Beans, Blooms and Books

If your book can be tied in to gardening, green/organic/veggie cooking or similar topics, this time of year should give you a bumper crop of promotional ideas. Besides the fact that "green" is THE thing right now, green has always been in for at least one group-farmers/organic markets and the people who shop at them. The other day it struck me, who says you only have to buy beans and beets at green markets? Why not a book?

This topic actually came up a few days ago while I was listening to the radio. A local station (MAGIC 105.1 Detroit) was doing live broadcasts from area hospitals in honor of nurses week. It was mentioned that at the hospital they were visiting that day, Troy Beaumont, it was farmers market day. They explained that every so often the hospital coordinates a farmers market in their parking lot. It makes total sense really; shopping is convenient for employees and visitors and who better to promote healthy fresh food than a hospital?

It didn't take long before my thought turned to books. If you had any kind of healthy eating book, gardening book or a character related to any such topic, there are a ton of ways to put some green in your pocket via a green market:

1. The most obvious, approach the coordinators and ask about either having a booth or passing out flyers. Not sure if a booth fits your budget? Put the word out to other authors and offer to share. With tools like Twitter and Facebook, you can't use the excuse that you don't know/can't at least try to contact anyone else.

2.Got a cook book or is your character a gourmet chef? How about a live demonstration using foods from your neighboring booths?

3.How about asking people to challenge you? Shoppers could buy some ingredients, you pull out recipes from your book that feature them and hand them out on sample cards. Don't have a recipe using spinach and leeks? See what you can come up with on the spot. Best bet, prepare ahead of time, see what's in season and what people will likely buy.

4, Flowers and gardening a better fit for you? Offer a tip sheet for landscape design using flowers available at the market or tips on how to keep planted blooms healthy all season long.

If you don't have a green market in your area, consider greenhouses/nurseries or garden centers. As you can see, the possibilities are about as varied as the fruits and flowers you'll find on any given day in just about any area you can pick.

Got any other promo ideas that fit this theme? Hope you'll share!

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett