So you've had a book (or three or more) accepted for publication.  Now is the time to think about the dreaded P word - promotion.  For some writers it's the best part of writing, a different creative outlet.  For others it's a chore.  So why do you need to promote?  How? And more importantly, what?

Your job as a writer is to not only write and sell that book for your editor, but to also sell it to readers.  Unless you’re a mega-bestseller or have written a chart-topping, genre-breaking story, your publisher won’t have much (if any!) promotional dollars to spend on you.  And as most writers are introverts, happy to stare at the computer all day, self-promotion can seem like sticking hot needles in your eyes. 

In her workshop Three Simple Rules for Self-Promotion, Cindi Myers advocates "doing self-promotion that you are comfortable with,.  Don’t do something just because everyone else is doing it."

Determine your goals and establish a target audience - For most writers, our target audience will be readers, booksellers or the media.  Cindi Myers elaborates: “Different methods work for each of these audiences.  A news release can be highly effective in garnering free media publicity but would fall flat with readers.  Bookmarks might work well with readers, but would be almost useless to the media.  You have to know what you want before you can even start thinking about what to do.”

She believes in asking yourself, “’How do you want to go about selling more books?’  By building a relationship with booksellers, with distributors?  Would you rather deal with readers directly, establishing a presence with them?  Do you want a lot of media coverage?  Reviews?”  For the new author, she suggests “a narrow, focused campaign”, which is often more effective and accessible to start.

In her article 10 Quick Promotion Tips for Writers, Vicki Hinze advocates promoting yourself, the author, not the publisher or one particular book.  "You are spending your money to promote - and you should be spending it to promote you.  Authors sell books based on name recognition - regardless of the types of books they write.  Many authors write in several genres and most authors ‘reinvent’ themselves three to four times in the span of a career.  Often they do so by switching genres.  Some readers follow, others don't.  But the more familiar they are with your name, the greater the odds they will find you and have the opportunity to decide presented to them.”

Silhouette Desire author Bronwyn Jameson reiterates that reasoning.  “I've come to believe that items promoting author name rather than book title are more dollar-effective.  Especially when an individual book has such a short shelf-life.  I've done pens, bookmarks, magnets, notepads, all with my website and ‘from Australia’ branding.  When not book-specific these can be printed in larger numbers and distributed over a longer timeframe.”

Set a budget - The general consensus is 10% of your advance or 10% of your projected income.  While printing, a website and mailing lists can cost anywhere from free to exorbitant, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of each.

Chart your plan - Diarise your release date then work backwards from there.  It’s all about creating a buzz and presence prior to your book’s release.  Ask about deadlines for your local newspapers (for a local author interview), review sites (to generate interest in your book), writers’ journals and newsletters (to write articles) and writing community workshop schedules (to conduct online workshops).

If you’re a Harlequin author, people will be able to buy your book as an e-release a full month before it hits the shelves.  And bookclubs get them earlier than the stores too.

Mills & Boon Medicals author Fiona Lowe says, “The best tip I got was from Trish Morey - free business cards from VistaPrint (you pay for postage only).  It has my website, my year's releases and I keep them in my purse and hand them out when people ask about books.  I also have a newsletter with links to my site and blog to remind people I exist, which I send out just as a book hits the shelf.  I do regional newsletters... one to the UK, one to Australia/New Zealand to coincide with the release.  I contact the local paper twice a year with an 'angle' for some publicity. I donate hard copies and Large Print to my regional library system.  On my website I always link to photos of the area I set the book, tell people why I wrote the book, what inspired me and put in an excerpt from chapter one.  I run a competition to get email addresses for my newsletter but the jury is out on the worthiness of that... although the last one I did jointly with Amy Andrews which got me ten more email addresses.”

On the other end of the scale, Queen of Promo Debbie Macomber sends an annual four-colour, four- to six-page newsletter to more than 50,000 fans.  Twice yearly she sends out an e-letter, including a recipe, from one of her characters in her Cedar Cove series. She also writes a Dear Reader letter at the start of her mass market American Romance series, and maintains a website that features twenty-three separate links (Debbie's Store, Readers' Recipes, Debbie's Mom's Page, etc). While you probably won't have the budget of Debbie's, there are a few things you can do to keep your name in the public eye.

Whether you have a you-beaut Flash interactive site or a DIY one, every author I spoke to agreed that a website is a must. 

Anna Jacobs elaborates: “A website is an essential.  Mine has covers and first chapters of books, as well as a booklist and a latest news section.” 

Nalini Singh concurs and adds “Excerpts!  You must have excerpts on your website. Readers love excerpts and use them to decide whether or not a book interests them. The longer the better.”

Amy O'Connor gets a lot of hits through her website “even when I'm not actively on the loops ‘being heard’ - probably a couple of thousand a month at the moment and I've barely promo'd anything other than a couple of banner ads recently.  I occasionally run a competition on my website (usually for a journal or similar that will work anywhere in the world). That increases the hits a lot but I'm not sure just how many more books it equates to. As well as listing the prize on my website, I always list it on The Romance Studio - costs about US$2 / month for membership which also gives you plenty of promo opportunities.”

