Naleighna Kai - The Marketing Stuff: Presenting Your Book to the World

This book is companion to both The Write Stuff and The Blueprint for Writing & Publishing. Each one can be enjoyed for each stage of your writing and publishing journey.

LEVEL UP YOUR BOOK MARKETING & PROMOTION

B y J.L Campbell, National Best-Selling Author of 40+ books, including King of Evanston, Knight of Paradise Island, and Queen of Kingston.

Path to Publishing: My short stories were first published through Bookends, the lifestyle pages of the Jamaica Observer. I joined an online writing critique workshop and tried my hand at writing novels, while studying the craft by reading books and hundreds of articles. After gaining three contracts with two small publishers in 2009, my first novel, Contraband, was published in 2010.

Youve written your book, had it edited, bought a cover, and now youre at the back end of the process. Whether or not you have a large budget for promotion and marketing, its a good idea to start building a promotional plan of action from the get-go. Because of the intensity of the writing process, many writers wait for the eleventh hour to start promoting, which is a disservice to their books.

While it may be challenging to go full throttle on promotion while youre writing, theres nothing with updating readers on where you are in the storyline and when you expect to finish. While thats happening, dont limit the ways in which you can sell your book. Here are some ideas you can try that will help get more eyes on your book.

• As soon as you have a cover, aside from blasting it around on all your social media hangouts, be sure to upload it in places where readers congregate. Think places like Library Thing and Goodreads. You can upload your books, establish an author page, post reviews, and ask questions that will serve as conversation starters. You can also ask your followers to add the book to Goodreads.

• Create some buzz around your book by writing a press release. Approach your local newspaper and see if they would be open to sharing news about your book on their lifestyle or literary pages. Talk about what makes it unique and share your message. An online search will help you find places that will welcome your article. With some publications, its as easy as uploading your material. In other cases, you submit and wait for a response.

• Your website is an important part of your publicity toolbox. Its where readers can find you online and if you write blog posts, people will know where to discover what youll be publishing next. The same goes for your newsletter. This is one of the most important tools we have as authors. When you have a direct link to your readers, theres no need to rely on social media to stay connected to them. You have a captive audience to share the details of your writing life, upcoming projects, and any other big news. If you havent yet started a newsletter, dont wait another day to put that together. Offer an incentive (like a short story) to get people to join. You wont regret it.

• Consider a book signing. Check out local book stores and find out whether they would be open to hosting you or if they have literary events where you can participate. Dont discount libraries, as you may be able to do a reading during one of their events. If they have a roster of activities, it would help to stay in the know. Also think about literary festivals, if they have them in your area. This is another way to have more people become aware of who you are and what you write.

• Book clubs are a writers dream. Depending on the size of the membership, you can offer group discounts if they purchase from you, prepare sell sheets about your book, and provide bonus material. When book enthusiasts fall in love with your work, they cant help talking about it with their peers and other book club members. As they say, word of mouth is the best form of advertising.

• A few years ago, blog tours used to be very popular and even now there are still many bloggers. If you dont want to pay someone to arrange a virtual tour, think about contacting ten to fifteen persons who you know run popular blogs. Or, you can use a Google sheet and ask people to sign up. Figure out what you what to do at each stop. Some individuals have questions prepared to host/interview authors. Do something different at each stop. You can provide giveaways for people who leave comments on your post. This will only cost you time to put together and your book will be in front of a variety of readers. You never know where your next super-fan will come from. If you dont want to do this yourself, you can hire specialists to do it for you.

• Conferences and workshops are great for meeting important people in the literary world, but it is just as vital to find out what writers associations exist in your area, what they offer to members, and how you can become involved. Most have monthly meetings where you can connect with other authors. Who knows, aside from the wealth of information you gain, you can also find like-minded writers who become your critique partners.

• Podcasts, radio and television interviews are also great ways of staying in front of your audience. Some of us may shy away from the spotlight, but people are interested, not only in the stories we write, but also the person behind the books. Dont discount the opportunities that come your way. When I had three books published, a PR expert who was a friend shared one of them with the host of a local morning television programme. They agreed to an interview and I put my reluctance aside, appeared on national television and as a result, the local library bought fifty copies for their branches. Did I expect that to happen? No, but Im happy it did.