Today is another day where I am inspired to write another blog on Networking. In this blog, I will explore the possibilities of advertising in Magazines. Magazine advertisements will not come to you....you have to go out and get them. So the question is: How do you find magazines that will promote your book?
Well, here are some tips that will help you as you begin looking for prospective magazines that will advertise your book:
1. You need to look through many different magazines to see if they do book reviews or features on authors.
2. Once you have 6-8 magazines, you need to BUY these magazines so that you can take them home and read the reviews that have been done on past books.
3. After reading the reviews, you need to create a form letter to each magazine. Address the letter to Features Editor, Senior Writer, or the person who is in charge of doing Book Reviews.
4. Before you send out each letter, pray and ask God to allow your letter to fall into the right hands so that you can advertise with them.
5. Give each magazine a month to receive your letter and to respond back to you.
6. Be prepared. If the magazine says that they want a review copy of your book, you need to be prepared to send them a review copy. Word of Caution: Do not send the book by book rate (4th class mail). Sending the book Priority Rate says something about you as an Author. You want them to know that you wanted them to receive your book ASAP.
7. Before you send the books, pray and ask God to guide the person as they read your book.
8. Give the magazine a month or two to read your book and to form their own opinion of your book.
9. When (or if) the magazine chooses to contact you for advertising or to do an article, you need to be ready to sell your book like it is best piece of cheesecake that they can find. If you articulate your work properly, you will be able to convince the writer that they made a good choice in doing an article on you.
10. When asked, send them a head shot of you holding your books. Nothing says more than an author who is proud to hold the books that they wrote.
11. When the article comes out in print, be humble and show others how they can get their work out into the public. You did it and so can they!
You will not believe this but I learned these tips within the past month. I was told by a postal worker that I should never send my books by Book Rate to any magazine, newspaper, or television show. It puts a bad impression on you and your work. Have some class and integrity and send your books by Priority Mail.
UPDATE: At 12:00pm today, I had a telephone conference with a Christian Magazine. I found out about this magazine by sending a FaceBook Inbox message to the Editor. In any event, I was able to speak to the Editor about my book. She asked me about my book and the mission for it. I told her that no church member is perfect; we all go through issues but we know that God can help us through any situation that we will experience. Her final question was: What should readers take away from your book? I told her "The readers will be able to see that they are going through many issues but if God can help my 400 characters overcome their situations, he can help them too!" She was sold at that point. Her only response was "Wow!" Right now, we are in the process of signing the contract so that I can be featured in the Spring 2012 Must Reads. In order to get somewhere, you have to start somewhere.
Know thyself.......market thyself!
The Author Journey Continues!
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