8 Ways to Promote Your Book

Congratulations! Your book is published or almost ready to be published. Your work is just beginning. You now must promote your book.

Here are 8 ways to promote your book.

1. Create and print postcards. You can create your own cards on your computer if you have an application designed to help you do that. Or search online for a printing service that can do it for you. Make sure you have listed a website URL address where interested readers can buy your book.

Take a photo of your book and use it on all your promotional materials. Mail the cards to people you know with a personalized written note on the back. Personally hand out your postcards at conferences, seminars, and networking events. Tell people a little bit about your book in one or two sentences.

2. Speak to organizations. Set up some speaking engagements locally to start for groups of 50 or more. You can collect business cards at the end by raffling one of your books or another book if yours isn't published yet. Tell them you would like to put them on your mailing list for your e-zine (online newsletter)--yes, you must create one to send out at least once a month. If they do not want to be in your database tell them to write an "X" on the back of their business card and you will not add them to your list but they can still be in the raffle.

3. Build your list. Important! You must keep a record (collect business cards) of all the people you meet--especially media people. HIRE someone to put your list in Microsoft Outlook or Apple's Address Book to start. You need to capture all the contact names that come your way. Hire a student or someone who is responsible for only one thing -- putting your addresses in a database for you. Remember to always ask if it's okay to add their name to your list.

4. Get your book reviewed. Is your book published? Did your publisher get reviews of your book for you? If not, hurry and get some. Ask your publisher to do this. In the United States your book is sent to major journals and to BookList or if listed in the Library Journal you automatically are guaranteed several thousand sales to libraries.

If your publisher said YES they did it, ask for copies of the reviews so you can use them for your own promotion. You will then use the quotes in your own promotional materials and put them on your website.

5. Publish in major magazines. Sell the serial rights to major magazines. That means you're giving the magazine the right to print selected portions of the book in their magazine. If you have a publisher, usually they own the rights so check to see if they are working on this.

6. Set up a broadcast media campaign. Get a list of radio and television stations. Call and find out the producer's name of the show. Have a Press Release folder ready to mail or fax. Send it to the producers who ask for it. Don't bother mailing it unless you have permission. They'll just throw it away.

7. Spread the word about your book. You are the best person to spread the word about your book. Here are some things to do: Send email to friends and fans. Make it a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter. Keep your fans up-to-date as to what is happening with your book. Tell them the funny experiences that happened when you are traveling. Put this on your Blog -- very important. Don't always be business-like on your Blog. Be personal. Let them know what's happening with your book once in a while.

8. Do a media publicity campaign. Do a print media publicity campaign. Announce your speaking engagements and announce your new book at the same time. Blitz the newspapers and newsletters. Always include the website for ordering and a telephone number where readers can order your book. You can advertise in major newspapers. This can be an expensive way to promote your book. Find the small local community papers that have a lot of subscribers where the advertising costs are lower.

As you can see there is a lot involved to promoting your book. If you don't have time to do all this yourself, hire a Public Relations firm to help you. A lot of time is involved in doing the activities mentioned. Also a PR firm has contacts and information that can save you a lot of time and money. The more of these activities you do the more successful you will be selling your book.

Copyright 2008, Joan Clout-Kruse.