Saturday, I was part of a panel discussion on book marketing at the Ventura Book Festival. My assignment was to provide the 10 top marketing activities that every author should pursue in order to promote him/herself and his/her book. I thought you might like to see what I talked about. Here are the first 5 from my handout. (Numbers 6 – 10 will appear in tomorrow’s blog.)
1: Build Promotion/Additional Hooks Into Your Book
For a Novel
• Choose a setting (city or region) for your story that is conducive to promotional tours.
• Give a character a horse, a motorcycle, twins, a llama or a pilot’s license for example, and then promote the book to this audience as well as to your general romance, historical fiction, thriller or mystery readers.
• Include someone with autism or diabetes or who has had lap-band surgery or a head injury, for example. If you present the illness/affliction in a positive light, a related organization may team up with you in promoting your book.
For a Nonfiction Book
• Involve a lot of people by interviewing them, quoting them and/or listing them in your book. (Most of these people will purchase copies of your book, they’ll promote it through their promotional channels and they’ll tell their friends/colleagues about it.)
• List resources and recommended books. (These entities and authors will most likely purchase copies or your book and recommend it to others.)
• Ask experts in your field to write testimonials for your book. (Testimonials by professionals in your field or genre have clout with your audience.)
• Include a bibliography and an index. (Librarians, the media and researchers love books with indexes and extensive bibliographies.)
2: Engage in Public Speaking
• Contact the program directors for civic organizations.
• Arrange to speak to members of your affiliations (church, club, etc.)
• Apply to speak at appropriate conferences
Directories of Conferences
(Locate conferences in your book’s subject where you can apply to speak or present workshops.)
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.bvents.com
Hone Your Public Speaking Skills
Join Toastmasters:
http://www.toastmasters.org to find a club near you.
3: Build a Useful/Meaningful Website
• Showcase your books attractively
• Provide a buy button (either through a merchant account or Pay Pal or both)
• Offer resources related to your book topic
4: Connect With Your Audience
• Compile a massive mailing and emailing list and use it to make announcements about upcoming book events, awards your book has won, etc.
• Create a newsletters designed to maintain a connection with your audience.
5: Get Book Reviews
• Solicit reviews in appropriate magazines, newsletters and websites.
• Study publications related to your field/genre to see if they publish reviews.
Let me know if you have any questions or want me to flesh out any of these concepts for you. PLFry620@yahoo.com. Or leave a comment here. For additional information order a copy of my book, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book” or sign up for one of my online courses: http://www.matilijapress.com