Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 19

Advertising can be an entrée to the de-
cision-makers. A contact in the advertising
department may be willing to put a news
release on the desk of one of his editors,
maybe even encourage her to look at it.
They can make no promises, but it does
sometimes work. If you’re going to try this
route, choose a “little pond,” a bookish bro-
chure or an “arty” weekly so that the dol-
lars you spend will be noticed.
Sometimes a magazine or newspaper
runs a special promotion called advertorial.
These are sections where you pay for an ad
and then the newspaper assigns a reporter
to cover the story you want told. The article
carries some of the prestige of editorial
copy—that is the general reader may as-
sume the article has been chosen only on
its merits because of its copycat character.
The writer or editor you meet can be ap-
proached later when you have an excep-
tional story to tell. Publicist Erin Shachory
handles consumer publicity and consults on
advertising strategies. She knows that her
clients hire her—at least in part—for her
“great database.” It is something that, over
time, you can build for yourself.
Still advertorial isn’t FREE when you
have to pay to see yourself or your book
featured. If you can’t make room in your
budget to approach a publicity campaign
this way, carve out some time to do it your-
self and follow these 15 commandments for
getting your freebie campaign moving and
keeping it chugging along:
 E DUCATE Y OURSELF : Study press re-
leases that come to you from suppli-
ers, stores and other authors. Read
books like the multi award-winning
Frugal Book Promoter, now in its se-
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
P AGE 14


cond edition. Take a marketing class
especially designed for people in
your field. Authors will find online
classes given by most universities
these days. Why take a chance with
the vagaries of the Web when these
classes have been vetted.
R EAD , READ , READ : Your IBPA and
writers’ groups’ newsletters. Your
newspaper. Your e-zines. Even your
junk mail. My daughter found a flier
from the local library in the Sunday
paper stuffed between grocery cou-
pons. It mentioned a display done
by a local merchant in our local li-
brary window. Now we’re going to
install one for my book, too! Rub-
bish can be the goose that laid the
golden egg.
K EEP AN OPEN MIND FOR PROMOTION IDEAS :
Look at the small details in your
book. There will be angles there you
can exploit when you’re talking to
editors. My first novel, This Is the
Place, was sort of romantic (a ro-
mance website will like it) but it is
also set in Salt Lake City, the site of
the 2002 Winter Olympics© and,
though that’s a reach, I pitched it to
sports desks, and as a related idea
to feature editors as Olympic fervor
grew and after the Olympics when
editors still needed stories but they
weren’t receiving as much infor-
mation on them in their e-mail box-
es. (I use the past tense here be-
cause This Is the Place is out of print
and available only through Ama-
zon’s new and used feature.)
S PRING 2019