Promote Your Book with Local Collaborations

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From The Book Designer:

I often advise authors to start their book marketing locally. Local “gatekeepers” – retailers, librarians, and reporters – will nearly always be more open and friendly to a new author with a great book than their counterparts in distant locations will be.

This approach applies to distribution and publicity opportunities, of course, but what if you used your local know-how to collaborate with a wider range of local businesses?

. . . .

When a local physician spoke about the health benefits of chocolate at the grand opening of a candy shop near me, I was disappointed that he wasn’t an author. If he had written a book about that topic – or even about healthy eating in general – opening day chocoholics would have been eating out of his hand and buying his book.

Think about the potential for partnering with a range of local retailers or other business owners in a way that benefits all parties. What can you do that will attract news media attention – publicity – along with increased traffic for the business and book sales for you?

Here are just a few ideas to show you how this could work:

• A young adult author can talk about writing at a tutoring center.
• The author of a financial planning book can present to bank customers.
• A romance novelist can speak at the grand opening of a lingerie store.
• A parenting book author can offer toddler parenting tips to parents touring a new daycare center.
• The author of a local historical novel can host a themed dinner at a landmark restaurant.

. . . .

Naturally, some authors are high-profile enough locally that they receive invitations to speak at these types of gatherings without making any effort. Most of us, though, have to look for or create those opportunities.

This requires getting plugged in locally so you know what’s going on and what’s coming up. There are a number of ways to do that:

• Like and follow Facebook pages for businesses that reach your book’s target audience.
• Subscribe to the mailing lists of businesses that reach your book’s target audience.
• Monitor retail storefronts for remodeling and the “coming soon” signs that go along with that activity.
• Be an active member of your Chamber of Commerce.
• Participate in business membership groups such as Rotary and the National Association of Women Business Owners.
• Read the local daily and weekly newspapers for relevant announcements.
• Follow local leaders and elected officials on Twitter for advance information.

Link to the rest at The Book Designer

With no disrespect to the author of the OP or Book Designer Joel, the OP reminded PG of the sort of busywork that low-level operatives at publishers used to suggest to authors because it cost the publisher nothing and might generate a small payoff for the publisher. The author’s time cost nothing.

PG is happy to be corrected if he misperceives the value of this type of activity for an indie author, but the idea that there is a broad general market for all but a handful of books is hearkening back to a much earlier era when the US (and perhaps many other countries) were more homogeneous in their tastes and media consumption than they are today.

Online promotion and interaction with the particular slice of the reading world that is interested in what the author is writing about seems a much more useful activity than speaking at the local Rotary Club.

But PG could be wrong.