A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Creating Wild Word of Mouth Promotion

 

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic looks at how to create good word-of-mouth advertising, crazy good. And, keep in mind, that word of mouth has been found to be the most effective kind of advertising. The deep value in word-of-mouth advertising is that in and by itself it creates credibility, reaches a wider audience, and provides free advertising, while mainly asking that you grant accessibility to your book, accessibility that opens the book to the possibility of greater sales. 

Here are ways to create credibility: 

• Seek out endorsements
• Enter competitions
• Ask for reviews

 Here are ways to reach wider audiences:

• Write articles
• Maintain a blog
• Write guest posts for bloggers
• Write comments on influencers' blogs

 Here are ways to get free advertising:

• Grant interviews and seek them out
• Send press releases to local media
• Contact podcasters in your special area
• Put together an interview packet and share it with specialty magazines in 
• Put a self-interview on your blog
• Make presentations
• Conduct webinars
• Do readings at the library
• Do book signings but be wise about them
• Big-name bookstore book signings tend to create a loss, not profit, from the event
• Do signings where you can bring your own stash of books and not be required to go your fieldthrough a store's distribution channels, e.g., Mom-and-Pop stores, coffee shops, libraries, book clubs
• Tell people, anyone, everyone about it

   Here are easy ways to grant inexpensive accessibility to your book: 

• Goodreads giveaway
• Put some copies on Bookswap
• If your local library has not purchased a copy (asking a friend or acquaintance who is a patron to request a copy is one of the best ways to get libraries to purchase a copy), offer a free copy (not all libraries will shelve a free copy, some will sell them for fundraising (for fundraising, you might consider donating 4-5 copies, and note: donations are tax deductible)
• Library Thing does giveaways for reviews; suggest giving the smallest number possible (15 copies) because, in our experience, in the last 3-4 years LT has not proactively insisted that everyone who accepts a free book in exchange for a review actually post a review [it used to be a given that 20 books sent out brought 20 reviews; not now, in our experience though that experience could be unique
• Accessibility that cost a lot of money could be considered, but those opportunities are paid advertising, not word-of-mouth advertising, the latter typically being for free
• Ask professional waiting rooms (related specialties) to put a copy on the table; add note to the cover - do not remove, if you want a copy, you may order one on discount at [provide easy link 
• Offer on social media to send a complimentary copy for a review

For more reading about the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising in general and ways to accomplish it, click HERE.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: before you throw money at expensive paid advertising, exploit word-of-mouth advertising. There are many ways to get word-of-mouth advertising beyond the ones listed above, but the ones listed above are a good starting point.

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic you would like to see addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experienced authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.