Too early to start promoting?

Doodle, every conference I've been to the authors have books in hand to sell, autograph, talk about. If you have other published books, you might take them along to sign and have a big placard about your new book. Of course, all this has to be cleared by the conference meisters, but it's done a lot. Some conferences encourage book sales on premises just to stir the enthusiasm.

If you are so fortunate to be invited as a speaker or seminar leader, it's expected that you have your books on sale for after the talk or seminar.

You might also check to see if any local radio talk shows are covering the conference. Or ask if you could get on and talk about writing in general, your approach to fiction, etc. Radio talk shows are always looking for content.

Just a couple things from my conf experiences.

Another thought, see if your publisher has finished the cover art and if so, try to get a copy that you can enlarge for a placard, something 16x24 or like that. I used Kinko's for a big blowup of my cover and it drew attention.

I don't think it's ever to early to start creating a fan base! The more fans, the more money, so start telling people! They'll tell their friends, who'll tell theirs, and the next thing you know, you're on the NY times bestseller list...or so it should go

It depends on the timing... when are the conferences? 10 months is a bit too far off. I'd say wait until you have review copies.

Jodee Blanco wrote The Complete Guide to Book Publicity in 2000. She's a Chicago-based P. R. expert with loads of wisdom. Her description of a book tour is worth the price of a book--may turn you off the idea permanently. But book tours aren't always a good idea.

Depending on your story and the kind of audience, you might self-promote on radio talk shows by phone. You'll have to drum up a controversial angle if there is one to help the host grab callers. There's another book on this subject that I can't recall right now. You can do it from your home or anywhere. If you get it set up, the station tells you when, they call you up about 5 minutes before air time and you stay on until the host starts with you. It helps to prepare the host with about 10 questions you'd like to answer beforehand. He may or may not use them, but it's part of the schtick.

Good luck. This can be fun.

Book tours are not fun.

As for promotion, 10 months out is a long time. Doing preliminary work -- like designing and uploading a website, maybe getting a MySpace page, deciding what type of promo you want to do and thinking of a creative way to do it -- is good. If you have the time and energy.

Your primary responsibility is to write the next book, and make sure it's a solid one.

From my own personal experience, I would say that is too early to start promoting it (I mean, it's never too early to start promoting it - just don't expect anyone to remember your book and go and buy it 6 months later).

A web page never hurts - and if you can put a sample chapter up there, then all the better, but personally, I would coincide all your promotion with the book launch itself.

Books should be available for pre-order on Amazon approx three months prior to publication date if you're going through a traditional publishing house, but even then, I'm hesitant to push it too hard then. I got a bunch of reviews for my book before its release date and I can't say that translated into many sales. Subsequent publicity and reviews since the book has been available has definitely yielded results.

Up to you, but I know on my second time around, I'm doing all the publicity once the book is out.

Definitely start on a webpage - get the design up, register your domain name (don't even think of going with the freebies, get a proper name!) and a Myspace page.

But I wouldn't begin the major promotion for months yet - I tried to do so and when my book was released later than originally planned, I lost a lot of momentum.

Cultivate local media connections and so forth - but you're probably a year away from publication and you don't want to peak too soon.

good luck!

Yeah, website, and all that stuff to talk it up. Post excerpts (if your publisher doesn't mind), etc. General publicity though (such as TV, radio, local media) is too soon. People have short memory. If you talk about it now, they will forget anyway and you'll have to do all over again. But a web presence such as a blog would be helpful. A year before my book came out, I started to blog about my progress and other writerly things, and some people bought my book because they had heard about me.

Dunno about the promo question, but your post included this:

You can read one of my stories in the fall issue of All Possible Worlds (http://www.allpossibleworlds.net/)

Click to expand...

I went to All Possible Worlds, but didn't see any stories by, "Doodlebug."

You might want to consider using your actual name (or nom de plume) or at least giving the title of the story when promoting your work...

Blogs are easier to set up and get running than webpages; and one can feed the other. In addition, blogs steer traffic to one another.

Whether or not you should set up a MySpace page is a matter of debate, but I certainly wouldn't have it as my only presence. I'm not sure if most MySpace users can read in the first place, but the kind of useful dialogue you will get on MySpace will be comments like, "whoa doodles u rock LOL!" Most of the folks who will drop by will B 2 imprtant 4 bothrng 2 rite gr8 English. And also too busy to read a whole book.

I know quite a few writers who maintain webpages and blogs (on Blogger or TypePad) and also drop copies of things onto MySpace. I guess it can't hurt.