Marketing & Publicity

Many new authors find the idea of marketing and publicising their own book to be daunting, but with loads of practical advice and a dose of TLC, the clients of Self Publish SA discover it’s a learning curve and that they are loving the ride. It does require some effort and determination, but when you believe in what you’re selling, book publicity is little more than social networking, great fun to undertake, interesting, rewarding and profitable.

 For example, it’s important to hold a launch event and to invite anyone and everyone you know. New authors are often gratified by the level of support provided by friends, business associates and family. If you are able to sell 100 books at R100 a copy this way, that’s R10 000, which defrays a large portion of the cost of self-publishing right away. But it’s also important to create publicity and media interest around a launch event and this entails working in a strategic manner that secures maximum benefit.

There are other categories of activities to help build a network of contacts and sell books, and these are best done at intervals, resulting in a push that will bear tangible fruit as well as amplifying your various efforts. Different books require specific strategies and we discuss myriad ideas with clients during the book publishing process.

What we do is pull together a plan and timetable for authors to put into effect themselves, which we believe is the right approach so that in the longer run authors gain the skills and confidence to continue with the work themselves. In addition to the usual marketing channels, we maintain that you need to get creative to get noticed. One author apparently handcuffed herself to the lion cage at the zoo and threw the key to the lions in a bid for publicity for her book about fierce felines. While that might sound a bit extreme, there are lots of options, and we provide a detailed guide, including media contacts and helpful hints on what to do for a month of intensive pre-launch activity that should get you started.