As most of you know, my second book, A TASTE OF DESIRE will hit the book shelves (real and virtual) next week Tuesday and I’m plum out of ideas on how else I can promote it. I’ve done the following:
- Color print ad in popular romantic review magazine. Check
- Online ad on popular book review website. Check
- Book Trailer. Check
- Blog Tour. Check
- Promotion on my own websites. Check
- Bookmark mailings to book stores across the country. Check
- Goodreads Giveaway. Check
What I’m looking for is something new and something original. I’m looking to tap your creative imagination. The person who posts the idea I decide to use will win a $15 Amazon Gift Certificate.
What about a different sort of contest? what food or recipe make the reader/entrant think of desire?
Print up something that features the first chapter or a really juicy excerpt and leave copies in places where people read to pass the time. Coffe shops, hair salons, nail salons, waiting rooms… Captive audience! Get them hooked and then tell them where they can read the rest!
Go to romance sites that feature or spotlight an author like Long and Short Reviews and Author Island.
Have a unique contest where the entrants encourage 2 or more of their friends to purchase the book and all send in their reciepts.
Advertise on radio stations in your area.
The book sounds really good. Maybe you could make it a trilogy or a series since I try to read all of the books in a series.
Send bookmarks and promo items to fans who can take them to bookstores or leave them everywhere.
Set up a booksigning in your area! I used to set up booksignings. Where are you?
I noticed that you didn’t mention your book on the Dear Author website for its monthly author promotions. I’m not sure how much it helps, but it’s free advertising.
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/12/26/open-thread-for-authors-author-promo-for-january-2011/
Another suggestion is for readers to go to different romance book blogs or FB pages and mention the book. They have to send you the link as proof and you draw a name from all the entries to win a prize.
Beverley, Have you ever posted on Fresh Fiction.com and Writers.com they get 100’s of hits!!! They run contests and the readers flock to those sites.
Another popular site is Romance Junkies unless you already have them on your tour. Are you on Facebook? A contest there usually gets a lot of entrants. An ad with them too may help.
Just another random idea, we have a womans expo here in Mpls, do you have one there where you could donate a gift basket of some sort? How about military moms.,wives ect, put together something and promote it to those who have loved ones over seas. Some local papers even give free space for stories like that!
Also I know this is kind of taboo, but in our area, we don’t have a book store, except for a used bookstore and I drop off bookmarks there from my author friends and they LOVE it! with the hard economy and such, some people don’t have the luxury of new books.
Speak at a college or University for a creative writing class or local bookclub also.
OOps sorry its , writersspace.com
How about a goodie sent to those on your mailing list that represents the book. Since the title is A Taste of Desire, how about a cinnamon lollipop with the title on the wrapper.
How about posting on your blog or website that you are looking for reviewers to do an early review…if you have some extra author copies to send out.
Valerie
in Germany
My suggestion is a contest where you could win a coffee/tea mug featuring a picture of the cover of A Taste for Desire (logo would include email or newsletter sign-up address as well as website) and also several “2nd” prize winner could receive a bookmark (same cover & logo). My other idea would be a printed (as above)cloth bookcover w/page holder that could be used with other paperbacks (reader gets the bookcover and you get the advertising).
I love getting a copy of a book but I also love getting something to remember the book and author for years to come. I still have a cover mug I received from an author over 10 years ago (and I’m still reading her books).
Get Shirts Printed and have a flash mob at barnes and noble! LOL. Video tape it so it can go viral on youtube. Maybe dance to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, or have re-enactments of a scene from the book really loud. Or do some mock interviews with random people off the street and ask them if it’s true what they say about a man and the size of his vehicle? Lol- I suck at ideas, IDK
/or you could send a copy to President Obama and the First Lady and see if they bring it up during the next official white house press conference =) .Lol, never know.. OOOOO , i know, I know. come down here to New York and go on the Wendy Williams show (I love that show)! Take those printed shirts and see if Wendy would wear one or read your book.
okay, I am idea-ed out!
Aside from Facebook, you can also put up a contest or other promo on Twitter and other social media outlets.
I’m so excited for you! Book #2 🙂 Go Bev!
