The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

How to promote a book about writing

5 Responses

1. M Catlett Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 1:01 am

   Seems like Five Fast Steps is a natural tie-in to a walkathon where you can pair up with a local fundraiser –or some sort of toddler race for fun and emphasizing “getting off to a good fast start”

2. Carey Giudici Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 4:22 am

   Enrich your publicity campaign with a cross-generational educational activity.

   Contact your local Boys & Girls Club or a similar organization that has after school programs for 12- to 14-year-olds. These clubs are usually looking for something different to offer kids, and can always use publicity. Arrange to bring in one or two writers who’ve successfully used your techniques. Then let them share their thoughts on the pleasures of writing (and reading) in a group interview. Invite the local media to cover this cross-generational dialogue between young people and some adults who’ve discovered that writing doesn’t have to be hard. Remember to take plenty of photos!

   An alternate venue might be a local festival, street fair etc.

   When I set up a cross-generational oral history project for this age group here in Georgia, I was inspired by the kids’ spontaneous interest in creative writing. If you record the conversations you might also use excerpts and photos in an extra promotional flyer or handout for your book.

3. Julie Hood Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 9:00 am

   Hi Barbara,

   Here are a few ideas for you:

   1) Offer copies of your book (or even five copies!) to some of the popular online writer’s newsletters to give away to their subscribers. Two that come to mind are AbsoluteWrite.com and WritersGazette.com.

   2) Conduct a teleseminar. You could do a free one to promote the book, or offer it as a class/upsell to the book.

   3) Host a chat session. I did one with the Institute of Children’s Literature this summer, and we had a wonderful time ( http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/tr01/hood.shtml ).

   4) Do you like to travel? Check out book festivals and writer’s conferences where you could be a featured speaker. http://writing.shawguides.com/ and http://www.booktv.org/misc/book_fair_events.asp

   Hope that helps! And congrats on 20 years!

   Best,
   Julie Hood

4. Angie Pedersen Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 9:25 am

   I’d consider two things:
   A Virtual Book Tour online, visiting different writing websites and communities over the course of a week, where you could do chats, interviews, and/or book reviews. If you do a chat, you could offer a copy of your book as a prize at the end of chat. Or offer a contest where site visitors submit a writing sample, and you either choose the best one for a prize, or just do a random drawing. I did one this spring, and was able to reach literally thousands of people directly in my target audience — much better numbers than during a ‘real-life’ book tour.

   Second, I’d try to book speaking engagements perhaps through local community colleges’ writing labs, or see if you could be a guest speaker during an English 101 class. You might also offer a basic writing article for the writing labs to post on their website, with a link back to your site. You could also see if there are any local writers’ groups, and see about the possibility of speaking at one of their meetings.

   Good luck!

5. Janice Mark Says:
   October 26th, 2005 at 7:31 pm

   Offer an image of the book cover in graphic format. This makes the item “feel” real to the reader of the promotional material - whether it is online or in paper promos.

   Also, join up with some of the online community networks that are looking for new material as services to their membership and as interesting topics for the meetings, such as the Network for Empowering Women - and give a little tele-class through their network of which at the end of the tele-class you would offer a time-sensitive promo code for purchase of the book. Wishing you great success;
   J

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