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Former bookseller ‘Lovejoy’ answers some common questions and gives advice on how authors can help promote themselves. Do send questions to him c/o me via Andrew Lownie.
How do I get the most out of my Amazon page?
Amazon can be more than just a tool for checking on how many places a rival’s book has slipped in the chart due to a spiteful review from The Sunday Times. There is an option at the bottom of your page called “I Am The Author”. Click on it, fill in the requisite contact details and a number of options will then open up to you to improve your page. You can add review quotes from newspapers, expand your author bio , insert website address should you have one, promote backlist titles and even post up on page a short extract from your book. It’s extremely likely that additional selling points will act as a tipping point for some browsers to buy your book. Information can take up to a week to be posted on your page . Once information is up on page it’ll be there forever.
I am thinking of getting a website. What sort of material should I include on it?
It is folly to enter the battleground of selling one’s book without having a website in your arsenal. Here are some suggestions of what can or should be included on your website:
- Contact details for your publicist and agent. A decision should also be made on whether you would like your readers to email you direct.
- List of previous events which you have been involved in, as well as info on forthcoming events.
- Author bio.
- Extracts from books and quotes from reviews.
- Links to your Amazon pages.
- If you have good relations with a bookshop, who keep your book stocked with signed copies, then advertise the fact. When Conn Iggulden inserted on his website that signed copies of his Emperor Series of books could be obtained from Waterstone’s Leadenhall Market the shop sold more copies than any other store in the chain.
- Mention books you have enjoyed, or further reading.
- Links to historical places of interest related to your book. When doing this contact relevant websites and ask if they’ll reciprocate.
- Contact a fellow author (preferably one with a website) and conduct brief
Q&A interview with them, asking questions which give a platform to promote virtues of book and biographical subject.
My publisher has just asked me for a list of whom I should to send a copy of my latest book
Aside from friends who may be able to review the book, or provide a jacket quote , you should send out review copies to the following:
- History/Biography buyers for key bookshops, both local and around the rest of country.
- Events coardinators for any local libraries capable of hosting talks.
- Booksellers/Event Managers for historical places of interest related to your book. Wherever possible try to personalise book to person by finding out who they are first. Provide them with contact details should they want to arrange event or have you sign copies.
My publisher has just sent me a stack of bookplates . Will I generate sales by signing them?
Bookplates can, should and do generate sales. The question should simply be how many? Always ask your publicist for a hundred or so bookplates to sign before publication. Once signed, my advice is to make a list of key shops to distribute them to; these shops should be ones that traditionally do well in your genre or with signed copies or it may just be that store is stocking a healthy number of copies of your titles. If possible, contact the relevant dept head in the shop and say that you understand that the store does well with biography books or signed copies. Mention how you won’t be able to make it into the shop to sign, so would the store like some signed bookplates? If the bookseller seems enthusiastic, offer to send a review copy to them. It’s important that bookplates get sent to correct person, otherwise there is a danger of them getting lost. As well as at Xmas, it is worth sending bookplates out for certain titles around Mother’s/Father’s Day.
I write historical biographies. Will my books sell best from the history or the biography section?
Each book of course is its own case, but for the most part it is probably best to put it in the History Section nowadays. Firstly, biography departments are increasingly giving coverage to celebrity biographies and books involving some sort of childhood abuse. History Departments also tend to have the bigger budgets and shelf space.
Ideally, you would of course like to fight on both fronts and be placed in both the History and Biography Departments. Both Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s biography Stalin and Claire Tomalin’s biography of Pepys acheived such a feat. Should you ever go to a bookshop and sign copies - and the store has a healthy amount of stock - you might like to suggest that you be placed in both departments.
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