PROMOTING BOOKS @
THE SPEED OF THOUGHT by Dan Poynter
Publishing is changing—for the better.
There is a New Model for book writing, producing, selling and promoting. One
part of this revolutionary change is in book promoting.
Here are
several ways to use new technology to promote your book faster, easier and
cheaper.
Broadcast email, done properly, is not spam. Book
announcements should only be sent to existing customers, potential customers on
opt-in lists and targeted members of the press. Most of these people are in
your personal address book. Match your offer to those who have already
expressed an interest in this type of information.
Make your
publishing company Web-site centric. Put your book and all your basic promotion
documents on your site and print from the site when you need hard copies. Don't
maintain a stock of dealer bulletins and news releases in your office. Keep the
masters in your cyber pressroom and retrieve them when required. For an example
of a pressroom, see
http://parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=pressroom/pressroom.html
If you speak on the subject of your book, set up a speaking sub-site
with all the information on what you can do. Post your speech descriptions,
client list, fee schedule, facilities forms, speaking calendar, audio/video
clips, etc. Replace your press kits; avoid printing and mailing. For an example
of a speaking sub-site, see
http://parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=/speaking/index.html
Help the information-seeking potential customer to make a buying decision.
Give enough information on the book. Provide the same shopping experience they
have in a store. If you are publishing fiction, put the first chapter on your
site as a free read. The first chapter in a creative work will give the reader
a taste and is designed to keep the buyer reading. If your work is nonfiction,
provide the first page or so of each chapter to give the browser an idea of
what is in the book. If you need help setting up your web site on this model,
contact Mary Westheimer at http://www.BookZone.com. BookZone hosts the websites for some
3,500 book publishers.
For the media, put the entire book in a unique
address section (URL) along with your promotional materials. Email a pitch
letter to the editors and reviewers and invite them to your web site to see
your book, and media kit: bio, testimonials, news releases, etc. Tell them what
is in the “media kit” and remind them they will save time because
they do not have to retype the material. Let them read the book free online.
Capture the reviewer’s address when they log on. Add the reviewer to your
list and notify them directly when you are promoting your next book. The
mission is to design an online media kit that is so useful, the reviewers will
flock to use it. And, self-service will save you a lot of time and money.
Publishers Weekly and USA Today recently reviewed their first eGalleys. Invite
reviewers to your site and offer to send an eGalley. Promotion @ the speed of
email is the wave of the future.
Do the reviewers want eGalleys? PW,
for example, receives over 100 galleys each day. They select a handful and the
rest go to a holding room. Periodically, someone comes to clean out the room.
EGalleys avoid this solid-waste disposal challenge.
Subsidiary rights.
Send an email to editors of newsletters, magazines and ezines and offer them
the opportunity to excerpt parts of your book free. Ask them to include source,
copyright and ordering information at the end of the excerpt.
To find
the email addresses for magazines and newsletters, see
http://parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=/bookprom.html and
http://www.opinion-pages.org
Email promotions can
result in slightly fewer responses than traditional mailings and follow-up
telephone calls. But the costs in time and money are far less and the responses
begin immediately.
Foreign Rights. Use email to ask foreign publishers
if they would like to buy subsidiary rights and translate your book into their
language. Send publishers directly to a rights section on your Web site. That
section will provide a complete book, author bio, testimonials, cover image,
news releases, back cover sales copy and other promotional materials. Capture
their address when they log on. Then follow up with email.
For foreign
publisher email addresses, see International Literary Market Place. It lists
publishers outside North America by country. Start with the major language
groups: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. Select publishers that publish
in your subject area. If you can’t find many, email the national
publishing association for that particular country, describe your book and ask
for suggested matching publishers. See the RightsCenter at
http://www.rightscenter.com and PMA’s Foreign Rights Virtual Book Fair at
http://pma-online.org/pmafair/index.cfm .
Use every
means possible to send people to your site. List your URL in ads, your .sig,
and anywhere you might ordinarily leave your telephone number.
Replace
expensive four-color brochures with less expensive business cards. Your card
should have a photograph of the book’s cover, your usual contact
information and a list of all the resources that can be found on your Web site.
Use the cards to drive traffic to your web site. For great prices on cards, see
http://www.MWMdexter.com
Related Web Sites. Surf the Web for sites related to the subject of
your book. When you find one that matches, contact the owner and suggest a
dealership. Get as many outlets as possible to sell your book.
Newsgroups. Take part in newsgroups related to your book’s subject.
Answer questions and become known as an expert on your subject. For a list of
newsgroups, see Groups at http://www.excite.com,
http://www.YahooGroups.com and
http://www.deja.com.
Promotion services. Do not hire the spammers who flood your email box with
offers to promote your site or product. Doing so will cost you a lot of money,
incur the wrath of potential customers and will encourage more spam.
Direct Contact Media Services will send out your news release to carefully
selected media via fax and email. Paul Krupin will rewrite your news release to
make it more useful to the media. He will send the announcement to 1,500 to
2,500 targeted print, radio and TV outlets. 1500 one-page releases cost $300.
Contact him at dircon@owt.com and see
http://www.book-publicity.com .
For more ideas on
promoting books online, see U-Publish.com by Dan Poynter and Danny O. Snow. See
http://www.u-publish.com .
New computer programs, new printing processes and the Web are
transforming the writing, producing, disseminating and promoting of
information. Books will never be the same. The winners are author, publishers
and readers.
In the future, nonfiction book publishing will see
minimized inventories and maximized relationships between authors and customers
(readers). Publishing will become customer-centric and “books” will
thrive on uniqueness, customization and variety. Book writing, publishing,
selling and promoting are changing—for the better.
Dan
Poynter does not want you to die with a book still inside you. You have the
ingredients and he has your recipe. Dan has written more than 100 books since
1969 including Writing Nonfiction and The Self- Publishing Manual. For more
help on book writing, see http://ParaPub.com. © 2003
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