Think Local First When It Comes to Book Promotion

Getting a book reviewed is not easy. The big, "important" reviewers are either doing less, have way to many to consider, and usually are very picky about what kind of book they'll accept. So what to do?

I saw one good answer in the Detroit Free Press last week-start locally. The Freep Sunday edition still features a handful of reviews. In this issue, one review was about a book by a writer from the tiny town of Onaway, Michigan. The key point is that the Freep reporter did not interview that author, a reporter from the Cheboygan Daily Tribune did. The Free Press picked up the article after the fact and likely re-ran it because the book's topic (the economic crisis in small towns) is very timely. I imagine it was also because it was written about MI (which has one of the worst economies right now) by someone in MI.

Another interesting point to note is that this book was published by a POD/fee-based publisher (iUniverse) which is the least respected way to go about publishing basically. Yet it still got at least a little traction. The lesson is to know your audience as best you can ahead of time and know what factors matter when planning your promotions.

Finding appropriate tie-ins will almost always help you win media and readers. Just don't fall into the trap that it's get on Oprah or nothing. It's perfectly okay to start small and grow from there.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett