In case you didn’t know Selling New York is a reality based series on one of my favorite cable channels, HGTV. I don’t have cable so thanks to Netflix  I am getting my favorite shows where I can indulge for a few hours of binge watching.

So here’s the premise of Selling New York as stated on Wikipedia: Features real estate brokers from three Manhattan real estate companies (Gumley Haft Kleier, CORE, and Warburg) selling real estate to New York’s elite.

Here’s how I see it … I love real estate and I never miss an opportunity for an open house, especially if the property is waaay over my pay grade. Is it curiosity or some fascination with the way the other half live? Well, it’s a bit of both, plus the characters I write about would live in places like those, so we could call it research. Yes, let’s call it research. Another love of mine is business. Here’s what the math look like so far:

Real estate + business + research = Selling New York!

Here is what you can learn about book marketing from watching Selling New York.

I am amazed how these brokers operate, they are each other’s competition yet they help each other. For instance Michele Kleier (head of Gumley Haft Kleier), is trying to sell a property. If she doesn’t have the clientele at the moment, who wants to buy said property, she throws a fabulous party and invite brokers from her competition; CORE and Warburg. The whole purpose is to showcase the property to these brokers who may have the right client. Cuz you know, buying property is all about timing.

So here’s how this relates to book marketing: I have a website and with good traffic and a strong organic reach, so I invite other authors to play on my website. Hosting the so-called competition brings in fresh readers, more content and more exposure to my property in this case my novels.

Staging or packaging

Michele talks about packaging a property when it’s not an easy sell. She stages it, meaning she dresses it up in a way that would attract the people who would actually live there. The take away here is packaging more content related articles to attract specific readers to you novels. In marketing terms it is called target marketing.

 

Creative thinking

I love how the brokers come up with out-of-the-box ways of getting their properties in front of the right buyers. Even though all three agencies target the same clientele they have their own way of attracting buyers. It makes sense, what works for one may not work for the other.

Same with books, there are tons and tons of courses, gurus and so-called book marketing experts, trying to sell us courses on how to market our books with “guaranteed” success, but seriously, in the end it may not work for all of us.

I’m not saying don’t educate yourself on how to market your book, (Michele, Shaun and the Warburgs went to real estate school at some point) after all, you have to know the rules before you can win the game. What I am saying is, while you are learning the rules go out there and make some of your own. You never know what would work.

A winner never quits

The property doesn’t always sell by the end of the show, but that doesn’t mean that the owners take it off the market, it remains available for the right buyer at the right time. Same with books.

Watch an episode of Selling New York on HGTV by clicking here.