How to Promote Your Book: A Practical Guide to Publicizing Your Own Title
"a practical primer for authors that want to not only publish their book, but successfully market that book for increased sales, higher revenue, and as a springboard to other opportunities . . ."
Dr. Jan Yager has written the companion volume to her bestselling How to Self-Publish Your Book providing a practical primer for authors that want to not only publish their book, but successfully market that book for increased sales, higher revenue, and as a springboard to other opportunities, including writing and publishing their next book.
With the proliferation of ePubs and publishing on demand, budding authors have many more options for self-publishing their great American novel or memoir. But whether an author is self-publishing or working with a traditional publishing organization, marketing and publicizing their book remains a key role that nearly always falls on the author. Following up on her guide to publishing a book, Dr. Yager now offers a comprehensive guide for this often-overlooked effort that really provides a measure of whether a book is commercially successful.
The author is very clear up front that any aspiring author should be thinking about how to market and sell their book while they are still completing the writing and publishing effort, in particular what the target audience is for the work and what the best means are to reach that particular audience. While social media, blogs, and the internet certainly loom large in publicizing a book, there are many different approaches and avenues that can be used, and the author provides numerous examples of journals, review websites, and other specific agents that can publicize a new book.
Most important, marketing the book actually can, and should, occur simultaneously with the writing and editing, since if the author wants obtain endorsements, reviews that can be quoted, or even a book blurb by a well noted author or expert, all of these activities need to be done before the book goes to final edits and production.
Dr. Yager provides a wealth of resources covering everything from obtaining the ISBN number for a book, to how to get the most out of trade shows and book fairs, and even the rapidly growing opportunity to use crowd-funding to not only promote but support financially the final editing, promotion, and production expenses that can seem daunting to first time authors trying to do everything on their own.
Probably the greatest tool provided is a comprehensive timeline worksheet for the reader covering the entire marketing effort to help the author stay organized as they scramble to finish writing while trying to complete the myriad tasks needed to properly publicize and sell their book. Although the list of proposed tasks may seem intimidating, the author is also very helpful in providing lists of resources that can assist with particular efforts, depending on how the author wants to proceed.
Also of note are the other possibilities that a new book could lead to for an author to generate revenue. One of the often overlooked is the speaking circuit, depending on the topic and audience of the book. Many authors use a book to support their speaking career and vice versa, and the opportunity to sell books during a speaking circuit should never be overlooked.
This is an excellent practical resource for any aspiring author. Publicizing a book is not always a task an author wants to face, but it is a needed skill, and Dr. Yager takes out much of the guess work on how to accomplish this crucial task with this informational volume that should be part of any writer’s professional library.