Promote that Book!

One great thing about my sister, well there are several great things about my sister that it boggles the mind to decide which sheer genius aspect to reflect upon at any given moment; however, at this moment I am going to reflect upon her amazing design and creative talent when it comes to promotional materials. That’s right we are all about the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival bling! We will have bookmarks, buttons, magnets and posters, perhaps even t-shirts and Willow May calendars. Okay, maybe I am getting a bit a head of myself here, but I have been keeping an eye out for promotional opportunities.

I jot the ideas down in emails and send them to myself to put in my Willow May promo file or if it is from an article in the paper or magazine I cut it out and drop it into a file. I also picked up a couple of books on marketing your book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer and The Frugal Book Promoter, How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t by Caroline Howard-Johnson. They both list valuable promotional tips you may not have thought of and provide a wealth resource information. Caroline Howard-Johnson also has a great newsletter, Sharing with Writers, that comes out weekly with lots of promotion ideas and inspiration too. You can sign–up through her website, http://carolynhoward-johnson.com/. Another helpful book for online marketing is Plug Your Book, Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber. In addition, I stumbled across a Yahoo Group that also provides an overwhelming wealth of information. The group is mainly for those who are starting up their own small publishing companies, but I have found they give a lot of promotional and marketing advice, book signing tips, as well as providing a ton of resources. The group is http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing/. You might want to sign-up on digest mode as they are a very active list. Let’s see, oh yes, one more for those of you who are not the sister to the illustrious illustrator and designer, Pamela McCarville, the book Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers by Pete Masterson. This should be required reading for all involved in the book publishing process whether directly involved or not with the actual production and designing process.