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Are you spreading the word about your book using all manner of promotion? Or have you found one that works so well, you’re spending all of your time with it? Either scenario could be the right one for you and for your book.

I generally advise authors to go out and speak, write articles (or stories) for many publications and websites, manage an active Facebook page, post at Twitter, get book reviews, build a great website, send out press releases to appropriate newspapers and other publications, blog regularly, participate in book festivals, do book signings and so forth.

Sometimes an author will discover a goldmine of sales through one or two of the tactics they pursue. In this case, the author should aggressively continue with these activities.

Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to tell which of your efforts is bringing in the sales. If sales are good, you can continue pursuing all of your promotional activities. Or you could slow down on some of them—pouring your energies into just one or two in order to discover which ones are working best.

Just know that no matter what kind of book you publish, if you want to make money or even just break even, you will have to promote it. It will be absolutely necessary to go where your prospective audience is and tell them about your book, whether you do this in person, via the Internet or using the printed page.

In most cases, you’ll also need to explain why they should purchase your book—what benefits will the reader receive from reading your book?

When can you stop promoting your book? I’m afraid the answer is, when you’re ready to let it die. Sure, there are a few exceptions. My local history book, “The Ojai Valley, An Illustrated History,” kept selling steadily over the years through local bookstores, at the museum gift shop and from my website, even after I stopped aggressively promoting it. But it would have sold two or three times the number if I’d continued to go out and speak before civic groups, if I’d pushed for interviews on local radio more often, if I’d requested to be interviewed for additional newspapers throughout the county (maybe state), for example. In my case, I simply made that book available locally while focusing my efforts on books for authors.

I’m Patricia Fry and the following books were compiled from my 40 years in the writing/publishing industry, my experiences as president and now executive director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) these past 17 years and my observances and experiences working with other authors at writers’ conferences and workshops for 25 years, not to mention tons of research!

Publish Your Book

Promote Your Book

Talk Up Your Book

All available at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio and at most other online and downtown bookstores.

Have you made your guess as to the blogging milestone I’m approaching? There are prizes involved. Check the list out in the January 18, 2014 post. This contest ends January 24, 2014.

How tasteless is that? Now wait, that all depends. I attended a memorial service yesterday in a luxurious home in a rather casual, friendly atmosphere and there was some gentle promotion going on. As far as I could tell no one was offended. In fact, it appeared that the people involved in the conversations were most interested.

Some of us were introduced as the author of such-and-such a book or the owner of so-and-so company or a freelancer in some field. This typically initiated inquiries and comments creating opportunities for some of us to talk about what we do. I handed bookmarks featuring two of my novels to a couple of people who expressed interest in my cozy mysteries. Did they scowl and tell me I was insensitive to the occasion and walk away? No! On the contrary, they thanked me profusely for the bookmarks and asked a few more questions about the books and about my writing path, etc.

One gentleman told me about the book he’s writing. He had a few questions regarding publishing, so I shared with him and a few others within hearing distance some publishing and marketing information and suggestions.

As you become more involved with book promotion, you’ll come to realize there are many ways to promote your book and many levels of promotion. I would not walk into a memorial service wearing a tee shirt with the cover of my book blasted on the front of it. Nor would I wear a large button saying, “Ask me about my book.” And I wouldn’t walk around randomly handing out promo pieces. However, I might use those tactics at a casual afternoon class reunion, a family reunion, a large birthday celebration for a friend or community figure, a Chamber of Commerce mixer or a public event, for example.

It would be fun to hear some of your most unusual and/or successful book promotion activities. Send your stories to me at PLFry620@yahoo.com or leave your comment here. I’ll share some of mine tomorrow.

Remember, this is prize give-away week. I listed the prizes in my blog dated January 18, 2014. Guess my next big milestone for this blog to be achieved Friday and win.

Not only will you win prizes by following this blog, you will learn a great deal about writing, publishing and marketing a book.

Yesterday we talked about selling books at book festivals. What are some of the benefits and perks of securing a booth at a book festival?

• It’s a fun and festive atmosphere.
• You get out of the house.
• You have the opportunity to meet new people
• You get to talk about your book.
• You receive feedback from readers and potential readers.
• You get to practice your sales pitch
• You sell books.
• And you get exposure!

