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Publicize Your Book (Updated): An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves
Here's the final portion of a
marketing plan:
Books That Compete or Compare With Yours (Comp Titles): “What books are similar to yours, in terms of shared audience or similar literary quality or subject matter?...Comparative titles…help your publicist frame a pitch for the book.”Be sure to list the title, author, publisher, publication date, and ISBN of all comp titles.
Comp titles for MAY B.:
•
OUT OF THE DUST: Karen Hesse, Scholastic, 1997, ISBN: 0-590-37125-8 (historical novel-in-verse set during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl)
•
HATTIE BIG SKY: Kirby Larson, Random House Children's Books, 2006, ISBN: 978-0-385-73595-7 (historical mid-grade about a girl homesteader making it on her own)
•
Little House on the Prairie Series: Laura Ingalls Wilder, HarperCollins
•
PRAIRIE SONGS: Pam Conrad, HarperCollins, 1985, ISBN: 0-06-021336-1 (historical mid-grade which contrasts an established frontier family with a new one)
•
RULES: Cynthia Lord, Scholastic, 2006, ISBN: 0-439-44382-2 (contemporary mid-grade about autism)
•
Joey Pigza series: Jack Gantos, HarperCollins (contemporary mid-grade about ADHD)
Professional and Personal Contacts: “Let your publisher know how your friends and associates will help make the book a success.” Can your librarian aunt arrange a speaking engagement at her local branch? Can you camp out at your college roommate’s place while signing books in her community? Start thinking through ways your contacts, friends, and family might help support/promote your book. Think creatively but stay sensible. Be sure to respect your contacts’ time and interest level.If you haven’t already, start a mailing list database. “Concentrate on developing a core list of people who car
Here are the next three parts of a
marketing plan:
Target Audience: Remember to think beyond your initial audience (the reader typical to your genre). Brainstorm a list (as I did here) to broaden your thinking about those who might find your book appealing.“Remember: By defining your audience, you can figure out which media to approach – or suggest that your publicist approach – to get publicity coverage for your book that will reach your readership.”Positioning Statement (or Pitch): “The positioning statement is
one or two appealing sentences that make the listener highly curious about the book…
A finely honed positioning statement will become the basis of how everyone in your publishing house can talk about the book…Why should we care about the book? The positioning statement answers this question.”
Scan your query. Ask your agent how she’s pitching your story to editors.
MAY B.'s pitch:This is a hard one for me. I’ve come up with nothing on my own. Agent Michelle has pitched MAY B. as LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE with a modern feel.The Background Story: “
A short background piece – a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages long –
about how and why you wrote the book.” This can include your publication journey, “any unusual events in the research and writing of the book or specific influences on your work.”
This is the story of your story. It’s a chance for publicists (and hopefully readers!) to talk about your book. (We all know the background story on HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE. Next week I’ll post about the big word-of-mouth seller, THE HELP, which has an amazing background story.)
MAY B.’s background story:
I’ve always been interested in the women of the frontier, most likely stemming from my love for the Little House on the Prairie books. As a child, I’d talk about Laura as if she were someone I personally knew. I’d devote a lot of time wondering about her world: how she’d never seen a town until she was five, how she hadn’t gone to school (or even lived near one) until she was seven, how a penny in her Christmas stocking was such a big deal (and how the first time she saw a Christmas tree, she didn’t know what it was!)
When I began teaching, I thought a lot about learning on the frontier, where the schoolhouse focus on recitation and memorization favored students able to do these things well. There’s a character in the Laura books named Willie Olsen, an ill-mannered school boy who often sat in the corner during lesson time. As a kid, I labeled him a bad boy; as a teacher, I wondered if there was something more going on. Maybe Willie was a poor student and a goof-off because he had a learning disability. Maybe he couldn’t grasp his school work not because he wasn’t capable but because no one had taught him how.
MAY B. is part tribute to the frontier woman, part exploration of what it means to be capable as a child, as a daughter, as a student, as a girl, and as a hum
This is the week I'll walk you through the
marketing plan included in
PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK!Today we'll look at
Title,
Goal, and
Description of Your Book. Remember, I'll use examples from my novel-in-verse, MAY B., to give you a feel for specifics.
Title: Your title’s job is “to tell and sell: it needs to tell what the book’s about and sell it to your audience.”I usually find titles incredibly hard, but not this time around. MAY B. feels like a perfect fit for several reasons:
It’s a play on my main character’s name (May Betterly)
It’s part of a school-yard chant aimed at her because of her difficulty reading (maybe May B. can, maybe May B. can’t)
It describes how she’s learned to see herself (a “maybe”)
It’s can be read several different ways (as a name or as an adverb) and plays into the difficulty children with learning disabilities have when trying to process information
It’s a snappy, short title, the sort that is popular right now
It bears mentioning another mid-grade with a comparable title,
IDA B. Maybe this will be a problem, though the stories share no other similarities. My future editor might head another direction, title-wise. It’s still beneficial to think through the reasoning behind how you choose to present your work.
Goal: “The first important step in writing a plan is to understand and articulate your goal for the book.” You should be able to do this in one to two sentences.Goals for MAY B.:
To establish myself as a children’s author.
To extend dignity to children.
