Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books with Author Don Miles
Posted by pumpupyourbookpromotion on April 15, 2008
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 Don Miles, author of Cinco de Mayo: What is Everybody Celebrating?.
Researching and writing Cinco de Mayo was the easy part. Although many agents turned down the novel, one of them wrote that he’d like to see a nonfiction version. That’s all the encouragement I needed to screen out the fiction and replace it with events and people whom I had set aside from the novel.
After two years of approaching agents and publishers, I wanted to see an actual book on the table, so I went with a subsidy, print-on-demand publisher to get beyond the manuscript stage.
With a real book in hand, I was ready to launch a website and work with a publicist.
I have been very pleased with the results from both. It’s one thing to be a highly knowledgeable writer in your subject matter, but that doesn’t make you a promotion expert.
On May fifth – Cinco de Mayo – of 2007, we held an indoor fiesta at BookPeople in Austin, the largest independent bookstore in Texas. I hired mariachis and folkloric dancers, and provided authentic Mexican food and drinks. The next day, the local paper had Cinco listed as the “Number Five Best-Seller” in Austin. I sold 19 books, compared to Senator John Kerrey who sold 23 the week before, but then Kerrey didn’t hire dancers or mariachis!
The reviews have been favorable and helped position the book. I’m sure Cinco will become an evergreen book with a steady and growing demand for years to come.
Visit www.donmiles.com.
Don Miles is the author of Cinco de Mayo: What is Everybody Celebrating? You can visit his website at www.donmiles.com.
