Marketing tip for today: Writers, today we’re going to ask you to consider who you may know, or who your family may know, who could help you market your book.
Maybe there’s someone in your circle of friends and acquaintances who is in the media. A radio DJ? A regular blogger? An editor?
What if this editor is not in the right place to be useful for your book? For example, maybe your book is a novel and the editor is writes about health care.
You’d be amazed at how much a friend can help you with advice and connections of his or her own. Make it part of your marketing plan to contact each person you know or your family knows who might know someone who could help you. Keep calling until you get the advice you need.
Here are some very open-ended questions you can ask:
Can you give me ideas about how to get coverage of my upcoming book?
Would you like to read my upcoming book?
Is there anyone you know who could help me get coverage of my upcoming book?
Put these calls at the top of your marketing agenda, to be done soon after you sign your contract. Some of the ideas you get may take ample time to execute. For example, if your contact knows the person who does reviews for the Sunday paper, the reviewer probably needs at least three or four months’ lead time to review a book.
Of course, you also will be sending out a press release to the book reviewer touting your book or perhaps even enclosing it, but the personal connection makes all the difference.