We CAN! promote our books

Mini-articles for media

The more I try to market my books, the more I understand that success comes when I make it EASY for the media. With the help of my publisher, I send interview questions, photos, blurbs about the book, endorsements ... anything that will make it easy for them to promote me.

Recently, I also learned the value of writing short articles to mail out as press releases. When writing them consider: 1. length (short), 2. advice (helpful), and 3. material (timely). Here's a sample of one I sent for Valentine's Day!

Making it Easy for People to Promote Your Book!

I've discovered that people enjoy helping people. I like assisting authors with their publicity, and I have an amazing group of people who assist me by getting the word out about my books. I appreciate these efforts, and I try to get information to them in a way that will help them most. This is what I send them, maybe it will give you a few ideas, too!

Radio Interview To-Dos ... and not To-Dos

Lately, I've been on the phone A LOT. I've actually been doing 2-3 radio interviews A DAY for my book Generation NeXt Marriage. It's been fun! Many of you who read the blog are published authors, so I'm including a list of dos and don'ts when it comes to YOUR radio interviews.

And for those who aren't published authors yet ... don't get freaked out. Radio interviews are fun. The interviewer calls your home and you get to chat about your book. And then lots of people hear about it and go buy it. How easy it that?!

Zazzle Me!

This year I wanted to WOW my editors, publicity people, and key contacts with fun Christmas gifts. I didn't wow them ... instead I Zazzled them. I created unique mugs that highlighted my books, and I got an awesome response.

Fun contest for book promotion!

Every day, it seems, I hear of another contest of someone who is giving away a free book. It's smart ... but I tried to do something a little different.

I created a video trailer conest. I'm giving away three iPODS as part of this deal ... a pretty solid investment. So ... you may want to know what I hope to gain out of it. Do I have an identifiable number of contacts I want to gain? Am I hoping to get 100 high school youth groups to get the book?

Special Guest: Lysa TerKeurst and her blog thoughts

Today I have special guest, Lysa TerKeurst from Proverbs 31 Ministrys chatting about blogs.

Lysa has some great insights on why she thinks her blog has become one of her greatest tools for ministry and how blogs have worked for her!

Thank you, Lysa, for your wisdom and helps!

Unexpected Rewards

Christmas season is here. A season of joy! I hope that each of us will have many unexpected rewards as we celebrate. Personally, I've had a reason to celebrate lately ... and it is due to some of the unexpected rewards I've received from promoting my books.

Social Networks ... are they worth it?

It seems as if every time I check my email there is someone I know inviting me to be part of an online social network. The question is has

anyone ever received any concrete publicity results attributed to social networking? Ding, ding, ding … I have an answer!

If you can only do TWO things ...

I've given a ton of marketing advice over the years. I've tried a lot of things, but if I had to sum up my very best advice, these would be these two things: 1) Do the very best you can, and 2) Surrender.

Using your website to reach media ...

Tricia Goyer here! (The photo is of me and my sister, Lesley :-)

Who is looking at your webpage? Readers, other writers, store owners ... media. Personally, I wanted to create a website that is media friendly. I consider it a one-stop shopping for anything they might need. This page is a work-in-progress, but this is what I have so far!