Now that you have finished your book, and it is ready to be shopped around to publishers (or has already been bought by a publisher!) it’s time to think about what you can do to help promote your book.
Reviews!
- Get everyone you know to review your book on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Though the impact of webstores on overall sales is negligible, they have helped launch countless titles because of its pervasive influence on book-browsers as well as booksellers. AEI can help you do this effectively if you sign up with www.pennyterk.com and agree to give free copies of the book to the first xx visitors who agree to read it and post a review.
- Whether you do it through your publisher, your publicist, or your own personal sweat equity, make sure “galley copies” (aka “Advanced Reading Copies, or ARCs”) go to book review editors at, as appropriate:
- Kirkus Reviews
- Publishers Weekly
- Book List
LA Times
SF Chronicle
B & N.com
BookReporter.com
Salon.com
American Way Magazine (in flight Magazine for American Airlines)
Esquire
GQ
Giant Magazine
Book Page
Entertainment Weekly
People
FHM Magazine
Hollywood Reporter
Men's Journal
UAS Today
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun Times
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
Pages magazine
Time
Newsweek
Time Out NY
AP
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Boston Globe
Creative Screenwriting
Dallas Morning News
Contra Costa Times
Denver Post
LA Daily News
San Diego Union Tribune
San Jose Mercury News
Miami Herald
Minneapolis Star Tribune
NY Daily News
NY Post
Orange County Register
Philadelphia Inquirer
Variety
Seattle Times
Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
Deadly Pleasures
SciFiHaven.com
Locus
Fantasy & Sci Fi
CFQ
Starlog
Interzone
Cinefantasy
several major freelancers such as Tom Nolan, Merle Rubin, Dick Adler, Harriet Klausner
Others as appropriate to your particular title—e.g., Today’s Black Woman, Black Star News, Black Reign magazine, Ebony, Black Essence, etc.
One of our star clients, Larry Thompson, came up with the idea of contacting an airport bookstore distributor directly—and succeeded in setting up several in-airport signings—moving 85 books at one! See the following email exchange:
From: Richard Lotti [mailto:Richard.Lotti@THEPARADIESSHOPS.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 3:18 PM
To: Larry D. Thompson
Subject: RE: Book Signing
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Our Book Store Manager, Sosena Girma, will be contacting you to arrange for the best time for you to do a book signing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry D. Thompson [mailto:ldt@lorancethompson.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:20 AM
To: Richard Lotti
Subject: Book Signing
Good morning, Richard. I am the author of So Help Me God, a courtroom thriller that your shops around the country have been carrying for the past two months. I have done successful book signings at OKC and DFW. We sold about 85 books at OKC (not a major airport as you know) and about 125 at DFW (I invite you to contact Lynn Allmon there for a recommendation, both as to my performance and the book, which he very much enjoyed). Now, I would like to schedule a book signing at one of your highly trafficed locations at LaGuardia on a Friday. If that is feasible, please contact me to coordinate a mutually convenient date. I will bear my own expenses. All you will need to provide will be a table and the books. Thanks.
Larry D. Thompson
www.larrydthompson.com
713 857 5940
Here’s a service offered by Kirkus that we believe is well worth the money:
Has Your Book Been Overlooked? Do You Need Exposure?
Do You Want to Be Discovered?
For the first time in 73 years, Kirkus is offering a new review service, giving a whole new class of writers the opportunity to get attention for their books and giving rights and acquisitions agents the chance to watch out for books that might interest them. Any book is fair game, whether conventionally published, self-published, e-published, published via Print-On-Demand, or not previously published at all.
Kirkus Discoveries is a paid review service that allows authors and publishers of overlooked titles to receive authoritative, careful assessment of their books.
Here's how it works:
- A review is commissioned ($350 per title) from the Discoveries team, who assigns the book to one person within the Kirkus pool of professional reviewers, who in turn provides an honest, caveat-emptor evaluation, under the same impartial rubric as Kirkus Reviews.
- The review, written in the same format and style as a traditional Kirkus review, is sent to the author or publisher as a PDF. (Allow 8-10 weeks for turnaround.) The author or publisher is free to excerpt the review or reprint it in whole as part of any promotional or marketing material, whether print or online.
- The review is then posted on the Discoveries website (www.kirkusdiscoveries.com), which has a niche audience of agents, rights representatives, booksellers, librarians and film and TV producers. At the request of the author or publisher, the review may be withheld from the website.
- Reviews are eligible for inclusion in the monthly Kirkus Discoveries monthly eNewsletter, which highlights the best submissions to the program, at no extra cost. That HTML newsletter goes to a targeted base of subscribers, most of whom are looking for the rights-including both print and film-to books and unpublished manuscripts.Click here to signup for the free monthly Kirkus Discoveries eNewsletter!
Sign up for Google Alerts, they are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. You can see who's talking about you and post comments for them and their readers. It's a great way to network!
Continue reading part three
Read PUBLICIZING YOUR BOOK Suggestions for Success from the beginning.
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