|
Author: Mark Barnes Article source: http://www.stickyarticle.com/. Used with author's permission.
Although he has his own website, John Grisham probably does very little self-promotion. When you have Doubleday on your side, most of the marketing is done for you. There are not too many John Grisham's out there though, so the unknown authors, with small publishing houses, have to be responsible for marketing themselves. This is not hard work, but it does take persistence and ingenuity. Follow this model, and you'll be successful.
My first novel, The League, was picked up by DNA Press in November of 2004 and will be released in May 2005 (unusually fast work for a publisher). While the publisher works feverishly to put together the cover, the press kit and the final galley, my job is to promote the author, me. In just three months, I secured have five reviews, done a national radio interview with others already arranged, submitted my idea to ESPN for a potential movie, and I've already received nearly 1,000 hits to my website, which has been published for just one month. How have I done it? Non-stop hustle, that's how.
This is not hard work; it's actually quite exciting, knowing the fruits of my labor will be book sales. Here's my plan to get as many people excited about my book as possible, even before it hits the bookstores.
First, I started sending e-mails to publishers of magazines and websites, whose content is similar to the plot of my novel. I asked them if they would do a review or give me a quote I could use on my novel's cover. While I was waiting to hear back from the 50 or so people I contacted, I began creating my website. If you've never done this, it's extremely easy and inexpensive. Just visit Register.com for more information. I had my site up and active in one day. Of course, over the next few weeks, I continued to improve it, adding my picture and a picture of the cover of my book.
Next, I started fishing for radio interviews. There's a number of ways to do this. I'd recommend starting at home, using a local author angle. I also went to shows that talk about fantasy football, since my plot surrounds this game. This is how I got on a national show, the week leading up to the Super Bowl. That night, 60 people visited my website, and eight of them pre-ordered my book -- four months prior to its publication date!
As I continued to make contacts with media people, I created business cards with a picture of the book, my website URL, and a sentence on the back from the synopsis. I hand these out everywhere I go, and they lead people to my site, which leads them to the synopsis and an excerpt. This gets them wanting more. Your website is your most powerful tool. You want people there early and often. You want them telling others. I have my website beneath my signature on my e-mails. I send hundreds of e-mails each week to colleagues and friends. Again, this gets me hits.
I sent an e-mail to a colleague, who saw my website URL, clicked on it and looked at the excerpt. He came to me the next day and told me he had an aunt who was a writer for a local paper, and she could review the book for me. I was thrilled, to say the least. All because of a link to my site in an e-mail. The e-mail wasn't even about my book.
Finally, I'm beginning to arrange book signings, months in advance of the book's release. You want people coming out to buy your book, and guaranteeing bookstores customers is the best way to do it. I contact a store's events manager and tell him or her that I'm going to get 20-30 of my friends and family to attend my book signing. They are almost always willing to sign me up, because they want the traffic in their stores. Best of all, this guarantees that they will have your book on their shelves -- an obvious necessity if people are going to buy.
So, if you want to self-promote, get yourself a website, business cards, interviews and book signings. Then, hit the streets and talk up your work. Learn how I did it at www.sportsnovels.com. And have fun. Mark Barnes is the author of the new novel, The League, the first work of fiction, based on fantasy football. He is also an investment real estate and home loan finance expert. Learn more about his suspense thriller at http://www.sportsnovels.com. Get his free mortgage finance course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com
Using Excel Payroll Sheet to Make Payroll System Easier
For the employees, payday is the brightest day; they finally get the compensation they so well deserve for the services they rendered. For the employer, this co...
CEOs And Boards Are Locked In A Spiral Of Doom
The relationship between boards of director and CEOs are vital to the well-being of any company. Many boards and CEOs misunderstand that relationship and so ar...
Secrets To Successful Selling Online
Some say that communication is the key factor in making a sale, while others argue that finding the right product should be the primary goal. In reality, both o...
Basic Brand Building
A brand is the essence of who you are. The more powerful the brand the more memorable you will become. Think about brands that you can identify with. What impre...
How To Make Money Online With A Newsletter
Learn how you can make more money online by starting a newsletter & learn tips on how you can make money from your newsletter.
You Want Me to Do What?
Insanity = Doing the same things over and over expecting different results.
How Trampolines Can Be Used In Competition
The first competitions were held in colleges and schools in the USA and then in Europe, with the first World Championships being held in London in 1964.
Bogus Investor and Consumer Complaints and Consumer Misrepresentation
Like most regulatory bodies in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission gets investor and consumer complaints. But how much of these are actually real? T...
5 Secrets for Increasing Auction Profits
Get the secrets for increased auction profits if you sell on ebay.com or any other auction site.
Is New MSN Search More Precise? Just Ask Google
MSN finally unleashed its new search technology to the world on Monday. The official announcement coming from Bill Gates introduced the New MSN Search engine, ...
The Five Most Common - And Most Avoidable - Résumé Errors
Writing an effective résumé can certainly be challenging. There are numerous rules and none of them apply 100% of the time. It is often much easier for people...
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Training is in the Eye of the Beholder
Growing an organization's internal knowledge base is crucial to the success of any business and ensuring a growing knowledge base means investing in the trainin...
Diabetes
If meals and insulin are out of balance, extreme variations in blood glucose can occur. In non insulin-dependent diabetes, weight control is the most important ...
Choosing Estate Jewelry
Choosing estate jewelry can be a little scary at first but what you need to remember is buying estate jewely is no different than choosing your wardrobe.
Three Ways to Put Fresh Spins on Old Marketing Concepts
Need a new twist on same old, same old? Check out these three techniques to jump-start your creativity and kick it into high gear.
Creating Personal Web Sites
The demand and popularity of personal web sites has increased at a great rate since the start of the web. People have found web sites a great way to express the...
The Best Time to Inspect Your Home!
Are you getting ready to jump into the real estate market by selling your home? Want your home to sell fast? Want it to sell closer to your asking price? Wal...
The Idol-Makers
Dedicate time, energy, and resources for helping your employees develop and your small business will soar.
Strontium Supplements Guide
Our guide to Strontium supplements guide
Codifying Creativity
Can we codify creativity? Within these few words are a number of principles that must be identified and resolved before we can really answer the question.
Are Your Business Proposals Losing You Sales? 10 Steps to Get the “Yes” You Deserve
Regardless of the product or service you're pitching, your prospect makes his or her ultimate decision based on how you write the proposal, not the product or s...
Modern Rugs
The modern look is a highly admired form of interior design. The word Modern is a broad term that encompasses many different techniques and styles of design. Ab...
5 Critical Mistakes Most Freelance Copywriters Make
All successful marketers know the sale comes from the words or the copy. Anytime you want to give yourself a pay raise, just tweak the copy.
Waxing Instructions -- Waxing with Soft Wax
A how to guide for waxing with soft wax. Whether it's a brazilian or bikini wax, a full leg, lip, chin or underarm, proper wax selectiona and proper technique ...
|
Print this page