Nuts & Bolts
Marketing

Ten Tips to Selling Your Book

By James McGrath Morris, WIW Board Member

Publicity begins with writing and researching.
Make it a point to contact, via e-mail, telephone, snail mail or in person at least one person a day about your work. Use any excuse— “I just finished your book on mushrooms. It is going to be an immense help in my forthcoming biography of George Smith who, as you know, died from eating the wrong mushroom.”

Obtain blurbs, not a blurb, but a critical mass of blurbs.
You want your blurbs to make it hard for book review editors to ignore the work. A critical mass means obtaining as many as a dozen solid blurbs. Be persistent in finding these famous authors. Ask me sometime how I used the tax rolls to locate Caleb Carr’s farm. Yes, he gave me a blurb.

Use the blurbs creatively.
Write postcards to editors when you get them. “Dear… I just thought you might like to hear what Hemingway just wrote me about my forthcoming novel.” Think about other ways to use them. We sent single-stemmed roses to book review editors promoting Rose Man of Sing Sing with a blurb on a card.

Reach opinion leaders in your field.
My publisher sent out 100 free copies of the book to influential people. Later, when I spoke at New York University, a famous professor, somewhat of a curmudgeon, invited me into his office, closed the door, and said to me, “I’m never going to read your book.” I thought I was in deep trouble. “Your damn publisher sent it to my wife this summer and every night when I was trying to get to sleep she would nudge me awake and say ‘Bill, you've got to hear this story,’” he told me.

Work with the industry.
Work to get coverage in the magazines and newsletters published by wholesalers. Visit key independent bookstores and just say “Hi” to the buyer (do not sell or try to sell your book). Send them a thank you note. Key independent bookstores are wonderful places to start the buzz about your book.

Extra covers.
When your publisher is printing your book, it will cost them pennies to overrun the cover. Obtain at least 200 copies. I used mine as the cover of my press kit. If the publisher designed a cover intended to sell your book, use it to sell your book.

Use co-op.
Major publishers pay bookstores to stack their books at the front. If you are with an independent press that can’t afford such largess, set up book signings. It may turn out that no one shows, but your effort may give the book premium display placement for a week.

Build a Web site.
Web sites are the 21st century equivalent of a business card. I site makes you somehow real to producers. You can track where people are coming from to view it and how they found you. You can even use it to gauge the success of some of your PR efforts.

Tell the world about your publicity.
When you are reviewed, send out the review to other editors, add it to your press kit, to your Web site and post it on Amazon. When you are on TV or radio, send the tape to producers. That way they can see what a great interview you are.

Consider hiring a publicist.
There is a reason why they charge money. They are worth it. I used to do publicity professionally, but I still hired one. It’s like the law. A lawyer, who represents himself, has a fool as a client. You don’t have to spend a fortune.

WIW Board Member James McGrath Morris (www.jamesmcgrathmorris.com)is the author of The Rose Man of Sing Sing:A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism