Book Promotion Tips #12 and #14. Partner with local businesses that sell products or offer services related to your book. If you are allowed to promote but not sell your book on their premises, create and sign bookplates to personalize and hand out as an incentive for future purchase.
Two of my most successful book events in the last few months didn't happen at a bookstore, though I did partner with local booksellers to make them happen. One took place at a movie theater and the other at a cupcake store, and in one of those places no money even exchanged hands--yet I count it as wildly successful.
The theater would promote our event as a "Princess Party" on their website and Facebook page and through their normal advertising channels, encouraging kids to come dressed in costume. I would create and sign bookplates for moviegoers, who could later take them into the bookstore for a 10% discount on my book. The bookstore would also provide a dozen FROZEN-themed raffle prizes for a drawing to take place when the weekend was over. I would display the prizes (dolls, sticker books and other Disney licensed products relating to the film), collect raffle tickets and later call the winners, who would go to the bookstore to pick up their prizes.
It was a win-win-win: the theater got additional moviegoers on opening weekend who wanted to be part of the celebration. I gained access to an audience that was absolutely primed for my book; those who didn't stop by my table on their way into the theater stopped on their way out. Barnes & Noble sold books and probably other products to people who might not otherwise have come into their store.
My other very successful non-bookstore signing was by invitation of a longtime friend with whom I'd been out of touch; we had recently reconnected on Facebook. She and her daughter, who had placed second in the previous season's "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Channel, had opened a cupcake store in a city about a three hour drive from my town just the month before. We made it a FROZEN party; the store baked and decorated dozens of FROZEN-themed cupcakes, I dressed in costume, and a local indie bookseller set up a table to sell books. I brought along a stand-up with holes cut for faces, created by a friend, that we set up outside the store for photo opportunities. From an hour before the shop opened until the last book was sold and signed four hours later, there was a line out the door and around the corner. I was happy I'd brought bookplates left over from the theater event with me, too--we ran out of books. It was raining, people waited as long as two hours for a chance to meet me, have a book signed and have their picture taken with me, and even when we ran out of books not a single person complained!
Again, a win-win-win: Miss Moffet's Mystical Cupcakes got new customers, Orca Books sold books, and I ended up booking two full-day school visits because a local school principal had been in line and picked up the marketing materials that I ALWAYS have available, no matter where or what the event.
I know I'll be looking to partner with other businesses in the future to promote both my books and the business's products and services--and to build my relationships with local booksellers. I wish I'd started "thinking outside the bookstore" earlier--I'll bet I could have sold a boatload of my 2007 title THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER KITTY at vet offices. And what about summer Farmers' Markets for MONSTERS DON'T EAT BROCCOLI? Why not?!
Next week I wrap up my series on book promotion with one final tip, the most important of all. Tune in!
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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