GETTING PUBLICITY FOR YOUR BOOK by Jackie Lee Miles

The assignment this go-around is to share our knowledge about how to market one's book. This is a tough one for me. I struggle with this all the time. I do have a few things I have done that seem to have made a difference, so I’ll list them here:


With my last novel I purchased advertisement offered by Authorbuzz. You can reach them at http://www.authorbuzz.com. Authorbuzz is a marketing service that puts authors in touch with readers, reading groups, booksellers and librarians.

They have several plans and price levels to choose from. For my last novel I purchased the whole enchilada and ended up on the top one-hundred list for three months. Since they are accessed by over 23,000 book clubs I think it helped my sales, as verified by my royalty checks.

Another thing I did was purchase a package with Pump Up Your Book.com. This was very inexpensive and they had me write blogs that they distributed all over on-line. You can reach them at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com or email Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com.

I would also recommend doing a blogging tour on your own. Have your publicist contact all of the book bloggers and let them know you would be happy to send them a blog on a topic of their choosing. Many will jump on this and request to do an interview blog where they send you a long list of questions to answer. I did this with the re-release of my debut novel Roseflower Creek and it is currently #7 on Literary Fiction on Kindle.

The last thing I did was contact all of the book stores within a sixty mile radius and offered to sign any stock if they would order the book. (I know, this is a lot of driving but it can pay off.) This worked out very well for me, and you can also offer a copy to the store manager when you get there, smoosh with them and hopefully they will tag your book as an in-store favorite.

Sadly, I don’t find book signings for new authors to be very productive. They are mostly an experience in humiliation as two people will show up: your mother and the person who booked you. However, again if you are all for signings, you can chat with the booksellers there and hopefully they will target your book in their stores.

I’m so sorry that I don’t have any additional advice to give you. I’m always looking for new ways to market my books, too. So, if y’all have some great suggestions be sure and post a comment to this blog and I will jump on it.

Good luck to all of you in your marketing pursuits and a special heads-up for recently published authors. May your books be bestsellers.

All great best,

Jackie Lee Miles