Jackie Collins was on Good Morning, America this week to promote her new book. This woman sells a lot of books. She has written 27 NY Times Bestsellers and sold more than 400 million copies of her books. And I think I know why. This woman knows how to market her books!

While being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos she is thrown an incredible marketing challenge–George refuses to say the title of her book and won’t allow her to say it either.

As authors, we’re all faced with marketing trials. We don’t have the time, money, or marketing experience to do what we want to do. Our publisher didn’t support us in the way we thought they should have. Media isn’t interested. The reviews on Amazon aren’t good. There’s always an exscuse.

But if you watch this interview, I think you will see why this woman sells so many books. She doesn’t let anything become an obstacle, even the fact that she can’t say the title.

I really enjoyed watching her in this interview and I learned a couple of things that I can apply to my own marketing efforts.

1) Jackie is confident and proud of her work and it shows. No excuses. No apologies.

2) I think she gets this confidence from knowing who her audience is and why they like what she writes. And she continues to deliver new books into that sweet spot.

3) Her entire interview is aimed at her fan base. She doesn’t dwell on tangents, she keeps hitting on the things that she and her books are about. At the same time, she subconsciously draws in new readers and demographics. Listen to her talk about the next generation of readers who are now interested in her books. If you were in that generation and hadn’t read one of her books you’d want to pick one up and Jackie knows if you read one, you’ll buy more.

4) Throughout the interview she continues to pitch not only her new book, but also past books, and ancillary products like movies. This could become annoying. In fact, George (hard hitting interviewer that he is) calls her out on it. But she does it in such a way that it isn’t offensive. She uses her relational skills to charm George who eventually blushes and laughs every time she does it.

While we all have marketing challenges, for most of us, not being able to say the title of the book isn’t one of them. I’m not going to tell you the name of the book. You can find it yourself online if you’re interested. But I do hope you’ll watch the interview and learn from her masterful marketing and media skills and find ways to apply her best practices to your own obstacles.

What’s the most difficult book marketing challenge you’ve faced and how did you overcome it?

~Jennifer