ideas4writers - free articles - Easy ways to market books

Over 3,000 people are registered at my old school on Friends Reunited (http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk). They might be interested in my book. But the rules forbid using the service to send commercial messages. Unless... you donate a percentage from each book to the school. Now the messages are about raising funds for the school, and Friends Reunited have confirmed that these messages are perfectly acceptable. Just ask people to mention Friends Reunited when they order a copy from you, so you know how much to donate to the school. Don't limit yourself to the people who were in your class; contact ex-pupils from other years too.

There are a couple of drawbacks though. (a) There's a daily limit of 200 messages and you can only send one at a time, so you'll need to do a lot of copy-and-pasting. (b) A lot of members never update their accounts or have changed their email addresses since they registered. Still, you should get a few extra sales for not much effort.

Be sure to let the school know what you're doing. They'll give you some extra publicity in their newsletters. It might even get a mention in the local newspaper - especially if you tell them about it and send them a review copy of the book!

2. More school fundraising

You could also raise funds for your old school without using Friends Reunited. Simply contact the school and let them know that you'd like to donate a percentage from the sale of each book. Ask them to help spread the word and include a notice about it in the newsletters that the children take home. Again, it should be fairly easy to get the story about your fundraising efforts into local newspapers.

You could also attend fairs and open days at the school, give talks and readings, and sign copies of your book, again with a percentage going to the school.

3. Not so local newspapers

I mentioned letting local newspapers know about your book. By local I mean the place where you live now. But have you always lived there? In a quick survey of thirty people, only four had been born in this county, and only two had always lived in the same town. So chances are you were born and raised somewhere else. So contact the local newspapers for that area too whenever you have a new book out. Send a press release, a photo of yourself and a review copy of the book. In the press release let them know that you were born there, which school you went to, how long you lived there, any fond memories, and so on. Note that they'll be far more interested in you than in your book, but they will at least give it a mention.

4. New web services such as MySpace and YouTube

http://www.myspace.com
http://www.youtube.com

It costs nothing to register with these services and you can post an unlimited number of video and audio recordings on your page. One of the most popular recent videos was an old guy talking about his life. Thousands of people have listened to his stories - and as far as I'm aware he hasn't even written a book! Record yourself reading a chapter or two from your book and post it on one of these sites - and make sure you mention that your book is available for purchase.

You can liven up your videos by including images that illustrate the story rather than you just sitting there reading the book. Still images are perfectly acceptable. You can even get children to draw them for you - they don't have to be wonderful, just interesting and colourful. For non-fiction books you should be able to come up with some interesting and appropriate images to display during your talk.

If you remember the children's TV show "Jackanory" you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

5. Carry a copy around with you.

Always carry a copy of your book with you, and hold it so people can see the front cover. If you're sitting down for any length of time, such as on a bus or train, or in a waiting room, pretend to read it. Hold it so everyone can see what you're reading, and do so with a huge smile on your face. If it's funny (or even mildly amusing), laugh out loud from time to time - snorting, tears rolling down your face, that sort of thing. If anyone asks about the book, give them the details. Make sure you've got a pen and notepad with you so you can write it down for them. I don't recommend handing out pre-printed cards as that will look too suspicious.

Take a copy of your book with you whenever you go out anywhere - meals, meetings, reunions, family occasions, and so on. You never know when you might bump into someone who asks what you're up to these days. Show them a copy of your book. It might be just the thing they're looking for, or they might know someone who could help you sell more copies. In fact take a couple of spares - you might sell the only copy you brought along to the first person you meet.

6. Waiting rooms etc

Think of places where people have to sit around and wait: doctors' surgeries, dentists, hairdressers, and so on. Arrange to have a copy of your book there for patrons to peruse while they wait - it'll make a change from the out-of-date magazines. Put a big sticker in the book saying it's the property of whichever establishment it is, to discourage theft. Also mention that the book is available for sale at the reception desk. Have some copies on display on the reception desk too if possible. Give the establishment a percentage from each sale.

Don't make the establishment buy copies from you in advance. Let them have a few to sell, then they can pay you your share of the money once they've sold them, keep their percentage, and return any unsold ones after an agreed period. Make sure they have your contact details in case they sell out and want some more.

7. Write articles or short stories - and give them away

Choose one of the topics or incidents from your book and turn it into an article or short story. You might think of getting a magazine to publish it - then they'll pay you for publishing it, and it'll advertise your book at the same time. But if they don't want to pay you, let them publish it anyway. You're demonstrating your expertise and showing off your writing skills, so it's still a great advertisement for your book - and much cheaper than advertising. Make sure the magazine prints details about you and your book at the end of the article or story.

You don't have to limit yourself to magazines. There are plenty of websites and newsletters that need good material but don't have the resources to pay for it. Each of these might have a few hundred or a few thousand readers, but if lots of sites use your material that soon adds up to a lot of readers - and a lot of potential buyers.

You can also put a copy on your own website (you do have one don't you?) and allow people to reprint it or redistribute it in any way that they wish as long as they include your details at the end.

8. Exchange articles for advertising

Another way of using articles and stories is to exchange them for advertising space. It pays to be flexible here. Offer to wait until they have some advertising space they can't fill. You might get a larger amount of space than you'd expected.

9. Get other people to help

You can multiply your marketing effort considerably by getting your partner or a few friends or relatives to help you do some of the things mentioned above. Get them to contact their old school friends on Friends Reunited, for example, and donate a percentage to their school rather than yours. They can send out a message such as "My friend has written a book and kindly agreed to donate xx to our old school for each copy sold." They can also carry copies around and be seen enjoying your book in busy public places.

10. The rule of seven

According to marketing experts, most buyers need to hear about your book seven times on average before they buy it. So see if you can come up with some ideas on how to follow up each of the tips mentioned above. For example:

Rather than settling for one big advert in exchange for your article you might be able to agree a whole series of smaller ones.
If someone asks for details about your book, get their contact details (especially their email address) and send them more information, special offers, articles, bonuses, and so on every few weeks until you've contacted them at least seven times.
If you manage to get your name into a local newspaper once then you can do it again. See if you can find a way to appear regularly in that newspaper - at least seven times. You could send in follow-up information about your school fundraising activities, announce that you're giving a talk or reading at the school or at the local library, make an appeal for information for your next book, and anything else you can think of.

About the author:
Dave Haslett is the founder of ideas4writers, the ideas and inspiration website, and i4w2, the ethical self-publishing service. He is the author of "The Fastest Way to Write Your Book". For more details please visit: http://www.ideas4writers.co.uk

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