As an author, you’re quick to tell others about your fabulous book. You beg and bribe your friends, reviewers, site hosts, magazine/newsletter editors and everyone else you meet to promote your book. And you expect radio personalities, librarians, educators, bookstore managers, newspaper columnists and mere acquaintances to spread the word about your upcoming signings and readings. This is all good. But what do you do to help other authors along their book promotion journey?
Do you try to give other authors a boost—a leg-up? Do you sometimes network on behalf of your author friends’/colleagues’ books? If not, why not?
Some authors are afraid that if they put energy into someone else’s project, it will minimize the worth of their own. Others just don’t feel they have the time to promote other books. Some of us simply don’t think about helping someone else or don’t quite know how to do it. The truth is, that by reaching out to help others, you are actually bringing attention to yourself and to your book. You are making friends, creating comrades and possibly helping yourself in the process.
Here are ways you can help your fellow authors that might result in benefits to you and your project:
1: Talk to your customers about his or her book. If it is a book similar to yours, promote it as a companion book to yours. Tell readers if you think that this book would enhance or add to the information in your nonfiction book. If readers love your novel, generously tell them about other novels with similar storylines or formats. When you come out with a sequel to your novel or another nonfiction book on your topic, you’ll have a strong base of potential repeat customers.
This gesture may be rewarded in other ways, as well. Let the other author know that you’ve been recommending his book and suggest ways that he can promote yours.
Tip 1: Piggyback marketing can be an effective way to promote books to a wider audience. Arrange with authors of books similar to yours to include your promotional material with his when doing email or postal mailings. You can do the same for him.
Tips 2: Exchange promotional material with other authors who have compatible or companion books. Include his material when you ship your book orders and ask him to do the same.
2: Create a recommended books section at your website or in your newsletter. Make sure that you inform the authors when you recommend their books and encourage them to do the same for yours.
3: Spread the word when an author is coming to town with his book. This morning, I sent an email to over 40 friends and acquaintances who I thought might be interested in meeting an author that I know through SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). He will be signing books at a local bookstore and he asked me if I knew anyone to invite. Hopefully, he will have a full house and I will get additional kudos from him over time because of it.
4: Promote non-competing books when you lecture, do signings and present workshops in your topic or genre. Of course, your main promotional effort is your book, but you can mention books of others while speaking and in your handouts.
I met an author of a spiritual book in Atlanta last year. I noticed that she was recommending some writing-related books to some of the people she spoke with. I made it a point to have a conversation with her and discovered that she travels extensively promoting her book and always responds to questions from hopeful authors. She likes to have books to recommend. Of course, I gave her a copy of my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I asked her to read it and then let me know if she would like to recommend it in her travels. She loved it so much that she bought 5 copies before the Atlanta seminar was over and places a new order every few months. I give her a booksellers’ discount of 40 percent.
5: Offer to take other books to book festivals with you. Again, this would be non-competing books and books that would enhance yours. When you are selling books for someone, be sure to negotiate a percentage of the profits for yourself. And encourage other authors to take copies of your book to the bookselling events they attend. Promotion is tremendously time-consuming and all-consuming. We can’t be everywhere. This is why it is so helpful to have others spreading the word about your book in venues that you might not reach.
Some authors actually believe that when they give to someone they lose something. I’m here to tell you that it is just the opposite. The gesture of giving always comes with a generous payoff. Give and you shall receive.
Now that the dust of Christmas has settled, don’t stop giving. Consider how you can contribute to someone else’s success. If it is publishing and book marketing guidance they need, be sure to tell them about my hallmark book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. and the companion, Author’s Workbook. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html Your friend or colleague WILL thank you and, most likely, reciprocate in a meaningful way.
Contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com
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