Tips for Promoting Your First Book: Even When You Feel Clueless

Guest Blogger

Jul 31

By Jennifer Lang

A few months before my first book launches into the world, I find myself, like so many writers trying to juggle writing and book promotion, overwhelmed. All week, I tackle a learn-as-I-go list: contact book bloggers, research book awards, create Canva flyers. Some tasks are self-imposed, others are necessary, particularly when working with a small, independent press.

Yesterday, amidst checking the ARCs of my book, Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature, for typos, I was simultaneously:

on Goodreads (leaving a review of the novel I read, finding friends, following authors, editing my profile);
on email (asking anyone with whom I've shared my manuscript to leave me a Goodreads review, alerting my west coast tribe about my upcoming visit in September, alerting my east coast tribe about my upcoming visit in October);
on Instagram (sharing a review/interview);
on Facebook (sharing a milestone, private messaging a writer I admire to ask for a review);
on Word (writing answers for an interview, brainstorming possible companion pieces);
on Amazon (claiming my author profile);
on Bookbub (checking the status of my author profile)
back on Facebook (commenting on other people's milestones)

… need I continue?

By day's end, my head spins like a Sufi dancer.

I am frazzled and baffled on a daily basis. This week, after the publisher sent me 20 shareable digital ARCs, I didn't understand. Share with whom? Months ago, I asked people for endorsements. With less than three months to go, trade reviews are out of the question. So who, pray tell, is supposed to be reading it now and if they do, then what?

The next day, during a catch-up phone call with an old MFA friend, I was caught off guard.

"You really know what you're doing, and you're doing it," she said from seven thousand miles away.

My loud genetic cackle interrupted her.

"No really, I mean it."

"Except I've got no idea what I'm doing," I said.

"Well, you're doing a great job so keep doing it."

Later, that same day, a memoirist working with the same publisher, Vine Leaves Press, emailed, saying: "… it looks (to me) like you totally know what you're doing, speaking at conferences, teaching writing in Israel and possibly planning to apply to be a speaker with AWP. I have no clue how to approach any of this."

I chuckled. I must look more confident than I feel.

So I began to ponder. What's my process? What are my tricks?

Perhaps it looks like this:

Play the Poser. Act like you know what you're doing.
Fake it—with a smile—while you figure it out.
Lean on your network, whether on the Facebook group "Binders Building Platforms," or MFA mates, or childhood friends in the same field.
Write down your questions. Be specific. Keep a running list.
Reach out to authors whose work you admire and send them a message to introduce yourself and let them know how much their words move you.
Reach out to authors who have a book and introduce yourself and ask questions.
Reach out to authors who are a step ahead of you with their book and ask questions.
Get out of your comfort zone. Like my yoga teacher Susan always said: if you never fall in a pose, your poses will never change.
Be grateful and polite when you ask questions or need favors.
Remember it takes a village and acknowledge on social media those who help you get from point A to point B.
Let the people you ask favors of know you are there to support them when they need it.

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Jennifer Lang is a California transplant in Tel Aviv. Her prize-winning essays appear in Baltimore Review, Under the Sun, Midway Journal, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is an Assistant Editor at Brevity. She runs israelwriterstudio.com and practices/teaches yoga. Her first book, Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature, launces next month, followed by Landed: A yogi's memoir in pieces & poses, in October, both with Vine Leaves Press.