I get about two, sometimes three requests a week from people asking me to help them promote their book. I’m happy to do it since I love promoting good books. But I actually only help about half of the people who ask me to help. Why? The half I don’t help won’t send me a copy of the book.

That’s right. They want me to give up two to three hours of my time (or more) to read and review and blog and promote their book, but they want me to BUY the book to do so. For most of you the problem with this arrangement is obvious, but for many authors apparently, it’s not. Why? Because:

1. They truly fear that someone reading their already published book will “STEAL” the idea, or the book and make a million off of their hard work. There’s a medical term for this, it’s called paranoid.

2. They think that if they can get 100 people to BUY their book AND review it that the book will go viral.

3. Someone told them that the only way a person will honestly review a book is if they buy it. Wrong. I’m sorry, my opinion cannot be swayed either way by the gift of a digital file or even a $14.95 paperback.

4. They’re greedy. They just don’t understand reciprocity. I’m not going to give you one to three or four hours of my time valued to me at $150 an hour unless you can part with a hard copy of a paperback that cost you $3.50 to have printed and $2 to mail (media mail). If you can’t swing $6 bucks to promote your book, then good luck with selling it. I’m the one doing YOU a HUGE favor, not the other way around.

Authors, review copies are part of the cost of promoting your book. Do not ever ask a reviewer to BUY a copy to review. Most reviewers CHARGE you $50 and three free copies to formally review and post a book. Consider that the best advertising you can buy (if they’re a good reviewer).

Free BOOK:
See the book in the photo above? It’s mine. I’m giving it away to the first 1,000 people to sign up for it. Send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll add you to the list. Put FREE BOOK in the subject line. Go to http://octoberabduction.com/2011/08/05/279/ and pre-order the first book for .99 cents and you’ll get ALL 40 books FREE (digital copy only). Why? Because I want/need 1,000 people to read the book and hopefully love it enough to tell their friends about it. That’s how you promote your book. You get readers, people who love it and who will tell other people about it. If it’s good, it will sell.

You’re worried that people will pass on their free copies to other people and no one will buy it? Don’t you do the same with paperbacks? Loan them to friends? What happens? It spreads the word. For every one who sends a book to a friend two or three will buy it. The more people who are talking about it, the more who will buy it. It’s all a win for you. Why are you so greedy? A digital file cost NOTHING. Anything you make, from .99 cents on up, is profit for you. So give your books away. If you want someone to review your book send them a link to a dropbox where they can download a copy if they want it.

I’m happy to read your book and review it, or offer you suggestions on how/where to promote it. Most people who love to read will do that. If you want me to take on the job of promoting your book, meaning more than offering you suggestions and specific strategies, then you need to pay me, or you need to pay whomever you are asking to do that. It’s a JOB. It’s WORK. It has VALUE for you thus it is something that should require compensation. I can tell you, based on what and who I know as a journalist, writer, former assistant advertising director for a Fortune 500 company, who is most likely to take your book and run with it and who is not. I’m willing to give you a chunk of my experience and expertise. I’m not willing to work for free (as many, many, many would be authors expect).

Do you want me to promote, review your book or app?

Then here’s the drill. When you ask me to review your book I need a copy of the book, paperback or digital (kindle or any epub file) file is up to you. I WILL NOT PROMOTE a book, any book, without having read it first. I don’t care who you are. It’s my reputation on the line and I value it so don’t even ask. In return for the copy of your book I’ll read it, post a review, tweet it to my 1,400 followers and if it’s really, really good I’ll tell my agent about it. Not bad for about .50 an hour your cost.

Do NOT expect me to read and review the book in the next 48 hours. It goes on a list and gets reviewed when I get to it. Don’t sweat this because if you get 20 people all reviewing your book at the same time, the same week then the next week there’s nothing. Having reviews trickle in all year round keeps your name on the net, up front and current. That’s what you want. It keeps the promotion going much better than hitting the market all at once.

Follow up with me to see when I post it, then when I do, tweet the post to your friends, comment on it and post it on your Facebook page. Not only does that generate traffic to my site, helping me, it also helps you promote your own book by stirring up interest in it. People want to read what others are saying about you and about the book. It’s a win-win. You have to do YOUR part as well for it to work. Just sending out the book doesn’t mean your job is done.

The long tail of this is, when I see a HARO request for someone who has written a book, or knows something about the topic I will forward that to you so you can follow up and take advantage of a free media opportunity. You and your book become part of my connections and I will continue to hook you up when the opportunity arises. You can’t place a value on that because it could be millions, but those are the sorts of things that cause you to end up on national television or in a major magazine. The LACK of those opportunities and connections and heads up opp’s are what your greedy little, “I don’t send out free review copies” will COST you. Your choice. It’s no skin off my nose.

What I will NOT DO: I will not do the heavy lifting for you, at least not for free. And trust me, there are people who work much cheaper than I will to do the grunt work of contacting people and sending out books and getting others to review your book. I will not give you a step-by-step how-to promotional package. Those take 6-8 hours minimum to prepare and in general? As much as I may like you and your book/app, you are not worth that kind of time to me unless you are paying me for it.

I will say, “These are the organizations who are interested in this kind of material. Here are a couple of websites and the angle I would take in approaching them.” It’s up to YOU to Google the organizations, find the contact name, write the emails, do the follow-up and request the interview, unless you want to pay me to do that for you. THAT is the heavy lifting.

If your book or app is awesome, world rocking or something fun to promote and I KNOW there is going to be a lot of interest in it and it has legs just because it’s so awesome, I will do more because then it becomes easier for me and beneficial for me because I can help other people as well as you.