This month we have competition news, expert advice on working in collaboration with other writers, Ten Top Tips for promoting your non-fiction book, successes stories and ideas to inspire you plus the usual useful websites.

• Editor's News
• Successes
• Expert Advice
• Top Tips
• Useful Sites
• Inspiration

Ten Top Tips for promoting your non-fiction book

Whether your book has been accepted by a mainstream publisher or you are self-publishing, you can’t afford to sit back and wait for sales. So here are some tips on how to promote your book:

1. Prepare a press release that you can send to local newspapers and radio stations, especially if the content of your book might appeal to local people or you have an appropriate peg on which to hang it. But remember – keep the press release short. It should be no longer than a single sheet of A4 paper and the most important facts should be at the top so that if the newspaper hasn’t space for all of it they can cut from the bottom upwards. If you send a photo with it, make sure the quality is good – or just state that photo/s are available.

2. If your local paper prints book reviews, send a copy of the book to the literary editor for review.

3. Contact your local radio station to see if they might like to interview you about your book. Or try local societies and organisations (writers’ groups, church groups etc) – ask if they would like you to come along and be guest speaker at one of their meetings.

4. Make sure you have an attractive personal website where you can showcase your book. Spend a little extra money to purchase a domain name that people will recognise and spend a little extra time making your site search-friendly. Have a look at Useful Websites for a neat widget to promote and market your work.

5. Why not blog about your interests, your book etc? But make sure that you keep your postings up-to-date or people will lose interest. Visit www.blogger.com for information on how to proceed.

6. Join chat rooms that are relevant to the subject of your book. You can then spread the word as you chat. And make sure that every email you send out has a mention of your book, where it can be obtained and how much it costs in the signature block.

7. Send out articles to magazines on topics that are related to the subject of your book. You’ve written a book, so you are classed as an expert! Then make sure you give your book a plug at the end of each article. It’s also a good way of using the same material to make more money.

8. Go into local bookshops (preferably at a quiet time) and ask to speak to the manager. Many of the chains can purchase books with a local interest, at the manager’s discretion. But be prepared to discount the selling price quite heavily and you may also have to offer ‘sale or return’ terms.

9. Whatever your age, consider joining one (or more) of the social networking sites. The more ‘friends’ you have – the more you can promote your book by word of mouth. Also, ask your real (as opposed to virtual) friends to put their thinking caps on and see if they can come up with any good ideas for promoting your book.

10. Finally, don’t be a shrinking violet. If you want to publicise your book you’ve got to be pushy and explore every avenue you can think of.