20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Author Must do the Promotion, October 28, 2000
This review is from: Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book (Paperback)
Around 100,000 titles are published each year in the U.S. That amounts to nearly 300 per day. Over 1.3 million books are "in print" or currently available. To display them all, a bookstore would need five miles of shelf space. Most stores stock 40,000 to 80,000 titles. Will Anyone know your book is available?
It does not matter whether you sell out to a large publisher or self-publish, the author must do the promotion. Everyone in the book industry has a role: authors write, publishers publish, printers print, authors promote, and bookstores sell. Authors promote? They must because no one else does.
The contract you receive from your publisher guarantees you a percentage of the price of every book sold. No one guarantees the number of books that will end up in the hands of buyers.
Do not be lulled into a false sense of security by thinking your publisher will promote your book. Your publisher will get your book into bookstores but you must get the buyers into the stores. Your book will be on the shelf for just four months. If it does not sell well, it will be pulled off and replaced with another front list book.
Just as a parent's responsibilities do not end with giving birth, an author's do not end with publication. The child must be raised and the book must be promoted. Fortunately, your book is not a twenty-year commitment and you do not have to send it to college.
"My experience has been that the big NY publishers do next to nothing to promote their books. I asked an editor at Berkeley what they did to market their 200 books a month and she said `Nothing'. Then she added, `Well, we list them in our catalog.'" -Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale, author.
Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book is a goldmine of promotion ideas, encouragement and leads. Try just one each day and your book will be a success.
Patricia Fry is the author of ten books on a variety of subjects. Over the years, she has collected the no- and low-cost promotion ideas she shares here.
As a publisher, author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I recommend this fascinating book to authors everywhere. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wish I Bought This Book Sooner, September 14, 2005
This review is from: Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book (Paperback)
As a new author ("The Petit Appetit Cookbook") I was unaware how much I would have to do once the book was published. I wish I had the book before publication. The author does a good job of telling potential authors and publishers how much work will be needed after the book is written. The ideas are quick and to the point. However I would like more explanation as to how to do some of the tips such as "Arrange Book Signings". There's lots of advice for whom to invite and how to bring poeple to the event. But who should you speak with inially to set up the signing? How best do you offer your services? I understand the book is brief, but just a little bit more help in the execution of the idea would've been better.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, April 24, 2001
This review is from: Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book (Paperback)
The most obnoxious complaint I hear from writers is "my publisher doesn't do enough to promote my book." Every time someone voices this complaint, I ask what they are doing to promote their book themselves. I am usually met with a shocked stare. Writers write, why should they promote? Not only why, but how writers can promote their work is answered in Patricia Fry's OVER 75 GOOD IDEAS FOR PROMOTING YOUR BOOK.
Fry has been marketing her own books for over twenty years. From the basics of book promotion, to mailing lists and web sites, Fry presents clear concise techniques for any author to find comfortable, successful methods for publicizing their books. Indeed, tips on topics such as book signings and promotional displays will motivate the most disheartened author to sell their work.
One of the most successful methods that Fry describes, that of writing a column, I have observed first hand. Several authors have joined WordWeaving over this past year for permanent or temporary columns, allowing them to increase their name recognition exponentially.
OVER 75 GOOD IDEAS FOR PROMOTING YOUR BOOK is an immensely practical guide filled with useful suggestions and tips that authors will find themselves returning to again and again. Fry's seasoned advice, crisp presentation, and practical approach wins my high recommendation.
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