Howard Stern is a polarizing radio personality who recently announced the upcoming release of third book. Whether you like him, hate him, or don’t even know him, his approach to book promotion and publicity is spot on.
Stern has built a fan base of millions over the years and certainly has an advantage over a newly budding self-publisher. However, Stern has masterfully intertwined his book promotion with discussions of his everyday life. After his original announcement a few weeks ago, he has organically brought up his book during daily discussions but it does not come across as a non-stop infomercial. This simple concept of threading the news of your book within your everyday life and correspondence should be a cornerstone of your book promotion.
Despite Stern’s innate ability for subtle and ongoing promotion, Simon and Shuster, his publisher, orchestrates the grand marketing plan. Twenty-plus years ago when he released his first book, his publisher had established relationships with the major bookstores. Consequently, the shelve space allocated for his book was extraordinary and his book skyrocketed to the top of the bestseller lists immediately. Today, reaching the number one spot on Amazon is the coveted prize and route to ongoing book sales. In order to catapult to the top, major book publishers came up with pre-sale marketing plans. The minute the book is actually released the surge of initial orders pushes the book to number one.
Even though Stern’s book is not available until May 14, he will be popping up on all of the news and late night shows over the next few weeks. Regardless of your size and audience, it is imperative to have some promotional marketing plan established if you want to reach your book sales goals. Since we began assisting small self-publishers in 2004, our publisher consultants are consistently asked if we can assist them with marketing and promotion. We are very excited to announce we have forged partnership with one of the most accomplished book promotion/publicity companies in the US, Smith Publicity.
In order to address the needs of self-publishers, we have worked with them to provide simple and basic consulting services enabling new authors and publishers a starting point for their book marketing.
Please visit www.isbn-us.com/book-publicity/ .
