Book-Your Best Publicist - Bob O'Connor
You are a published author. Congratulations. Now you
can sit back and bank your royalty checks. WRONG!
Now it is time to shift gears and start promoting you
and your book. Here’s what you need to do. It’s a three step process.
It’s relatively easy, but it takes WORK.
1. Print some business cards with the cover of your book on it. Think
about all those people you talk to who are not ready to buy your book at
that instance. How do they find you when they are ready to make the
purchase? If nothing else, you need a business card.
2. Set up a website. The business card should send them to a website
where they can purchase your book. Look at mine at
www.boboconnorbooks.com for suggestions.
3. Do at least one thing every single day to promote your book.
That’s all you need for success. Any questions?
OK, perhaps I should elaborate. I published my first
book in late January 2006. It is called “The Perfect Steel Trap Harpers
Ferry 1859” and is a historical novel about the John Brown raid. Using
steps one, two and three above, and lots of old fashioned WORK, I sold
1613 books in 2006.
As of May 15, 2007, my second book, also a historical
novel, “The Virginian Who Might Have Saved Lincoln” about Abraham
Lincoln’s personal body guard has been out a total of 13 days. I have
sold 114 books already. Many authors do not sell 114 books in their
entire lifetime.
How does an old guy (I’m 61) who still works for a
living (don’t quit your day job) and writes in the evenings and on
weekends, sell so many books? The secret, now that I have a business
card (for each book) and a website, is item #3.
Would you like some examples? Wherever I am traveling
to on any particular day for a book signing, I check on the internet and
find every library, historical society and book store enroute, going one
way and coming back another way. And I stop at every single one.
I had a dinner date in Washington, DC on a recent
Thursday night. On the way I stopped at book stores in Sterling, VA,
Fairfax, VA, Woodbridge, VA, several in DC, and ones in Gaithersburg, MD
and Kensington, MD. At the book stores I introduce myself, check to see
if they have my books, sign copies if they are already in stock,
convince them they need to stock both of my books if they don’t have
them already and offer to do a book signing for them.
That particular day, several stores ordered my book
on-line while I was standing there. One asked me for dates I had
available and booked a signing right then.
Another day I was attending a book signing in
Gettysburg at 5:00 pm. I left the house at 8:00 am, stopped at book
stores in Hagerstown, MD, a public library in Chambersburg, PA, Mont
Alto campus of Penn State University, another public library, and
Gettysburg College. At the schools and public libraries I was offering
to give presentations, which I do for free, because they allow me to
sell books.
Tonight I had a ten minute interview on a local access
cable TV channel. On the way I stopped at two book stores and two public
libraries.
On other days I search the internet for Civil War Round
Tables, book festivals, radio stations who specialize in interviewing
authors, and any other opportunity to sell books. I check for Kiwanis,
Rotary and Lions clubs, and other opportunities to speak to seniors and
retired military groups. Many small towns have book clubs that are open
to local authors. Use you imagination. E-mail them and offer to do a
program. Keep the offers flowing on a regular basis.
I also look for non-traditional places to sell books.
One of my most successful endeavors has been to hook up with Weis
Markets, a grocery store chain. I do book signings in their regional
stores on Friday nights with great success. They print fliers and put up
posters in the stores. They surround me with samples of food from their
party trays. Shoppers who are grabbing the free food get to hear me talk
about my books. In one store, I sold 34 books in three hours. Grocery
stores often sell books, but have a much small inventory that your major
book stores. And the grocery stores also get good community reaction
because they are supporting local authors.
In book stores, I use a pop-up display with my picture,
the covers of both books, a sentence about each book, and in large
letters –“Book Signing Today.” Many times in book stores, people have no
idea I am an author or why I am sitting there. The pop-up sign has
increased my exposure dramatically. It is pitiful the signage that
authors have even at major book festivals I attend. You would be
surprised how professional a small sign from Staples print center looks
and how inexpensive it can cost.
One author at the Philadelphia Book Festival was
wearing a sandwich board to call attention to his new book. Be creative
– he certainly was.
I ALWAYS send a press release to the local newspaper
before any appearance. I send a listing to their calendar of events too.
And it is not a generic press release. I tell the newspaper readers how
their readership is tied into the story of the book. It helps that my
story is historical fiction and includes only characters that are real
and were really part of the actual event. And that my appearances for my
first book were only in the area within about 100 miles each direction
of Harpers Ferry.
And ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have books with you at all
times. One day last summer I stopped in Hagerstown, MD at the visitors
center to see if they had books I hadn’t signed. The lady behind the
desk was in a panic. She said two busloads of people were out in the
parking lot waiting for a mechanic to fix one of their two buses. She
asked me to entertain them.
Click on this: next column
I stood on the curb and talked to 90 people who were on
a Robert E. Lee tour of the area. What a coincidence — Robert E. Lee
happens to be the man in charge of the capture of John Brown, the main
character in my book! I held up my book and talked for about ten
minutes, and then sent them into the visitors center to purchase the
book. The lady there sold out of her 15 copies in minutes. But others
wanted to purchase the book and have it signed too. Not to worry. I ran
to my car, drove to where they were already waiting in line, parked and
opened my trunk. I sat on the rear bumper, signing books. I sold another
21 books, throwing the money in the trunk because they were coming at me
so fast. It helped that I am a former Boy Scout who believes in the
motto “Be Prepared”.
I have met authors who sell a couple of books each
year. When I ask them what they are doing to promote their book, they
kind of hang their head and admit they have been “real busy” lately. As
you can see, so have I been “real busy”! I am startled to find out that
many authors I meet don’t even have a simple business card that you can
print with any computer in ten minutes with a box of business card paper
from your local business supply store.
I admit, I did 61 appearances in 2006 (check my website
for suggestions, there’s a 2006 calendar of my appearances). The average
number of appearances I would say other authors I have met this past
year have made to promote their book is about five (and there are
certainly some exceptions). I don’t tell you that to brag or to try to
be better than you. I tell you that because if I can do that, you can do
that. You can do that if, by chance, you want to sell books!
And I will do more than 61 appearances this year.
In June, I will go to Illinois to attend Heritage Days
in Danville, IL where the character of my second book lived. I will
drive to Illinois. I have appearances and book signings going and coming
home.
I am scheduled in public libraries, book stores, and
even a senior citizens facility. I will be gone 11 days, and am shooting
for 13 appearances. I have checked with clubs and organization in the
cities I will be in to find out which ones have meetings on the day I
will be there. I have called book stores and Chamber of Commerce and
libraries. Most are thrilled that they are getting a free program.
Several are paying my overnight accommodations in their city.
I look for magazines and newspapers and write articles
that their particular readership might like that relate to the subjects
of my books. A recent article in Battlefield Journal (a publication for
Civil War enthusiasts) was about the main character in “The Virginian
Who Might Have Saved Lincoln.” An article I wrote about the seven men
who escaped the John Brown raid appeared in the Appalachian Trail
magazine, because their escape route followed what today is the
Appalachian Trail. I look for publications that would be interested in
my particular books. Obviously publications like Field and Stream and
Science Digest are not within my target market, so I will not be
contacting them. But those publications certainly might be within the
target readership of your books.
A major author friend wondered out loud the other day
what her publicist had done for her lately. One thing he had done was to
get her an interview on a radio station in the Midwest. I asked her the
call letters of the radio station where she was going to be interviewed,
and contacted the radio station myself. (A simple “google” function on
the internet gave me the station contact information.) I now have an
interview scheduled with the same radio station I set up myself.
I don’t have to ask, because I know what MY publicist
did for me today! That’s because I am my publicist.
So I have to ask you -- when are you going to start
seriously selling your book? Do you have a business card? A website?
What did you do TODAY to promote your book? Got questions, e-mail me at
author@boboconnorbooks.com.
Even writing this article, I am promoting my two books
to persons who might not otherwise know about them and sending those
authors to my website for more information.
Am I getting paid to write this? No. I don’t usually
get paid for my articles. But they let people know about my books and
the articles all list my website where there is information on how to
purchase my books.
Happy promoting.
Author Bob O'Connor lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, close to most
of the sites of his books. He has been a life long journalist and
photographer. His first writings went to the Illinois Historical Society
Journal in 1959 when he was in the 8th grade. He has worked full time
for a newspaper, part time as a newspaper reporter, at various jobs,
many that required writing, press releases, news articles, or reports.
About two thousand published articles later, he is now writing books.
Thanks Bob for the article... J. Wolf
