Friday, August 15, 2008

Isobella Jade's Tips for No-Budget Author Promotion


Today on Mediabistro.com's GalleyCat



Friday Aug 15, 2008


Has it really been nearly a year since the last time I wrote about Isobella Jade, the model who wrote a memoir at the Apple Store? I got an email from her last week; apparently, after self-publishing the book through Amazon.com's BookSurge program, she secured a book deal in the United Kingdom with The Friday Project, a formerly indie British press which partnered with HarperCollins earlier this year—Jade says we should look for Almost 5'4" in the first half of 2009.
Jade also sent some advice she'd written up about "how to pitch your book when you're broke," and since it seems to have worked, we should take a look.

Use the free tools of Web 2.0: "Whether your book is about pregnancy, porn, or plastic surgery mistakes, the writing you do does not end with just your book and your Word document. To get buzz on yourself you have to promote you and your opinion, and blogging can be a good way to do this." Jade also makes guest appearances on other blogs, along with vlogs and podcasts, and says tactics like these can help convince agents and publishers that you're capable of being an active participant in the marketing of your book.

So far, so good, as long as you're not too blatant about it—and Jade acknowledges that the key to online promotion is to be "discreet but clear." Or, as I've put it previously, the point of blogging and other online strategies isn't to tell people you have a book out, but to let them know you're "an interesting person who has something to say about the human condition worth paying attention to." OK—what comes next?

continued...

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