Hugs, Hope, and Peanut Butter 
Finding Light Behind the Clouds   

Illustrated by sick children

Book Promoting Tips from author Marsha Jordan

Tip #3 Tools You Can Use

* Get some business cards. I go through them almost as quickly as I go through underwear. I have several different versions. Because I get them free from www.vistaprint.com, I can afford tons of them. I leave them everywhere, give them to everyone, and include them with all my bills, waitress tips, etc. I have a generic card with my name, email, phone, and address. Then I have one that's a coupon for a discount on my book! I also teach scrapbooking and card making techniques, so I have a card that's good for one free class. Another card is a simple announcement of my book with the book cover on the front of the card and specs on the back. In the line where you would normally put your company name, I placed the book's name, with a description under it, and the web site url under that. One of my "business" cards is printed with info about my book launching party and I pass those out as I would flyers or invitations. If you use a little imagination, you can have fun with business cards and they can really work for you. Read more about how to create and use business cards at Ideamarketers.com * Have tee shirts made with your book cover or information about the book on them. Try www.cafepress.com. Give a shirt to each family member and wear one yourself everywhere you go. If you’re too shy to wear a tee shirt, make buttons. Yes, this is shameless self promotion, but that’s what we authors need if we’re to succeed at selling books! If you're too shy to wear a tee shirt with your book on it, or if your family refuses to let you clothe them in your book cover, maybe buttons and tote bags would be a better choice. * Give away free gifts.  Check out mine at www.hugsandhope.org/free.htm

* Get your book into Wal-mart stores. Contact Anderson Merchandising (their distributor that stocks books in their stores).  Call 1-800-999-0904.  They'll want you to mail a copy of the book with your terms of sale and other information to this address:  ANDERSON MERCHANDISING; Marketing Department; New Title Solicitation; 421 SE 34 Street; Amarillo, TX 79103.

* Publish a newsletter. Learn how at www.yahoogroups.com Find several other newsletters similar to yours and ask to swap ads.  For instance, if you've written a book about quilts, search for e-zines or newsletters geared to people who sew, women, country folks, quilting supplies, etc.  

* Use your telephone! Call independent book stores about stocking your book.  For information regarding Wal-Mart selling your book, contact Anderson Merchandising at 1-800-999-0904.

* Have your book cover blown up into a poster (Kinkos or Office Max)

* Use your computer! It’s my favorite tool and it makes promoting so much easier.

Post a sample chapter of your book here, to tease readers:  http://www.1chapterfree.com

I set goals for myself -- for instance, to get one book review or interview per week; and I go at it like a crazy person till I accomplish that goal. Sometimes I sit down at my computer with the intention of spending 15 minutes promoting. The next thing I know, my husband is walking through the door looking for supper and I haven't even eaten breakfast yet!

Some days my goal is just to find five web sites related to women's issues, boomers, sick children, or whatever and send them each an email announcing my book and asking them to do one of four things: review the book, interview me, exchange links, or just mention my book in their newsletter. I always offer to put an entire paragraph about them in my own newsletter (which goes to 3,000 people now). I very rarely contact only the five sites I set out to contact; because each site will have links to other similar sites and I can surf around for hours finding new businesses, clubs, organizations, chat groups who might be interested in my book. When you sow that many seeds, you're bound to get some responses. And because I ask for more than just a book review, I almost always get a positive response to one of the options. Most groups or web sites are at least willing to exchange links, if nothing else.

It's always fun to open my email program each morning to see how many people have replied to the messages I sent the day before. I've made it sort of a competition with myself. I try to do more each week than I did the previous week. It's fun, actually! (okay, so I'm easily entertained, I guess)

I mailed a few radio shows with a news release about March being National Peanut Butter Month. I used that angle to inform people that my book, Hugs, Hope, and Peanut Butter, was released just in time for this month-long celebration. Within moments, I received a reply from a show host who said it was a delightful and unique idea and she was excited to have me on her show!!!! That was easy for me, and the key was having an unusual angle to pitch.

How did I know that March is peanut butter month? Because I've done lots of web searches and one of them was simply "peanut butter." I found peanut butter recipe sites, gourmet flavored peanut butter shops, and all sorts of great sites related to peanut butter. Google is a great tool to help you promote your book!

Some people don't promote because they think it's costly or too time consuming. It doesn't have to be. I personally refuse to send anything via regular mail because I'm too darn lazy to print it all out and take it to the post office; and I would rather spend my money on lunch than postage. I submit things by email only and I thank God for the web! It's made writers' lives so much easier.

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