Writing the Promotion Section

Many aspiring authors mistakenly believe that the function of promoting the book is all down to the publisher. Yes, the publisher does have the money for promotion and they will use that to get your book to the various outlets.

However, unless your book is an instant success you will have to do some promotion yourself. And, there is another side to promotion as well. If you give a talk or a lecture you can promote your book there. If there are interviews (whether in print, on line or on TV or radio) you should make it clear that you will be available for these.

You can also promote your book on a website if you have one. You can use your author page on Amazon (any author publishing on Amazon can create one) then you can use social media (Facebook, Twitter etc) to promote your book and yourself.

Here is a brief checklist of things you can do, or you can say that your are prepared to do:

1. You will make yourself available for interviews (in any media)
2. You will send press releases to publications (print and on-line) about your work
3. You will write about your book on your website (or start a new website to promote it) or you will create a blog to promote your book (this is free with blogger after all)
4. You will use social media to promote your book
5. You will submit articles to on-line article directories to promote your book
6. You will promote your book at any lectures or public-speaking events you do
7. You will attend professional conferences (if applicable) and you will promote your book there

You may not have done many (or any) of these things before. And it's always easy to say no to things you are not familiar with. However, the publisher needs to know that you are willing to promote the book and that you will be proactive in terms of doing some things yourself.

Fame and celebrity are not going to come over night... but you still need to be proactive about promoting your book. And the publisher needs to know this.

Be positive and proactive here and if there are more promotional ideas you have than I have written down here, use them!

This is all about showing the publisher that you are not passive... that you are the kind of pro-active author for whom an advance is justified and who will be working with them to make the book a success.

On to the next part: The Competing Books Section.
Back to the Introduction on Writing a Book Proposal.