Are you getting the right kind of publicity for your book? Are you always on the lookout for opportunities to promote your book? Or are you getting rather weary of the constant need to push in order to get even minimal recognition?
The fact is that book sales will dwindle and maybe even stop as soon as you quit promoting it. Sometimes clients will ask, “How long will I have to promote my book?” And I tell them, “As long as you want it to sell.” There’s no letting up. There are no shortcuts to publishing success. Your book will sell for as long as you are willing to promote it.
Despite this fact, some authors run out of steam. Others run out of ideas for promoting their books. That’s why joining SPAWN is a good idea. The SPAWN Market Update, posted each first of the month in the member area, features numbers of book promotion ideas in each issue. We provide specific information about where to get book reviews; we feature publications seeking articles—some of them, perhaps, on your book’s topic; sites with book promotion ideas; directories of book review sites; articles demonstrating original methods of book promotion and more.
SPAWNews, the FREE monthly enewsletter from SPAWN, includes many contests, conferences, book festivals and other events for authors. We also typically review a book related to issues for authors who are in promotion mode.
My book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, includes several chapters on book promotion. I also have a book focusing on low and no-cost ways to promote your book. Take a look at Over 75 Good Ways to Promote Your Book. Both books at my website: http://www.matilijapress.com
As a gift to you this first day of June, here are a few resources for getting your book noticed. But beware, if you have plans for the summer, you may not want to follow this advice. If you actively pursue these opportunities, you might get awfully busy over the next few months.
Dan Shaurette at Self-Published Authors seeks books to review. He also interviews authors for his newsletter. Contact Dan at editor@selfpublishedauthor.com. Visit his site at http://www.selfpublishedauthors.com. Dan also publishes articles on subjects of interest to authors. Submit one related to your writing experience. If he publishes it, he will include your brief bio—another way to promote your book. He’s is running one of my articles in his June 1, 2009 edition. See “Yes, You Can Achieve Publishing Success” on page 6.
Many magazine and newsletter editors (for both print and electronic) are actively seeking well-written, interesting, entertaining and useful articles. Look, you wrote a book—surely, you can write articles to promote it. And article-writing is an excellent way to promote your book because it positions you as an expert in your field.
Let’s say that you are relatively unknown, but that you have a lot of knowledge and experience related to budgeting, creating highly effective PowerPoint presentations, making things from sea glass, managing cat colonies, photographing children or growing vegetables under difficult conditions, for example. You’ve written a book on the topic. You know there is a market for your book, but you haven’t been able to reach many potential customers, yet. Here’s a process that will increase sales.
• Seek out appropriate magazines and newsletters.
• Study these publications so you clearly understand their audience and their editorial needs.
• Study their submission guidelines (type of articles they publish, number of words, submission requirements, pay scale, etc.).
• Come up with some informative article ideas that will help you to build credibility in your field.
• Construct a two or three line bio which includes your book title and website address.
• Submit your article using the guidelines for that particular publication.
• Bring additional attention to your article by blogging and twittering about it. Send announcements to your lists and your addressbook.
To learn more about the mysterious process of article-writing, sign up today for my online article-writing course. Or join SPAWN (you’ve been wanting to, anyway), sign up for the course starting August 1st and get a discount. Here’s what you get:
• Membership in SPAWN for 1 year–$45.
• Article-writing course (also offering book proposal workshop starting July 1st)–$100 for 6 weeks.
• Free book—your choice from 3 print books and 3 ebooks—FREE.
All of this for $145 total.
http://www.spawn.org
Questions? PLFry620@yahoo.com