PR Hints from Katie Davis, for YOUR book

Write, Publish, Promote (and a copy of Katie's newest book, How to Promote Your Children's Book *) — Many ideas for promoting YOUR interest (book, library, literacy)
Over and over again I hear those who love children's and young adult books, muse about writing their own book.  Each of us dream of writing and having published that best-selling novel, book of non-fiction, or picture book.   But as most published writers know, the writing is only part of the process of getting a book into the hands of the young readers the book (YOUR book) that has been published.  By now most writers know that they just must have an online presence, and most who want to promote books for young readers must also have an online presence.
Katie Davis is a well-known author, and she is the creator of a popular podcast about children's literature.

 

and now she has shared some of her knowledge about how to promote YOUR book.  

But there are many of us who will not ever have a book to promote -- Katie's book has some great suggestions that we can glean and adapt for promoting our own interests -- some of her suggestions will apply to our libraries, our blog, any interest we want others to share.  

A GIVEAWAY

Read Katie's seven top tips (below) and make a comment sharing your library/literacy promotion adaptation of the hint and on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14th) we will select a winner to receive a complimentary copy of Katie's e-book sharing ALL of her hints.

Top Seven Things To Do To Promote Your Book

Well, Sharron when you asked me to compile a list of the top promotional tips I had a hard time picking! I figured if I’m going to promote my new ebook, How to Promote Your Children's Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller I didn’t want to leave anything out! Finally, I winnowed it down to these seven.

My top seven things I’d recommend to promote a book are:

1.    A Book Trailer

Remember, no slow, loving pans of your cover, one minute long, and don’t tell the whole story. I am proud to say that this one just won a School Library Journal Trailee award.

2.    Other Video

You don’t have to show yourself if you feel uncomfortable. Create videos that could help teachers or colleagues with a screen casting application (I like Screenflow. Make sure your audio is great, and upload not only to YouTube (the second – maybe first now – search engine), but Teachertube and other video sharing sites.

3.    Blog Tour

Doing this blog tour has been a blast! I’ve gotten to connect with my hosts and figured out how to make it easy for them – whether virtual or in person, you always want to be an easy guest, right? Best of all, not only am I promoting my own book, but in doing so, I am widening the reach of my hosts by linking them daily, having them on a podcast, and spreading their URLs around the social media landscape!

4.    Connect, aka Reciprocate

Create your community – not to get something, but to share knowledge and support. This book was only possible because of the friends I’ve made. I put the word out for contributors and people responded. Then they were promoted in the book, and linked. Then I gifted each with a copy of the book and then many gifted me by supporting my blog tour. I could get dizzy with all the ‘round and ‘round!

5.    Join Up!

There are so many fantastic organizations that connect and support writers, many of which are listed in the book.  You can learn so much through an organization’s newsletters, workshops and conferences, not to mention connecting with others with your same interests!

6.    Be Selfishly Unselfish

Reciprocity is the key. Early in my career I was desperate to promote my books and I was guilty of only pushing my own work. Not only did I get really bored with that but I’m sure others were bored of me too! When I became interested in other people, my whole world opened up. I’ve said this hokey stuff before, and I’ll keep saying it: the more you give, the more you get. Give away freebies on your site, make comments on other people’s blogs, retweet your tweeps, send thank you notes, and promote other people. It’s actually selfish because it feels good to you to be unselfish.

7.    Grow Your Mailing List

Make sure you have opt-ins on all your pages, not just your home page. Collect cards at conferences but always ask if it’s okay to add them to your list, and mark the back of the card so you don’t forget. Don’t abuse your list, make your newsletter attractive (mailchimp is great for that) and offer useable information to make it worthwhile for people to join.

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So submit (via the comment function for this blog) your library/literacy adaptation of one of these seven promotion hints shared by Katie and you might just be the winner of the FREE e-book How to Promote Your Children's Book.  If you want to order the book outright, it is available for the Kindle, Nook, or iPad.

Cheers - and for more about Katie's book join her on her blog tour.

✓   Feb 1 - E is for Book - www.eisforbook.com

✓  Feb 2 - Banana Peel Thursday - bananapeelin.blogspot.com

✓  Feb 3 - Creative Spaces - chrischengauthor.blogspot.com

✓  Feb 6 - DearEditor.com - www.DearEditor.com
 ✓  Feb 7 - Writing With a Broken Tusk - umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com
 ✓   Feb 8 - Shutta Crum - shutta.com
 ✓   Feb 9 - McBookWords - mcbookwords.blogspot.com
 ✓   Feb 10 - Kerem Erkan- keremerkan.net
 ✓   Feb 16 - Elizabeth O. Dulemba-  www.dulemba.com/
 ✓   Feb 17 - Fiction Notes -  www.darcypattison.com/
 ✓   March 1 - 12x12 in 2012 -  writeupmylife.com
 ✓   March 2 - Christine Fonseca, Author - ChristineFonseca.blogspot.com