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Community Publishing for the community

One Woman's Book Promotion Strategy

5/5/2016

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​By Jane Tulloch

Writing a book is one thing, the publication process is another but the promotion of the book, once published, is something else altogether and is rarely considered by the first time author. I can only comment on my own efforts in this direction but there are many books on the subject already available.
 
In my case I just wrote the book I wanted to write - Our Best Attention. Simples! However, after the first efforts of publication (thank you Comely Bank Publishing) and the euphoria of the book launch (thank you Blackwell’s bookshop) it was time to develop a clear book promotion strategy. I felt that it was a matter of matching the book to its potential readership and working out how to bring it to their attention.

This is what I did:
•    Analysed my book. Who might enjoy it? 
•    Worked out where this potential readership might be best located
•    Worked out how best to connect with this potential readership
•    Analysed which of my own personal skills were most likely to facilitate this connection
•    Made the connection.

Findings

As my book is based in the 1970s, more than 40 years ago, the potential readership is older adults. Given that it’s about the activities of a large department store, it seemed likely to be of most interest to older ladies, either previous customers of such a shop or former staff members.

Many older ladies enjoy membership of a variety of ladies associations of various types e.g. Women’s Institutes, church group and book groups, for example.



​Although received wisdom regarding book promotion is based firmly in the electronic sphere, many older ladies are not involved at all with the internet. 

Personally, I have many years’ experience of public speaking and facilitating interaction among groups. I decided that the best way to make the connection with this readership was by direct targeting of ladies groups and offering to provide a talk to their members about me, my book and the old department stores.

Outcomes

This seems to have been a successful way ahead. Once I had carried out a few events at these groups, I began to be directly approached to talk at other groups. Word of mouth has been effective and I now have bookings up until January 2017 and many requests from groups for return visits to tell them about Book 2.
 
Apart from anything else, I really enjoy talking to these ladies and I think this transmits. We've had great fun talking about the department stores of old and sharing memories. I've met some lovely people and I've heard some terrific stories from previous staff members. It’s not all about the sales for me. All I wanted was an interesting activity and I certainly found it, quite unexpectedly, in promoting my book. I just wanted to inspire people to read it. 

Other writers might find this a useful way ahead but it’s crucial for them to analyse their likely readership and target them in an appropriately individualistic way. The internet may be the way ahead for most but I really enjoy doing it my way! 

Jane Tulloch is the author of Our Best Attention. Set in a fictional department store in the 1970s, the book tells the stories of staff and customers (including one very special VIP). You can buy the book here. 
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    CONTRIBUTORS

    Gordon Lawrie is the founder and managing director of Comely Bank Publishing, and the author of Four Old Geezers and a Valkyrie. The Discreet Charm of Mary Maxwelll-Hume and The Blogger Who Came in from the Cold. He is also a flash fiction aficionado. He’s currently in search of that book that earns him a fortune. 

    Emma Baird is a freelance/blogger, and the author of Katie and the Deelans. Since then she's moved onto pastures new where she self-publishes experimental YA and chick-lit novels both online and as print-on-demand.

    Jane Tulloch is the author of Our Best Attention (published 2016) Attention Assured (2017) and now has a further lease of life as an expert on the history of Edinburgh's lost department stores. She is relishing the freedom of writing an (almost!) complete pack of lies after years of writing very serious reports on her professional topic of autism in adults.

    Eric J. Smith lives in Maryland, USA, and is the author Not a Bad Ride: Stories from a Boomer's Life on the Edge, which is available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.​

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