What is exposure and why does an author need it? Exposure means flaunting your book so it is noticed—putting it before your audience—making sure your potential readers are aware of it. Without exposure, your book won’t sell. No one will buy it if they don’t’ know it exists. While your mission and your focus might be to sell books, when you’re among your potential readers, there’s something equally important occurring at the same time. In a book festival environment, for example, some people may be buying copies of your book but most others are just learning about it through exposure.

Exposure is an introduction to your book for many of your potential readers. Some may be interested in it, but they don’t buy it on the spot. However, now they know about it, they may think about it, tell others about it and, when they next see it, purchase it.

But you must keep giving your book exposure. The thing is, if the potential reader never sees your book again, after that initial introduction, they may not ever buy it. So it is important that you continue getting exposure at Good Reads, Amazon, by having your book in your local bookstore or specialty store, by going out and speaking about your book, by having it mentioned in appropriate newsletters and websites, for example.

Exposure can result in opportunities to get more exposure. Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve seen occur at book festivals. In some cases, the author may not have sold many books on the spot. But the opportunities that came about as a result of being present were priceless:

• An author met a librarian who believed his book belonged in their county-wide system.
• Authors are invited to speak at various club and organization meetings.
• One author met a teacher who embraced her book and introduced it into a school system.
• One author met a documentary film maker and became the subject of a film. It still airs on the military channel.
• A group of authors in the SPAWN booth one year were invited to appear on a talk radio show.
• I know at least one author who met her publisher at a book festival.

I recommend book festivals for most authors. Along with that, I urge authors to be open not only to on-the-spot sales, but for the opportunities that will present themselves during events such as this.

For many more book marketing and promotion concepts, tips, techniques and ideas, read Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. Available in print, Kindle and audio at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Or purchase your copy from me, Patricia Fry, at http://www.matilijapress.com

Have you ever taken your book to a show? This might be a book festival or expo… I’m not crazy about book expos—they’re usually big and expensive to participate in. But I attend a lot of book festivals of all sizes and I generally recommend that most other authors use this mode of promotion, too.

Book festivals are generally held outdoors in spring and fall, however I’ve also attended indoor book fairs in all climates.

You’ll find book festivals in many cities throughout the U.S. I’ve attended huge ones and small ones in dozens of cities throughout California as well as in Tucson, Dallas, Atlanta and St. Louis. If you do an Internet search, you’ll probably find a book festival or book fair within 50 or 100 miles of your home town or a city you plan to visit. You might pay as little as $10 for a bare table set up on a blocked-off street or a thousand dollars for a table inside a canvas booth on the lovely grounds of a university. There might be as few as 15 “booths” or as many as 300. I did a book fair once inside where there were only five booksellers.

What do you do at a book festival? You set up a display of your books and maybe a poster to attract people from across the room. Some booksellers bring in flowers or a display of photos depicting some aspect of their book’s topic. You’ll also want to have something to give visitors to your booth—bookmarks depicting your book, a brochure describing all of your books and services, pens, buttons, candy… Give a tote bag with the purchase of a book. Have a puzzle or a paint-by-number project for visitors to participate in. You can be as elaborate or simplistic as you choose. Just think about what would attract people to your booth. What would draw their interest? You want to be noticed and you want to be visited.

The purpose of reserving a booth at a book festival is to sell books. And if you are personable, if you have a book people want, if you have a good sales pitch, you will sell books. But there’s another very important reason for taking your book to the show and that’s exposure. I’m going to talk about the value of exposure in tomorrow’s post. In the meantime, purchase the Kindle, print or audio version of Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. $19.95 at Amazon and most other online and downtown bookstores. Or order it from me, Patricia Fry, the author http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

A week from tomorrow, I’ll hit a blogging milestone—a big one. How many blog posts do you think I’ve written? Guess correctly and you’ll win a prize. All next week I’ll be giving away prizes. Either comment here with your guess or email me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com. The first 3 correct answers to today’s question will win a prize.

What am I giving away? Manuscript evaluations, books for authors and for pleasure, courses for authors…

If you live in or will be visiting the Southern California area during the week of April 12-13, 2014 and you’d like to sell your book from a booth at the huge Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, contact me. PLFry620@yahoo.com. SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) has two booths and we’re inviting members to sell books from our booth for $203 per day, a savings of about $300 per day, if you were to reserve a booth of your own.