Publicity is free, someone said.
I called my oupa, opera star Dawie Couzyn, and found out from him how to approach this whole publicity business. Here is the advice he gave:
You find out who the editor of cultural events is at the main newspapers in each city. He named papers and editors here.
You call them. Not email; phone call. Why? Because it's interactive, because they can hear your voice, and so on. You tell them that you have (whatever it is, in our case) a new novel out, first of a series, first by a new South African author, and it's in print now!
You post them (snail mail or email) a press release. You write it. Stands to reason. I did write our own article for the Rekord, too, up to a point.
You mail the same article to all the major newspapers and any number of minor ones. They don't mind.
And then you employ a clipping service to keep an eye on whenever your name pops up in any of those newspapers.
So Iain found out the numbers of those (and MANY more) papers.
I need to start calling them tomorrow.
I also have to email Riana with the details of the poster we need for the 21st. Tonight.
I need to invite people to the book signing and the Gaiana Gypsy concert. Tonight.
Alright, so I followed all the steps above. Results: One mention on a list of 10 new books, in the Pta News. No reviews. Not even a selling price or where the book is available, but that's regardless, because I wouldn't just buy a book off a list of ten titles without knowing anything further about it. I wouldn't even bother to ask about the book.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently running low on copies to send out to people for free. I haven't yet made enough profit to finance the third print run. I have 18 copies out on consignment of which I know 3 have sold - I don't know about the rest. I can't afford more consignment or review copies to give away until I have made enough for the third run.
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