5 Tips: Writing for Book Promotion
Many authors think that once they have written their book, the hard work is over. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Whether you decide to go through a publishing house or self publish your book, getting information out into the world about your book is the most important thing that you can do.
You work on a book because you wanted people to read it, but unless you have a magic wand and can make your book appear on every coffee table in the world, you have to do work in order to get your book discovered and in front of potential readers. Since you are a writer, take advantage of that fact and use your skills to write articles about your book in order to get it noticed.
1. Free publicity.
The best part about writing articles and posting them online is that the process is free. By subscribing to a few online ezine sites you can post your information and make it available to millions of viewers. Make sure that you include links to where the book can be purchased and your personal author website. This is a great way to get publicity for your writing and your newly released book. Plus, this type of publicity will be an ongoing source for your writing career.
Here is one great example of an online source of free publicity for a published book: http://www.expatbookshop.com/book-news/jo-parfitts-books-recommended-in-malaysias-the-star/
2. Exposure.
No matter if you are going through a publishing house or self publishing, you need exposure. The world of publishing has changed. Once upon a time you needed to get your books into the bookstores, travel around for book signings, and keep your feet on the street. Although these things are important for modern publishing, what is more important is showing that you are savvy to the current publishing trends; this means, using the Internet to the fullest.
The more exposure you create for yourself, the more places your information can be found the more attention you are going to get. When people find your information online and it is clear that you are Internet savvy, they are going to be more likely to order from your site and potentially order more than just your recent release.
Information online is free and readily available, so you need to make sure that you can offer something new, eye catching and interesting for your potential clients to read. Just regurgitating information that can be found anywhere else won’t be enough.
Here is another clear example of article writing for book exposure: http://www.expatbookshop.com/expert-guest-articles/forex-expert-tells-us-why-he-thinks-the-euro-will-survive/
3. Magazine articles can get you niche market attention.
Article writing is simple because you can take one simple idea and spin it several times so that the information stays the same, but it is written differently for each place you submit the article. One of the places where you can submit articles are paper magazines. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of niche market magazines where you can get your book information right to your ideal reader.
If you write in the horror genre send your promotional articles to magazines that cater to the horror niche reader. This is going to insure that your articles are read by people who are interested in the horror niche. This is a smart way of getting your information in front of the
right people. Plus, these magazines will often pay a small stipend for articles that are published in their magazines.
4. Magazine articles can get you in front of other markets.
Yes, publishing your articles in niche market magazines is going to insure that your information is in front of people who hold an interest in your niche, but what about related niche markets? If you have written a book about the history of Hawaii, you might consider sending your promotional articles to travel magazines. Someone who is planning a vacation to Hawaii might be interested in learning a little about the history of the islands.
Allow your thinking to go a little outside of your market niche and you will find that you get attention from areas you never would have expected.
5.Develop a plan.
Just like in any writing process you want to have a plan for how you will approach the potential article promotions. Research the best places to send your writing and make sure that anything you write falls within their publishing guidelines. Study the market and make sure that you are sending information to the correct people.
Write a clear and well written cover letter and make sure that you address it to the appropriate contact person. A good query letter is going to cover the points of your article and explain why they should publish what you have written and not what someone else might have sent to them.
