All About Book Promotion

All About Book Promotion

All About Marilyn should be hitting online bookstores throughout Ingram’s system this week (Amazon is listing it as in stock as have several other stores) so I’m working on the second phase of book promotion.

Marilyn’s book promotion actually started on Jan 27 with the press released sent out online at prlog.org Marilyn’s press release seems to be succesful; it got 65 hits in one day and stands at 124 after two weeks. Solid considering the press release for The Cassandra Cookbook has received about 430 hits since August of 2008.

I’m contacting local newspapers as well. They’re long shots, but I’m doing all I can to get the word out about my stories.

Promotion work feels a lot easier this time than it did on The Cassandra Cookbook. I think I’m getting more experience in this area of publishing; I’m a lot more comfortable putting books together and promoting them now then a year ago.

I’m utilizing several new approaches to promotion this time. In addition to going out to book vendors and the African-American bookstores, I’ll be I’ll be sending postcards to bookstores in New York and in other states. These will have the books ISBN number on them so retailers can order the book. I’m offering All About Marilyn to retailers at an attractive 55% discount so they have an incentive to order and stock the book. It’s a hit on the royalties, but I’ll risk it to get my title on bookstore shelves.

Shipping out copies to African-American book clubs this week. So readers be on the lookout for your copies!

I’m also testing sales through paypal for the first time on www.shawnsjames.blogspot.com. Copies of All About Marilyn and The Cassandra Cookbook will be available at a discounted price there, have my autograph and I’ll cover the shipping and handling. I might do this for 30 days or so to see if it works.

I would like to network with New York City bookstores about arranging a booksigning. I would love to do one in the future. It’s just a case of logistics.

I have a new amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-James/e/B00379H1CG/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 where all my books are listed together. Working on a Search Inside for All About Marilyn right now.

Finding out Twitter is an amazing resource for book promotion, as are MySpace and Facebook. People click the links I post there a lot. Finding social media is a great way to get the word out.

I’m still mulling over attending the Harlem Book fair this year. Assessing my finances. I have the inventory, but I’m pondering whether or not it’ll be worth the trip downtown. I don’t want to spend hours in the sun to come back with all the books I came in with. If I do it, I have to factor in the cost of a gazebo this year.

I’m still looking for an “official” job while pursuing this little hobby of mine; prospects are still slim. New York State is NOT the place to look for a job. Prospects are VERY few and far between.

To correlate with Marilyn’s release, I’ll be posting a series of blogs about the book and African-American actors in Hollywood in the coming weeks. Lot of writing, lot of planning. One blog will have lots of pictures. FUN!