authors consider using print-on-demand as an alternative for publishing their books. However, there is another use of POD (digital printing) that could help any author improve sales, regardless of how the book is ultimately published. That is to use POD as a test-marketing device.

Not every new-book idea you have will be a winner the first time out of the blocks, especially if you are unfamiliar with the competition and the track. Test marketing can be a risk-reduction factor by helping you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your book before printing a large quantity.

Use digital printing to create a small supply of books, then use these to test various aspects of your marketing programs. The major benefits of this strategy are that test marketing makes it more likely that you will have a saleable product, allows you to identify and correct weaknesses, and not waste (or perhaps spend less of) any vital resources. Here are some ways in which you can use test-marketing as a form of research.

1) Test Cover Designs And Internal Layouts. Cover designs and text layout suitable for one market may not be appropriate to others, or they may have flaws that you didn’t notice in the initial production process. Test different combinations among knowledgeable people in your target markets. Use your website to ask people to comment on your cover designs. Or, you could accomplish this is as an exhibitor at industry-specific or book-market trade shows.

2) Test Titles. A good title gives the potential reader an indication of what is in the nonfiction book, or what to expect in a novel. Therefore, the title should be evaluated in the context of the cover design.

3) Get Peer Reviews For Text Improvements. Ask people who are experts on certain topics in your book to read a chapter and give you feedback as to its accuracy. Not only will this help you avoid any embarrassing errors of omission or commission, but will help build word-of-mouth advertising. Adding these people to the Acknowledgements section of your book may prompt them to buy a copy of it when it is completed.

4) Get Testimonials To Use In Promotion. Choose people knowledgeable on your topic to read your book and give you testimonials to its content. Use these endorsements in your promotion, on your website and on the final rear cover of your book.

5) Build “Buzz.” What if there was a way to make your title known to every potential buyer for free? There is, and it is called word-of-mouth advertising — people talking to people — the most inexpensive and productive way to spread the word about your new titles. Fortunately, there are ways you can stimulate word-of-mouth communication that will build your sales, reduce your costs and increase your profits.

People singing your praises removes the aura of commercialism and instills a sense of objectivity about their recommendations. You can stimulate word-of-mouth advertising through the copy on your book’s cover, your publicity and distributing copies among prominent people.

6) Test Your Website. Before you go national with your website, test all its elements to make sure everything is working properly. Test the links, ordering process and email addresses to make sure all perform as intended. Test how different cover designs effect the traffic to your site.

7) Test your timeline for putting your promotion plan into action. Most tasks take longer and cost more than expected. Use your test print run to get a better feel for how long different actions might take to perform, and the relative costs for doing them. For example, getting responses from your peer reviews might take longer than anticipated, and they may point to the need for further research, a new cover design or additional editing.

Create a budget. Test marketing will give you ideas for marketing your titles later, and these will have some cost associated with them.

9) Define Your Markets. Take your test copies to trade shows, bookstores and buyers in special markets to get feedback on competition, the need for your content and the size of potential markets.

10) Test In Niche Markets. Show your book to buyers in corporations, gift shops, associations and other special markets to get a feel for their interest in buying your books. They are usually more approachable when asked their opinions than when asked to buy.

11) Test the product form. Most non-bookstore buyers are less concerned with the form of your book than they are with how the content of your book can help their constituents. Assuming your information is relevant, corporations may use it as a premium, magazines as a way to increase subscriptions or by cereal makers as an in-pack sales promotion. In each case, the format of your information may have to be changed to accommodate the buyers’ needs.

12) Test Your Goals. Authors tend to be an optimistic bunch when forecasting the sales of their books. They typically underestimate the time and effort needed to produce a good-selling book, and they overestimate the number of people who could potentially buy it. Test marketing may help you forecast more realistically.

13) Build A Platform. Use your book as a networking device to help spread the word about you as an author and an expert in your field.

14) Test Your Ability To Implement Your Marketing Plan. It is fairly simple to write a comprehensive marketing plan, but it’s not always easy to implement it. Attempting different marketing actions points out what you like to do, want to do and can do.

15) Force Yourself To Finish Your Book. You may have been delaying publishing your book for want of the type of feedback described above. Now that you have all that information, you no longer have any excuses not to proceed. As you generate interests and demand through the tactics described above, people will expect your book to be published soon and you won’t want to let them down.

16) Test Your Commitment To Your Career As An Author/Marketer. Test marketing takes a lot of time and work, and it’s only the beginning. If you are not willing or capable of doing all that is necessary to successfully promote your book, now is the time to back out.

Before you print a large quantity of books, use a small quantity of digitally-printed books to reduce your overall risk by getting information to help solidify your marketing strategy, forecast and commitment and budgets. In the long run, you should have a more successful product and marketing plan.

Brian Jud is the host of the Book Marketing Monthly™ teleseminars, co-host of the Masters of Book Marketing™ series of seminars and author of Beyond the Bookstore (a Publishers Weekly book) and The Marketing Planning CD-ROM describing new ways to sell more books profitably to special-sales buyers. He is also the author of the new series of printed booklets published by R. R. Bowker with Proven Tips for Publishing Success. Brian is editor of the Book Marketing Matters special-sales newsletter, and creator of the Special-Sales Profit Center used by R. R. Bowker to sell other publishers’ books to special markets. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or visit http://www.bookmarketing.com.

Last 5 posts by Brian Jud

• Focus on Non-traditional Marketing - April 17th, 2008
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• Goals are Worthless… - February 11th, 2008
• Why Bad Things Happen to Good Titles - December 5th, 2007
• Practice Makes Permanent - October 22nd, 2007