Written by: Vickie Sullivan | September 15, 2022
How to Compete Against Powerful Players in Your Market
Competing against powerful players is filled with challenges, but it isn’t impossible. Book publishing startup Parea is proving this as it takes a “direct to community” approach to sales.
Fast Company recently profiled Parea, revealing how the company is using the same approach companies such as Glossier and Allbirds to generate sales.
The first step: Do what the clients can’t stand to do. In this case, Parea helps authors market their books. CEO Amy Snook explains it best: “Authors are expected to market books themselves, which is why publishers tend to favor writers with an inbuilt audience, like celebrities. But many authors don’t have the skills to market their own books.”
Snook doesn’t stop there. The secret sauce is not that she markets for the authors. It’s how Parea approaches the effort.
2 Ways Parea Competes Against Powerful Players
Here are two things Parea does that the powerful players in the market (and many PR firms) don’t:
• Begin with the market needs. Snook finds audiences for new authors by searching two areas: influencers and markets that are underserved. But she chooses books to publish based on finding those underserved communities first. By approaching the marketplace with a blank slate, the books she publishes already have the advantage.
Listen: How to Begin with the Market in Mind
• Engage established communities. Instead of pitching a finished book to influencers, Snook engages interested groups with early manuscripts and requests for feedback. This prework makes potential readers invested and drives presales. Result: Authors can double (or triple) their sales without the normally high-cost activities.
A lot of us extend extra help to our clients. That isn’t enough to outcompete powerful players. You must have a new approach that gets better results than our competitors. Snook’s example here inspires us not only to offer the help but to do it differently.
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