Generating Buzz For Your New Work
If You Don’t Promote It, Your Book Won't Sell
Thousands of people are potential readers of your new book. But if they don’t know it exists, they can’t buy it.
Promoting Your Book Doesn’t Have To Cost a Fortune
The success of a book depends as much on the quality of its promotion as it does upon the excellence of its content and writing. The cost of a promotion does NOT determine its effectiveness. Its success will be ensured only by the level of effort you, the author, put in, whether you are mounting the promotion yourself or supporting the work of a hired publicist or your publisher.
Time and again exemplary books have lingered on the bookstore shelf unbought because of poor publicity. Conversely, you have read mediocre books and wondered why they were selling so strongly. It was because they were forcefully promoted.
Pre-publication: Start Your Promotion Early
The task of promoting your new book begins long before it’s been released. The first challenge is to introduce it to the trade. A favorable review in key trade publications like Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and ForeWord Magazine can produce an advance sale of hundreds of copies. But these reviewers will not consider your book unless they receive galleys at least three to four months ahead of its publication date.
You will need Advance Review Copies (ARCs) to send to these earlybirds. They usually are bound galleys enclosed in a facsimile of your cover. You also have the option of printing the book at a short-run digital house. In either case, always be sure to include on the front cover “Advance Review Copy – Uncorrected Proof.”
As pub date nears, review copies should be sent to other print publications, blogs and web sites to create excitement in anticipation of the book’s release. If your book is nonfiction, review copies should also be sent to publications that cover your book’s topic.
Two or three press releases should be sent out. The first can be a straight forward announcement of the forthcoming publication. The other two should highlight some special feature of your book, and include the announcement of its release date.
Your targets should be book sections of newspapers and magazines, journals that relate to your topic, print and digital publications that serve the writing field, as well as regional publications and local community newspapers in your home and surrounding communities.
It is also imperative pre-publication that you obtain as many endorsements (shorter favorable blurbs) from recognized figures in both publishing and in the field the book is about. You will use them on the back cover and in the front inside pages of your book.
Post-publication: Never Stop Promoting
Now is the time to really crank up your efforts. Here are just a few easy ways to gain recognition. And most of them are absolutely free.
- Reach out to every possible review source. People trust these opinions because they are from a third party and are objective. No cost
- Be sure to select respected reviewers. A great source is Amazon’s list of 1,000 Top Reviewers. Find these by entering “Amazon Top Customer Reviewers” in your favorite search engine. No cost
- Continue to send out press releases after the pub date. Once again, highlight a different feature in each release. Offer to give an interview or write an article on your subject. No cost
- Write short articles (700 words) pertinent to your subject and submit them to online syndicators. They will reach tens of thousands of people. No cost
- Expand those articles to 1500 words or so, and submit to appropriate magazines and trade journals. No cost
- Send a promo sheet to libraries. They are great consumers of books of every type. Only cost is printing a mailer and postal mailing. Reduce the cost by e-mailing.
- Reach out for local, regional and if you are ready even national broadcast opportunities. Contact station producers. It takes just a little moxie. No cost.
- Enter award competitions. A winner’s medallion on the cover of your book is a great selling tool. Entry fees are high, but worth it if you win.
- Carefully read a copy of BUZZ your book, the treasure trove of no-cost promotions that have been tested and proved again and again. At the end of every chapter, this do-it-yourself guide lists each of the resources and contacts you need to mount the promotion successfully.