Lots of authors, including RWA award-winner Melanie Scott advocate a blog to keep an on-line presence.  It’s interactive and immediate, and gives your readers a more personal feel for you.  Melanie blogs about “writing and reading mostly with the odd bits and pieces on life stuff.  I definitely treat it as a professional blog.  Some of my pubbed and unpubbed friends have been nice enough to link to me, which is good and gets me hits (I recommend having a New York Times best selling author in your crit group) but I get most of my traffic because I keep a ‘books I’ve read this year’ list with title and author name in the side bar and talk about those.  Given I read a lot in the genres I write in, I figure that will work well once I have books out there.  I get a couple of hundred hits a month which isn’t huge but it’s not too bad for an unpubbed who’s not doing comps or articles etc.  I also link to other Aussie writer sites."

Both Amy O'Connor and Alexis Fleming advocate banner ads as a way of increasing your website hits.  Amy also occasionally advertises on The Romance Studio and The Romance Junkies. "RJs have more print than e-books, a massive hit rate and a love of Harlequin Mills & Boon. A front-page banner ad costs about US$75/month but you do have to wait a while as there's only one banner ad a month.  Personally, I'd say put your effort into your website and be careful of spending money where you can't get a measurable return (the sales and marketing background is coming out here).  With an ad on a reputable, high-traffic site, you can get click-on stats, and you can also measure your own website's hit rate.”

While some authors don't necessarily buy a book based on a bookmark, the booksellers and readers seem to love them.  Fiona Lowe inserts her free business cards into the books when they're on the shelf so they act as a bookmarks - a double use for those with a limited timeframe for new releases.  For my own promotional purposes, I got 500 bookmarks (with a teaser, cover art and my web address) printed at KwikKopy for less than $200.  With 200 going to conference goody bags, the rest will be placed into the book at my local KMart, Target and Big W when it's released in Australia.  (While you’re there, ask the staff if you can sign copies and put a 'signed copy' or 'local author' sticker on the front).

Anna Jacobs suggests a flyer for those with an active backlist.  "I have a list of my publications on a half A4 sheet, which I carry in my handbag. It has a coloured header provided by a printer, but I print out the list of books myself, updating regularly. On the reverse are my contact details and website URL.  I give this out to all and sundry - checkout operators, people standing next to me in queues, journalists, you name it. The local bookshop says customers come in with books ticked off on this as they buy them.”

Bronwyn Jameson has used both bookmarks and postcards to advertise her latest releases, the latter as a unique "postcard from the heroine" perspective.  As to what works... “There's the million-dollar question!  I've done a variety over the years.  The book specific ones -- such as Angelina's postcard from the outback (The Rugged Loner) and the To-Do-List notepads like Chantal used (Quade: The Irresistible One) - are fun for me more than the readers, I suspect.”

While Anna Jacobs says that, for her, “Bookmarks were a complete waste of time,” Amy O'Connor says, “they’re nice but have to be different. I've had good results with my Amy O'Connor ones (they have nothing but a man’s torso and my website details). People tend to throw away the ordinary ones.”

Alexis Fleming says she’s still finding out what works and what doesn’t.  “I do know that my website stats jump big time whenever I attend a chat online, and according to my publishers, so do my sales.  I started out in e-publishing so an online presence was very important. I've done the bookmarks and paid for banner and cover ads on some of the review sites, but as to how that translates to sales, I couldn't say.  One of the best things I've done to get my name out there was to become a featured author on The Romance Studio site and to take part in their Book-a-Day Giveaway.  That generates an impressive number of reader names each month to add to my newsletter mailing list. As for actual goodies to give out to readers, my most successful campaign was this year's Romantic Times convention giveaway. I wanted something different.  I came up with the slogan "Get Hooked on Alexis Fleming" and decided to give away a promo pack containing bookmarks, postcards and a pair of fashion earrings with...you guessed it... French hooks. I got a lot of feedback from that and it was pretty cool to see my earrings turn up at a lot of the functions. J  Remind me, though, next time I decide to make 700 pairs of earrings that it's a very time-consuming business."

Similarly, e-published author Keziah Hill agrees about the unappeal of self-promotion.  "If you get published in the e-book market you have to be prepared to do the bulk of your own marketing and promotion through online readers’ sites, blogs and forums. Some people are temperamentally suited to this and some are not. In the end you have to be comfortable with what you’re doing, otherwise you start to hate the whole business. There was some discussion of promotion at Passionate Ink, the erotic romance chapter of the Romance Writers of America, where there are a lot of e-book authors.  On the whole, many thought the best promotion was to the write the best books you can.”

From the US Amy O'Connor received a plastic lizard in a bag labelled “low-maintenance Arizona pet”. Her 6 year-old son loved it but “I didn't even notice the author name!”

There’s a whole world of promotional products out there - Googling will give you a score of links.  I've seen emery boards, magnetic clips, plastic bookmark clips, corkscrews, squishy dolphins, lip gloss, ChapStick, lollipops, letter openers, CDs, stress balls, plastic fangs and keyrings used to promote an author.  While it’s easy to get caught up in the fun side of gadgets, it's important to keep your budget in mind - so don’t forget to take into account artwork set up fees, GST and postage.  Pens are a good choice for writers, but remember that the key is to buy good-quality ones which last - the cheap ones run out quickly.

Notepads and sticky notes are also popular promo items and highly functional - a quality Vicki Hinze recommends.  “Non-functional items get glanced at (maybe) and tossed.  Functional items are retained (often for years) and used.  With each use, you gain the blessing of repetition.  So make whatever items you send out functional items.”

However you chose to promote you and your books, remember - the best promotion an author can give is to write the best damn book they can.