We'd like to share 26 ideas for promoting your book. You can probably think of another 26. Choose the best from the list and make 'em work for you! (Hint: Combine approaches and multiply their effect.)
1 Make your book's arrival a major event.This is the most important of the 26 and the most ignored. Use it, and you will sell books. You'll never be sorry. Introduce your book in one burst with all of your publicity and promotion programs synchronized. Pick a cause, a date, an anniversary and plan your book's coming out to coincide with the chosen event. Your publicity will multiply as a result.
2 Print at least 200 copies more than you know you can sell.
Give these "sample books" to people who can promote your book: news editors, book reviewers, television hosts.
3 Dramatize your cover.
Don a striking hat or outfit and walk into the biggest TV station in town in costume, or with your acting troupe in tow.
4 Create an affiliation with a nonprofit organization.
Dedicate the back cover to explaining this affiliation. Share profits with the nonprofit organization (a dollar amount per book is the simplest and most straightforward), and they will help you sell the book.
5Show off your book.
If you or a friend is handy with tools, design a small and attractive counter-top book display decorated to showcase your book and take it to local retail outlets. The display rack can be a gift to the store after an agreed period of time showing your book.
6 Summarize the key point(s) of your book.
Write an article with a similar title based on these key points and send your article to a dozen magazines whose subscribers are similar to your book's prospective readers.
7 Build your sales list.
While you're waiting for your book to be completed, let your friends know when you're expecting it and start building an advance list of prospective buyers. Every time you share a couple of minutes with someone, even on the subway or bus, you have a chance to mention your book. Take advantage of every opportunity.
8 The cheapest postage in the world is still a postcard.
Send postcards to all your friends and let them know your book is on its way. If you can afford it, have postcards made using your front cover. Or business cards. With today's rapid printing you can get several sheets of cards for a fraction of what traditional full-color printing would cost.
9 Sell the book on the back cover.
Instead of introducing yourself on the back cover of your book, turn that valuable space into sales copy. Summarize the benefits of reading your book. Ask questions to entice the person to open your book to the first page.
10 Post it.
If you work in an office or have a locker or other space that "belongs" to you, don't be shy about posting your book or its cover on the most visible part of your "space." It may be against company rules to sell your book on premises, but you can take names of interested persons and call them later.
11Give your newspaper story ideas.
Along with your sample book to the local newspaper, send along 10 or 25 ideas for stories related to your book that the editor might consider for the newspaper. For example, if your book deals with WWII, suggest local heroes, organizations, events etc. that would make good subjects for WWII newspaper features.
12 Speak it up.
Brush up on your speaking skills and offer seminars related to your book's topic. The seminar fee includes an autographed copy of your book. Share revenue from a seminar with a sponsoring nonprofit organization if they actively promote the seminar to their membership.
13 Work with other authors.
Form a group of self-publishing authors and pool your resources to produce a flyer advertising your books and their availability. If you do the coordinating, the other authors may pay the costs. Be fair, but don't leave yourself out.
14 Display it.
Look around town for a small shop or office building with a sidewalk window that is empty or has open space. Offer to create a display in the window from your book and extra covers and share the money from sales with the proprietor.
15T-shirts.
If your book's title is memorable or, even better, outrageous, shop around for the best prices and have the title and a design imprinted on a t-shirt--and sell the shirts through a local store or organization. Or give them away as prizes in a competition related to your book.
16 Bookmarks.
Before the printing job is complete for your book, check into prices for bookmarks, postcards or posters printed at the same time that your book cover is printed. You can print thousands of attractive bookmarks for a few dollars and give them away to promote your book.
17Start up at least one blog to promote your book.
Introduce the main characters, give hints about what your book offers, share a few pages at a time, talk about producing your book.
18 Put it on TV.
Take the topic of your book to your local tv station and suggest components for a 2-minute, 8-minute or 20-minute program featuring local experts as well as yourself on this compelling and vital topic.
19Hitch a ride on the Web.
Start with a web page based on the topic of your book. Be sure to give purchasing information. Keep it current and use lots of links to sites that deal with the same subject matter, and don't forget to ask for return links.
20 Promote your book with music.
Team up with a local musical group to create a song based on your book's theme that you can perform and record. Help book your adopted group into local restaurants or organizations. Or start a musical group and give them a name that goes along with your book. Play your theme song on the Web.
21 Match the holidays.
Time your book's promotion to fit national holidays, seasons, regional or national events. There is probably a National XYZ Day or Week or Month that is related to your book's topic.
22 Limited Edition.
Increase the value of your book dramatically by printing a limited number of copies, numbering each copy and printing a box that says, "Limited Edition. No. __ of ___." Autograph these special copies. Set a limited time frame when your book will be available.
23 Gifts.
If your book would make a good gift, see if you can sign up 10-12 students, friends or associates to offer the book to friends and family for a 40% sales commission.
24 Work your web site.
Your book producer may give you a free web site, but set up your own URL as well. Make sure your book is listed on all the major search engines. Be sure people can buy the book from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other stores who will offer the book and pay you when sales occur. Promote the benefits of the book on your web site and write "meta" tags that reflect the book's content for the search engines to pick up.
25 Promote the future.
In the first book you produce, promote the next book in the series or the next edition of the book or the next book by the same author. Print an order form on the last page of your book and encourage people to let you know if they want to belong to an organization or cause related to your book.
26 Link to a non-profit organization.
A church, school, club, anything at all, may have a natural connection to your book title. Offer to come in person to the organization's next major event, set up your book table and give $5 to the sponsoring organization for each book it sells. One of my authors set up a scholarship fund at the high school where she'd taught for 29 years, set up her table at the school's annual taxidermy show, autographed books as people came through and sold 100 books in less than two hours. She ended up giving $3,000 to the scholarship fund and met her break-even costs after selling 225 books in about three months. All of this happened in a small farm community in rural Oregon.