You need to realize that you, as the author, are the
essence of our efforts to sell your book. If your book is nonfiction, they
are buying your expertise. Therefore, you are the most effective
salesperson for your book. If your book is fiction, people
that read the book are your fans. Many people will buy your book because
they like you. When people find an author they like, they continue
to read novels by that author. As the publisher, we will help, and we have
a lot of energy and expertise in this area. We will promote you, book
venues for you, make contacts for you, and provide support materials. But ultimately the book
will succeed the best if you put your heart and soul into selling it
yourself. You need to do the book signings, interviews, speeches, and promote
the book any way you know how.
Your personal efforts are especially critical in marketing
fiction. For example, we can call a radio station and book a nonfiction
author based on the producer's interest in the subject matter. However,
for a fiction author, the producer is interested in the author's
personality rather than the subject matter. The producer often makes that
decision on the spot by personally speaking with the author. Thus, we have
had experiences where we have called a radio show and been unable to book
an author, but if the author calls the show, the producer booked her on
the spot because she portrayed an engaging personality.
There are some costs involved. There will be review copies of
your book that need to be sent out, press materials, mailings, and other
expenses. We bear these costs. We cultivate relationships with reviewers and
media outlets, and that is part of the services that we are best in a position
to provide.
However, for certain types of costs, we will ask that you share them with us,
because we will both profit. For travel expenses, particularly, unless you have
a blockbuster title, it simply doesn't pay us to send you on an all-expense-paid
tour. But, if you can work
appearances into other travel plans, it can make sense. So we will work with you
on that. Radio interview "tours" can be conducted from your home via telephone,
and we spend a good portion of our budget promoting you as an expert guest for
radio talk shows.
Certainly, if there is a rare opportunity for an influential
PR event,
we'll do whatever we can to get you there.
Many writers and publishers hire public relations firms. More
and more public relations firms are specializing in books. Some authors decide
to hire a public relations agent to assist in promoting their books. We will not
take offense if you decide to do that, and we will then coordinate our efforts
with your agent.
Have advance copies of your book available
One key part of a public relations effort is getting your
book, in advance, to the right people. Six to sixteen weeks before the
publication date, we send bound galleys of the book to selected book review and
specialized media, and to authors, critics, and experts for quotes. Reviews,
interviews, feature stories, and mentions are timed to appear on or close to the
official publication date, though some reviewers prefer to see the book in its
final form, after its release. Follow-up publicity is continued for the selling
life of the book. If you come across the names of any people who are potential
reviewers for your book, please let us know and we will send them a review copy
with the appropriate supporting materials.
Sometimes, quotes from critics and authorities may be
received in time to be used on the cover and/or in advertising and press materials.
Usually, however, they appear near or after the release date of the book, which
is too late to be used on the cover for the first printing, at least. It's best
to pursue potential cover endorsements early, among people who are recognized
experts in the subject matter of your book.
Use of the media
Almost all authors dream of being a guest on a prominent
national show. If that's your goal, the best course of action is to begin with
local media outlets. Can you interest local radio and TV shows? If those
interviews go well, that can help you in cultivating other interviews. But even
in the absence of bookings with national shows, you can have great success by
promoting the book on local shows all over the country. For almost all of our
authors, we will make efforts to book you as a guest on various shows. For
fiction authors, the producers want to hear how you come across on the
telephone, and so it is most effective if you call the stations yourself. We
will provide you with information from our radio station database—names and
phone numbers of producers in any state, and then will follow up to provide
press materials to the station, and coordinate with local bookstores to be able
to have your books for sale in that locality.
Do you have interview skills? If you don't, let's address that early on. (See
our page on talk show tips.) We can
help groom you for an interview. There are a few basic rules you need to get
firmly implanted in your head and practice so that, under the pressure of the camera and/or
microphone, you'll make a good impression.
Newspapers are an excellent source of book publicity. A favorable book review
can be worth many times more than the same number of column inches purchased as
an advertisement. And don't just limit yourself to the book review staff at the
newspaper. Is your book about a health-related topic? Then it would be a logical
subject for the health editor. The same is true for books about computers,
business, gardening, home-building, etc. Any of these nonfiction areas would be
of interest to their respective editors in your local, regional, or possibly
national newspapers.
Magazines, also, are great candidates for book publicity. As
an author, you are considered an expert in the subject matter of your book. Find
out what magazines are published in your subject area and then approach them
with articles that you can write for them. Often these articles can simply be
chapters from your book, altered somewhat to fit the audience and the magazine
format. When they publish your article, those magazines will
usually mention your book in your byline.
Besides the topical interest, you are a news item yourself in your home-town
newspaper. Don't overlook the interest that may be generated in your town as a
local author. Your college alumni magazine, your professional organization and
others may also have interest. Media outlets that cover the market area of your
book's setting will also be particularly interested.
Media outlets in larger markets often want to see evidence that you know how
to handle yourself on camera or in front of a microphone. You can provide this
for them by starting in smaller markets and then obtaining tapes of your
appearances. If you do well for the little guys, your results could mushroom!
Use the Internet
There are three key ways to publicize your book on the
Internet. First, you should definitely have an author's web site. If you don't
know how to set one up yourself, go to
Register.com and they will help you with all the details. Or Yahoo! has a
web site hosting plan called GeoCities
Pro where they will host your site and give you easy-to-use design tools. Once
you have your web site, we can help you promote it.
Second, use online discussion groups. Both
Yahoo! and
Google sponsor a huge number of
discussion groups on every topic imaginable. Find one that relates to your book
and join it. Or set up your own group with you, the author-expert, as the host.
Once on the group, be tasteful in how you let the members of the group know that
you have written a book on the subject. Be sure also that you adhere to the
group etiquette about commercial promotions on the group. Some groups allow
unfettered self-promotion, others ban such practices. Read their rules
carefully.
Third, use online booksellers. Get your friends to write
reviews of your book for Amazon and the online Barnes and Noble store. There are
also tools these sites have available for promoting books, such as
Listmania--explore these. Your friends can also review other popular books
written about your subject matter and mention your book in that review as a way
to get the word out.
Events that can help publicize your book
Consider throwing a party or an "event" to publicize your book. Is your book
about animals? How about hosting a party/news conference at the zoo? Is it about
sports? Try an event at a sports stadium. With a little imagination and
intriguing invitations, you can get an event that will interest the skeptical,
sophisticated media-types.
Consider speaking engagements. While you may not be up to large audiences,
you will find that service clubs and other organizations are often hungry for lunch-time speakers.
These events are informal, which takes the pressure off somewhat for
inexperienced speakers. In addition to getting a chance to promote your book, you'll
often be treated to a free lunch! Other organizations and newspapers may be on
the lookout for speakers, also. If your book has already been published, it
wouldn't hurt to bring a few copies along with you for sale. Remember, also,
that those who attend these functions are often well-connected opinion leaders,
so don't measure the audience only by the number of bodies.
How about word-of-mouth publicity?
Have you ever been told by a publishing house that they plan to rely on
"word-of-mouth" publicity? While it's true that word-of-mouth is the most
effective publicity for a book, often publishing houses are saying this as a
polite way to tell you that they have "no publicity budget." If there is no public
relations activity, there is nothing to start the word-of-mouth publicity. The
way to get people talking about your book is to have an effective public
relations plan. At Mapletree Publishing Company, we'll always help you with this—this
is one of our areas of expertise.
