1001 Ways to Market Your Books [Paperback]

John Kremer



​(from the publisher) Today's most complete handbook on book marketing. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books includes more than a thousand ideas, tips, and suggestions for marketing your books - all illustrated with real-life examples showing how authors and publishers have marketed their books. This book covers everything from planning and design ... to advertising and publicity ... to distribution and special sales ... to subsidiary rights and spinoffs.



(from Michael) This is a huge, huge book with 700 pages. It has lots of useful information and advice, but some of the promotional ideas including TV commercials, statement stuffers, billboards, bus signs, starting a holiday and sky writing do not apply to most self-publishers.

     The book was published in 2006, so it doesn't deal with Facebook, Twitter, Createspace or Pinterest. It recommends the now-irrelevant MySpace, statistics are outdated and some of the websites and media mentioned no longer exist.

     Some advice, like sending out review copies four months before publication makes sense for traditional publishers seeking coverage from publications like the New York Times books section and Library Journal -- which pay little attention to self-publishers. However, a large and growing list of online media can be pitched much closer to the pub date -- or even after.

    Because the book is so thick, it can be hard to handle. An e-book version would be much better.

    Most of the book consists of bulleted lists. 700 pages of bulleted lists can be like being shot at with a machine gun. More narratives would provide a soothing respite.

   You probably won't be happy reading cover-to-cover. A better strategy would be to flip pages until you find something useful or interesting, or just stick a finger between two random pages and see what you find.

    Sadly and strangely, there is no index.

    This is a good book, but it is long overdue for updating, and pruning. Maybe 501 ways would be enough.

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$18.45, order from Amazon.com​

$18.81, order from Barnes & Noble