How to Promote Your Book: A Practical Guide to Publicizing Your Own Title

"Writing a great book is the easy part. Getting people to buy the book is wicked hard. Jan’s book shows you what promotion to do so you increase the possibility that your book becomes a bestseller.”

—Jeffrey Fox,bestselling author,How to Become a Rainmaker

"Being an author is 50% creative and 50% promotion. Jan Yager's comprehensive and practical book, How to Promote Your Book, tells authors exactly what they need to know and do to promote their book. I'm recommending it to all the authors I know including those whose books I share through my Bedside Reading program."

—Jane Ubell-Meyer, CEO, Bedside Reading, former TV producer, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, WSJ-TV

Whether your book is being released through a commercial publisher or an academic press, or you are self-publishing it, as the author, you can and should play a crucial role in getting your title seen, talked about, and sold. And while you may watch dozens of authors pitch their books on TV, in social media, and in bookstores, they represent only a fraction of the writers who come out with new books each year. What do they know that you don’t? They know what to do to get attention for themselves and, more important, for their books—and as you will discover in book publishing veteran Jan Yager’s How to Promote Your Book, you can, too.

The book is divided into three sections. Part One begins with a look at promotion basics. These include knowing what your book’s marketplaces are, who your audience is, how the media is divided, the elements involved in publicity, and how to create an effective promotional timeline. Once you understand the basics, Part Two focuses on the ways to package and market yourself to the various book and media outlets. It discusses putting together professional looking press releases and media kits. It also explains how to obtain endorsements and reviews, as well as how to generate speaking engagements and interviews with journalists; bloggers; and radio, TV, and podcast hopes. Part Three provides a plan that covers the fi rst three months of an author’s publicity program—from the day the book is formally released through all the media events that have been lined up. Throughout the book, you will find insets that answer important questions such as, “What are the real costs involved?” and “Should I promote myself or hire a publicists?” Just as important, the author includes a valuable resource guide that provides the names, addresses, and links to many of the key places covered in the book.

Jan Yager has enjoyed a fabulous career as both a best-selling author and a publisher. She has been interviewed by many of the top shows on TV and radio. In How to Promote Your Book, she lets you in on what she has done—both for herself and for her authors—to open the door to effective publicity.

Dr. Jan Yager received her M.A. in criminal justice from Goddard College and a Ph.D. in sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Beginning at the age 23, she began her publishing career first working at Macmillan Publishing Company, and then at Grove Press working directly under the company’s founder Barney Rosset. There she learned to do everything from selling foreign and subsidiary rights to acquisitions, publicity, and sales. Jan’s life has been all about writing and publishing, books. She is the author of more than 40 books published by such major houses as Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Scribner, Wiley, and Doubleday, as well as self-published by her own company, Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.

Dr. Yager has been interviewed on such major TV shows as Oprah, ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) and The View, NBC's Today, and CBS's Mornings and Sunday Morning along with program segments on CNN, MSNBC, and BBC-TV in London. Dr. Yager’s award-winning titles include Foreign Rights and Wrongs; Effective Business and Nonfiction Writing; Career Opportunities in the Publishing Industry (with Fred Yager); BusinessProtocol; Victims; When Friendship Hurts (translated into 29 languages); Friendshifts; The Pretty One (a novel); Untimely Death (a novel, with Fred Yager); The Quiet Dog (illustrated by Mitzi Lyman); Work Less, Do More; and Put More Time on Your Side among others. Dr. Yager and her husband, Fred, reside in Stamford, Connecticut.