Books Don’t Sell Themselves: A Primer on Maximizing Your Local Book Sales

NOTE: All in-person classes have been suspended until further notice. Our goal is to keep everyone as healthy as possible and help slow the spread of this disease in order to protect the most vulnerable among us. We hope to reschedule this class soon. Please email info@litcleveland.org with any questions.

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In this class, participants will learn about the business of writing for authors who are published or soon-to-be published by a small press or an academic press as well as those who are self-published. The intent of the class is to provide participants with specific marketing strategies to tackle the daunting task of selling a book. As an editor at Norton said, “Every book is a start-up.”

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Participants will learn how to:

— Build a credible digital profile, improving their chances of selection to appear at bookstores, book fairs, writing conferences, and other selling opportunities;

— Tap into the established channels for selling books in the local market, including book stores, library systems, and book fairs;

— Encourage their publishing house, whether small press or academic press, to invest in marketing their book;

— Find affinity groups to whom to sell their books at a lower cost to the author; and,

— Frame their book in ways that attract traditional media channels of television, radio, and newspaper.

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All sections will contain actual examples of success stories.

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