Marketing and Promotion

I think it depends entirely on the book itself. For exmaple, I have a teenage novel coming out in Feb next year and it's about self-harm. I did a huge amount of research on online forums and have many contacts across the UK and the US becuase of it. The publisher has agreed to print flyers with the cover of the book, all publishing information and my website address on it. I shall then send out bunches of these flyers to all of my contacts and ask them to distribute the flyers around their community/school/place of work. I have also made professional contacts (psychotherapists etc) who are willing to do the same for the medical community.

However, this was a very specific promotion idea linked to that one book.

I have also done a raffle at a village show for a large soft toy tiger to promote my first picture book (which was - you guessed it - about a tiger!)

Alison Baverstock has written a great book about self-promotion: this is the link to the updated version:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0713673834/?tag=absolutewrite-21

Edited to add: I am of course in the UK and the book is written with the UK market in mind, I would have thought there are similar books in the US

I'm planning on a few things...

-Bookmarks, which will be available through the website and at conventions, events, and anywhere else I can get them. I'll also be mailing them to local bookstores.

-Signed bookplates, available via SASE. For anyone who wants a signed copy, but doesn't feel like mailing me the whole book, or tracking me down at a convention.

-I'll also be attending a few local conventions and setting up a few booksignings, as time and budget permit.

I don't know how much of a difference any of this will make, but it can't hurt. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for book #2.

Jchines I see your book got a positive review from WW. Which peaked my intrest from 90, because of teaser line, to 110. If his brain found it funny, I'm sure I'll be rolling when I get to read it.

I'm thinking of making some small brochures and popping them into mail boxes. Might be a drastic way of going about it, but I'm sure they'd rather see that than more bills and cupons they'll never use lol.

Toothpaste said:

Hmm . . . how does one go about getting said bookmarks. And is it as simple as signing up for conventions, or do you need to be invited?

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You can always go to conventions on your own, and most of the time, if you send a note to the programming director of a local convention and say "Hey, local author here...do you need anybody on panels?" you may get lucky. Lots of small conventions are always hurting for panelists and would be delighted to get their hands on you.

If you have a friend who's selling stuff at the convention, you can ask them to sell your book as well. It's probably not going to be worth it to get your own table to sign/sell, particularly at a small con, but if you know one of the dealers or artists who'll be there anyway, they may well be willing to keep a stack of your books on the table. We're talking very-very-very small sales numbers here, of course, but it's a visibility thing...

Some cons have a 'signing table' for attendee panelists and you can sign up for an hour or so between panels. Frankly, at the last con I went to I sold more books after each panel than at the table. But, at least you're in a central location for a set period of time so people don't have to track you down if they miss you after a panel.

Our authors have promoted their books in a variety of ways (in addition to the promotion that we do, obviously). I would suggest that bookmarks aren't a great investment, since people use them and then ditch them. One of our authors is a homeschooler, and really makes use of her homeschooling network. She also attends and exhibits at homeschooling fairs. Another is heavily involved in the local school district and does a lot of school talks, workshops, and library talks. I think printing things specially isn't a great use of your own money, especially if you plan to put things in people's mailboxes. A better use of your time would be to plan library visits and school talks, talks to kids' groups like Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts where you can do some kind of workshop or reading. We usually supply our authors with flyers or sell sheets if they want to attend a conference or some kind of event with a special offer; I'm not convinced they do much, really, since I can track sales from these events and they usually don't amount to much. Really, the best way to sell books is to get publicity for them. I have found that encouraging our authors to promote their books to their local media has been a really successful way for them to get noticed (and get sales) in their own communities, and also tends to help them book more talks, workshops, etc.