Free Book Promotion Idea For You: Countdown to Launch Series
Write Articles For Your Target Reader: Why & How Its Promotion
It is a month and a half to pub date! Get Your Book Seen and Sold is (available for pre-sale today!) This month (and last) I have been promoting the upcoming book in all kinds of ways. In the next few posts I’ll share some. Pick and choose the ideas that will work for you.
The Payoff to a Writer Writing
When a pitch connects there is nothing quite like it. In baseball, it’s the connection of bat to ball. For writers is when their article gets published. Why not use what you do best - writing - to promote your book?
Writers should write, right?
Of course, writers should write. A clever way to use your writing skill to promote your book is to write articles and essays in your expertise and/or genre and pitch the article to websites where your target audience is hanging out.
Here is my real world example. My and my co-author’s new book is about book marketing and publishing. Our target market is authors. So we asked the question: Where do authors go for help on book marketing? One answer is: online resources that focus on helping authors to get their book written, seen and sold. One of those online resources is the website IndependentPublishers.com. Soooooo… I wrote an article to help their readers on the subject of book promotion. I pitched the article idea to the editor of the website though an email. The editor responded. He liked the article idea. I sent him the article and he published it on his site.
He even offered to include an excerpt from our book as part of the article.
The article showed on the homepage of the website as a feature.
As you can see from the article not only is an excerpt of the book included in the article, but my bio includes my substack link and the title of our upcoming book.
Yes, writing takes time, and it is an investment but the book promotion I describe above cost no money and by publishing an article:
I reach my target audience for my book
I promote my substack
I enhance my author platform as an essayist
I get to use the article as an example to help you
I connected with a new resource
I can pitch additional essay ideas to my new resource
Win, win, win, win, win, win, win
Start by creating a list of 5 possible online “magazines” that you think would appreciate an article from you.
Pop them in an excel spreadsheet. Find the editor’s email address and research their pitching (or submission guidelines) for articles. Pitch one idea at a time with a mini bio including why YOU are the perfect person to write the article.
Pitch away and good luck.
If you need help talking through such a strategy, you know where to find me! or shoot me an email at wjcwolk@gmail.com.
Yes, So much more manageable. I sent 5 then another 5 and got this hit. On the pitches that did not respond, I’ll go back and send a second email with a gentle … “in case you missed it..” note at the top of the email and then start again with 5 new website editors (media contacts). If you keep them in an excel spreadsheet you can use them to pitch again with new material or with each new book that you publish.
Thanks for this, Claudine! I love that you provide concrete, manageable steps here for finding and pitching work to publications. You didn't say pitch it to 100 people and places. You said start with five. I (and most people) can do five. 😊 🥂