Book Promotion Buddies - 5 Ways for Authors to Help Each Other Out

Writing and promoting books can be a lonely endeavor, so it's always great when authors find ways to connect with other authors. In today's guest post, Ellen Cassedy and Sara Mansfield Taber share their experience in supporting each other in promoting their books.

The two of us knew each other from a writers’ group and were drawn to each other’s work from the start. When we were both assigned the same publication date for our new books, we decided to get together and help each other out. Here’s what we do:

1) Strategize.

Several months before our books hit the shelves (virtual and otherwise), we sat down and drew up a comprehensive promotion plan for each of us. (The Savvy Book Marketer came in very handy!) Each plan includes ideas for: a website, a press kit, e-mailings to friends and acquaintances, speaking engagements, use of social media, reviews, awards, blogs and guest blogs, interviews, placing articles and excerpts in publications, outreach to educators, libraries, and book groups, and outreach to special audiences (spies and children of spies for Sara; Jewish and Lithuanian audiences for Ellen; memoir-writers for both of us).

At our kitchen table meetings, which take place every couple of weeks, everything is fair game for brainstorming: How to organize our desks – folders, baskets, color-coded tabs? How to sign books – what should we scrawl, beyond “best wishes,” alongside our autographs? How to handle long-winded questioners at our readings? How to approach that friend who mentioned she knows a famous reviewer? Is it too soon to nag the blogger who promised an interview? What’s too aggressive and what’s just assertive? What’s too bashful and what’s appropriately polite?

2) Share information

We pass along countless ideas and tips for places to speak or people to approach. Sometimes it’s easier to come up with these if it’s not your own book. One unbroken rule: we don’t horn in. If one person is hot on the trail of a coveted radio show or reviewer, she doesn’t share her contact until after her pitch has been accepted or rejected.

3) Promote each other

We get the word out about each other’s books – on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Amazon, Goodreads, and the like. We refer to each other’s books in our talks and giveaways at conferences. We spread the word with friends and people we meet. After umpteen hours talking about your own book, it can feel great to wax eloquent about someone else’s.

4) Cheer

“Good for you!” “You were great!” “You’ll be great!” No one can hear those words too often. We’ve discovered how good it feels to share in the glow of each other’s success.

5) Complain

We share our blues – a little. We recognize that from time to time we’ll feel jealous of each other, and we try to be honest about it.

For us, working together on book promotion means a shot in the arm and an opportunity to share both the excitement and the slog. It has also led to a precious friendship.

About the Authors

Ellen Cassedy’s book is We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), which begins with her personal journey into the old Jewish heartland and expands into a larger exploration.