Articles

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. Pay close attention to Vista Print www.vistaprint.com.  Several times a month, this printer runs specials wherein you can get free postcards (both regular and over-sized) for simply the cost of shipping and handling.

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. Look for associations within your book such as Ford cars, etc. Also, look for out of the way places to hold a book signing that might be associated with your books, I.e., a Ford dealership, especially if a Ford vehicle is consistently used throughout your book.

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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. Sometimes it takes several tries to get a bookstore or potential purchaser to say yes. For instance, if you want to set up a book signing at your local Ford dealership, start out by sending a publicity kit to the sales manager with full details about how their vehicles figure prominently in your manuscript. If you haven’t heard back from the dealership within two weeks, follow-up with a postcard inquiring if they received your publicity kit. After that, it’s time for a phone call.

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. There are several more excellent books on this topic, and I purchase them inexpensively by going to Amazon.com’s Marketplace.

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. At the very least, you should be promoting three times a week.

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. Now that I’ve created a blog, my readers interact with me there on a daily basis. This is an excellent promotional tool and enables the readers to ask you questions and feel like they have instant contact with you.

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. The more you write, the more your name will be recognized.

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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 and currently writes for Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Five Star/Gale, and Red Sage Publishing. Rachel has also written extensively for magazines, e-zines, and newspapers. Readers can visit her on the web at www.dawnrachel.com  or www.moongladeeliteauthors.com.