Tips from Doug:
- always carry business cards
- call and thank people (even if they give you a bad review–any publicity is good publicity)
- the best publicity is free publicity
- never send a book w/o media kit
- always follow up
- If you get a review, send a thank you letter
- every published author should have a website
Advertising outlets:
- newspaper
- magazines
- radio
- TV
- Blogs
- Websites
- Youtube
- word of mouth
- advertisements
- friends, family, and people you know
Newspapers
- Determine if the paper is big enough/geared toward your audience for you to spend time on.
- Find editor that deals with the issues in your book (themes, etc).
- Do you have a contact at the paper? Go over their staff pages.
- Find out how big the paper is. Sometimes the same article will run in 8 papers because they’re all co owned.
- utahpress.com will show you who owns it
- less than 20% of newspapers have a book reviewer.
- 95% never review a book unless someone give them the review (the newspaper reviewers usually don’t even read it). Translation: You write your own glowing review and they print it.
Signing etiquette
- never chew gum
- dress professionally
- be prepared
- make friends with your audience and they will buy your book. Maybe not today, but they will buy it.
- never sign for other coauthor
- always talk to the person your signing the book for–not the next person in line or your friend
- smile
- tell them about the book
- ask them if they want it personalized
- let them watch you sign it
- be on time
- have plenty of books
- prepare your 20 second pitch
- get their emails and compile an email list
- bring business cards
- follow through
When you sign a contract, ask who will be helping you market and what you can do to help them.
Amber Argyle
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