Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.
Today’s guest blogger is Joshua Graham, author of BEYOND JUSTICE.
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Promoting a book is fun, but requires quite a bit of dedication. There is always a danger of spending so much time on the marketing that a writer can forget the most important thing: Writer’s write!
It’s important to have a solid social network, such as facebook, twitter, networkedblogs, etc. But don’t forget to contact your own mailing list (your email contacts.)
Be careful though, I’ve known some people who started a home-based pyramid scheme business, and as soon as they began, that was all they every talked about. Soon, friends felt alienated and treated like nothing more than potential customers.
So I would caution authors not to make that mistake with your friends. Sure, when you are promoting your book, they will see a lot of posts about your book tours, news about your book, your reviews, announcements, etc. But just make sure you still remain a human being to them. Be personal and personable.
To that end, it might be good to maintain a separate fan page for yourself as an author, and a fan page for your book.
Doing a virtual book tour is also a great way to get the word out about your book. My publicist Dorothy Thompson is a terrific person to work with and an expert at helping authors promote their books via online publications in the form of reviews and interviews. Without the expense of airplane tickets, hotel rooms, etc., you can reach a lot more people (think, the internet) than you might at a live book signing, where only a few people show up because of another local event.
The big question to ask, whenever you blog, tweet, or post to facebook is: “Why should they care?” It’s not a rhetorical question, but one you must answer. What’s in it for them? That will be the angle that hooks your followers. Well, that and your incredible book!
Be a giver! Giveaways are a great way to attract the attention of potential fans. You can also donate your book to local businesses, organizations, or people who might love your book so much, they’d tell all their social network about it. But when you give, make sure you don’t make it seem like there are strings attached. Just have faith that your benevolence will not be discarded.
You will reap what you sow.
Joshua Graham grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he lived for the better part of 30 years. He holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree and went on to earn his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. During his time in Maryland, he taught as a professor at Shepherd College (WV), Western Maryland College, and Columbia Union College (MD).
Today he lives with his beautiful wife and children in San Diego. Several of Graham’s short fiction works have been published by Pocket Books and Dawn Treader Press under different pen names.
Beyond Justice is now available in Trade Paperback through Amazon.com as well as Barnes and Noble. It’s available at the Kindle store for $2.99 for a limited time, and can be purchased for other ebook readers at Smashwords, and is now available for the iPad and iPhone at the Apple iBooks store.
A member of the Oregon Writers Network, Graham is a graduate of the Master Classes and professional writing workshops held by Dean W. Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Dean and Kris and the entire OWN, have been a major influence in his journey to become a published writer. You can visit his website at www.joshua-graham.com, connect with him on facebook at www.facebook.com/j0shuagraham or twitter at www.twitter.com/j0shuagraham.
