What is the best way to promote my book (autobiography)?
The book is called "Running to a New Beginning". It's about overcoming adversity. It's my story from having epilepsy to major brain surgery to becoming a marathon runner. I have been told by friend that everyone should read this story. I have already made it an ebook and looking for exposure to inspire others. What are some promotion ideas?
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Sep 15, 2015
I suggest your read my notes on the subject of book promotion, that you should find useful and has been used by several local writers living here in Oxford. http://www.nicnewmanoxford.com/how-to-market-your-book-some-rough-notes/
Sep 15, 2015
Speak at Rotary Clubs. Come up with a 20 minute talk about you, or how you wrote the book, or how you are giving back to people with epilepsy. They are always looking for speakers, causes to support, and ways to give back to the community.
Aug 17, 2015
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Aug 3, 2015
(1) The best way to promote an autobiography is to become famous yourself. This gets more and more tricky these days, running a marathon is no longer enough.
Now you have to compete with a Polish farmer, who has completed 57 marathons day after day (after work) and 237 marathons in a year, or with the Haruki Murakami who had ben an acomplished writer before he published his book "What I talk about, when I talk about running".Not to mention all those people who run marathons on the North Pole or Badwater Ultra or across Africa.i
(2) Failing to achieve fame prior to publication, you could try to ride on the fame of somebody famous - endorsements from TV celebrities - Oprah? That would work, but in the recent years it has become probably more competitive than (1) above. To succeed, you probably need the best PR Agency. Ideally, the one you cannot afford at present, as it would certainly guarantee sales.
(3) You could try the traditional marketing approach, but this is very costly and in addition to hiring a PR Agency from (2) above you would need to hire the best Advertising Agency which would guarantee placing you in the various TV shows (product placing), buy the best airtime, guarantee a first place in Google search on keywords like "running", "marathon", etc...(4) Failing that, why don't you read Chris Anderson's "Free. The Future of a Radical Price". Offer the book for free and try to monetize it elsewhere (speaking, translation rights, rights to a movie, or a tv programme).
Good luck, and contact me privately if you want some more juice. I can understand your situation, as I quit smoking some 3 years ago and have taken up running. I am still preparing for my first marathon.
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PS. You could always try to find a publisher that would do it for you instead. They might have the budget and would certainly have the experts to lead you through the whole process.
Aug 3, 2015
Donate 100 Copies of your book to 10 epilepsy-related charities. Then, for each charity you do, run a Press Release telling your compelling story.
Note: Do Excerpts from the best parts of the book(!), and when people will see how good it is (based on those best tidbits) they'll want to get it all...Oh, and don't forget to have it on Amazon, so all the PR should be able to refer to your Amazon page.