Author Name: Jay Thomas Willis
Book Title(s): Implications For Effective Psychotherapy With African-Americans; As Soon as the Weather Breaks; The Cotton is High; Born to be Destroyed; Paranoid but not Stupid; Why Black Americans Behave as They Do; Hard Luck; When the Village Idiot Get Started; Educated Misunderstanding; The Devil in Angelica.
Marketing Subject: Marketing by Handing Out Fliers
Passing out fliers can be an inexpensive way to market your book. Once you get the fliers printed, all it takes is time and energy. You might even be able to produce them on a sophisticated printer and home computer.
You can pass out fliers on the street corner, at the mall, or you can put them on the windshield of cars. You can pass them out at book signings, at bookstores or at any other gathering. In marketing your book sometimes you have to get down to gritty business, and some people don’t like to do this. Some writers especially feel they are too erudite to sink to this level, but it is necessary if you want to sell your books.
Since a lot of people are going to throw them away, or drop them where they find them, you should get them done in large quantities and in an inexpensive a manner as possible—while still maintaining some sense of quality. You will likely have to hand out quite a few fliers to find someone interested in your book, but that is the nature of the numbers game. Be sure not to misspell any words or otherwise make any other typographical errors. If you make mistakes on your fliers they are most certainly not going to purchase your book. The fliers must represent you in your finest hour. Even though you don’t want to go overboard, they should look professionally done.
Keep some fliers on hand at all times; you never know when you are going to come in contact with other individuals who might be interested in your book. If you don’t have fliers you will likely come across those who might be interested. It always seemed that I never had fliers when I needed them.
On the flier you should have a picture of the front and back cover of your book, a description of the book’s content, an order form, and any other information relevant to the purchase of the book. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Keep the flier to one sheet of 8 ½ X 11 inch paper. Print on both sides while folding it.
Some people can’t see using a shotgun approach, by passing out to a large number of people hoping to get some of them to purchase a book. But this is the nature of the business. It is necessary in this business to be thick skinned. If not you won’t sell many books.
