Other Marketing Strategies & Plans: How to Promote a Non-Fiction Book

"I’m Bobbi Linkemer on behalf of expertvillage.com, and I’d like to invite you to visit my website at writeanonfictionbook.com. There is direct marketing; you can put out direct mail pieces and send them to everyone you’ve ever known. These days you would probably send them to your email list. There is networking; they haven’t discovered anything better than networking; getting out there with your book. I have a friend who she happen to write a novel, but the purpose of the novel was to expose the bush meat trade in Africa, where they illegally poach animals and sell it for food. She has this stuffed chimpanzee that she wears wrapped around her neck and she takes it on planes, and she walks through airports and people stop her and say oh my God that’s so cute what is that. She yanks out a book and says here this is my book and it’s really fascinating and it’s all about what’s with chimpanzees in Africa, and they buy it. So she is selling this book. You got to have…I’d burst into song but I wouldn’t do that to you…You got to have heart. You really have to have sort of a marketing gene. You have to like people and have ideas and get out there and do whatever it takes. You need a press kit probably, because let’s say you want to be on the local NPR station, you need to send them something. You need to send them a synopsis of the book, your bio, talking points. Like here is 10 questions you might ask me if you interviewed me and here are the answers that I would give you so they don’t have to work. You have everything there, you could hand deliver it. However your imagination works, just don’t rein it in. Speaking engagements are wonderful. If you know your topic, go anywhere that it’s interesting to people. If you’ve got a business topic, go to the chambers of commerce, go to rotary clubs, network, network, network, and talk about your subject. Finally, you should have a website."