How to Market Your Book

Whatever you are writing eventually you may wish to share it with others, and possibly be paid for it as well. If this is your ambition then you will need to know how to market it - and possibly yourself as well.

On this page I have listed a few possibilities that may help you to do just that.

However, if you have any ideas or experiences with selling your work email them in to share with others and I will add them - acknowledged to you.

• Do talks and take your books with you - if you are away on holiday spend an evening with a local group giving a talk and take your book
• Arrange press releases for local, regional and national newspapers, journals, and magazines where relevant
• Write features about your chosen subject - even fiction books have some research behind them. Then add your and the books details
• Create flyers for the book and leave wherever anyone will let you. Put on all possible contact and ordering details. Testimonials on the back if no room on the front - print lots it's cheaper than an advertisement
• Put your book titles on your business cards
• Get postcards printed with your book cover on the front and contact/ordering details and send them out or even give them away for others to use
• Arrange to speak with the local radio - or national if the subject is relevant - but don't just talk about the book - inform them on the content, or the research behind it, or even the fun and stresses behind it. People always enjoy a story and it stays with them
• Try and launch your book - give it a good start in life. An independent bookstore or the local library may help; Possibly a hotel lounge. Whatever invite lots of people and the press
• Create your own website
• Get others with web sites to link to yours or even promote your book on theirs
• Talk about your book positively - never apologise for it
• Define your audience and aim at them but think laterally and find a new audience - not just the most obvious Jurgen Wolff in Writer's News (November 2002) gives the example of a gardening book where the obvious is to talk in garden centres or to gardening groups but he also suggests giving talks to parents' groups discussing gardening and children as an educational tool
• Send copies of your book to editors, or anyone else, who can help promote the book, for them to review. Get copies of the reviews to the bookstores and onto your flyers
• Put a small section onto a tape and give it away - make sure your contact and book details are on the tape as well