At last, the book is in your hand!

The production part is over, the team have been brilliant and here is the evidence! Time to sit back and rest on your laurels? NOT! Now comes the serious stuff. Remember you wrote this book so that other people could read it - rather than for you to sit back and gloat. Nonetheless, it is an exciting moment. You can give yourself several pats on the back. Owing to the inevitable hiccups and crossed wires, EASY BEING was behind schedule. I had planned to take copies to a polo tournament, and flog them, but they weren't going to be ready in time. Nothing daunted, Redwood said - 'no problem How many copies do you want at Cowdray? We'll deliver them there for you'. But how on earth would a strange van driver find me on a polo ground with about 500 people? I consulted our local polo shop (Roxtons in Cirencester). 'No problem', they said, 'have them delivered to Roxtons in Midhurst'. This duly happened and was the perfect illustration of anyone and everyone pulling rabbits out of hats, once they know what you need. Now is the time for serious promotion to start The trick here is to go into 2nd position with your punters, in other words: if you were a punter and you heard about my book, how would you react? If you are anything like me, you might think: 'oh, that's interesting', and put it on one side - believing that you will do something about it later - and then forget about it entirely. Wing out your postcards - or whatever you have chosen - as soon as you have the books in your hand, announcing the publication date, and telling people that they can have advance copies by ordering direct from you. Make it easy for people to order now. The ideal might be a form they can fax back immediately with their credit card details. You've got your publicist, so what else do you want to do yourself by way of promotion? The locals are wonderful support. You are, after all, one of them, and they will be proud of you. If you are using a distributor, you will probably have an agreement whereby you do not sell to the book trade - but this does not cover your corner shop. Our village shop did a roaring trade with their advance copies of EASY BEING @ 25% on sale or return. What other outlets can you sell to direct? Ask around: other people may have ideas which have never crossed your mind. Your local press and BBC will also be very interested in your activities: local boy/girl made good !- it's just what they like. Chat them up and ask if they'd like a review copy. In my experience, it is better to deal with the local media yourself - they would far rather talk to the real thing, than a publicist. Some of them will want to feature the book; others will want the DIY story; and, the more variety of publicity you get - the better, because different sorts of people will read it. Who else do you know in the media? And who do your friends know? Ask around. It is now time to start work with your publicists Proper publishers seem to be quite uninterested in selling books - unless, of course, they have paid mind-blowing advances for them (which has inevitably got the media chattering nicely). The publicity for LAZY LEARNING consisted of my appearance on 'The Big Breakfast' (where I wasn't allowed to mention the book); an interview with Pete Murray (who is wonderful), and a couple of other regional BBC interviews - and that was it. They also got the book reviewed in the Times Educational Supplement (which was something). Apart from that, as far as I know, all the other promotion was done by me: LAZY LEARNING sold despite the publishers. (I wrote to the editor of 'The Author' suggesting an article on the subject. He replied that it would have to say something new. In other words, there was a whole mass of other authors out there who had had the same experience.) EASY BEING is a different ball game. I'm paying the bill - and I consequently expect my publicists to earn their keep. Some of the questions you and your publicists will have already asked yourselves are: :: Which members of the media are going to be the most interested in your masterpiece? :: Which members of the media have the best access to your sort of punters? :: How many different angles to your masterpiece can you think of, to interest as many useful people as possible? Your publicists will have a Media Disk with almost every journalist listed on it, according to his or her speciality. For example, they will type in 'health', and the disk will churn out a mass of pre-printed labels. Write your own press releases. You know what you're talking about, and no one else does. And, as you write them, wonder to yourself what a journalist would find irresistible. Produce different press releases for the different angles you are promoting. For example, for EASY BEING, we mailed journalists who worked with Health and Fitness; Business and Personnel, Social Issues, Relationships - as well as lots of local papers with whose areas I had assorted connections for assorted reasons - as well as the literary journalists. This produced a list of about 550 people (and required 550 stamps!). We sent each of them the relevant press release, plus a flyer. The flyers have the jacket (in colour) on the front, and blurb plus ordering details on the back. We also sent biographies to the nationals. Where possible, press releases need to be double-spaced, and on one sheet of paper - but you can get away with l 1/2 spacing. Your press releases will invite people to telephone and ask for a review copy. You may be happy to do all this yourself - but you will need to buy a Media Disk (this costs £2,000 a year to keep up to date). You will also have to do all the boring chasing of people who have not responded, or people who have responded but are never in their offices - once again, it's up to you to decide how much you want to do. TIP. Drop a 'thank you' line to everyone who writes about you/interviews you. That way they will remember you for next time. The next question is: how much do you, yourself, want to contribute to your promotion campaign. Some authors reckon their duty is done, and it's now up to interested journalists to promote the book. Others like talking direct to the journalists who want to write features; and are happy to be be interviewed on radio and TV. The more exposure you get, as a person, the better your book will sell. People like to meet the person behind the ideas. Hearing your voice, seeing you, and so on, makes everything more alive and human for the punters. TIP for radio/TV: Go for live interviews where possible; and, when chatting with the interviewer before you go on air, talk about anything other than your book. Otherwise, you will spend the interview itself wondering whether you are repeating yourself. I've messed up two interviews by allowing the interviewer to talk about the book before we went on air. If that's what they want to do, simply tell them you'd rather not - and why. Interviewers look after you - that's their job: they want to create good radio. Trust them! And enjoy the experience. There is a statistic which says that ninety something percent of the population is more afraid of speaking in public than of dying. If the thought of being interviewed fills you with horror, go back to the reasons why you wrote your masterpiece, and everything will fall comfortably into place. Another thought for you: if you stay in your ivory tower, the professional critics will have a field day picking holes in your work - whereas it's you the public wants to hear from. Give them the chance to choose whether or not they will like the book. Do not hang about at this stage. Feature writers need lots of lead time (especially for the glossies). They also need time to read the book. Get on with it!