Published Article
by Patricia Fry
Promote Your Book
Through Magazine and eZine Articles
by Patricia L. Fry
(SPAWNews, November 2000) The editor of a writing-related eZine said to me
the other day, “I don’t know why more authors don’t offer us
articles. We almost always publish them along with their bio. It’s great
publicity for their books.” Whether your book is self-published or you
have a traditional publisher, it’s up to you to get exposure for it. Why
not promote your book doing what you love best—writing?
Many popular magazines and eZines use book excerpts. Of course, they
generally want excerpts from books that relate to their magazine. Cooking
magazines want excerpts from cookbooks, a travel magazine will quote travel
books and a poetry magazine wants to excerpt poetry books.
Use your imagination to come up with more possibilities. If your book
features Native American art, for example, a California history or travel
magazine might be interested in publishing your chapter on California tribes.
An excerpt from a book on tax tips for home-based businesses might provide a
good article for a writer’s magazine.
Submit articles on topics only remotely related to your book and still
promote it. I wrote a book called Creative Grandparenting Across the
Miles. Now I’m considered an expert on grandparenting issues.
I’ve sold articles featuring storytelling techniques for grandparents, how
to teach grandchildren money awareness, how grandparents can uphold family
traditions, and tips for helping grandparents bond with their new grandbaby.
But I can also plug my book even if I’m writing an article about snails.
I might mention, for example, that when I was writing the grandparent book,
I met a grandfather who paid his 5-year old grandson a penny-a-piece to catch
his garden snails in a bucket.
You can almost always get a tag line at the end of an article. Use this as
an opportunity to promote your book, as I have here.
Patricia Fry is the author of A Writer’s
Guide to Magazine Articles for Book Promotion and Profit (Matilija Press,
2000).
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