How do you market books?
I’ve learned from my internship that you can market books in myriad ways. Because Dreaming Big Publications (DBP) focuses on work that serves to educate and advocate for social justice and mental health, we try to promote our books in these realms, such as within Facebook groups tied to these topics.
That being said, receiving book reviews is also a primary and important way to bring attention to a book, as is promoting the book through posts on social media sites. (If anyone reading this is friends with me on Facebook, I apologize for all the posts I’ve been making about Dreaming Big books—you're probably sick of me—but it helps to get the word out!) DBP has specific interns who run each of our social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, among others. They do a lot of work, including collecting more followers so that the posts they send out will reach more people. The editor-in-chief of DBP also attends book fairs and other community events where she may be able to market our books, and she’s had the author of our children’s book read her story to classes at local elementary schools. These are just a few of the ways that books can be marketed, and another important way is through press releases.
That being said, receiving book reviews is also a primary and important way to bring attention to a book, as is promoting the book through posts on social media sites. (If anyone reading this is friends with me on Facebook, I apologize for all the posts I’ve been making about Dreaming Big books—you're probably sick of me—but it helps to get the word out!) DBP has specific interns who run each of our social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, among others. They do a lot of work, including collecting more followers so that the posts they send out will reach more people. The editor-in-chief of DBP also attends book fairs and other community events where she may be able to market our books, and she’s had the author of our children’s book read her story to classes at local elementary schools. These are just a few of the ways that books can be marketed, and another important way is through press releases.
What are press releases, and how do you write them?
A press release is brief written report or article that companies or organizations send out to announce a new product, service, development, or other newsworthy information. Sometimes press releases are sent out to the public with the purpose of being informative, like a police department releasing information on a crime, or they can be sent out to media outlets with the hopes of sparking attention for something new the company has produced. I’m the primary intern that sends out press releases for the new books DBP publishes.
Press releases are typically distributed to media outlets and the general internet by online distribution services. Many of these services charge you to distribute press releases, or try to entice you to buy fancy packages that will increase the views your press release receives, but I’ve found about ten websites that will distribute your press releases for free. Unfortunately these websites aren’t very clear on where they’re actually sending the press releases—they could be going into a black hole for all I know. That’s one of my pet peeves about press releases—you just have to have faith that they’re going somewhere. We have had people contact us about books because of the press releases I’ve submitted, so I guess someone is reading them!
Once I’ve written up a press release, I copy-and-paste it into the form that the distribution services provides. They typically ask you when you’d like the press release to be distributed, and they sometimes allow you to attach pictures and links. A typical press release that I’ve written looks like this (the first section serves as the title, and the second as a summary of the press release):
Press releases are typically distributed to media outlets and the general internet by online distribution services. Many of these services charge you to distribute press releases, or try to entice you to buy fancy packages that will increase the views your press release receives, but I’ve found about ten websites that will distribute your press releases for free. Unfortunately these websites aren’t very clear on where they’re actually sending the press releases—they could be going into a black hole for all I know. That’s one of my pet peeves about press releases—you just have to have faith that they’re going somewhere. We have had people contact us about books because of the press releases I’ve submitted, so I guess someone is reading them!
Once I’ve written up a press release, I copy-and-paste it into the form that the distribution services provides. They typically ask you when you’d like the press release to be distributed, and they sometimes allow you to attach pictures and links. A typical press release that I’ve written looks like this (the first section serves as the title, and the second as a summary of the press release):
"Hair Power,” a new novel from nationally bestselling author Piers Anthony, is now available from Dreaming Big Publications!
Dreaming Big Publications brings you a new fantasy/sci-fi story from nationally bestselling author of the “Xanth” series, Piers Anthony. With over 170 books in print, Piers Anthony continues to create stories full of magic, a little naughtiness, and the humor readers have come to love. “Hair Power” continues that legacy in a story of loyalty, friendship, extraordinary powers, and hair.
About the Book:
Terminal cancer patient Quiti walks into an abandoned building planning on taking her life. Instead, she encounters a telepathic ball of hair that insists it is an alien seeking to facilitate diplomatic communication on Earth. Quiti assumes it is all a hallucination conjured up by her brain tumor.
Because of this assumption, when she saves the alien’s life and it insists on doing Quiti a favor in return, she only asks for her hair back. She soon discovers, however, that the creature’s gift extends much further than her new locks that can change color with a thought. As her powers grow and her deadly illness goes into remission, Quiti quickly realizes that there are those that would want to use her for her abilities and is forced to leave behind everything that she knew.
