Caren Johnson Literary Agency

I love my authors. I do. They come up with innovative ways of marketing themselves and getting the word out about themselves and their books. One of my authors, Steph Kuehnert, and I have been kicking around ideas for her promo campaign and I’m floored at how “out of the box” her thinking is. While some ideas might not translate well, I think others are fun and fresh. I thought this merited a blog post about effective publicity.

Publicity shouldn’t cost money. At least not at first. No need to spend money on full page ads in the NY Times or the Chicago Tribune. Effective publicity is about getting the word out about your book, not about writing a check.

Word of mouth is still the most effective form of publicity. Think about presenting workshops, teaching classes, doing readings, etc. You can keep costs down by keeping these talks in your area or in an area that you can get to by public transportation or car. The more entertaining or informative you are, the more people are going to book you (and this can extend to radio and tv appearances), possibly leading to a lucrative side business of becoming a media personality/lecturer. This is very attractive to publishers.

Network. This doesn’t have to be a solitary business. I try to team up my authors so they’re not left to write great books, promote their careers, take care of their families and hold full time jobs alone. No need to impersonate Wonder Woman or Superman.

And lastly, don’t forget to write good books. The best publicity in the world isn’t going to take the place of a good book.

And here is a picture of Steph at the reading she did a few days ago.