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May 9, 2005

Freaking Bookmarks!

From Marianne, May's Guest Literary Chick!

Sometimes I feel like such a slacker.

Seriously. You see some romance authors who go the extra ten miles when it comes to promoting their books. They create clever kits, filled with goodies to send to booksellers, hoping to entice them to mention their books to customers. They hire expensive publicists to hock their books to media outlets – magazines, radio, TV. They make up deluxe baskets to give away at local and national conferences.

I don’t even have freaking bookmarks.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t like bookmarks. Or baskets. Or especially a publicist. It’s just that my book came out in May and my husband’s a landscaper. So in the winter, money is a bit tighter and funnily enough we like to spend it on these non-book promoting things called “rent” and “food.” That’s not to say we’re living at the poverty level. We’re certainly not. However, when all the bills get paid, there’s usually very little left over to spend on book promotion.

But I was determined to create a buzz about A Connecticut Fashionista.in King Arthur’s Court. This book is my baby and everyone wants their baby to do well in the world. So I began to look for inexpensive and free ways to promote my book. Here are a few that I found.

Blog Site – I created a blog site that I update daily. It’s free and 75% of traffic coming to my regular author website comes from my blog site. If you don’t have a blog, I highly recommend it. Instead of visiting your site once and forgetting about you and your book, people return daily. If you don’t think you can update it every day, do what the Literary Chicks do and partner with your friends. And it doesn’t have to be clever, witty essays or writing/publishing wisdom. It can be random blathering about whatever’s going on in your life.

Interviews and Essays – Whenever anyone needs an author article or q&a – write one. Dorchester put an essay of mine on their website. Walden Books included my letter to readers in its newsletter. When Kelly St. John started doing “The Call” articles, I shared my story. When the Literary Chicks asked me to be a guest blogger, I signed up. I even emailed RT and asked if they could do a profile of me in their Clubhouse section the month my book came out. I can’t afford to take out an ad in RT, yet it didn’t cost me a dime to be featured in the article.

Speaking Engagements – Volunteer to speak at your local chapter meeting or conference. I gave two workshops at the New England RWA conference and was on two panel at the Romantic Times convention (which btw is expensive but completely worth it!) I also pitched and was selected to give a talk at Nationals. How did I get selected? I partnered with a well known chick lit author (**waves to Alesia**), then we stacked the panel with my agent Paige Wheeler and my editor Kate Seaver. I have noticed a direct correlation between giving a speech and having attendees come up to buy your book at the book fair afterwards.

Romance the Media – I won’t get into what I did on this one ‘cause I work for a tv station so I have different connections in this respect. However, I will say, you don’t need a publicist to get media attention. Sure, it’s easier, but if you do the same legwork, you can get into magazines and on tv by yourself… saving thousands in publicist fees. SHAMELESS PLUG: If you want more info on how, buy my workshop tape from the New England RWA conference called “Romancing the Media.”

Have a Launch Party – Tomorrow I am having a launch party at a trendy bar in Boston called Croma. My publisher isn’t paying and it’s not costing me a thing either. Basically we found a newer bar that was hungry for publicity and convinced them to let us use their space for an open-to-the-public book party on a Tuesday night. (Which tend to be slow.) Then we got my publisher to donate 50 books and are doing a deal where if you buy a book you get a free drink coupon. The bar is even making special martinis in honor of the party – The Fashionista, The King Arthur, even The Mancusi Martini!! We invited everyone we knew and also the local media. It’s going to be fun, hopefully create a buzz, and is totally free.

Okay those are just a few suggestions, but I think you get the idea. The point I’m trying to make is I’ve been able to create a lot of buzz by doing things that don’t cost a lot of money. And you can too. Sure, I’d take a publicist any day of the week, were I to suddenly be able to afford one. But you shouldn’t be made to feel inadequate in any way because it’s not in your budget.

Though I have to tell you, I do have a bit of a bookmark envy thing going on. Maybe by Nationals…

Marianne

Posted by at 7:05 AM