Wes Locher's Blog - Posts Tagged "promotion"

Book Marketing from a to Z by Francine Silverman


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Being the author of a newly released book and desperately seeking information on how to promote the title once it had been released, I found Francine Silverman's Book Marketing from A-Z and immediately ordered a copy.

I wanted to like it. I really did. Out of the many book marketing tomes that I read, this was my the least useful to my promotion campaign planning. I read numerous reviews before picking up my copy and one of the highlights was that it advertised tips from every genre. Being an author in a smaller niche, I was excited to find advice from other authors in my area. In the end, there was only one tip pertaining to my genre, and it was nothing ground breaking that I hadn't thought of on my own. Obviously, tips for any genre can be applied to your own, so I still made sure that I kept an open mind as I read other author's experiences.

If you are a romance author, this book has tons to offer you and I highly suggest you pick it up.

Time might be this book's greatest enemy. Various Weblinks suggested in the book have since become extinct and this can become frustrating as you try to do additional research after reading it.
The second biggest enemy is the format of the book. There are many spelling errors and font sizes don't seem entirely consistent and sometimes it's not completely clear where one section leaves off and the next begins. Formatting the topics from A-Z is nice, but an index in the back of any other research book provides the equivalent.

As I mentioned earlier, if Romance is your genre, pick this one up, but if you've already read other marketing/promotion books, this won't teach you anything you don't already know.

The book reviewed is a collection of submissions from other authors on what has and has not worked for them while promoting their books. It should be noted that Francine Silverman runs a book promotion newsletter that you can subscribe to online. It's an invaluable resource that I recommend all authors look into.

View all my reviews >>

Carolyn Howard-Johnson knows a thing or two about book promotion. Having published many books, columns, and articles across many genres, she tends to know what she's talking about. Even though some of the information and website links are now dated, the number one thing I loved about this book was that it didn't talk down to you.

While in the process of publishing my humor book, I read as many self-marketing resources as I could get my hands on. I kept running across positive reviews ...more Carolyn Howard-Johnson knows a thing or two about book promotion. Having published many books, columns, and articles across many genres, she tends to know what she's talking about. Even though some of the information and website links are now dated, the number one thing I loved about this book was that it didn't talk down to you.

While in the process of publishing my humor book, I read as many self-marketing resources as I could get my hands on. I kept running across positive reviews of The Frugal Book Promoter so I knew I had to pick it up.

It's not one of those books that tells you to go out and find an agent and promises you all the success in the world. It tells you the steps that you can take all by yourself in order to achieve the success you desire... you just have to be willing to do the hard work. Sure, it gives you the knowledge to find an agent who might help you reach your goals, but doesn't recognize it as the only option.

I tabbed sections of this book as I went along so that after finishing it I could easily go back and find techniques that I wanted to try. By the time I finished the book, I easily had over 50 tabs stuffed into the pages. I've been working my way back through and putting some of her ideas into practice. While I haven't made a million dollars and I'm not yet rubbing elbows with Oprah, I have seen some promotional campaigns turn into book sales.

There were a couple of other marketing/promotion books that I read prior to this one and in retrospect, I wish this had been the first thing I read since some of those other books assume you are working in a particular genre, or assume that you have a couple thousand dollars to drop on making posters and bookmarks. This book is completely focused on how to save money and requires no previous knowledge or experience.

If you're serious about your book's future, then you won't regret picking up Carolyn's book. She wants to help you. She wants you to succeed. She doesn't see you as competition. She knows we're all in this together.