by Christi Sheehan • October 21, 2015 • Follow
Published in Publishing Tips • No comments
So, you’ve done the hard part: writing the book. You’ve created a social media presence on all the usual platforms, and have made repeated postings about your impending pub date. You might ask yourself: What’s next?
In today’s self-publishing landscape, having the ability to self-promote is more important than ever. To help you on your promotional quest, we’ve created a list of publicity tactics that will help attract press and media outlet attention for your book.
So many publishing professionals will tell you to hire a publicist or professional technical writer to write your press release. However, let’s take a moment to consider two key facts: 1) YOU are a writer! You’ve already proven you can write by actually writing a book and 2) Who knows the book better than you, the author? A press release is simply a comprehensive overview about the book itself, so arguably who else but the author could better sum up their own product?
Check out an example of a press release here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sns-production-uploads/press_releases/Catherine+Coulter.pdf
Websites that will distribute your press release for FREE include Free Press Release (http://www.free-press-release.com/), openPR (http://www.openpr.com/), and Express-Press-Release (http://express-press-release.net/).
Perhaps your book is a space opera involving an epic battle between extraterrestrial ballerinas and venomous elephants (believe it or not, I’ve heard stranger book plots). There’s a media outlet for every genre, and tools that will help you find the right press for your book.
Free databases include US Newspaper List (http://www.usnpl.com/tnnews.php), The Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/div/news/), MondoTimes (http://www.mondotimes.com/) and World Newspapers & Magazines (http://blog.journalistics.com/2009/free-resources-for-building-media-lists/).
Paid sites/databases include Cision (http://www.cision.com/), Easy Media List (http://www.easymedialist.com/) Media Intelligence (http://business.nasdaq.com/intel/media-intelligence/index.html), Media Contacts Pro (http://www.mediacontactspro.com/) and HARO, which also includes a Basic Free plan (http://www.helpareporter.com/sources).
If you’re an author from small-town USA, consider reaching out to your local newspaper, magazine, newsletter, etc. Because of your status as a community member, the local news outlets will have a built-in interest in your book and its success.
The “indie” publishing community is small. Anyone working in the indie/self-publishing world can sympathize with how hard it is to garner attention for your book. As such, media outlets catering to this community are always looking to champion the next emerging author. We are all in this race for success together, so don’t be afraid to reach out!
Some indie media contacts you may want to reach out to include Independent Publisher (http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1693), The Indie View (http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/) and BookLife (http://booklife.com/).
Never underestimate the power of an Author Website! Even if you’re not the most technologically adept writer, basic platforms such as WordPress (https://wordpress.com) Wix (http://www.wix.com/), or Site Builder (www.sitebuilder.com) are fairly simple, and will take you through the creation of your site, step-by-step. Your Author Page should include
Though we just covered the basics of an author page, it is integral to include a Media Page so that media outlets have a one-stop place where they can find all the information they need. This page should outline a couple of basic facts about your identity as an Author, such as
Armed with these suggestions, we hope your quest to get press for your book will be a bit easier! Good luck out there!
About Christi Sheehan
Christi Sheehan joins the ranks of Bibliocrunch from her previous position as an Assistant Editor at Oxford University Press. She was graduated from Marist College with a degree in English (with a concentration in Writing) in 2012. Since then, Christi completed a number of social media and editorial internships. She currently works as a book reviewer for TeenReads.com. In her free time, Christi enjoys reading (primarily books in the mystery, literary fiction, and poetry genres), writing, singing, unabashedly watching the Real Housewives series on Bravo while on the elliptical, teaching swim classes at her local Y, and kicking her boyfriend’s butt in P90X classes at her local gym. You can follow her daily musings about life and books at her twitter handle, @ChristiShee.