How to Promote Your Book
“I don’t need to promote my book – I have a book contract with a big publishing house.”
It often comes as a surprise to many that books do not promote themselves. And don’t expect your conventional publisher to do that for you either.
The cold had truth is you have to promote it yourself.
And while that may be a shock at first, you are by far and away the best person on this planet to promote your book.
Just follow this list to build the elements of your book promotion strategy.
What is book promotion?
It’s raising the profile of your book in your target audience’s eyes. You have to first identify clearly what niche your book satisfies. And then you have to bring it to their attention.
Specifically the aim of book promotion is to take your book from being unheard of through to being a must-buy.
Here is a list of media that you should consider when creating a book promotion strategy.
• Press Releases
• Book Exhibitions
• Media interviews – radio and TV
• Getting influential reviewers to review it
• Promotional video
• Internet marketing
• Social media
• Product Launches
• Conventional advertising in conventional media
Press Releases
You write a announcement that is released to the press that gives details of your book. Assuming this is of interest to their readers, the release may get published verbatim, or lightly edited.
Press releases follow a fairly standard format, and adhering to this makes it more likely yours will be adopted.
As many journalists rely on online pr sites for their material, being present on these sites makes it very likely that your release will be picked up.
The material does need to be newsworthy, of course.
Book Exhibitions
The advantage of these exhibitions is that those attending are typically interested in publishing or promoting your book. Don’t expect those attending to be your target market. These are recommenders, and your job is to find those recommenders that are relevant to your market and your book.
Media interviews – radio and TV
For certain books with fairly wide appeal this can be a great way of getting your message out. It’s a good idea to get some media coaching so that you know what to expect, and are able to get your points across succinctly in what can be a very short interview!
Getting influential reviewers to review it
If influential people in your industry review your book positively, it can be a great boost to your book’s profile. Approach these people in plenty of time, and send them a copy of your book, asking what you want.
Getting to be able to reach these people of influence can be a project in itself which requires tenacity and creativity. Always be respectful of their time and only approach them if they would be interested in reviewing your book.
Internet marketing
In internet marketing, I include email marketing, teleseminars, webinars and podcasts. One of the most neglected means of book promotion is that pioneered by Alex Mandossian – the webinar series. With this, you are interviewed in one or a series of teleseminars, in which you reveal the content of the book in answer to your interviewer’s questions.
These can either be free or can be chargeable – especially for a teleseminar series. You may consider giving the book away in the package charge for your teleseminar series.
Needless to say, you should promote your book to your online list, and consider joint ventures with those people who are likely to already have your prospects on your list.
What applies to teleseminars also applies to podcasts – both yours and those of others.
Social Media
Social media can help create a buzz around your book launch and can also feed into other promotional channels. They social media where you must have a presence for your book are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and your blog.
Consider setting up a Facebook Fan Page dedicated to your book, together with a YouTube Channel. Create a WordPress blog dedicated to promote your book where you can easily post blog entries, short videos and audios to help with your promotion.
Product Launches
Of course conventional publishers do launch books. But although they do this for J K Rowling, don’t expect them to put much effort into launching your book unless you have agreed a specific book launch budget and what it will contain.
If you follow the guidelines laid out for internet marketing product launches pioneered by Jeff Walker, however, you can get a great deal of the effect while safeguarding your launch budget.
Conventional advertising in conventional media
Very much bottom of the pile is conventional advertising, and the challenge for this is the relevance of your advert in a mass-market medium like a newspaper or a magazine. While more targeted periodicals are a better bet, there is still the fact that conventional adverts are a scatter-gun approach where you really need a sniper’s rifle. Conventional adverts are expensive and have a horribly low response rate.
Using direct marketing techniques can be much more effective.
Pulling it all together
I’ve covered all the elements that are considered by conventional publishers for promoting your book. And I’ve added a number of others that are not well addressed by them.
Your book promotion strategy needs to be comprehensive – to be successful it must contain most of these elements. It also needs to be planned and co-ordinated to ensure that you reach your target market and find them receptive.
Alun Richards
http://facebook.com/PublishOnKindle
Technorati Tags: book promotion, book marketing, selling your book, book promtion strategies
