Francis Hamit | Self-Publishing Review

Four Rules for Creating Your Own Marketing Strategy

1.) It’s an Investment, Not a Cost

Marketing is more than just selling your book. Taken by themselves, most marketing events are loss-leaders. A book signing or table event won’t normally bring you enough profit on the copies sold to cover your costs of getting there, much less a decent wage for the hours spent not just during the appearance, but all the collateral work and other material that you should provide such as bookmarks and posters. You are not just promoting the event, but creating buzz and excitement about the book which will carry over to book store staff […]

Francis Hamit2011-10-08T20:05:14+02:00February 20th, 2009|Categories: Resources|

The Do-It-Yourself Book Tour

Big publishers, when they are trying to make a bestseller, put authors on a 20-city book tour. The idea is to create media buzz, so these combine media interviews and book signings, and are rather expensive. A self-published author, however, can do something similar without breaking the bank. It won’t be 20 big cities, but you will sell books if you do it right.

The first principle here is to combine book signings with travel you were going to do anyway. Our big three-part tour last year was structured around a family reunion, three science fiction conventions, and a high […]

Francis Hamit2009-12-31T21:08:19+02:00January 28th, 2009|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

Book Marketing: Bookmarks in My Pocket

Bookmarks are a widely accepted promotional device in bookstores and libraries, and definitely something you should have in your marketing arsenal. However, just sending them out can be both ineffective and expensive. Imagine my horror when I discovered that one bookstore manager last year had given the ones we sent him to a lady who wanted them for a crafts project for her kids. That was twenty bucks, our cost, out the window. And nothing to do but grin and bear it. We always carry extras, so we had enough for the book signing that day.