Below is a great example of book promotion, as reported in Bill and Steve Harrison’s Reporter Connection. You should sign up for their newsletter, it’s free and it tells you about journalists looking to interview authors and other experts. Here’s the link: http://www.ReporterConnection.com/JoinNowFree/
And here’s the clever promotion: “The Magic School Bus series of children's books has sold 58 million copies. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the series' publisher, Scholastic, created a great publicity stunt. Scholastic rented an ordinary yellow school bus and made it magical via colorful illustrations, symbols and signage. Then, the Magic School Bus toured Manhattan. Aboard the bus were a group of 2nd graders, the writer and illustrator of the series and one of the book's main characters. TV, newspapers and mommy blogs ran the story. Why? The bus created great images, which are incredibly important to the media. What photo, illustration or video can you provide the media to go with your story?” ~ Steve Harrison
For most media, it’s all about the visuals. They’re not very interested in a head-and-shoulders shot of a writer unless you happen to be stunningly beautiful or handsome. If your book is set in an interesting location, get some shots of yourself there.
Another option: come up with an interesting prop that relates to the book. I use a shot of me with a little soft toy version of Freud sitting on my shoulder when I promote my “right-brain writing” workshop; when I teach about overcoming writing blocks, I use a shot of me with a little toy gremlin on my shoulder.
You can create a stunt without spending the money to hire a school bus. The aim of stunts is never the number of people you will reach directly, it’s to try to get the media to give your stunt some coverage. On a slow news day you have a pretty good shot at it.
For instance, I’m based in London and when the new edition of my “Creativity Now!” book comes out (around July of next year), I’m going to slip one of the street performers in Covent Garden 20 pounds to work the name of my book into his/her patter and hold up the book and give away a few copies.
I’ll take pictures and see whether the Evening Standard or other media outlets bite. Even if they don’t, it should be fun (I’ll let you know when it’s going to happen—if you’re in London that day you can drop by).
