Promoting Your Book

Most people who have a book published don’t have a big publicity machine behind them. As a result, most of the promoting for their book they have to do themselves. Everyone, it seems, is searching for that magic promotional formula that will get their book the widest possible exposure.  But in a market saturated not only with novels in general but crime and mystery novels in particular, how do you get noticed at all? You may be fortunate enough to have your book reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, but if you’re not, what do you do? I have a small press publisher, so it’s fair to say I’ve given a good deal of thought to this question. Here are some of my thoughts about it:

1. Use Facebook Judiciously. Promoting your book on Facebook is now par for the course, obviously, but it’s still important not to fall prey to the mistake of overdoing the posts about your stuff. Constant Facebook plugs get annoying to others, number one, and, number two, after a certain point, how effective are they? You are reaching out to the same circle of people with your plugs. Most important, do not send anyone a friend invitation and then, when that person accepts, immediately hit them with an invite to “Like” your author page.  This little ploy, which at best can be called tacky, has prompted me immediately to unfriend the person I just friended.

2. Plan Ahead. Before your book comes out, set up as much as possible for reviews and interviews and any blog attention you can get.  Try to arrange to do guest posts on other people’s blogs. Send out plenty of Advanced Reader Copies of your book, even if they are all digital ones. With the ARCs, you want to give bloggers and reviewers and anyone else who might be able to spread the word about your book lots of time to read it so that everything is set to be timed to when your book is released. Sending a person your book two weeks before it appears, expecting the person to drop everything and pick up your book to review it, is ridiculous. Everybody now has To Be Read piles reaching the ceiling, and you have to remember that your book, precious as it may be to you, is one of the multitude your early reader is getting.

3. Support and Review Other People’s Books. If you have your own blog, that’s one way to do this; if not, you can always write reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Doing reviews for others’ books helps get your name around, and, common sense, helps you strike up friendly relationships with other writers. The truth is, as much as every writer wants to have thousands of fans, a large part of a writer’s audience consists of fellow writers. I’m not saying this to be downbeat, but because it’s true.  It’s not politics — you review my book, I’ll review yours— but it certainly helps to remember that the crime fiction writing world is a community, and it’s certainly pleasant to feel at ease with others (or most others) in that community.

4. Back to Facebook (and we can include Twitter here): Balance your promotional posts with non-promo stuff so people can get to know you as a human being and not just as a self-promoter.  What do you do with yourself besides write?  If you’re interesting as a person, chances are the book you wrote is interesting, and therefore it might be something a person who doesn’t know you will be interested in reading.  A constant self-promoter is that alone, a self-promoter, and what can be more predictable, and dull (not to mention irritating) than that.

5. Do Readings.  The MWA-NY has its bi-monthly reading events in Manhattan, and if you do a bookstore launch, or a book tour, however small,  you’ll be reading from your work. Readings are a great way to connect directly with potential readers and intrigue them on the spot.  But, and this can’t be stressed enough, readings are also a way you can turn potential readers off your book because the way you read left them cold. If you are going to read, make sure you practice, and practice a lot, before you expose your words in public. Fine as your words may be, you have to remember that when you’re reading, you’re doing a performance. The goal is to keep the audience gripped. Pick a section of your book that works when read out loud. That’s not necessarily the prettiest section or a section of brilliant introspection. I mean, your gorgeous passage, your in-depth psychological analysis, might be ideal for reading aloud, but make sure you really think about what will work when heard. Think about the readings you’ve been to and what you liked. If it was another writer reading, would you want to hear the section you’ve chosen to read? If you’re not sure, don’t go with it. Pick something else. In preparing, think “strong passage,” yes, a passage you’re fond of, but think also from the audience’s point of view.

Well, that’s a few things promotion-related anyway.  Do what you can to promote your book, and try to be realistic about what your sales might be. Don’t get dejected if you don’t sell as many books as you hoped to sell. For every bestseller, how many books are there that sell a few hundred copies?  This is reality.  For most people, building a readership is a slow process. Have patience, enjoy the attention you get, and keep busy working on the next book. Working on a new book while promoting the finished one is, let’s say, healthy. It keeps to a minimum the obsessing you might do over the sales and reviews of the finished book.  And it keeps optimism in full swing. As long as you’re working on a new book, you have the thought that it will be better than the last one. You have the hope that however well the last book did, the new one will do better.

— Scott Adlerberg

Scott Adlerberg lives in New York City. He co-hosts the Word for Word Reel Talks film commentary series each summer at the HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival in Manhattan. He blogs about books, movies, and writing at Scott Adlerberg’s Mysterious Island. His most recent novel is the psychological thriller Graveyard Love, available from Broken River Books.