Step Five - Book Promotion (cont'd)

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Jul 5, 1999

Post-publication activities occur after your publication date and for the life of your book. The goal of post-publication promotion is to get your book to your audience. This will include a combination of publicity, advertising, distribution, and perseverance. I have come across numerous people who can't wait to get to this part of the self-publishing process. Many think that this is by far the most fun and easiest part.

Book promotion can be a fun and rewarding part of the process if you keep it in perspective. Remember before that I said that your most lucrative outlets might not be the traditional markets (e.g., bookstores). Depending on what type of book you have written, you may have alternate markets to explore. Be open to exploring all possible markets, you never know when one might lead to more opportunities.

Our budgets are still fairly strict, so when it comes to book promotion, the best policy is "try to get as much free publicity as possible." John Kremer's book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books is a great resource to use for finding ways to get the word out about your book. Here are some of the best free promotion tactics for promoting your book:

Continue sending press releases

Continue to announce your book to the media - locally and nationally. If there are new tie-ins or new events that have happened with the release of your book or for your publishing company, tell the media about it.

Send an e-mail announcement

The idea behind e-mail announcements is to target organizations and associations that might be interested in your specific topic. Please don't SPAMM! I recently conducted an e-mail promotion campaign and although I didn't think it was SPAMMING, I soon received plenty of "hate" mail telling me that I was. Be aware of what you're sending and to whom.

Send review copies to trade journals, media, associations, and trade reviewers

This is the same process that was used for the Advance Review Copy package accept they are not "advanced" and the galley can be in the form of a finished book. Don't feel that you have to send a book to everybody, be a little bit discriminating in who will receive one. If you feel that a particular organization or media contact will give you a favorable review, send them a review copy and other pertinent material. If you send a book, make sure you have a stamp or sticker on the inside cover stating "Review Copy - Not for Re-Sale."

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