Would You Be Interested?

Buzz. Word of mouth. Publicity. We all want those things for our book. We want it to get noticed. And if any of that can go viral, we'll definitely be doing the happy dance. But how do all of those things get going? One thing is for sure, it's not "write it and they will come". It will take some effort on your part as we talked about last time.

The good news though is that effort doesn't necessarily need to be herculean nor does it need to cost a fortune. One such strategy is simple, but often at least partially overlooked-simply asking for people to lend a hand.

Even though I've asked for help in a variety of ways throughout both my book projects, I'll admit I didn't really think of doing what Mary DeMuth did recently (Scroll down to 9/1/09 and 9/7/09.

Mary is a respected author published by a major publisher (Zondervan) with an established audience. Even so, she didn't take for granted her fans would help spread the word about her new book. She flat out asked them to help get the word of mouth going. As you'll see in the 9/1 post, she kept it short and to the point and then later added a few other options. Nothing complicated, just "would you be interested?"

I'll also admit that the strategy caught me off guard at first. As I mentioned, she's got a good following, and she has at least some help from her publisher's publicity department as well. I just didn't think of someone like her asking for help with promoting, but it does make sense if you think about it just a bit. No one likes to be taken for granted, even loyal fans. Also, giving people direction makes it easier for them to participate, they don't have to wonder how they can help you if they desire to, and many are waiting to be asked.

How many responded to Mary's requests? I don't know. How many will respond to yours? I haven't a clue though I'm pretty certain you'll get some yes's and some no's and a few will ignore you. But even if it's only one or two in the yes column, it's more than you had if you didn't try to ask at all.

Have you asked for help promoting your book and received an unexpected yes or more than you asked for? Please share with us.


Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

P.S. More on distribution coming soon!