How To Get Local Publicity To Promote Your Book

Posted by Annie M. Jennings on January 24, 2010

There are many book titles that you see on the shelves of bookstores and in libraries. They may have some of the best information, or tell the best stories that have ever been written. However, if the author was not marketed by a well known publisher or did not have the tools and ideas to show that book promotion and publicity market your book.

Hopefully, you chose a topic that has mass appeal. If you did, then there are numerous methods to employ to get you the exposure you need to start selling books. You will need to use the same creativity that was used in composing your book, to market it and to get publicity, so people can find it. Your most effective method will be to do some guerrilla marketing and take it to the streets, yourself. This may sound a little scary, but if done correctly, you will be amazed at the results.

Listen to the radio in your local market. You will likely find at least one station that has some talk show host that discusses similar topics as what you have written about. In every case, these hosts are always interested in having entertaining guests on their shows. It helps them develop a larger audience and you will get some good exposure. They are easy to contact and if you are local and have a good story to tell, they will love having you on their program.

The same process goes for local television. All stations are seeking a good story, especially if the person is from the local area. They are interested and usually very easy to work with and with all of the local programming, they are always looking for interesting people that have done something out of the ordinary.

Head down to your local bookstore. Everyone likes to sponsor an event. A book signing falls into this category. In some cases they may let you have a short discussion group explaining the topic and then have the opportunity to sign and sell some copies. It is possible that they will let you put up some posters and advertise your upcoming visit, so be sure to plan ahead. The idea of having a local author is usually good press, so you should contact all of the local newspapers as well.

Local Networking meetings can be a great place to promote your book. Most of the people there are self employed and have an interest in supporting others in the same field. Be sure to have fliers and business cards to pass out and be sure to speak with everyone there. You may find someone that has contacts with the media, which can also help you get to the larger audiences.

All of these ideas necessitate you having a personality! The more of you that you can show in your interviews, personal meetings and book signings, the more people will relate to you and your book. If you do not think that you are capable of handling these ideas, knowing that if they work in one city they will do the same in others, you can revert to a more passive marketing approach. The Internet is the largest marketing opportunity on the planet. However, by creating a blog or launching a website can be costly and time consuming. This is not to say that this is a bad thing to do, but even if you create a wonderful site, but you do not know how to market it, you and your book will likely spend eternity in cyberspace with very few sales.

Lastly, if you are not a gregarious person and find these suggestions a tad scary, you can resort to just using the Internet. You can start a blog or launch a website to promote you and the book, but this can be more costly, time consuming and still will not guarantee that people find you. Unless you have been published by a known publishing house, your personal contact will be the most successful to get your product into circulation. Just as when you composed your work of art, spend some quality time to promote it. You will find that personal contact will be a great way to get you selling copies, meeting the readers and earning money, while sharing your experiences.

Find more essential book promotion tips to help you market your book. Promoting books is easy once you know the secrets of how to make your book a tremendous bestseller.

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