How can you help promote a new book?
I'm often asked by my faithful readers and friends who've received promotional copies of my book or who've enjoyed my books and just want to get the word out to others, “How can I help promote your book?”
Oh, thank you for offering! There are so many ways to help spread the word and start a "buzz" about a new book and you'll never know how much the author appreciates readers who do that!
Not everyone will feel comfortable or have the means to drop leaflets while parachuting from an airplane, but on the list below, you’ll find at least one thing that will be a perfect fit with the ways God has gifted you.
•Write a review for the book on online bookstores such as:
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com
http://www.christianbook.com
•Write a review at one of the many online book review sites, including:
http://www.acfw.com/bookreviews.shtml
http://www.faithfulreader.com/wom/wom.asp
http://www.epinions.com
•At http://www.christianbook.com you can recommend books via an e-mail link that will take your friends right to the page of the book you’re promoting.
•Recommend the book as a featured title for an area book discussion group. This is especially appropriate if the book has discussion questions in the back.
•Start a discussion about the book on your blog or on e-mail loops you’re a part of.
•If you have a website or write a newsletter, consider featuring novels you’ve read and enjoyed.
•Add the book to your list of favorites on myspace, facebook, or other online communities.
•After reading and reviewing the book, give it away as a prize in a drawing on your website or blog.
•If you have a unique perspective—for instance, personal experience with the book’s topic, a man offering a male perspective for a women’s fiction book, etc.—offer your insights in venues that might not ordinarily hear about the book.
•Donate your influencer copy to your public library or church library when you’re finished reading it. Better yet, share your copy in other ways and buy a second copy for the library.
•Print out a review you’ve written, or other reviews of the book and give them to your public or church librarians for consideration.
•Offer to distribute bookmarks and/or postcards for the author or publisher. Public libraries, church libraries, bookstores and gift shops are usually happy to have giveaways on their counters.
•Ask your church if you could tuck postcards or bookmarks in the morning service bulletin some Sunday.
•Place bookmarks or postcards about the book at each place setting as favors for a luncheon or banquet.
•Hang out in your local bookstore and “hand sell” the book by talking it up to customers shopping in the fiction department.
•Talk to the clerks in any bookstores and libraries you visit and ask if they carry the book. If not give them a short book report and recommend they order a few copies.
•When visiting bookstores, do a little creative rearranging to turn the book face out on the shelves. Use good judgment and don’t hide one book to promote another. Also keep in mind that in some stores front-table space is paid for by the publisher, so don’t “steal.”
•Offer to write a book review for your church newsletter, neighborhood newspaper or any other printed source that might reach readers.
•At your next women’s retreat, volunteer to organize a book table, where you will feature the book.
•Offer to organize a blog tour for the author, setting up a week when numerous blogs will feature the book and interviews with the author.
•When you’re finished with the book, tuck it into a gift basket for someone who is ill or in the hospital; or take it to your next dinner party as a hostess gift.
•Leave the book in a waiting room where someone with a few extra minutes might start reading it.
•Prison ministries are always looking for wholesome books to distribute. Check out groups like Prison Book Project.
•Word-of-mouth is still probably the number one way books hit bestseller lists, so simply start conversations about the book. Tell your friends and family what you’ve been reading and why you enjoyed it so much.
•Drop leaflets as you parachute out of a plane. (Thanks to Karen Wevick for this MOST creative idea! Even though, come to find out, Karen is a member in good standing of the Big Honkin’ Chicken Club and wouldn’t agree to actually follow through on her suggestion. LOL!)
–––––––––––––––––––––––––
IF YOU LIKE... THEN YOU MIGHT LIKE....
B.J. Hoff, author of the Mountain Song Legacy series from Harvest House (and many other wonderful novels) has put together one of those "If you like _____, then try _____" lists as a way of introducing readers to some of the best in Christian fiction. I've read something from almost every author on both sides of the list, and B.J.'s comparisons are spot on:
If you like Philippa Gregory, Diana Gabaldon, and Sara Donati, try Liz Curtis Higgs, Jane Kirkpatrick, and Lynn Austin.
If you like Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes, try Kristin Billerbeck and Trish Perry.
If you like John Grisham, Harlan Coben, and Robert Parker, try James Scott Bell, Alton Gansky, and Brandt Dodson.
If you like Luanne Rice, Richard Paul Evans, Nicholas Sparks, and Anita Shreve, try Deborah Raney, Karen Kingsbury, Karen Ball, and Robin Lee Hatcher.
If you like Jodi Picoult, try Angela Hunt.
If you like John Jakes, try Jack Cavanaugh.
If you like Harper Lee and Dorothea Benton Frank, try Jamie Langston Turner and Ann Tatlock.
If you like Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman, try Lisa Samson and Patty Hickman.
If you like Pat Conroy and Leif Enger, try Athol Dickson and W. Dale Cramer.
If you like Julie Garwood and Debbie Macomber, try Lori Copeland and Diann Mills.
If you like Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Tami Hoag, and Kathy Reichs, try Colleen Coble, Terri Blackstock, Brandilyn Collins, and Dee Henderson.
If you like L.B. Graham and C.S. Lewis, try Karen Hancock and Kathy Tyers.
And please don't forget B.J. Hoff's wonderful stories about Irish immigrants! B.J.'s writing has the flavor of two of my favorite all-time authors, the late Eugenia Price and Catherine Marshall. This is a wonderful list whether you are new to Christian fiction or not.
