THE ICE PICK

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, by Jay Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001. ISBN 0-89879-983-X. $14.99.

Just as guerrillas must improvise to fight a better-financed and better-armed enemy, guerrilla marketing for writers is about using "unconventional weapons and tactics that substitute time, energy, and imagination for money."

You may think selling your book to a publisher is the end, that after you celebrate you can get on with writing your next book. But "writing a good book doesn’t guarantee recognition or royalties," largely because few books receive adequate promotion. It makes you wonder why publishers bother publishing the books in the first place. To help you overcome this lack of publicity, the authors list and explain one hundred free or low-cost ways for you to attract attention and sell your books.

Although nonfiction is easier to promote and sell than fiction, and most of the techniques listed here work better for nonfiction, there are still plenty of weapons in the arsenal available for novelists. For example, you might start a quarterly newsletter or a zine with teasing excerpts from your book; reviews; letters from pleased readers; answers to questions about writing; and news about your book tours, interviews, and forthcoming books. You could even join with others in your genre to produce such a newsletter, sharing the publicity, the work, and the cost. Or, if your job requires or permits travel for meetings, etc., try to fit in readings, interviews, or book signings on your trips. And while "the average number of books sold at a book signing is four," this book lists things you can do to help ensure success.

"Writing and promoting books are both full-time jobs, so weigh the desire to help and the visibility of getting involved against the most productive way to use your time." In the end, the authors say, your courage and your enthusiasm can make or break your book’s success. "This is not a challenge for the faint-hearted. Only a total commitment to your literary and financial objectives will motivate you . . . to overcome the challenges you will encounter." But before you lose heart, the book includes a number of things you can do to uplift your spirit and harness your own inner strength, ranging from little things like writing ideal reviews of your book or pasting a write-up of your book in the number one slot on a bestseller list, to major things like scaling down your goals until your successes make you ready to meet the demands of major publishers and media.

If you would like to read excerpts from this book, see the January, February, and March 2001 issues of Writer’s Digest.

The index is excellent, and the book includes a "Resource Directory" listing publicity services, writer’s organizations, etc.; a list of "weapons" for fiction and nonfiction; advice on finding a publicist and how your network of family, friends, and acquaintances can help you; a sample media kit; a publicity campaign timeline; and a publicity questionnaire.

This book won’t tell you how to write a successful book, but if you want to make money from your writing, if you want to know how to turn your book into a bestseller, or if you’re not happy with the promotion--or lack of it--that your publisher is providing for your book, you may find the answers you need here.

{Published in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2001.}