7 Ways to Promote Your Nonfiction Book
by Bobbi Linkemer

Promotion is a scary word to new authors. It is also the single aspect of writing a book that is often overlooked or ignored. If you have a conventional publisher, you may think promotion will be handled for you. Unfortunately, unless you are a celebrity or a best-selling author, promoting your book is your responsibility. If you self-publish, it is 100 percent your responsibility.

So, where do you start? If you have planned well, you have identified your target readers. First question: how can you reach those readers? Here are a few of the best methods:

1. Brainstorm with your most creative friends.

Be sure to make it worth their while. Food usually works just fine. No alcohol though. You don't want hysterically funny, but otherwise unusable ideas. Set up a flip chart with potential readers down the left side and where you might find those readers across the top. Then connect them. You'll probably run out of snacks before you run out ideas.

2. Send advance readers' copies (ARCs) to book reviewers.

Stamp them "galley proofs." Collect every review written about your book, and put the best ones on your book jacket. Your covers are your billboard. If there isn't room for all of them, create a special section called "What reviewers think" or "What others are saying about name of book." Let the reviews do the talking.

3. Submit articles on your topic to print and online publications that target your readers.

There are so many trade publications on every conceivable subject, it will simply blow your mind to see all the places your articles might find appreciative readers. But, if you really want to reach the world, do it online. Article sites abound, some better than others, but all of them are within the click of a mouse. My favorites are ezinearticles.com, www.amazines.com, and top7business.com.

4. Prominently display your book at book fairs.

Share a table or booth with other writers; take part in publishers' or authors' association booths at fairs and other events. Volunteer to work at the booths so you can meet people, ask for contact information, and talk about your book. Shameless self-promotion. Of course.

5. Give free presentations at bookstores that carry your book.

Book signings can be grueling for a new author who envisions cheerfully signing books for a long line of eager readers. If you are an unknown, there may not be a line at all. And even if you are known, people expect more than a smile and a scribbled signature. If you give a presentation that is interesting, informative, or inspiring, people will not only come to hear you speak, they may even buy your book and ask you to sign it.

6. Take full advantage of the Internet.

The World Wide Web puts the planet at your fingertips. You must have a presence on the Web, and you must make it easy for people to find you. Every author should have a Web site. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but it does have to be listed in directories and noticed by search engines. If you don't know how to make that happen, hire someone who does. But a Web site is only the beginning. If you do nothing else, learn to take advantage of the limitless marketing opportunities the Internet provides.

7. Buy your own copy of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer, and read it!

This is the bible of book marketing. If you put into practice even 10 percent of the ideas in this book, you'll be doing better than most authors. I have heard that Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, who self-published Chicken Soup for the Soul, wrote more than 800 of Kremer's suggestions on little Post-it Notes and stuck them all over a wall. Then, every day, they did five things on their wall, not only achieving their sales goals but also launching an industry.

Every aspect of creating a nonfiction book is important. You have to plan, write, and publish it, of course. Those are givens. But, if no one knows it exists, why did you do it? The key to truly bring your book to completion is effective promotion. Think of it this way: if you don't sing your own book's praises, who will?

About the Author

Bobbi Linkemer is a book-writing coach, editor, and ghostwriter. She is the author of 12 books under her own name and has been a professional writer for 40 years, a magazine editor and journalist, and a book-writing teacher. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs who want to write books in order to enhance their credibility and build their businesses. Visit her Website at: http://www.WriteANonfictionBook.com