Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Create Pre-Book Buzz

How to Create Pre-Book Buzz

By Suzanne Cordatos
www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com


Your long-awaited book is FINALLY hitting the shelves in the foreseeable future. How do you build buzz that drives book sales? Be pro-active! Here's how to get started and FIND YOUR AUDIENCE!

Write non-fiction articles and use social media to find folks that relate to your fiction topic
At first glance, there isn't much non-fiction I can squeeze from my upcoming 4RV picture book about a dragon, Willard the Dragon: Sneeze-Fire. But look again! Willard loves pepper jelly. How about putting a recipe for pepper jelly on my blog with a link to it from Facebook? Willard loves to play in the snow. I started a Pinterest page showcasing snow-dragon photos.  The dragon catches a bad cold, so an article geared for pre-schoolers on how to avoid catching a cold would be appropriate for a school newsletter, or perhaps an online magazine can pick it up. With the third Hobbit movie coming out this year, dragons are everywhere. I can hop on the bandwagon with an article about books and their famous dragon characters.

Focus on finding the niche where your readers hang out
In the case of my upcoming novel, The Lost Crown of Apollo, the problem isn’t so much coming up with non-fiction topics as how to narrow the field of too many. Anyone who has dipped their toes in the pool of Greek history knows it is a deep ocean rich with material. Archaeology, thousands of years of history and wars, religion, islands, tourism, boating, Greek mythology . . . the list goes on and on. How do I find new angles on such well-trodden paths? The main characters discover spear fishing, snorkeling, jellyfish that light up like Christmas and explore cave formations. I can write articles about these topics, along with kid-friendly history about the Greek islands. Did you know that the Greek island homes were built with a maze of alleys on purpose to confuse pirates? Narrow the focus to find your potential readers.

Publishing takes forever—how can I get articles out there before my book?
Seek out newsletters for special interest groups (print and online) and discover local groups for special interests that may have their own publications/flyers. Does your main character ride a bike or dig for dinosaur bones? There are often city clubs and local groups who gather for shared interests from kite-flying to hiking to archaeological digs. These venues may have a website, blog, flyer, meetings and festivals in which to volunteer as a guest contributor. In a timely manner, you'll build a readership of kids and parents most likely care for your store before it becomes available. What author doesn't want a long line of people anxious for their special signed copy?

Think global, act local
Community bulletin boards, local library and independent bookstore newsletters may be a good source. Develop a grassroots base of fans for your book that can spill out into social media and cyberspace. Discover local clubs in interest areas similar to your main characters. With further digging and a few phone calls, you may find that these groups have newsletters of their own that could print a timely article—and could welcome you as a guest speaker expert on a topic of direct interest to future readers. The local preschools may like to have a guest speaker talk about how to not let your dragon catch a cold!

My fictional family spends their summer vacation on a boat. While there may not be much interest for ancient Greek mythology in my local area, there is a lot of interest for boating of all kinds. I live near the beautiful Connecticut shoreline with an old whaling tradition and diehard boaters in places like Mystic, Guilford, Stonington, and the Thimble Islands. Bank Street Books and RJ Julia are a fantastic independent bookstores along the shoreline and they constantly host events with authors. With some pre-book effort on your part, you'll have a ready made audience anxious to click "buy" when your book comes out!

What ideas have worked to generate your book buzz? Please share in comments!



10 comments:

  1. Good thoughts, Suzanne. I love blog tours or blog hops. Those reach a lot of new readers.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Janet! How does it usually work? Do you invite yourself onto your friends' blogs, or do you reach out to blogs in your interest areas?

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  2. Great post, Suzy! When trying to reach readers for Lost Crown of Apollo, don't forget the renewed interest in all things mythological in recent years, thanks to Rick Riordan's Lightning Thief, etc. Your book might not be fantasy, but you can draw on the fact that, at least at my elementary school library, kids are checking out books on mythology like never before!

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    1. Hi Sonja, thanks for reminding me about the whole Lightning Thief fan base. I'm banking on the fact that Greek mythology has been popular for a couple thousand years--and there's proof it won't suddenly die out the week before my book hits the shelf!

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  3. Suzanne, great tips on getting your book marketing going before the book is out. It's so true that you have to be proactive - article marketing toward your target audience is a good place to start.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Karen, I love how you and Janet and a few others seem to camp out here quick with positive comments for everyone. How can we increase traffic to the 4RV blog and bookstore? I mention it on my blog, but the highway to my blog is more of a slow country lane . . .

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    ReplyDelete
  5. Great tips! I've been using Goddess Fish Promotion to book blog tours and I've been fairly consistant in the promotions so I think that's helped. I can honestly say I've gained new readers and fans. If anything, my outreach has been more than it would have been without the blog tour. I also use Facebook book promotion groups to promote my books. They seem to help. I usually see a sale or two after a "blast" on the groups, but nothing that's become consistent. If anything, for me, the big factor is "time" and budgeting the time to get out there and do the promotion. The promo itself is not hard. Finding the time to do it is the challenge for me.

    Smiles
    Steph Burkhart - Award Winning Author
    http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't heard of Goddess Fish, many thanks! My friend and fellow 4RV author, Kris Asselin, used evite.com for an easy and free way to keep track of invitations to her book launch.

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  6. Another thought to create buzz is to make your own book trailer using your book-related photos. This turns out easier than I had imagined. Kathy Wheeler does a nice How-to on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSmgNVksHK8 and she mentions how writers don't have to wait for a book to be released to create your own video trailer using photos and designs starting for free. Check it out!

    ReplyDelete
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