Promoting Your Book

By Robyn Whyte

Now that your book is in your hands, yipee, wowee. Congratulations. Many compete but few get to publication these days.

Some authors are quite naive when they are first published with the idea that the publishing company will take a leading role in their promotion, dumping buckets of money out on flashy advertisements in magazines. They will hire you a book promoter and pay for a six day book tour around the country. It's the beginning of a dream fulfilled. Sure, that might happen sometimes. With a book tour costing an average of between 1,000 and 10,000 dollars a day, it would be unlikely the would spend the money on you. Instead, the publishing company is most likely going to watch you instead.

The book publishing company cannot sell books without the author. So they wait to see what the sales are like before they think about investing in advertising.

So if novel A is published and it's from a first-time author without a track record, they simply ignore it and wait. They have books they've published from more established authors and still those authors are probably expected to make their own wind. Often, they do not even put out press releases. In fact, how many books can your remember reading an online press release about? Few, if any.

No track record, no money. Nothing is thrown at you to make your life easier.

So what do you do if you want a career?

You remember some of the shows where the gopher and mailroom clerk work their way up to CEO. This is the same concept with your book. If you want the book career and have your book right there, this is your entry level job. It doesn't matter who published it. It now comes down to what you do.

So if you thought the heartbreaking rejection letters were the worst, you just wait.

Now you have a sales job of getting book signings at bookstores. Even if your book company distributes themselves or doesn't have a distributor, bookstores can still host you. So if someone says 'no', then you need to find out why.

For media coverage, you're not going to get it without first setting up an event so chicken before the egg or egg before the chicken. Nobody is going to pick your story up unless you're somewhere visible.

So be somewhere visible. If bookstores aren't immediately interested, it is probably due to your approach.

Are you faxing them? Yeah, people hate that. Don't fax them unless you want to tag along on an event they are promoting. Really, don't fax. And what about email? Sure, give it a try. You might email 150 places and find two get back to you. But that might be worth it to you. But by faxing ahead of emailing, you may be consumed with the fact that you are rejected which isn't the truth.

Yes, you're a new writer and a published author. Now, it's time to realize you've just entered your job in sales.

Sales people don't get their answering machine messages returned as a general rule and if they are identified as a sales person, they don't even get to talk to the real decision maker.

If you want to set up book signings at bookstores, make a point to call eight or more bookstores a day or at least a week. These should be bookstores you can get to in a car or on a bus.

Tell them who you're with. This is Jake. I'm looking to talk to someone who sets up book signings at your store.

Don't talk to anyone else if you can help it because the element of surprise is a good one.

Introduce yourself. Tell them about your book as a secondary issue and instead focus on what successes you've already had drawing in people and selling books. So you sort of name drop in the last book signing and how many books you sold. If you don't have the track record, say nothing. Sprinkle in reviews from fans with your conversation.

Try to solve problems as they give them to you. They don't take on romance books? Start identifying your book as an inspirational book or some other more generic genre. They don't do mystery books. Describe it next time as a crime book.

Expect six rejections for every two positive calls. The two positive calls could simply be getting more information, being pointed in the direction of the Regional Sales Representative. It could be a book signing right away.

If you are finding that bookstores are not responding, it could be related to the time of year. Winter book signing events are rare when there's three feet of snow. In cottage areas, summer book signings may not be popular.

But don't think because book signings don't immediately welcome you that you're in trouble. Now's the time to instead phone up a local charity or a small business and have them put on an event for you with you donating a little money to the charity per book. It gets your name out. It's very easy to advertise this kind of event. Media outlets will pick it up.

Phone up a cafe. Ask to be hosted. Order your own books and get out there. Create your own wind and I guarantee by your third book, the advertising dollars from the publishing company will now start following you.

Robyn Whyte is the CEO of Stargazer Press. Drop by and check out our great educational programs and novels. This May first, pick up a copy of Victoria Graydale's journey story 'The Wizard's Daughter'.

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