According to Bowker, the renowned bibliographic data supplier, there were more than half a million books published in 2008 including traditionally and self-pubbed material; these are print books carrying ISBNs. While the e-book industry duplicates many print titles, online news sources guesstimate that here are more than ten-million e-books available.
That’s A LOT of books. No matter who is handling the promotion and publicity for each of these tomes, something has to make a single book stand apart from the rest. If everyone just does the same promotion, it really gets very hum-drum.
What are some of the more creative ways to publicize your book? And better yet, how can you afford to publicize your book?
Find an angle. Who does your book speak to? Does it showcase a cause? Does it deal with a specific time in history (fictionalized or factual)? Is it relevant to current events? Work the angle. Promote your book to the clubs, societies and institutions that would be interested in your book’s focus. If your newspapers are giving lots of coverage to the type of event that your book deals with, send press releases emphasizing the similarity to local reporters.
Use the internet to promote yourself and your book. Find out which web-sites appeal to your specific audience and guest blog if possible; even commenting on existing blogs with your “signature” will help to get the word out. Get over your ego and cross promote with other authors. Even listing your blog URLs on each other’s blog-rolls will draw attention. If you can’t wrap your mind around the idea of sharing the spotlight a little, think of it this way – you will increase your own audience each time you share space with another author and their followers come with them.
Online group events are becoming very popular. A twice a year “Blog-Jog-Day” is scheduled for a specific date where all the participants post blogs and then encourage their readers to continue on to another participant’s blog. My publishing group is using group promotions like virtual dine-a-rounds featuring recipes and excerpts from our books. And a group of authors who all contribute to a website are posting a combined listing of all their books published in the year as a “Year-End Review”.
While you tend to reach far fewer people with actual face-to-face appearances, it is still a great idea to schedule events at local libraries, bookstores, malls and clubs. Unless you have already had a popular selling book, or you are a public figure, or you’ve had a life worthy of a made-for-TV movie, chances are most people won’t come out just to meet you and get you to sign a book. Just like writing a story, you have to provide a “hook” to get people in front of you – offer relevant speeches, lessons, or help raise funds for charity to draw the crowd in. Again, be willing to work with others. Form a small team of authors with a set program suitable for libraries and offer your services.
You have to find that special thing that will make you different from all of the others and that could vary with a group, a region or even the world news. Whatever you decide on, never hesitate to (figuratively) shout “Here I am”.
Writing exercise: Close your eyes and picture a serene and comfortable setting. Imagine being there and feeling relaxed. Take a moment to enjoy the sensations. Open your eyes and write a brief paragraph or two describing the scene. Be sure to include what you smelled, heard and felt as well as saw.
Writing prompt: Rewrite the song The Twelve Days of Christmas with a meal (one steak, two potatoes, three pats of butter, etc) and go as high as you can. Try it again with clothing to go out in. One more time with household chores. What else can you think of?
