We've made it all the way to the end! This lesson, I think, is the most fun of all.
LESSON FIVE – PROMOTIONS IN 25 WORDS
Publicity is using the media to create relevant exposure for your book. Marketing is building awareness that your book exists. So … what is Promotion?
Easy! Promotion is the activity around which you sell your book! Note the word “activity”. This is NOT something you can sit back and hope happens. Promotion is the action that makes the sales.
Whether you promote your book on twitter, facebook, through internet organizations and groups, in live environments or with face-to-face engagements, it’s very important that you think about promotion as something surgically attached to your manuscript.
It always amazed me when an author asks, “But how should I promote my book? I can’t afford to buy advertising or a gross of coffee mugs or even bookmarks! I can’t think of any thing! Oh me, oh my, what shall I doooooooooooooo!” (I call it the author whine.) The answer is so simple and it has nothing to do with advertising or merchandising or even the cost of printing bookmarks. See, ads and coffee mugs and bookmarks are vehicles for promotion … they are not promotion.
Let me break this down a little further. Just because some author purchased and gave away 1,000 printed tee shirts does not mean that the tee shirts sold books. Promotion isn’t about what you use to get the message across, it has to do with how the approach you use hooks your book into a prospective buyer’s mind. It an activity that perks ears and raises interest. A tee shirt might not be appropriate or correct for your particular book. How do we know?
LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK YOU WROTE.
See, everything you need to promote your book is right on the pages of your book.
We’ve talked about connecting charities to our book and how it should make sense, well the same thing goes with promotion. It HAS to make sense! A cozy murder mystery whose heroine is an avid gardener should not be promoted with imprinted red ink pens, anymore than a novel about accounting discrepancies that place the hero in prison should not be promoted with packets of flower seeds. Everything you do, say and present in connection with your book MUSE MAKE SENSE or it becomes lost in the sea of tacky merchandising.
Your promotional vehicle of choice could be a nice canvas tote bags, coffee mugs or clever tee shirts. You wouldn’t be the first to use those ideas but hey … aren’t we creative thinkers? Didn’t we just write an entire 90,000 word novel? The perfect 25 word pitch, a great press release and sound bite? Why should any of us settle for old, tired ideas?
Today I challenge you to go further, think deeper and excavate the perfect promotional concept that is completely unique to YOUR book. Something that ties in as an item, or event theme, or even fundraising concept. Something no other author will do because it will only represents your book and no one else’s.
Some thoughts to lead you from the common ground:
Does your main character love tropical fish, airplanes, gambling, beer?
Does your story take place someplace with horses, or elephants, or lizards or earthquakes?
Does your story have a unique flavor or color or scent?
Does your plot involve a knife, or piece of fruit, or particular kind of car or specific obsession?
Does your character love cookies or coffee or brownies or white chocolate or garlic?
What is it about your book that is so connected to the plot and characters that you can pull it into a promotional concept?
Now take your unique promotional concept, blend in your sound bite or 25 word pitch, and be as amazingly creative you are. Let’s see what you got.
Future Workshops by Deborah Riley-Magnus at SavvyAuthors.com. Please join me, and come follow me at twitter or friend me at facebook!
LESSON FIVE, Promotions in 25 Words
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