Book Promotion Tip #6: Make friends with your local bookseller(s).
I've made several out-of-state trips to promote my latest books, but I've also had a great time promoting them locally. A few tips based on my experiences:
Find out who owns your local independent bookstore, who handles book signings and events or who manages the department in which your book will sell. A website search should do the trick, or you can simply walk in and ask. Also find out who the manager and/or CRM (Community Relations Manager) is at your local Barnes & Noble bookstore. You might need to check with other authors you know who've had events in the store, or, again you can simply walk in and ask.
"A SISTER MORE LIKE ME features the princess sisters from Disney's new animated feature film, FROZEN. I'm so lucky that someone at Disney liked one of my previous books enough that she thought of me for this project! I got an email about a year ago, out of the blue, from an editor who said she was a fan of THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER KITTY, one of my earlier books, and that Disney was working on a new film for release in 2013. They wanted a trade picture book as a tie-in to the movie. Was I interested? You can guess I was! They flew me to Burbank and I got to see an early screening of the film at the Disney animation studio to get familiar with the characters. So cool! Here's the book--it's illustrated by one of the film's animators, Brittney Lee. Isn't it gorgeous?!"
Offer to do an author signing--or several--to help the store sell your book. Ask if they are sponsoring any school-related events on which you could piggy-back a signing. Say you will be inviting friends and family. Have an event plan ready--or at least some ideas--and tell the manager what you can offer. (More about that next week.) Ask what else you can do to help the store sell your books.
Be persistent! It took four visits to my local B&N to meet the manager and three months to get a response from my local independent bookseller, but my persistence paid off. My book came out in early October, and the manager at my local (Bellingham, WA) Barnes & Noble had several school and non-profit book fairs planned between then and mid-December. I spent six eight-hour days in the store during that time period and sold and signed an impressive number of books. The fact that it was gift-buying season didn't hurt! Even if your book doesn't release during a holiday season, there's no reason that you can't promote it then, whether it's a few months or a few years old. In fact, because it had boy interest, I sold a good number of the WALTER KITTY book along with the girl-oriented SISTER book during my signings.
Although my local independent bookstore didn't respond to my enquiry till after Christmas, I ended up having a very well attended Princess Party there the weekend after my second FROZEN book, AN AMAZING SNOWMAN, was released in mid-February. A bonus: the events coordinator at the indie store provided me with the names and addresses of local media outlets, and I was able to schedule an interview with a local-news-and-events website that resulted in many more people knowing about my signing than might otherwise have known. And now I have those contacts to use for future events.
A second bonus: Those two bookstores continue to sell my books (including my backlist books) because they know about them, they know the story behind the latest ones, they now know me--and I have a local connection.
And the best bonus of all: I made a lot of great new friends who love books and authors and reading as much as I do!
Make sure to check back next week for tips on how to have a successful signing at a bookstore.
Barbara Jean Hicks is a regular guest contributor to Tales From the Rushmore Kid. She is a credentialed teacher in K-12 English/Language Arts and the award-winning author of seven picture books for children, including her most recent, AN AMAZING SNOWMAN, which along with A SISTER MORE LIKE ME is based on characters from the 2013 Oscar-winning animated feature film from Disney, FROZEN.
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