If all you want to do is tell people to buy your book, then take a paid ad out in a newspaper or magazine. That is after all the purpose of an advertisement, “A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.” But by itself that still may not be the most effective way to promote your work.
Remember that you are your company (brand) and a book is one of your products – hopefully you will eventually have several. Your goal should be familiarizing the public with your brand and then introducing your products for their consideration. You don’t have to wait until you have a published book to begin introducing your brand.
Using social media sites such as FaceBook or Twitter, you can let people get to know “you”, your brand. Make sure that the public sees more than just a writer who is looking to sell a book. Let everyone get to know you, “where” you come from, the things that matter to you, and above all that you are an interesting person. By the way, where you come from is not a location, but rather your experience or expertise that allows you to write about a subject. Interact with others and be sure to keep it amicable.
Build a blog and post regularly. Use this blog to introduce short and interesting subjects – it is not mandatory to make all the subjects the same as the subject of your book. This will stir up interest in you and anything that bears your brand, in the case of a writer this includes anything that carries your byline. If you do have a book to promote, blog about the theme of the book, a back story about why you wrote the book, interview a character from the book or tie it into something happening in today’s real life. If you want people to come to read your blog, it has to be more than advertising. It’s okay to post a buy link. Allow comments and be sure to respond.
You may choose to open a social page and a professional page (such as https://www.facebook.com/AuthorChelleCordero) on sites like FaceBook – this way you can interact with friends and family and not deluge them with constant references to your books. Always maintain a professional image, the one you want your public to associate with your brand, on all pages social and professional. Be careful never to post something that could prove embarrassing or harmful to your reputation down the road. Remember, in all social media and blogs you should look to “sell yourself”, not your book.
Writing exercise: This is a multi-part exercise. (1) Search the web for at least three blogs with topics that interest you. Read the most recent post in each one and compare them – which one “taught” you something about the topic? Which one would you want to come back to and read other posts? What techniques were used to hold your interest? (2) Write three short posts (200-300 words) as if you were writing for a blog. Concentrate on a theme. Be critical about what you wrote – are your blogs newsy? Is your theme consistent? Would YOU be interested in reading more of what you wrote? (3) If you don’t already have a blog, investigate the different forums you could use (Blogger, Xanga, Wordpress, etc).
Writing prompt: Twitter allows you to use up-to 140-characters for a post. Write ten stand alone “stories” of no more than 140-charactrs each about politics, the work you do, a how-to project, or summary of a favorite story.
