Book Promotion Tip # 13: Volunteer to read your book and talk about writing at your local library or writers' organization or a local non-profit that serves children and families. Your interest in writing, kids and families makes you more than a salesperson for your book—it makes you a salesperson for literacy, creativity and fun!
Picture: Sharing the platform at a local writers' organization with children's book authors Lois Harris, center, and Amber Keyser, right.
Going hand in hand with volunteering is my final promotional tip. Book Promotion Tip #15: Show genuine interest in people. Listen to their stories. Accept their invitations to lunch. Share your journey. Acknowledge theirs. Make new friends. Your friends will be your biggest promoters!
My local book events have resulted in meetings with fans and fellow writers for coffee and lunch and in volunteer opportunities to create community connections, broaden my network and build genuine bonds with others who care about kids and the creative process. One of my early bookstore events for A SISTER MORE LIKE ME resulted in an introduction to a woman who works for a large, youth-focused non-profit in my area. I knew immediately we would be friends, and when I had a family emergency that affected an upcoming event and she stepped in for me, without question, our friendship was cemented. In turn, I had no problem saying “yes” when she asked me to host a Family Literacy Night for her organization, which introduced me and my work to a whole new audience.
By being responsive to social media requests, I’ve gained virtual friends as well. One Facebook connection resulted in my donation of a used handbag for a “celebrity auction.” I was shocked that my old evening purse brought $575 into the coffers of the service organization that hosted the event! Of course it didn’t hurt that the purse was modeled by a hunky man who took his shirt off and tossed it into the audience from the runway…. (Talk about promotional savvy!) Since that time, this new friend and I have shared personal messages about ways in which our life experiences have intersected, and we have brought comfort to each other in ways I never would have expected from a solely virtual connection.
To me, the real key to successful book promotion is to cease thinking of it as promotion and approach it instead as an opportunity to be creative, make connections and have a whole lot of fun.
Note: This is my final post in my book promotion series, and my final post indefinitely. It’s been a privilege to share my writer’s journey with you as a guest columnist on the Rushmore Kid blog, and I’m grateful to children’s author Tina Nichols Coury for the opportunity. I hope you’ve gained something useful in my weekly posts over the last two and a half years. Good luck on your own writing journey!
The very best to you—Barbara
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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