Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Book Publicity And Promotion - How To Market Your Book

By Annie M. Jennings

There are many book titles that you see on the shelves of bookstores and in libraries. They may have some of the best information, or tell the best stories that have ever been written. However, if the author was not marketed by a well known publisher or did not have the tools and ideas to show that book promotion and publicity market your book.

With the many online companies that will help you self-publish, once completed, the tasks of promotion and publicity fall into your hands. Depending on the topic, you will be able to find many local options to get your book and your face in front of a potential buying audience. However, be aware of many companies online that claim that they can help you. They will offer you online seminars on the proper procedures and techniques to get your book out to the public. Just be careful as if you published this piece yourself, you may have budget constraints and all of this can cost you quite a lot of money. What they will attempt to show you, in many cases, is the use of common sense. You will be exposed to marketers that are more interested in selling you stuff, more than they are interested in helping you sell your book, or at least make people aware that you wrote something of value. So, beware.

Depending on the size of the closest major city, you can find multiple chances to put your composition out to the public. Hopefully, some of these ideas will help you with your launch. However, know this. Although you have written what you hope will be a well received piece of literature, how you market the book and yourself will go a long way in establishing your success.

Depending on the topic, there will likely be a local radio station that covers a similar topic. They are always looking for interesting guests and topics that may make their listeners more interested. Listen to your local stations and find someone that is normally discussing a topic at least somewhat similar to what you written. Give them a call or send them an email with a biography of you and the book. You will likely hear back from them and you may be on your way. If the topic is more mainstream, use the same process to your local television stations. Again, with the plethora of local programming, you may be able to get a slot on a local morning show or again, a show discussing similar topics.

If you live in a small town, you may need to take a short road trip. Find as many bookstores as you can and contact them. Explain the topic of your publication, why you have written it and how you think it will assist or interest readers. You will likely find several stores that will allow you to promote a book signing event. Most stores are interested in any ways to get customers to come in and with the proper marketing, in this process, you may get to do some live performances, in the form of a discussion group, to explain why they should buy your book. You will need fliers, posters and copies of the book, so get prepared and head out to the shops.

Local Networking meetings can be a great place to promote your book. Most of the people there are self employed and have an interest in supporting others in the same field. Be sure to have fliers and business cards to pass out and be sure to speak with everyone there. You may find someone that has contacts with the media, which can also help you get to the larger audiences.

Most cities have daily or at least weekly Networking meetings. These are gatherings of local business people that are being creative in marketing their companies. At many of these meetings a guest will be chosen to be the featured company, so you may be able to present yourself to a sizable group of people, just by explaining that you have written a book and wish to get it in front of the buying public. In some cases, you may meet someone that has ties to the media and can assist you in getting to the right people to get you some media attention.

Lastly, there are companies that will try to help you. The problem here is that they are interested in selling stuff, too. They will offer books and seminars that are designed to help you market your book. Your challenge is to determine how interested they are in helping you or selling you their stuff. In most cases, you can take your product to the public with an entertaining approach. Be yourself and market that. If what you wrote about has any appeal, you can find people that will buy your book. Just make sure that you are prepared, professional and personal. Good luck.

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