I think the timing on your release is great as it’s just a little more than a month before Valentine’s Day. People love ready-made gifts for their loved one and by pairing with stores they probably visit, you are offering them a ready-made, sure to please present!
I have a couple of ideas:
1. You could print ‘Your Taste of Desire is in the Bag’ on stickers (from Office Depot) and put them on individual bags (Party City or Walmart/Target sells packages of plain bags for a nominal price) to place your books in. These can also be used in the following ideas 🙂
2. How about an in-store promotion at a Victoria’s Secret (VS) where you sign books & they hold a drawing for a basket of VS goodies and a signed copy of your book, bookmark & any other promo merchandise? (idea being capitalize on ‘desire’)
2. Along those lines, how about packaging (Jan 4-Feb 14) with a VS & other lingerie stores in Malls etc. by offering a pre-order Valentine’s Day gift for the “One You Desire’.
Marketing package for store(s) counter can be: a poster of the book (8 1/2 x 11 flyer in acrylic), stand featuring your book, program-sized flyers with your book, order info & web site on them or business cards with same and a sign-up sheet for people to place their names & emails so they can be notified when the book/package is ready for pick up. And, the store could offer an item to be paired with your book (makeup, lotions, gift certificate etc). You co-promote each other driving traffic so it’s a win-win for you both.
4. How about approaching Fresh Market/Sweet Bay and Whole Foods with pairing your book with one of their featured items of the month for January and definitely chocolate for February? This would be a great way to use your ‘Your Taste of Desire is in the Bag’ too. You could offer the pre-order package idea as in #2 but geared to food/beverage items capitalizing on ‘taste.’
Hope any of these ideas help & can’t wait to read the book. Great reviews BTW!
I think the best idea would be to take out ads in popular women’s magazines, not romance magazines or sites. How about contacting Woman’s Day or Redbook? Maybe they offer to run book ads on their websites too. Mostly women read those so it’s the best place to feature an ad for a romance book.
You could promote you book via live chats with book groups, book clubs at a prearranged time. It could be arranged at a library, home or meeting site of the group. A Skype chat is like being there with them. Good personal time, questions and answers.
This is a good idea that Jeannie Lin actually did to promote her debut Butterfly Swords. She sent everyone on her mailing list a little charm of butterfly swords. I thought it was adorable. Maybe you could make up key-chains to represent A Taste of Desire and mail them out.
agree with other, post contest on facebook, twitter, send the surprise package to five people on your mailing list ( i hope it’s me :D)
This came from a blog called “Kindle Review” and I am quoting: (original post – http://tinyurl.com/2425q8x)
“Author finds a new way to market his book:
An author at the official Kindle forum has found a new way to market his book –
1. He announced 20 free copies – all he asked for, in return, was a genuine review.
2. There were soon 250+ replies, with at least 100 people interested in reviewing the book.
3. It’s gotten a lot of buzz. It might have cost him a few thousand dollars in advertising to get a similar level of publicity.
A good indicator of how competitive things are is that another half a dozen or so authors are now offering a similar deal. It’s less than a day, and already authors are copying what worked for one author. People are severely under-estimating how competitive things are going to be.”
How about a contest for people who have read the book and/or a contest for book clubs that read and discussed the book? Congratulations on the new book!
This is something that Sherry Thomas did to promote her book His at Night–I read about it on her blog. She made tins of shea butter and put a label with the cover image/title/author to give out to promote her book. It looked like it took a lot of effort to make these–but I always enjoy little tins or containers of hand cream or lip balm to carry in my purse– you can never have too many of those!
How about ads in popular women’s magazines like Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Goodhousekeeping?
The ideas already posted here are great, especially Fresh Fiction and Writerspace. The only other thing I can think of is join Shelfari. (It’s like Goodreads.) There’s alot of book lovers and romance readers there.
Can’t wait for this book to come out!
Here’s another idea. Deirdre Donahue does the occasional romance book review for USA Today. Why don’t you come up with an engaging email and contact her. According to the paper, “while the paper reviews few books (only 5 to 6 on Thursdays), the book editor does make all books she receives available in a small library for other editors to use.” You can reach her at: ddonahue@usatoday.com