Writer's Magazine

Writers Magazine 2008

The website for writers

ABC Checklist 4

The ABC Checklist for New Writers

This the fourth of six extracts from The ABC Checklist for New Writers: How to Open Doors and Get Noticed the First Time Around by Lorraine Mace and Maureen Vincent-Northam, published by Orana Publishing at £10.99. This useful book gives succinct answers to the many problems writers face, making it an indispensable reference for the budding writer.

Marketing

Seeing your book in print is a thrill for any author, but getting it published is only the beginning. As soon as your book is in print – and often before it has reached that final stage of the publication process – it will need to be promoted.

How well your book is marketed will depend largely on your publisher’s marketing budget. Their sales and marketing teams will have ensured your book is featured on the publisher’s website, listed in publishing catalogues, and stocked in bookstores.

Prior to the publication of a non-fiction book, you will have been asked to present a list of marketing ideas – ways in which you and the publisher’s team will be able to promote the book. In fact, because publicity is vital, producing good ideas and being willing to help with promotion might mean the difference between your book being accepted or rejected in the first place.

Useful marketing ideas:

	List local newspapers and county magazines who might run a story about you
	Produce a list of magazines which cover your book’s subject, so that relevant critics can be asked to review the book
	Write articles on the same topic for local, national, or online, publications and mention your book’s title in the author bio
	Offer to give a talk, demonstration, or workshop to a relevant group or society
	Suggest, and be willing to judge, competitions where your book is the prize

Self-published books:

You will need to work even harder to market your book if you have chosen the self-publishing route. Without a publisher’s team behind you to assist with promotion, you will need to think imaginatively – every book you sell will be down to your own marketing skills.

As well as using the suggestions above, here are 12 ways in which you can market your self-published book:

Give review copies to the local press
If you’ve set your novel in a place other than where you live, send copies to the press in that area, too
Offer the book to local booksellers on a sale or return basis
Ask the bookstore if you can do a book signing
Create a website or blog around yourself and your book
Make a sample chapter available on your website
Add a short book blurb to your email ‘signature’
Free handouts – using desktop publishing, design and print off bookmarks featuring your book
Get listed on your town or village’s website
Approach local radio to be interviewed
Sell signed copies at local fetes and fairs with a percentage of your sales going to the cause
For a children’s book, offer to donate a portion of your sales to school funds – schools are always keen to raise money and to encourage reading