Susie on Books and Marketing - Part 2

The Art of Asking for Kind and Essential Favors - to purchase, to review, to shout out

Yesterday, our video class introduced you to the essentials of book marketing, Part I. We covered positioning the book, and your master list of key contacts.

Today, in Part II, we learn how to ask both strangers and friends to consider your work— to buy it themselves, write a review, and yes, to treasure it in their library.

Okay— how is that magic trick performed?

First of all, you write a worthy book, which is no mean feat, but let’s assume you have!¹

In the lobby of San Francisco’s Chronicle Books — my editor and publicist are making me laugh about our deadlines. Which is a good thing!

Here’s what we’ll cover in today’s video:

Writing a Book Announcement & Asking for Reviews

• Assemble your “assets” — defined in Marketing Class #1 — and be ready to deploy them.

• Assemble your contact list and their “whereabouts” on a spreadsheet, and sort them by category: Big Mouths, Friends and Family, etc.

• What must you ASK your contacts to do, precisely? The power of the question mark.

• How to offer …