How to Promote a Book
BY NITHYA K
Nowadays it’s no longer a matter of whether or not an
author should promote his or her book, but how aggressively one should
go about it. The sad truth is that publishers often fail to promote
books, and if we, the authors, don't promote our own books then they may
be destined to a lifespan between that of butter and yogurt, to
paraphrase Calvin Trillan. The author's extra efforts may make all the
difference between a book becoming a long-lived seller, and being
recycled so that some other author can take advantage of the paper.
What to do then? One cannot concoct a general rule for
promoting books. This method obviously has drawbacks, because every book
is different and requires its own special approach. So, the primary
thing to do is consider your target audience.
And that's a good place to start — your audience.
Presumably, your book is aimed at a particular market or markets.
Perhaps it is nutrition, parenting, health, travel, mystery fans, or
nature. The first thing you should do is to track down the magazines
that are read by the people who will be reading your book.
But before sending a press release to the publication,
take time out to find the editor who reviews books or who covers the
subject that you've written about.
Here are some ways to self-promote your book:
- Create Your Website
- Arranging for an Author Interview
- Trade Shows
- Teaching
- Email Newsletters
- Consulting/Training
- Reviewers
- Magazine Articles
- Discussion Groups/Newsgroups
- Other PR Resources
A large part of promoting your book is promoting
yourself and making sure your name is recognizable to your target
audience. While you may not reach cult status, you can go a long way to
establish yourself as an expert on your subject matter by becoming
heavily involved in the community for which you write. To Brand yourself
and your work do the following:
Create Your Website
Websites have become crucial marketing tools for
authors and are a great calling card. Create a website that provides
value to your audience and lets them get to know you and your work. Give
people extra tips and tricks they won't find in the book, update any
outdated information and provide news and reviews of your books and news
that you know of in the community. If you are really ambitious you can
create your own community around your website.
Arranging for an Author Interview
Many publishers have done marketing studies showing
that authors who provide comments on their books or participates in
author interviews on the online bookstores sell more books online. This
is a no-brainer as it doesn't take much of your time and is perceived as
an added value for your reader. Large websites, such as Borders.com,
make a practice of interviewing authors.
Trade Shows
Trade Shows are a fantastic place to promote your
book. Every attendee and speaker is a possible book-buyer. Try to
arrange with your publisher to do a book signing either at their booth
or at the trade show bookstore. Many authors sell thousands of their
books at a single trade show. If you can find a chance to speak at a
trade show or are invited to speak on one of the panels, the best bet to
opt for. Aside from being great book publicity, it's another way to get
your name out there in the community.
Teaching
Teaching is a great way to develop your pedagogy. It's
also a great way to understand how people learn the technology, what
their frequently asked questions are, and how you can best improve your
books so that they are most easily understood. If you are not interested
in teaching at the local university or community college, you might want
to consider teaching online courses. There are numerous online education
companies looking for authors to help teach their courses. Most authors
find online teaching to be enjoyable, lucrative, and something that can
be done almost simultaneously with writing books.
Email Newsletters
Email newsletters are a great direct marketing tool.
Though a lot of work, if done right they can lead to huge name
recognition and royalty checks from book sales. Several authors have had
tremendous success with their email newsletters to the tune of thousands
of subscribers. A good example is the Kabalarian Philosophy Electronic
Newsletter.
Consulting/Training
Many publishers look first for trainers or consultants
to author books on certain topics. To become known as an expert in the
community, you need to stay abreast with what is latest in the
technology field. It's good to diversify if you can — if you
concentrate only on writing books you can become out of touch with the
latest advances. Consulting will keep you on the cutting edge. Also, if
you're lucky, the company or companies for which you consult will want
to buy a copy of your book for the entire staff.
Reviewers
Positive book reviews are always a great way to sell
books. Keep an eye out for bylines of reviewers in magazines and
journals particular to your book topic and coordinate with your
publisher to make sure that the reviewer receives an early copy of your
book. Trumped up reviews on Amazon are easily seen through and don't do
much for an author's reputation, but if you get a genuine email from a
reader with positive specific comments you might want to ask him or her
to post their comments on Amazon.
Magazine Articles
Article bylines have long been good book promoters.
Research the major trade journals on your subject matter both in print
and online and pitch article ideas tangential to your book topic. Also,
you should consider writing for some major websites that serve your
topic area. You can often attach excerpts from your books (ask your
publisher for permission) to contribute to popular sites, which promotes
your book at the same time.
Discussion Groups & Newsgroups
Discussion Groups are a huge part of any community
these days. By participating online you are getting your name out in the
community, staying current with all of the latest developments, and
making crucial contacts that can include book reviewers, magazine
editors, book editors and the real gurus of technology.
Newsgroups on the Web, including chat and message
forums on proprietary services like AOL and Compuserve, are great places
to make yourself known and promote your books, your website, and your
career. Many authors have gained prominence on the newsgroups,
particularly in the web scripting and programming area. It's important
to be helpful, answer questions, and make yourself available without
pushing your books too obviously or obnoxiously. If you spam the
newsgroups or forums it won't serve you in the long run.
Amazon Corrections
If you have a book listed on
Amazon.com and wish to correct erroneous information on their site,
here is the person to contact. They respond quickly to author requests
to correct information.
Albert Rodriguez, Catalog Department:
catalog-dept@amazon.com
Other PR Resources
You can find more information about marketing and
promoting your book from John Kremer's Book Market website. John is the
author of
1001 Ways to Market Your Books.
A great resource for adding advertising to online
publications is Art.com. They offer free banners and you can add them to
your site. Advertisers pay per click, and you receive a percentage of
what the advertiser pays. It's an excellent way to create extra income
from your out-of-print books or supplementary material on your site.
An interesting way to promote your book is to put your
website in search engines like Yahoo! Yahoo generally takes a day to
update newly added sites, but there is no absolute surety that your site
would be listed.
You can also sign up as an Expert in About.com, which
provides a wonderful way to promote your work.
Last but not the least, become a bit philanthropic and
with a large heart give away your books for free among critics, friends
and family. Also add your website URL in all your outgoing e-mails and
correspondence. More mails obviously means more views for your book!
Nithya K is an India-based writer who
specializes in writing fiction and has tremendous interest in writing
non-fiction related to science, technology, and other genres. She is
also experienced in creating technical documentation. Basically a BE
graduate with an MBA degree, her main focus is still writing. Nithya is
also interested in ghost writing books and articles in the areas of
business, technical writing, science and technology, and fiction. Visit
her webpage.
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