Book Marketing Buzz

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is Amanda Ford, author of Kiss Me, I’m Single: An Ode to the Solo Life.

The title of my book was partially inspired by those vintage buttons that read, “Kiss Me I’m Irish.” So it only seemed natural to have my own set of buttons made to promote my book. I got online and ordered two boxes of custom buttons. One box of big buttons that read “Kiss Me I’m Single” with colors and design that mimicked the cover of my book and one box of small buttons that simply read “Single” in black letters on a pink background. 

One of the first publicity events I attended after my book was released was a women’s trade show where I had a booth to sell my book.

 There were hundreds of women in attendance and booths selling everything from clothes to candles to tarot card readings to matchmaking services. My table was small and I needed something special to create a buzz around my books. 

Then inspiration strolled by in the form of a firefighter in his mid-twenties. A group of them were assembling at a table across the room to promote the latest version of the firefighter calendar. They were the only men in the place, and I knew that if I could get them to wear my button, it would surely bring notice to my book. I approached one of the firefighters and coyly pointed to the “Kiss Me I’m Single” button pinned on my dress. He read it, looked in my eyes, grinned and planted a peck on my cheek. I then pinned a button on his overalls and told him to send the rest of his boys over to my table. 

That was all it took. One after the other, firefighters visited my table to offer a kiss and receive a button. And of course, since my table was a regular stop of the only men in the place, women came flocking. At the end of the night, you could look around the room and see my adorable pink buttons attached to shirts, purses, shoelaces and even ponytails.  

I now take a small stash of buttons with me wherever I go and hand them out to people. They always get a laugh and the novelty of it seems to stand out in people’s minds. About a month ago, I was at a fashion show and a guy came up to me and said, “Hey! You’re the ‘Single’ button girl.” He then proceeded to tell me a story about a female co-worker of his who got one of my buttons and wore it out to a bar where a guy noticed it and started talking to her. In the end he asked her out and they’d been dating since. 

These buttons have been a great success for me because they have taken on a life of their own. I now get people contacting me and asking if they can buy one through my website. I’m thinking of adding a section to my website called, “Single Pin Stories” where people can post stories of things that happen to them while wearing their buttons.

With wisdom in her youth and poetry in her prose, Amanda Ford is a rare human being and a beautiful writer. She is the author of four books including Kiss Me, I’m Single: An Ode to the Solo Life and the internationally loved, Be True to Yourself: A Daily Guide for Teenage Girls. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Seattle Times, The Chicago Tribune and Real Simple magazine. As the relationship expert for eHow.com, Amanda writes articles and a love advice column in which she works to help her readers deepen all the relationships in their lives using kindness, compassion, understanding and play. Amanda lives in Seattle and when she isn’t writing, you can catch her Lindy Hopping, bicycle riding, tea sipping, joke telling and status quo questioning.  You can visit her website at www.oholive.com.

Amanda’s virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/ and choreographed by Dorothy Thompson.