[Libs-Or] Any ideas for marketing a self-published book?

[Marta Murvosh]

Karen,
Tell our friend: A good professional review is the key to get librarians in the region or even across the country to buy the book by an unknown author. And when librarians like a book, we talk it up, helping generate buzz. 

Here's the links for submitting to Library Journal and School Library Journal for reviews, follow these links:
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/about/submitting-titles-for-review/?ref=lj-abouthttp://www.slj.com/about-us/review-submissions/

Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist all have similar pages and a similar process.  

If it's an ebook, Library Journal launched Self-e this year. It's a curated list sent on a regular basis to libraries that opt in to the program. Also LJ just posted the best of Self-e list last week, which generates buzz. Self-e may help libraries find the signal in the noise that is self publishing. http://self-e.libraryjournal.com/ (Full disclosure, I still freelance for Library Journal and School Library Journal on occasion.) 

Some books that might be helpful:   
   - The fine print of self-publishing : a primer on contracts, printing costs, royalties, distribution, e-books, and marketing / Mark Levine. 
   - Writing children's books for dummies / by Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy.

If he's selling out of state, he might want to consider a business relationship with a distributor, such as Baker & Taylor and Ingram to make it easier for libraries to buy. 

Also, and this is only my opinion, he really, really, really should consider having someone who is good at guerrilla marketing revise the copy on his website. Less is more online, and good marketing copy leaves people wanting more. 

Maybe he can find a marketing student looking to take on a project. The American Marketing Association often has chapters on campuses and they take on projects for nonprofits and other groups. The AMA student chapter and a marketing professor or if the journalism school includes advertising copywriting, he could approach those professors. PRSA is the public relations professional association and they have student chapters. He needs to find someone who gets his vision and can make it work online. 

Marta
 Marta Murvosh, MLS
librarian and freelance writer
murvosh at yahoo.com
Everett, WA - Pacific Time zone
Linkedin - Facebook - Website
 

   From: Dale Vidmar <vidmar at sou.edu>
 To: "List, Libs-or" <libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us> 
 Sent: Monday, January 4, 2016 6:30 PM
 Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Any ideas for marketing a self-published book?
  
Amazon's CreateSpace has a good marketing site called Marketing Central: https://www.createspace.com/MarketingCentral 
Dale
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dale Vidmar
Professor
Information Literacy and Instruction Librarian/Distance Education Coordinator/
Education, Communication, Nursing, Health, Physical Education, & Leadership LibrarianDigital Media Gallery Venue Coordinator
Hannon Library1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541-552-6842
vidmar at sou.edu 
http://hanlib.sou.edu/dale

"Anything that I ever did that was ultimately worthwhile,      
initially scared me to death."
- Betty Bender~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 4:46 PM, Amy Blossom <ablossom at jcls.org> wrote:

Hello,Midge Raymond, a publisher, Ashland Creek Press, who lives in Ashland, has written a book called Everyday Book Marketing.  It's for people who aren't sure how to promote their work.  I think it's been helpful to people and she does have a section on promoting to libraries. Amy Blossom, Public Services Librarian andAshland Branch Library ManagerJackson County Library Servicesablossom at jcls.org541 774-6987Learn. Connect.  Grow.   
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Clay <kclay at eou.edu>
To: "libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us" <libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2016 16:37:45 -0800
Subject: [Libs-Or] Any ideas for marketing a self-published book?
 Hi Oregon Librarians - I have a colleague who has just self-published a kids book, which his daughter illustrated. The book is a little bit unusual, but very clever. He's asking me for ideas on how to best market it. Does anyone have any ideas on this?  I have no experience with book promotion.    I don't want to co-opt this listserv with advertising, but I will include the URL for the book here in case anyone is interested in checking it out further (or purchasing a copy for their library!):  www.thetreetalksback.com thanks, Karen  --Karen Clay
Library Director
Eastern Oregon University
 

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