Free Publicity for Your Book

Local publicity - Create a short, snappy press release along the lines of "Local Writer to Publish New Book." Include basic data such as publisher, price, date of publication and a phone number for further information.

About two months before publication, mail the announcement to local stores, radio and TV stations, newspaper reviewers ~ to anyone who might order and/or want to read the book. Chain stores and book distributors (listed under "Independent Distributors" in the Yellow Pages) should be high on that list. At publication time, follow up with actual copies of the book and an updated release. Make yourself available for interviews, book signings and calls for further information.

Pre-publication offer - Make up a flier about your book, including a picture of the cover. The flier doesn't have to be fancy; it can be in black and white (though you could dress it up by printing on colored paper). At the bottom of your flier, print a tear-off order coupon which offers a free reading or review copy and quantities at a discount. Mail this to potential buyers, including: Wholesalers; Bookstores, especially those specializing in your subject; Libraries (the second largest book buyers in the U.S., spending more than a billion dollars a year on books; Catalog companies (there are nearly 10,000 ~ choose the logical ones from a source such as Catalog of Catalogs at your public library).

Premium Sales - Wouldn't it be nice if someone bought a million copies of your book for use as a premium? Look at magazines such as Incentive Marketing, Potentials in Marketing and Premium Incentive. They'll teach you how to pursue this market of special-interest individuals, organizations, associations, corporations, museums, specialized stores, etc. -

Reviews provide the greatest sales impetus of anything you can do. Reviews are worth your greatest efforts. More than 40,000 books are published every year in the U.S. Fewer than 10% of them are reviewed. You’ll have to be timely, persistent and willing to make an investment in this endeavor if you are to succeed.

As far in advance of publication as possible, mail copies of your new book (galley copies if possible ~ they're less expensive) to trade magazines and large newspapers as well as to local newspapers and other reviewers. Send out as many as you can afford. Ideally, this should be done several months before your publication date because reviewers and columnists need reading time. Get these copies directly from your printer. Reviews often contain words of praise for your book which then can be included in your further publicizing efforts. Short quotes from several reviews look especially good on the back of your book's dust jacket, serving as an endorsement.

Use the Web - Be absolutely sure to spread the word electronically throughout the world. Most Internet Service Providers include a small amount of free web space in their user dial-up account agreements, however some have rules that restrict commercial advertising in non-commercial web space. Tell about your book and about you, the author, and create links to other sources (to amazon.com, for instance, if you’re listed with this electronic bookstore where, with a mere click of the mouse, people can purchase your book). Once you have your home page up and running, be sure to register your page(s) with all of the major search engines (Yahoo, Infoseek, Alta Vista, Webcrawler, NetFind, etc.) so anyone searching the web will be able to find your site and learn
about your book.

The extent of free publicity available to you is limited only by your time and imagination. None of these steps is beyond your ability, and each of them is invaluable for generating publicity that will put your book before the public eye.

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Patrika Vaughn is the world's foremost Author's Advocate, helping writer's write better and get published. She is listed in The International Authors and Writer's Who's Who, Outstanding People of the 21st Century, and has been awarded the Order of Excellence in Who's Who in the 21st Century The above article is an excerpt from her book, Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish and Market Your Book. Find this book and others, plus online classes and consulting services, on her website:

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