Thrifty Ways to Toot Your Horn

Christina Hamlett, Guest Blogger, has some excellent advice on how authors can promote their books. She gives 25--yes, 25--tips. That's almost an entire alphabet! Please share with other book authors.

THRIFTY WAYS TO TOOT YOUR HORN

By Christina Hamlett

Who knows your newly published book better than you? The following promotional strategies require little or no cost – and those that do are probably tax-deductible as a business expense.

1. Tell everyone you know that your book is out and where they can buy it. Find creative ways to mention “I’m an author” whenever you find yourself in a conversation on trains and planes or in waiting rooms and supermarket lines.

2. Send an email blast to everyone in your address book. Include a picture of your bookcover and a teaser/synopsis. Ask each recipient to forward your announcement to 10 friends.

3. Design a professional-looking website. Include book excerpts and behind-the-scenes stories to whet visitors’ appetites.

4. Use online services like Vista Print ( http://www.vistaprint.com ) to upload your book cover to business cards and postcards. Slip them into every piece of correspondence you mail.

5. Start blogging on free websites such as http://www.WordPress.com , https://www.wix.com , and https://www.godaddy.com .

6. Add your website and/or “Author of Such-and-Such” as part of your email signature.

7. Provide local/national media ( http://www.newslink.org/news.html ) with a polished press release announcing your book.

8. Contact editors/reporters who do interviews with local personalities. Provide them with a press kit which includes your photograph, a sample chapter, a copy of the book cover, and a sales sheet identifying the book’s price, number of pages, distributor, and trade discount information.

9. Participate in writer chat rooms and discussion forums on social media. If you give sensitive/helpful/insightful advice often enough in the context of “When I was researching my YA novel…”, their curiosity to hear more about your work is going tokick in. Just don’t be pushy.

10. Establish yourself as an expert by recommending other authors’ books at https://shepherd.com.K1. Write book reviews. Include “Author of Such-and-Such” after your name. If you’re precluded from doing that, insert the phrase “As an author of (genre)…” in your write-up.

11. Write book reviews. Include “Author of Such-and-Such” after your name. If you’re precluded from doing that, insert the phrase “As an author of (genre)…” in your write-up.

12. Promote your work on podcasts and radio shows. Check out http://www.blogtalkradio.com and http://www.ontheradio.net/stations.aspx .

13. Cross-promote by trading links and banners with other websites.

14. Request reviews from https://onlinebookclub.org .

15. Join Authors’ Den ( http://www.authorsden.com ) and talk about your work.

16. Network with fellow authors. Write reviews of each other’s books.

17. Give a talk or read an excerpt at local bookstores/libraries.

18. Join local writers’ critique groups.

19. Offer to give talks at neighborhood schools (including being a speaker on Career Day).

20. Sign up for Amazon Associates Affiliate Program ( https://affiliate-program.amazon.com ).

21. Offer autographed copies of your book as a contest prize or as part of a charity gift basket.

22. Contribute guest blogs on the joys of reading at http://readlearnwrite.com .

23. Next time you make or order return address labels, use the second line below your nameto include “Author of Such-and-Such”.

24. Ask store merchants and café/coffeehouse owners if they’d display some of your promotional postcards/flyers/bookmarks on the counter.

25. Ask to be put on the speakers’ roster for clubs and civic organizations.

In addition to these methods, many authors apply a unique spin to Mickey Spillane’sobservation, “The first page sells the book. The last page sells your next book.” If that last page happens to be the opening scene of your next project, you’ll have your readers right where you want them – eager to maintain the momentum by jumping into a new story by the same author. This approach is especially practical if (1) you’re writing serialized fiction, and (2) your nextbook will be released within two months of this one. Unless both books were placed with the publisher simultaneously, however, it may be hard to lock down this kind of guarantee. While the storyline can leave a few things open to reader speculation (i.e., will Joe and Etta marrysomeday), the book needs to be satisfying in a stand-alone context and, likewise, subsequent spins shouldn’t require familiarity with the original in order to be enjoyed.

Former actress and theatre director Christina Hamlett is an award winning author whose credits to date include 47 books, 266 stage plays and squillions of articles and interviews. She isalso a script consultant for stage and screen, a distance learning instructor and a professionalghostwriter. www.authorhamlett.com