Speaking engagements, radio interviews, publicity, and the internet are the top four ways to promote and market your book. Here's what you need to know to get started.

In this article, I’d like to talk about staying on track with the big four activities of book promotion: speaking, interviews, publicity, and the internet. It’s easy to get sidetracked into using just one way of promoting your books—staying in your comfort zone. In this article I want to list the four major strategies and sub-strategies for promoting your book…

SPEAKING

I’ve listed speaking first because it’s probabbly the most effective way you can promote your book. Within this category are several options depending on your book’s subject or your level of speaking ability. I’ll list the easier ones first and progress to the more demanding venues.

1. One-on-one conversations: Sitting next to someone on a plane, meeting someone at a gathering, bumping into someone on the street or in a store can all be great opportunities to tell people about your book. Keep it conversational—don’t launch into a long presentation. If you’re not comfortable with public speaking, this is a good way to break the ice. If the person seems interested in your book, sell them one on the spot, give them your business card, or tell them where they can get your book.

2. Small groups: These could be a Rotary Club meeting, a Sunday School class, or a garden club meeting. Here the presentation is more structured but still informal. You can allow for comments or questions as you go. Try to blend the subject of your book with the interests of the group. Have a supply of books on hand for sale if the group allows it. Otherwise have a handout or business card you can give to interested people. One of our authors often sells more copies of his book than there are people in the meeting!

3. Church meetings: This will involve entire congregations, and the audience could be quite large and diverse. In this setting you will usually need to tailor your message to the greater needs of the congregation, referencing your book as a resource, not the focal point of your talk. Near the end of your message, mention that your book is available in the foyer (it should be) and anywhere else it may be available.

4. Seminars and conferences: Seminars can include dozens of people, and conferences can draw hundreds or thousands of participants. If you’ve gotten experience with the smaller venues, you may be ready for the big time. In a seminar or conference you’re going to know about the interests of your listeners, so stay focused on their needs. If the event ties in with your book’s subject, you can practically use your book as a textbook. Check with the event organizers for information about selling your book. One of our authors sold 800 copies of her book at a major women’s conference!

INTERVIEWS

When you do interviews, you can reach audiences of hundreds, thousands, or even millions. As with speaking, I recommed you start small and work your way up to larger stations.

1. Radio interviews: Pitch your interview idea to talk show producers by telephone. During the interviews, talk about the subject you pitched to the program producers. Start with small/local stations and work your way up. You’ll usually have lots of opportunities to plug your book—shamelessly—on the radio. If the interview is on a small station or if it’s at an odd time slot, you won’t sell many books. Drive-time interviews on big stations can result in significant sales.

2. TV interviews: These are more demanding because 1) you have to travel somewhere to do them, 2) you have to dress up for them, and 3) you must be better prepared (you won’t have a cheat sheet in front of you!). If you can handle those demands, you can reach potentially larger audiences than you could any other way and impact them more deeply than a radio interview. TV is usually more restrictive about plugging products. Ask the program producer what is allowed/what they will provide. It may be limited to a mention by the host or they may flash the information on the screen.

3. Print interviews: Newspapers and magazines, especially local ones, like to feature local book authors because they view you as a literary cousin. Print interviews (and feature articles) usually start with the submission of the humble news release. It is said that 1-4% of press releases result in some form of press coverage. This percentage could probably be improved if you take more care in targeting your releases rather than broadcasting them. Good coverage in a large size publication could result in dozens of copies being sold (although it can be difficult to track results from this medium).

PUBLICITY

Publicity is one of the most powerful forms of book promotion, but also one of the least understood. The rules of the publicity game are much more complex than with speaking and interviews. Various media have their own preferences when it comes to PR—and these preferences sometimes conflict with other media! In addition to that, since 9-11 many media people are leery of opening email attachments in fear of viruses or opening packages that might contain anthrax or a mail bomb. To get past this problem, call them first.

1. Press release: Even If you’re not too keen on sending out lots of press releases, you still need to have a good one when the media asks for it. Your release needs to have a killer headline that stops the media dead in their tracks because you only have about five seconds to capture their attention. Then it needs to be newsy not addy. A press release is not an ad for your book, it’s a germ of an idea for a story or program that includes your book as a resource. Every release should include complete contact information for the sender of the release. It is also appropriate to include the basic buying information for your book: size, number of pages, binding, ISBN, price, where it’s available, and publication date.

2. Media kit: This includes your news release, bio page and author photo, and a copy of your book—at a minimum. Other pieces that can be included are: a tip sheet (like a top 10 list), a list of other resources (people, web links, or articles) for the media which might help them in putting together an article or program, clippings of previous articles about you and your book, copies of taped interviews you have done which demonstrate your ability on air, and just about anything else that builds your credibility. Since media kits cost so much to put together, only send them to media people who request them. On the outside of the envelope or package write: “The media kit you requested is enclosed.”

3. Articles and columns: These are articles and columns you write yourself and offer to publications (usually free of charge). One of our authors has had his column featured in several publications in his state. An article is harder to write because it’s longer and usually requires inclusion of other sources besides yourself as the authority. But then when it’s done, it’s done. A column is a lot easier to write, but then you have the burden of sticking with it over time and coming up with fresh material week after week or month after month. Nevertheless, these are great ways to build local or regional visibility. A cousin of these are the radio and TV program, but these are beyond the scope of this article.

INTERNET

You’ll notice that we have progressed in this article from a more primitive form of communication (speaking), through the print medium (just a few centuries old), to broadcast media (an invention of the last century). That takes us to the future of communication: the World Wide Web. The internet has revolutionized communications, marketing, and a host of other areas of our lives. It’s so new it’s still being invented and all of us are scurrying just to keep up with the latest technologies.

1. Email: It seems so commonplace now, but what would we do without it? Yet the lowly email is often overlooked in favor of other slicker technologies as a marketing medium. The real power of email is that you send it to those you know (it’s proactive). If you can make your emails interesting enough, they will be forwarded to others, who will forward them.... When that happens, you have what’s called viral marketing and it’s very powerful in spreading the word rapidly.

TIP: Whenever you meet someone or do business with them, always try to get their email address. It’s so much quicker, easier and cheaper to send an email to 100 people than it is to call or write to them!

2. If your book is available at Amazon.com, be sure to get your friends to write a review for it and post it at Amazon. It’s really easy. First, go to the detail page where the book is listed at Amazom.com. Then scroll down to “customer reviews” and click the button “item.” The next screen asks you to login or register with Amazon. Finally you are taken to the review page. Follow the on-screen instructions and read their rules, then submit your review. It will show up in about a week. When I go to Amazon to buy books, I read the reviews and base my purchasing decision partly on them. So, GET THOSE REVIEWS!

3. Author website: Needless to say, I could spend a whole article (or series of them) talking about websites. I could tell you most everything you need to know to get started building a website. But, that is beyond the scope of this article. May I just suggest that if you don’t already have a website that you start thinking about it? Make a plan: What would the purpose of your site be? What would you feature on it? Would you try to have e-commerce or send your buyers to Amazon (that was one of my big questions)? Would you do it yourself or get a webmaster’s help?

SUMMARY

When it comes to book promotion, these four areas are the ones you need to focus on. They will give you “the most bang for your book.”

© 2006, Brian Banashak