Writing a Book? Here’s My #1 Tip!

A number of you plan on writing a book, now or in the future, so I want to share with you the most important promotional tip for getting your book out there: Start promotion before your book is published, ideally six months prior. I typically get calls from people just after they have published a book, thinking that is when all the fun begins. The thing is, media wants to write a book review right when the book comes out. In other words, if your book is coming out in September, magazines want the article about it to be in the September issue.

Mainstream magazines plan issues about four months in advance, and numerous independent magazines plan issues even farther out. In addition, it may take a few rounds of phone calls and emails to get the attention of an overworked editor, and once an editor is interested, it may take a few more weeks for her to get approval from the higher-ups. That all adds up to six months of lead time.

If your book is just about to go to press, ie, if it’s too late to activate the media machine for book reviews, take heart: There are other ways to get the attention of media: You can organize a book tour, create a made-for-media event, and/or spin your book around a news story or new research related to your book topic. For details, see my blog post, “2 Alternatives to Advertising: Get Published and Get Featured in Media.” 

If you’d like personalized support for your book – whether writing/editing services, coaching on a DIY (do it yourself) approach to publicity, or hands-on public relations management, let me know! I’m happy to have a conversation about how I can help.