These goals might not work for an official marketing plan, though they’re the core (especially the second) of what I want all my writing to accomplish.
Description of Your Book: “Many people working on promoting or selling your book may never have the time to read it. It is to your absolute advantage to carefully convey what your book is about in two to three tightly written paragraphs.”Description for MAY B.:
May wants nothing more than to one day become a teacher. Though she understands everything she reads quietly, she struggles with reading aloud. Against her wishes, her family pulls her from school to help a newly-married couple settle into their Kansas frontier home.
Just weeks after May’s arrival at the Oblingers’, the new bride abruptly leaves. When Mr. Oblinger attempts to find her, May is left to fend for herself, facing her shortcomings head-on in her solitary struggle to survive.
Thanks to
Valerie, for helping me pull this descripton together.
Tomorrow we'll focus on
Target Audience, Positioning Statement (Pitch), and
Background Story.
What's something new you've learned this week? Has your idea of your target audience expanded? Next week I'll cover in detail the marketing plan. Any questions or topics you'd like to hear more about?
Let me know!
Who will your readers be? What is their age group? Profession? Interests?
"What kind of reader did you imagine while writing?"
"Which individuals will benefit from reading your book?"
"Who do you think will buy your novel?"
"Can your book attract readers of books from other genres?"
While writing, it is easy to have a specific audience in mind. Since I write middle-grade, I think of upper elementary / lower middle school kids as I create a story. But now that my work is on submission, I need to think beyond this initial audience.
What other people might be interested in your book?
Think about your story. What things about it make it unique? My novel-in-verse, MAY B., takes place in Kansas in the 1870s. May struggles with an unnamed learning disability, most likely dyslexia.
How can these unique aspects interest those beyond your initial audience? Brainstorm a list,
however ridiculous, of others who might find your story interesting.
Here's what I've come up with for MAY:
- Readers of Louisiana Literature magazine (a portion of MAY B. was featured in LA Lit's 2009 spring/summer edition)
- Learning disability organizations
- Learning disability educators
- Blogs/sites for parents with learning disabilities
- Dyslexic organizations
- Dyslexic education
- Dyslexic blogs/sites for parents with dyslexic children
- Kansas Historical Society
- Kansas Historical museums
- Kansas libraries
- Kansas schools, teaching programs, and teachers
- National Council for Teachers of Social Studies
- Adolescent literature professors
- Museum gift shops in the Mid-West
- Kansas newspapers
- Mid-West Magazine? Sunset?
- Kansas public radio
Though some of these groups listed might be a stretch (NCTSS probably won't take much interest, for example, and I have no idea if Sunset Magazine does book reviews, let alone reviews for children's books), I've expanded my thinking about my audience.
I'm slowly starting to collect addresses, phone numbers, and email for Kansas Museums. Maybe sometime soon I'll seek out some sites on learning disabilities, not to toot my own horn, but to add to the conversation. Promotion is as much about respecting your audience as it is sharing your book.
What groups beyond your initial audience could be part of your target audience?
"Advertising, promotions, and publicity are the three core areas of book marketing," but what are the differences?
- Advertising: any paid advertisements in any type of media (most books are given little for advertising, as it is not very effective, and an ad campaign usually cannot reach a desirable number of readers, unless you're a best-seling author or your book "has already been successfully publicized.")
- Promotions: "discounts, displays, and co-op funds that publishers offer booksellers." The amount of promotional material a bookseller is given is "based on its volume of business with the publisher the previous year." These include things such as posters, bookmarks, book displays, and postcards.
- Publicitiy: "getting your book mentioned in any form of media. Publicity earns you the legitimacy of a third-party editorial endorsement, can reach large audiences, and requires relatively little spending. Publicity is where your greatest opportunity lies to contribute to the shape and scope of your compaign. The right media coverage for your book can stimulate measurable sales results that turn your book into a success."
Publicity requires little money but lots of time, "an open mind, curiosity, polite persistence, and a certain level of boldness." What you contribute to your publicity campaign can significantly impact your sales.
Between 200,000 and 300,000 books are published each year. What makes your story unique? Your answer(s) will play into tomorrow's topic, your Target Audience.
Once your agent has sent your work out into the world, it's wise to find something else to work on. Starting a new manuscript or revising an old one can occupy your mind and time. But there are some other things worth considering, too.
For the next week or two, I will be posting on things I've learned from PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK!, a title I discovered while searching for an agent. Because really, what better time is there to prepare for your book's future than the months before its sale?
Each day I'll tackle a different topic author Jacqueline Deval has covered in her book. Using my mid-grade novel currently on submission, I'll work through her suggestions, including what I come up with here. (I'm the type of person who likes concrete examples, and I hope what I create might be of some help to you).
These posts won't be an overview of the book but a collection of steps to start you thinking about your book as a product, and you its greatest promotor.
Come back tomorrow and join the discussion!
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This is a great series, Caroline! I think it's good you're thinking this way, too. So many writers think their publisher will do all the work, but no one believes in your book like you. It really is a partnership, and everything you can do to help can only be good for you. :)
I have bookmarked this whole series, Caroline. It has been a useful and valuable collection of information. Thank you so much!! :-)
Just found out comp titles need to be more current than what I've listed here. Aim for titles just a few years old.