Book marketing ideas

by Anonymous
(Canada)

I've been published by a traditionall publisher, but sales of my novel are slow. Do you have any book marketing ideas that will help me get better exposure for my book?

ANSWER

Book marketing ideas are only as good as the author's follow through, and it can be difficult to make yourself vulnerable, so my first bit of advice is to promote yourself and your book at every opportunity.

For example, you submitted this question anonymously, when you could have promoted yourself and your book by including your name, as author of "book title here."

1. Ask your publisher to print some business cards for you, using the cover of your book as the printed portion, and pass them out to everyone you see. Leave clumps of them with businesses and pin them to bulletin boards.

2. Offer to speak to local organizations (shape your talk to their interests and tie those interests back to your book in some way).

3. As you're an experienced writer, published with a traditional publisher, you have valuable experiences to share. Visit writing forums and answer questions others have about writing. Be sure to have your book title in your signature. If you sound interesting in your response, people will often click through to your web page or book sales page to see what you've written.

4. Promote yourself to radio stations and ask if anyone would like to interview you--again try to find a tie in to some current topic of interest. If they don't want to interview you, leave them a copy of your book to give away, and at least you'll get a bit of promotion.

I also noticed today, in the most recent copy of Publishers' Weekly, a link for authors to join a telephone seminar about how to get interviewed on national TV.

On February 25th, 2010 writers can join a free teleseminar at either 2 pm or 7 pm EST. Michelle Anton, former guest booker for Oprah, and Steve Harrison, publisher of Radio-TV Interview Report will discuss how to get national producers interested in you and your book--what you should send them, and what you shouldn't, along with other helpful promotional tips. Get more information Here

I'm sure they must be promoting Harrison report, but you'll likely glean a few tips all the same (and get ideas on how you might offer a telephone seminar yourself).

I plan to write a page with more book marketing ideas for this site, so please watch for that in the coming weeks.