This is Part 4 of a weeklong series on marketing your novel. Today we will discuss public speaking engagements and writing articles to coincide with the release of your novel.
On Saturdays there is a
regular column in the Wall Street Journal called Word Craft.?There is another
regular feature in the New York Times, a column called Draft. Both are great columns, by the way,
discussing some nuance of writing?outlining,
character development, research, or something else. The column is almost always
by a writer or novelist whose book was either just released, or will be coming
out the following week.
?Gosh,? you say after reading the column. ?How convenient. ?I think I will buy that book and read it.?
I?m sorry to burst your bubble, but from my years in marketing and public relations, I can assure you?that coincidence was orchestrated by the writer?s agent or publicist, and your response was exactly what they wanted. It was an exercise in good marketing.
As a writer that has not yet reached the status of a Jeffrey Deaver ?or a Hilary Mantel (both writers who have appeared in the WSJ column), you will have a harder time getting a column published in one of these venues. Do not despair?there are many other outlets and you should be taking advantage of them.
Prepare two or three articles or columns in advance, all somehow linked to your novel or book. You might also be so bold as to have an interview of yourself prepared. Email the editor of your local newspaper or regional magazine and offer the article. Be sure to mention your impending or recent publication. Follow up a few days later with a phone call if you don?t hear anything, but don?t stalk them. ?If you sell it correctly, they will be interested. Also have an electronic file of a photo of yourself ready to go.
Why two or three pre-prepared articles? Because if you do it correctly, you will get one in the newspaper and one in the magazine. ?You don?t want to publish the same one. Bad form.
If your novel or book appeals to a special interest group?paranormal, renaissance history, astronomy, whatever?contact those publications. If your protagonist likes to solve crossword puzzles in their spare time, there is a gaming magazine or website that will in interested in that article and you can reach another group of potential readers.
Once your novel is published, you can also market yourself for public speaking engagements. As I write this column there is a regional book event twenty-five miles from me on the outskirts of Los Angeles, planned for later today. If you are a recently published author, they might have a platform for you at that event. Libraries, book stores, writer?s group, book clubs. Once Rules for Giving is published, I will make sure the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is aware that I live not far away and I am available for panel discussions or anything else where they need to fill a spot. I?ll even walk around the event with a cell phone and be on standby in case someone else can?t make it.
Just like with the prepared articles we talked about, have some prepared speeches?perhaps a humorous story connected with the writing or research of your novel, or the story of how you got published. All good stuff.
Everyplace you can get a pulpit to talk about your novel, you will sell a copy or two, or compel someone to go to the library and check out your novel.? More importantly, those readers will tell two or three of their friends, who will read your novel and tell more people about it.
And you will be a best-selling author.
Tomorrow we will discuss finding the influencers.
WhatIfYouCouldNotFail.com by Tim Sunderland is licensed under a?Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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