Press releases seem to have gone the way of the dodo bird with most press releasing services focusing on search engine optimization rather than connecting with the media.

What new book announcement strategies have you employed with success?

Since I was publishing my first book and didn’t have a previously established fan base, I did a similar thing on a smaller scale with Facebook. I spent a few months leading up to the book release cultivating my friends list (going through other friends’ lists and reconnecting with anyone I knew even tangentially), and posted regular updates on the publishing process. By the time the book came out, many of them were excited to buy it, and pimped it to their friends as well. One guy I hadn’t seen since high school bought twenty copies wholesale to sell at events he puts on in SF.

Obviously, selling to family and friends is a pretty limited market, but it can be a nice little kickstart.

What approach should one use when trying to create excitement? Would people want to read about writers in the editing process and writing process?

As you can guess, I’m still trying to figure out which way to go with my advertising.

Ariel Ceylan

Cool.

Ariel Ceylan

There’s a lot to be said for networking. At a Pacific Northwest Writers Association workshop attendees were advised to have an email list of 100 contacts who were interested in (a) You; (b) or your genre; (c) books in general – you get the drift. So, loving Excel, I built a worksheet with the columns (1) date contacted; (2) Name; (3) eMail address, etc. And, every. single. person. I met for the year I was finalizing my first novel went into a category of that worksheet. It now numbers over 600 – I get The Best results from a staged-send ‘Hello, this is what my book is doing now’ note to that list.

News releases that offer a free-something – like my news release on how to embed a linked TOC into an eBook does well for introduction to my self-publishing eBooks, but nothing beats actually making internet ‘friends’ connecting with your readers often and writing to their tastes (ala John Locke).

I like this podcast idea. When I’m ready to publish my second volume sometime this fall I’m going to invest in this.