Lisa Heather asked Cornelia Funke:

Hi Cornelia. I just self published a book that came out Dec. 2014. Could you suggest some ways that I could promote my book. I have sold 600 books but am running out of promotional ideas. How did you start out? Thanks so much. Lisa Torbert

Cornelia Funke Dear Lisa, I am not a good advisor on this, as I luckily have an established readership by now that waits for my books. I don't do much promotion. Mostly my publishers do that for me, and all the booksellers, librarians and readers who love the stories. I owe them all much more than any publicist. As I do publish my next book for the first time with my own company I did hire a publicist though and I signed up with a professional distributor, but sadly that is quite costly and probably not a path you can take as a young author. So...my only advice is: make you stories better and better. Rewrite a dozen times, read them aloud to yourself, be your most brutal editor and learn to polish them into something so sparkling and beautiful that publishers or readers fall in love with them. In the end that still is the best promotion!

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