Self-publishing is a Viable Option in Today's Market

I used the following "copy" flyer to promote my "Novel in A Nutshell" entitled FANS: "Former high school and college basketball star Rod Lawson, crippled in a nightmarish accident, reunites with his young son and himself while searching for a killer. Read all about it in FANS, a BAAT Publishing Novel in A Nutshell by the creator of this new genre form. Get your copy today! Novels in A Nutshell are handcrafted items available only through mailorder."

At the bottom of the copy flyer, I included ordering and mailing information, along with blank lines for the purchaser to fill in, and a tear off receipt.

Self-publishing and mailorder marketing are a natural pair.

Using direct mailorder marketing to spread the word about a new self-published book is a percentage game, but the big advantage in self-publishing is the writer-publisher controls her own interests. It's her work marketed by her using a direct mailing approach, such as a copy flyer describing the book. She creates the flyer, too. After all, she knows more about her book than anyone else.

A piggyback method may also be used. The self-publisher's flyer can be mailed with a business's, or individual's printed advertisement whenever a compatible topic and a willing product manager can be found. For instance, the writer-publisher could piggyback her book on tennis flyer with a flyer by a sports outlet that sells tennis equipment. Simply match the topics, or products to piggyback.

Book signings at the local library are also a free advertisement and promotional tool that serve a dual purpose for the self-publisher. The writer-publisher sells her work and keeps in touch with community members important to her enterprise.

News releases are very useful as a self-publisher's tool. These releases are simply an overview of the author's single, or multiple works composed as a local news item. An example follows:
"Napoleon, OH -- An exciting new genre form is now available from BAAT Publishing, a local enterprise. Quick-read, handcrafted pages are used to compose Novels in A Nutshell, such as SOMETHING WICKED, which relates the story of Airy Breezewell. The protagonist is a mindboggling study in reviewing her past from her sheltered room in a nursing home. Is there murder in her days of old?

"Novels in A Nutshell are adventures, mysteries, and fantasies told in a condensed story format. The volumes are potential novel length stories, sometimes with crafted illustrations, produced completely by hand, with stencil and geographic designs, and imagination, and include a handsome story bookmark."

The release can include further information about the author, her credentials, her work, and background history so news editors may know where the self-published work is coming from and who its readership is likely to be, from the editor's perspective. Releases can be sent to any newspaper, but it makes sense to give the local ones a priority mailing.

There are numerous options open to the self-publisher when it comes to getting the word out about her unique work. Ideas are everywhere. For sharing and utilizing ideas, the writer-publisher must never limit her horizons.

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Sources: BAAT Publishing, PO Bx 893, 1212 E.Riverview Ave., Napoleon, OH, 43545. Send to this address for discount coupons and ordering blanks.