We’re closing in on the biggest shopping season of the year. What are you doing to get a slice of the pie? Are you kicking your promotional activities into high gear? What are some of the things you could be doing to get some of those holiday sales?
• Make sure the stores that carry your book have plenty of copies.
• Locate additional bookstores, pharmacies, gift shops, specialty stores, etc. that might carry your book over the holidays.
• Hang posters in the stores advertising your book.
• Provide flier to be inserted with each customer purchase.
• Schedule book signings/presentations/demonstrations the first week in December.
• Contact your email and mailing list and remind them that your book makes a good gift.
• Include your brochure with bills that you pay and in those postage paid envelopes that come during the next several weeks.
• Have a neighborhood party around the theme of your book.
• Arrange to pitch your book at your upcoming Chamber of Commerce mixer, businessman/woman’s meeting, etc., this month.
• Place announcements in your alumni and other membership publications.
• Get a gig on local or national radio.
• Offer a commission to friends/acquaintances locally and across the US who sell copies of your book for holiday giving.
• Piggyback with another author or someone with a product related to the theme of your book—they will promote your book along with their product and you do the same.
• Send your holiday cards out early (Thanksgiving of Christmas/Hanukah) and enclose a clever note suggesting your book as a great gift. Offer a discount to those who purchase the book before a certain date.
• For fiction or a children’s book, do readings at county libraries or in schools during the next few weeks.
There you have fifteen ways you can promote your book starting this month and possibly increase your holiday sales. Are you doing any of these things? Will you vow to take some of them on this season? If you have additional ideas, please pass them along.
If you know someone who could benefit from my latest book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author, you can order it at http://amzn.to/oe56Ia in print or Kindle.
For the full array of the books I have in print and ebook form, go to:
http://www.matilijapress.com
Take a look at Catscapades, True Cat Tales for the people on your list who love cats. Sign up for one of my online courses for authors and freelance writers.