You’re very excited, your story just got accepted… well, that’s
wonderful. Now you must promote yourself, raise interest in your work, and have
people wanting to read your work. If you’ve written a book you want people to
buy your book or the magazine that is carrying your article (and hopefully they’ll
write to the editor and say how much they enjoyed it).
Write about the upcoming work in your blog (you do have a
blog, don’t you?) — use imaginative ways to do so. You don’t want to merely be
posting a running advertisement. If your work is non-fiction then write
something relevant to the subject. For instance if your article is about
architecture, choose a famous architect and write something about his life; or
if your article is about traveling in North America, choose a location and
write about the famous history of a small town or about the generals of a famous
Revolutionary battle. You get the picture.
If you’ve created a work of fiction, let one of your main
characters write a short summary about their life before the book began.
Another thing to do is interview one of your characters. If the subject of your
book, fiction or non-fiction, is about something in the news, connect the two
items of interest, maybe you can give the character’s perspective, statistics,
or if the book is a period piece and the current event is happening now it
could be very interesting to contrast the two time periods. Be creative.
Create a few tag lines, keep them to 140-characters or less
and tweet them out periodically (you do have a Twitter account, right?). Luckily
you can now include a picture without losing characters on Twitter, so include
your book cover with the tag line for great exposure. A tagline is a one
sentence intriguing summary of your book, it is short, compelling and reflects
the subject of your book; an example might be “What happens in Vegas doesn’t
necessarily stay in Vegas” or “Sometimes love is the only cure for the very
deepest of emotional wounds”. And yes, you can have more than one tagline for
your book, but you want to make sure that you will pull the reader’s attention
in.
Plan a virtual blog tour leading up to the release of your
book. In a virtual tour you will make online “appearances” — guest blogs about
you or your story, interviews of your characters, letting a blog host interview
you, excerpts from your book, the back-story (what inspired you to write this
book), etc. Contact other blog owners and ask if they would host you; agree on
a date and provide them with what they ask for including graphics and links;
and publicize your appearance on the blog. A blog owner who is hosting you wants
traffic at her site and wants YOU to show up to answer comments from visitors,
remember to be gracious. It works best if you seek out blogs that are of
interest to readers from your target audience. Also many blog hosts may want
you to offer a free book to a blog commenter, make sure that it is clear (and
agreed) whether you are or aren’t.
Don’t be shy. Promoting your work doesn’t need to take lots
of money, but it does take some organization and time. Make sure you advertise
your schedule for the tour (Facebook, Twitter, and your own blog) and definitely
make sure that you submit your material to the blog host on time.
Writing
Exercise: Write an open letter from one
of your characters to your readers about a significant event in your story, let
it be from her or his point of view.
Writing Prompt: Make a list of ten to twenty blogs that have
the same target audience as your book.
Challenge Assignment: Write several sample blogs you could use in a
virtual tour, at least three of the following: (1) Your back-story, what
inspired you to write this story; (2) interview one of you main characters; (3)
interview yourself; find a relevant current event and tie it in with your
story; (4) choose a short excerpt from your book; (5) write a short bio for one
of your main characters from birth to the beginning of the book; (6) any
creative idea you have.