Will this blessing curse her to a life on the run, or does the mysterious hairball have more in store for her?
“Hair Power” is available now from Amazon.
EBOOK: $3.99; free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers
PAPERBACK: $7.99
Please contact Kristi at [email protected] to request review copies or to receive exclusive author interviews, notice of new releases, and cover reveals.
Dreaming Big Publications is a publishing company on a mission to reach more people on a global level by publishing books that educate and advocate for mental health and social justice issues. Our main focus is nonfiction—self-help, memoirs, and books written for professional mental health providers—but we publish fiction as well and enjoy anything that is a good, fun read, including fantasy and sci-fi.
That gets pasted into the form of the distribution service and submitted, and it will either be distributed immediately or reviewed by an editor and then distributed.
Dreaming Big Publications brings you a new fantasy/sci-fi story from nationally bestselling author of the “Xanth” series, Piers Anthony. With over 170 books in print, Piers Anthony continues to create stories full of magic, a little naughtiness, and the humor readers have come to love. “Hair Power” continues that legacy in a story of loyalty, friendship, extraordinary powers, and hair.
About the Book:
Terminal cancer patient Quiti walks into an abandoned building planning on taking her life. Instead, she encounters a telepathic ball of hair that insists it is an alien seeking to facilitate diplomatic communication on Earth. Quiti assumes it is all a hallucination conjured up by her brain tumor.
Because of this assumption, when she saves the alien’s life and it insists on doing Quiti a favor in return, she only asks for her hair back. She soon discovers, however, that the creature’s gift extends much further than her new locks that can change color with a thought. As her powers grow and her deadly illness goes into remission, Quiti quickly realizes that there are those that would want to use her for her abilities and is forced to leave behind everything that she knew.
Will this blessing curse her to a life on the run, or does the mysterious hairball have more in store for her?
“Hair Power” is available now from Amazon.
EBOOK: $3.99; free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers
PAPERBACK: $7.99
Please contact Kristi at [email protected] to request review copies or to receive exclusive author interviews, notice of new releases, and cover reveals.
Dreaming Big Publications is a publishing company on a mission to reach more people on a global level by publishing books that educate and advocate for mental health and social justice issues. Our main focus is nonfiction—self-help, memoirs, and books written for professional mental health providers—but we publish fiction as well and enjoy anything that is a good, fun read, including fantasy and sci-fi.
That gets pasted into the form of the distribution service and submitted, and it will either be distributed immediately or reviewed by an editor and then distributed.
My experiences with writing press releases:
When I first began the task of writing press releases for DBP, I had never written one before, and I wasn’t sure how to do it. This was the first time I had encountered something very different from my coursework at NAU—in class we’re given explicit directions and rules for how to do something, but in this internship, it’s often a learn-as-you-go process. My boss gave me a list of websites to which I could submit the press releases, and pointed me to a few old press releases she had posted on the Dreaming Big website. From there it was up to me to figure the rest out.
I soon realized that each distribution website was different in what it required from a press release—some were easy because you simply filled out a form, clicked a button and your press release instantly appeared on the website—but others were extremely picky. The worst I’ve encountered so far is a website that doesn’t allow you to copy-and-paste from Microsoft Word, doesn’t allow you to use any special symbols like @ signs, and even prohibits you from using quotation marks or apostrophes in your press release. It’s pretty difficult to write “Piers Anthony’s new book” without apostrophes.
In addition, the distribution websites will often reject your press release if they feel it doesn’t follow their guidelines, and those guidelines are sometimes very confusing and seemingly ever-changing. One press release may get rejected due to its use of personal pronouns, while another with the same usage is accepted. Or, one press release may be rejected because the book isn’t new enough, even though the same website recently accepted another press release written for a book that’s six months old. There’s always something to be dealt with in the world of press releases, but that's what keeps it exciting (or at least as exciting as any press release can be).
In addition, the distribution websites will often reject your press release if they feel it doesn’t follow their guidelines, and those guidelines are sometimes very confusing and seemingly ever-changing. One press release may get rejected due to its use of personal pronouns, while another with the same usage is accepted. Or, one press release may be rejected because the book isn’t new enough, even though the same website recently accepted another press release written for a book that’s six months old. There’s always something to be dealt with in the world of press releases, but that's what keeps it exciting (or at least as exciting as any press release can be).