Think like a sniper to sell more books

Successfully marketing a book requires the mindset of a sniper rather than that of a machine gunner. It's about choosing and focusing on single targets, then firing carefully-aimed, precise shots, rather than blazing away at everything in sight and hoping to score a hit.
 "If you’re interested in marketing your book (and let’s face it, who isn’t), you need to think small," that's the word from Alexander Hemus, founder at Standoutbooks.
 "Think smaller than having a review in a daily newspaper; think smaller than an interview on a morning radio show; think smaller than a feature in a magazine column. Give yourself an edge by developing a bespoke online book promotion campaign that reaches a targeted audience interested in listening to what you have to say."
 A bespoke book-marketing campaign is the sniper equivalent. It is designed to target readers who are actively engaged in your genre, who are willing to buy your book and personally engage with you. These audiences are far more likely to buy your work than a reader who skims over your book in the reviews section of a newspaper.
 Consider the following example:
 You are a writer of women's romantic fiction and are delighted when your book is reviewed by a large metropolitan newspaper with a daily readership of 150 000. You can already picture taking occupation of the new beach-house you plan to buy with the proceeds of the flood of sales that'll undoubtedly result from the coverage. But of those 150 000 readers, only 5% (750) read the book reviews and half of those are men (375). Of the 375 women, 50% have no strong interest in your genre, leaving 188 (actually 187.5) who enjoy reading romantic fiction.
 Let's now assume each one of those women decides she will indeed buy your book and makes a mental note to do so when next at a bookshop because, at that moment, there is no way to make an instant, impulsive, purchase.
 Some will buy it but my guess is, that will be a tiny minority, as everyday life tends to create diversions and other things to think about. In the end, for most, it'll be a case of "out of sight, out of mind."
 But if you think small and target, for example, a blog with a readership of only 10 000 that is specifically dedicated to women and romantic fiction, your chances of success increase dramatically. If only half of the readers read the review that is still 26 times more than was the case with the bigger, supposedly more prestigious newspaper. And the review will link directly to your book's sales page, allowing for immediate purchase.
 In book-marketing, smaller definitely can be bigger!