We’ve been talking about book promotion—in particular, promoting fiction. Today, I’ll discuss a specific promotional activity for novelists—the one that probably scares you the most.
I believe in going out and speaking personally to your audience. Readers like to meet the authors they read. When I said that to a new author recently, he laughed and said, “Why? I’m not a celebrity.” That’s right. Most authors today are not widely known. And maybe that’s why your book isn’t selling well.
Think about how you handle a book when you first discover it. You see it online, at a book festival or in a bookstore. Maybe a friend hands it to you as recommended reading. First, you look at the front cover. What’s the second thing you do? You turn it over (or click) and look at the back. If there’s a photo of the author, you take a closer look at it. While you’re reading the book, you might turn to the back cover or the back pages again in order to study the author’s photograph. You want to know who wrote the lovely prose, the crazy or dynamic story, the fascinating dialog or the hogwash you’re reading.
But meeting the author has an even greater influence on whether or not you will purchase the book. If you like the author, you are more apt to want to read what he wrote. And if you never heard about this book nor met the author, you would not be buying the book at all. Now turn this around so it relates to you—the author or your marvelous book.
Part of your mission is, of course, to get word out about your book. Another part of it is to somehow convince or entice folks to buy it. And you can do this with your personality.
Go out and speak to your readers.
What do you talk about? How do you entertain them? Here are a few ideas:
• Tell just enough of the story in your book to entice readers to buy it. You may have to work on a presentation that makes your story absolutely compelling—riveting.
• To create added interest, dress to reflect the period or theme of your book—the Colonial days, the wild West, the 1950s or aviation, horse racing, the Olympics or a character in your fantasy, for example.
• Talk about the writing life and how this book came into being.
• Entertain with a humorous edge if appropriate. You could read from your book while someone acts out the scenes in an exaggerated way.
• Share what you learned about the process of writing—making sure these are lessons that your audience can relate to.
• Create scripts and ask people from the audience to help you act out a scene from your story.
• Give backstory related to your story. What inspired you to write on this topic—in this genre? Sometimes the backstory is as interesting as the story you wrote.
While the nonfiction author generally teaches or informs his audiences, the novelist is expected to entertain. Keep this in mind. If you can write a good story—one that holds the interest of your readers—you should be able to aptly entertain them with your live presentations.
If you’re a little or a lot shy about standing in front of a group, rush immediately to your nearest Toastmasters club or college speaking class and begin training. This aspect of book promotion is too important to ignore. http://www.toastmasters.org
For a whole lot more about public speaking, landing gigs at some of the many conferences held throughout the world, communicating with your potential readers and much more, order your copy of my book, “Talk Up Your Book” today. It’s at amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio as well as at most other online and downtown bookstores. Or order it here: http://www.matilijapress.com