You don’t have to set aside time to promote your book. It doesn’t always have to be a planned/scheduled activity. You can engage in book promotion while you’re doing other things—traveling, parenting, working, exercising, volunteering and socializing, for example.
Here are a few ideas.
• Hand out promotional bookmarks, buttons, magnets, etc. at work or at the gym where you workout. Leave some in the office at your children’s school and in the restroom or banquet room at the community events you attend. When traveling, leave bookmarks here and there—in airline terminals, restaurants, buses and so forth.
• Have your book in hand while waiting for your flight, at a bus stop, in the lobby of your hotel, in your doctor’s office so others around you will see it. Find reasons to talk about it. Say, for example, “I’ve read this book dozens of times and still laugh at this part,” or “Dang, I forgot a comma here.” Of course, reveal that you are the author.
• Hand out sample chapters to coworkers, other volunteers on a project, people you know (and don’t know) at social events and fundraisers.
• Speaking of fundraisers, donate copies to be auctioned off. You might put together a basket with a copy of your book, designer coffee, a relating coffee mug (for my mystery featuring a cat, I would buy a mug with a cat pictured on it—or have your book cover put on a coffee mug).
• Talk about your book to clerks while shopping. When you pay for your purchase, you might pull your book or your beautiful promo pieces out of your purse or pocket and set it on the counter while digging for your credit card. Give the clerk enough promo pieces for all of the employees.
As you can see, book promotion doesn’t have to be a singular planned activity. It can become a lifestyle—a habit.
For more many more book promotion ideas and to help you develop a mindset for promoting your fiction or nonfiction book, be sure to read my book, “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for Promoting Your Book.” There are numerous stories of successful book promotion told by authors and professionals. For example, one author, when she went out of town for a signing, always carried the poster or sign advertising her presentation on her flight home. Other passengers would ask about it and she would almost always sell some of the books she carried in a tote with her.
“Promote Your Book” is at amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio. You can also purchase it here: http://www.matilijapress.com
Fiction Announcement
I received a large payment from Amazon today for “Catnapped,” the first in my Klepto Cat Mystery series. How exciting is that? If you like light mysteries featuring a most unusual cat, order Catnapped today for your Kindle. http://amzn.to/14OCk0W We’re putting the finishing touches on the 2nd in the series as we speak. Watch for “Cat-Eye Witness” soon. My pre-publication readers are saying they like the new book better.