Your main emphasis needs to be on getting exposure for the book, getting it in front of as many people as possible
armand morin
1. Leak Your Book to a Select Few Blogs or Websites
Find websites and blogs that center around the topic of your book, then offer to let them use a segment of your book as free content. The reason for this is their readers are the people that are going to be interested in your book.
You are putting yourself on the line by doing this so you’d better be dang sure you have a good book. If you don’t, there’s a good chance you could get a bad review.
It’s up to you how much of the book you allow them to post. I would suggest just enough to get the reader excited enough to want to buy the rest. Just make sure what you put out there is full of great content, and you will get great feedback and a lot of people wanting to buy your book.
2. Send Copies of Your Book to the Media Elite in Your Market
Research and find newspapers, magazines, websites, or reviewers who report on topics similar to yours. Maybe there are people who do book critiques or reviews in your field of expertise. These are the people you want to give your book to.
The whole point it to get exposure for the book and specifically getting it in front of key people.
3. Try To Get Your Book in Celebrity swag Bags, if Appropriate
If you could get your book into the hands of a celebrity, that would be pretty cool, and it might get you some free publicity.
One of the best ways to get a celebrity to read your book is to give it to them and the easiest way to do that is to have it put into what is called a “swag bag.” Swag bags are gift bags given to celebrities who attend certain high end events.
For example, you can put your book inside a bag at the Grammys. You have to supply the copies, so there will be costs involved, but every single one of the celebrities who receive a bag will get a copy of your book.
4. Collect Testimonials From People in Your Market
Testimonials or endorsements are hugely important to the success of a book. You should ask all the people you give free books to give you a testimonial.
You can use testimonials a number of different ways. You can use them on your website to show quality, you could use them on the back cover of the book to give credibility and you can even put some inside the book in an area titled “What Others Are Saying.”
The more recognizable the person giving you the testimonial is, the better.
Celebrity endorsements are always big, because celebrities bring an audience to the party with them. You will gain access to people who are interested in that celebrity and if the celebrity likes the book, then so will their fans.
5. Create a Media Campaign And Get Listed
Getting media interest is both tricky and necessary. It’s tricky because there are a ton of sources out there, and you have to be able to get in front of the right person at each source. There are a number of online resources that will help with this, “Radio-TV Interview Report” in one example of these serves.
These services basically tell show producers you want to be interviewed. This is where television shows and radio hosts go in order to get people to interview.
Getting asked for an interview all boils down to how interesting you are.
The more interesting you are, the more interviews you will get. If you have a topic that people think is boring, then you’re going to have to “sexy it up” somehow. Think about it, nobody wants to put a boring author with a boring topic in front of their audience, so you have to make it exciting.
As with everything you do, remember, Success Leaves Traces.
Find other authors who have come before you and research what radio shows they’ve done interviews on; contact those same radio shows and try to get on those shows, as well.
See if you can find out if those authors did a book tour of any sort. If they did, find out what cities they went to. This will allow you to create a path or a map of where they went. Knowing where they toured will allow you to build a list of areas you may want to try to get radio or local TV interviews on.
