Even Fiction Can Have News

Shel Horowitz’s Book Marketing Tip of the Month
Volume 1, Number 1, July, 2007

Welcome to the first edition of this newsletter and thanks for being one of my very first subscribers We’ve reached our minimum number of subscribers and we’re ready to go. I will publish every month on or about the 25th of the month, either with a tip of my own or guest tip. Sometimes it’ll be just a couple of paragraphs sometimes a full-length article.

This Month’s Tip: Treat Fiction as News

Since book marketers are often accused of neglecting fiction, let me start with a tip that especially applies to novelists and short story writers:

When you publicize your book, you can find a number of news angles to focus that can help you get coverage in the media. Here are three to start:

  1. The situation or problem your protagonist faces. As an example, I know a novelist who wrote a book featuring a woman who discovers her husband is gay. She gets tons of media coverage, positioning herself as an expert on the issues that straight spouses of gays face.
  2. The place where you the author live–but also the places your characters live in or travel to in your book.
  3. Any charitable connection or cause. I’ve done a couple of press releases for Imaginator Press, highlighting the funds its young adult fantasy novels raise for butterfly protection and research.

Shel Horowitz’s award-winning seventh book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, offers 280 pages of great book marketing advice. Click here for a detailed preview.

3 Comments so far »

  1. paulette said,

    Wrote on July 26, 2007 @ 4:20 pm

    Not only can you focus your promotions of fiction in the excellent ways you described, you can create entire derivative products based on your same suggestions. Your second suggestion above begs for a tips booklet on travel tips for the area in which the story is set, for instance. That booklet becomes another saleable product in addition to the book that prompted it.

    By the way, great photo of you on this blog, Shel. We knew you could do it!

  2. Shel said,

    Wrote on July 26, 2007 @ 5:06 pm

    Excellent point, Paulette. I’m a big believer in expanding product lines. My three points above only scratch the surface of what is possible, and there are innumerable ways to expand on this (some of which I cover in Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers https://www.grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com )

    Glad you liked the photo. I’ll pass your comment to the photographer.

  3. Tam Tsou said,

    Wrote on February 12, 2010 @ 2:09 pm

    I would have to say this is an extremely informative post that should get mentioning elsewhere.

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