by Penny C. Sansevieri
I’m a big proponent of online book promotion; not only does it work, it’s also necessary if you want to stay competitive and get your book a wide reach.
However, I’m also a big fan of smart local promotion, because very little in marketing is a sure thing every single time. The more control you have over the variables, the better, and you have a lot of control over what’s in your immediate area.
As everything opens up and we return to a semblance of normal, you can get back out into your community and get your book out there, too. Here’s a list of local book-promotion strategies that almost any author can take advantage of!
Get stickers made right away.
The goal with online book promotion is to send people back to your website or your Amazon page, right? Well, you have to use the same motivation for local promotion as well.
Get professional stickers made with your author name, website, a branded link to Amazon, and a short message, then be sure they’re added to the inside front cover of any books you plan to promote locally.
At minimum you’ll want the short message on the sticker to remind people to review, but you can take it a step further with a short list of ways local readers can support you.
You can also DIY this with Canva; after you create your awesome promo, order stickers directly through the site for pretty reasonable rates. Check it out!
Use Little Free Libraries as part of your local book promotion.
Most of us have seen these while driving through neighborhoods or outside our local YMCA, but for those who aren’t familiar, a Little Free Library (LFL) is a “take a book, return a book” free book exchange. They come in many shapes and sizes, but the most common version is a wooden box, about the size of a milk crate, attached to a pole. The books inside are protected from the elements but are visible to passersby because the front is made of glass or durable clear plastic.
Anyone may take a book or bring a book to share. Many Little Free Library locations are registered on their website, but not all of them. Make a list of those within a driving distance you consider reasonable, and then drop off your donated books (ready with branded stickers). Keep a few extra books handy in your car, too, in case you happen upon an unregistered LFL or one that’s been created for a neighborhood and not through the LFL program.
Tap into your local network.
Think about all the places you frequent, like your salon/barber or the place where you get coffee several times a week. Most of us are creatures of habit to some degree, and we forget how many people in our local community are likely to recognize us, and in turn, would be happy to support our work. Always have a book or two at the ready and start asking your favorite places if they’d be willing to keep one out for others to peruse or borrow.
Consider schools and other youth/family organizations.
If your book is a good fit for children or families, consider donating some to schools, childcare centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, or the local YMCA. Get creative with this and do some research. When you contact an organization to donate, they may decide to pay it forward and invite you to participate in an upcoming event, or they may find a way to return the love with some other promotional opportunity. This is your chance to experience why it might be better to give than to receive!
Support your local military.
If you live in an area with a military population, contact the local chaplain’s office and let them know you’re a local author and the genre you write in, and ask if they can give you any guidance on how you can donate books to be shared on base or for the next deployment. Another way to support your local military is by taking copies to the VA or other retirement homes. These donations may reach not only residents, but staff and family members as well.
Help people at local hospitals.
Hospitals can be bleak for a lot of people, and many, whether they’re patients or the people who love them, are often there longer than they plan to be. Contact someone in administration, introduce yourself, let them know what you write and how you want to help, and see if they will let you provide copies of your book as a resource or a chance to escape for a bit as people recover or for families logging in long visiting hours.
Contact local book clubs and meetups.
Get on Facebook Groups or search Facebook Local Events for book clubs, and if you find some that seem to fit your genre or topic, definitely send them a friendly message as a local author and offer to donate some books for their group or even do a personalized author event.
Meetups are another great source when you’re local; some books clubs use Meetup to organize events, but it’s also a popular site for topic-specific groups to find like-minded individuals. This is especially useful if you’re a nonfiction author, as it’s a great resource for finding people in your community to help out while building your author event and workshop resume.
Remember, it’s about getting books in hands.
Smart book promotion means supporting your author brand through a variety of efforts that complement each other, which means online promotion, media pitching, event pitching, utilizing social media, and also hitting the streets to physically get books in the hands of people in your community, the people who are most inclined to support you.
And now that everything is opening up after so many months of isolation and quarantine, there has never been a better time to get (re)acquainted with your community.
Good luck!
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.
