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Tips for Successful
Publicity
By Rachel
Carrington
As a published author, I receive
a lot of inquiries about promoting and marketing because my name is everywhere
on the Internet. New authors want to know how I do it, and aspiring authors want
to know what they can expect once they do get published.
What follows is a mixture of tips that I hope will be as beneficial to
you as they have been to me.
1. Use postcards. Mail them to bookstores, media, friends, family, and even your
neighborhood. They're cheaper to mail, easier to create, and take less time than
putting together a complete publicity kit. It's a better way to gauge interest.
2. Keep track of your promotions. Just as you use a manuscript tracker (I hope)
to keep up with where you submit your manuscript, you need to know where your
postcards have gone, which stores you've called, and if you need to follow up. I
use an Excel spreadsheet with columns indicating the name of the contact, how
contacted, date, response, if follow up is required, etc., but you should
customize it to fit your needs.
3. Don't just look for obvious ways to promote. A friend of mine wrote a book
about running a French country inn with her husband. Guess where her book sells
really well? Wine shops. She thought outside the box, as what goes well with
French cuisine? Wine.
4. Don't take no for an answer especially if you believe your book would be a
good fit. This isn't giving you carte blanche to make a pest of yourself, but
persistence is a required trait for any author/publisher.
5. Bookmarks aren't the only choice for promotional materials, and there are
only so many bookmarks that a reader can use. Be creative. Think of things your
readers might be able to use. Pocket calendars with your book covers replacing
the image, book cover magnets (holds pictures on the fridge), photo boxes with
your book cover as the top
picture in the lid (used for storage) or even key chain holders, mugs
with inserts or charms for bracelets or necklaces. These work especially well if
there is an object in your book which takes center stage like a sword or amulet.
Most of these ideas are inexpensive but effective.
6. Stock your library with promoting/marketing books and read them frequently.
Take notes. Try different avenues. Some of the best books on the market today
are 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer, Jumpstart Your Book
Sales by Marilyn Ross and The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn
Howard-Johnson.
7. Once published, make marketing part of your daily schedule. If you can make
time to write, you can make time to promote. I can get a lot of promoting done
in as little as fifteen minutes. Things like updating my blog, addressing five
postcards, sending a press release out to at least five different media
contacts, checking in with my Yahoo Group, and posting to another can all be done
in that amount of time or less.
8. Cultivate readers. Don't treat the people who buy your books as nuisances or
people you have to communicate with. Instead, show them the gratitude and the
respect they deserve. Because of this tip, I had a reader offer to place
promotional flyers about my books in a local chain bookstore six states away
from mine, had another offer ideas on things readers would like that are
inexpensive, two of my readers recently served as "proxy hosts" for group days
to help with promoting, and still another reader offered to help me with
promotions.
9. To keep your name out in the public eye, write at least an article a month
either for pay or for a byline only. I've had aspiring authors contact me more than a year after an article was
published to thank me for the tips.
10. And finally, keep track of what promotional activity is working and what
isn't. This is where your spreadsheet can come in handy. If you sent out twenty
postcards to bookstores and didn't receive a response, try a phone call to the
next twenty bookstores. Also, switch things around every so often so the same
media contacts aren't getting media releases every month from you. One month
send a postcard, the next, send a photo release. I'm sure you get the picture.
These tips have all helped me over the past few years, and with each book
published, I add to my experience. Promoting has to be an ongoing occurrence or
the sales will diminish.
Work hard at writing your book, but work harder at selling it once it's
published!
Rachel Carrington is a multi-published author of fantasy and paranormal
romances. Her latest release is a paranormal romance, With Love from Sam,
by Five Star/Gale. Rachel has also written extensively for magazines, e-zines,
and newspapers. Readers can visit her on the web at
www.dawnrachel.com.
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