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Oceanside, CA - 760-630-2677 ___________________________________ What You Need to Know about Your Book's Promotion by Kim Garrison One day, God planted a seed in your heart-a desire to write a book. Then He guided you as you nurtured and cultivated that seed into maturity. Now you have a publisher (or perhaps you're self-publishing), and soon the ripened fruit of your labor will be in your hands--your book! But there's much more to be done to ensure that your harvest will benefit everyone you want it to. Now it's time to promote your book so it will reach many people and enrich their lives. The first thing to realize is that a vast spectrum of activities falls under the heading of "promotion." There is so much that could be done that some authors and speakers hire a full-time publicist (or a team of them) to focus on promoting their books! This strategy is expensive, and not everyone is suited for such a plan. On the other end of the spectrum, some books receive very little or no promotion, and in most cases, they go out of print within the first year. Chances are, the promotion of your book will fall somewhere in between these two extremes. At this point, you should know about a few resources that are especially helpful in learning about book promotion. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer is packed with great ideas for authors and publishers. You can order it directly from Open Horizons at 1-800-796-6130 or online at bookmarket.com. Kremer also produces a newsletter called "Book Marketing Update" that you may want to subscribe to. See the web site for more info. Also, You Can Market Your Book: All the Tools You Need to Sell Your Published Book by Carmen Leal is a wonderful resource. I contributed a chapter called "Writing an Interview Pitch that Gets You on the Air," and there are numerous other terrific sections. You can get this book through Christian bookstores or at the web site CarmenLeal.com. Whether or not you obtain and use these resources, you should develop a working knowledge of the basics of book promotion. Next I'll summarize some of the common elements that go into promoting a new book. Note that my comments don't include typical marketing strategies of publishers. Marketing, to me, means things like placing advertisements in magazines, as well as maximizing relationships with distributors and bookstores. The following are more commonly considered publicity efforts. Your publisher may have an in-house publicist to do some of these for you, or they may hire an outside source (like me), or it could be a combined effort. In any case, your project should receive as many of these options as possible.
If your book is "crossover" in nature, i.e. targeted to secular audiences, then all the above can be duplicated in the general media as well as the Christian. Also, newspaper coverage may be added. A Christian publishing house may hire one of the many secular publicists to handle your book's promotion in the non-religious marketplace. It is generally more expensive to do secular publicity compared to Christian. So how will you know what your publisher plans to do to promote your book? You'll probably have to ask! If you haven't been informed by the time your book's release date is 3-4 months away, ask your editor who the marketing director is at your publishing house. Get in touch with him or her, and ask what you can expect to happen in marketing and promoting your book. There will probably be another person specifically in charge of publicity, so get his or her name as well, and talk to that person. Be persistent but polite with your questions. Explain that you just want to know what they will do, so that you can plan what YOU can do. Find out if they use outside publicists, and if they'd consider hiring CLASS Promotional Services. (I wouldn't want to duplicate their efforts, though, so we'd have to compare notes.) You should be prepared to be a partner in your book's promotion. Investigate what you can do in your hometown to get exposure. If your publishing house has minimal plans to promote your book, you might even consider hiring a publicity firm, like CLASS Promotional Services. Our specialty is Christian broadcast publicity, both radio and TV. We also arrange for the CBA Convention appearances. Now you should be ready to launch into the next phase of the life of your book: the season of spreading its message far and wide. I hope this orientation to book promotion has been helpful. If you have any questions about the services I offer as a publicist, I offer a 20-minute phone consultation about your specific needs at no charge. Please feel free to e-mail me to set up a time. My e-mail address is ClassyKim@cox.net. I hope to hear from you soon! Kim Garrison is Director of Services of CLASS Promotional Services, LLC, in Oceanside, CA. She can be reached at 760-630-2677, 9 AM - 5 PM Pacific Time, or via e-mail at ClassyKim@cox.net. |
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"
CLASS is phenomenal -- the absolute best publicity
firm in America today! I've hired CLASS over and
over for years and I never lose money with them.
They always perform way above my highest
expectations. I wholeheartedly recommend them to
everyone!" "After
completing a national book tour, we told our
publisher that we wanted to continue promoting our
book, but we needed help to find a great publicist.
Our editor checked with others in the business and
came up with three names, all considered to be
terrific. Of the three, we asked CLASS Promotional
Services to represent us and we have been thrilled
with the choice. Kim Garrison has kept us busy with
interviews, and the hosts of the shows she has
arranged for us have been outstanding to work with.
If you're looking for a great publicist, consider
CLASS. We're glad we did!"
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