source: http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/how-to-market-your-book-with-free-giveaways/

Written by: Dan Petrovic

Marketing a book means being creative. After all, there are new book releases coming out every other day. Staying ahead of the competition means thinking about how you can make a title and its author memorable. This is where giveaways really come in handy. People like to receive free things. The usual promotional products such as buttons, t-shirts, keychains, and desk items are useful and popular, however, it is always better to think of book-related giveaways when marketing a book. This is a chance to show people exactly what they are getting from an author. The following are some of the benefits to marketing a book with free giveaways.

Why Use Giveaways?

The key to marketing a book is to make people remember a book’s title, author, and message. This is where free giveaways become so useful. The right giveaway is something useful: An item that can be read or used while reading. By printing a book title on a bookplate, a cover image on a postcard, or offering folks the chance to download the first chapter of a book, a publisher can pique buyers’ interest. This in turn can motivate a person to invest in the book either for themselves or to give as a gift.

Exposure

Today, people do not want to spend their hard earned money on unproven products. This is why giveaways are effective: They give people a taste of what’s to come. By offering up book or reading accessories like reading lights or bookmarks, or even free chapters of a book, an author and his or her publisher give buyers a taste of what’s to come. This is a creative and effective way to spread the word about a new book release. Additionally, it ensures that people are satisfied once they invest in the book since they already have an idea of what it is about.

Book-Related Accessories

The great thing about bookmarks and bookplates is that people who like to read often collect them. Book buyers will not only gain something useful but will be more likely to invest in the title or author marketed on the book lights and postcards complete with the book’s cover art. Readers do not want yet another brochure that takes long to read or even skim. Instead, if free giveaways are book or reading related, people will be more likely to keep them and more likely to invest in the marketed book. Silicone wristbands are another great tool for marketing books, because a publisher can have the silicone accessories printed with fun quotations from the book. People will wear these bracelets around town, which in turn means that other people will see them and will be more likely to buy the book.

Free Chapters

Another giveaway and a great way to show buyers that an author and publisher are confident in a book is to offer free chapters. This can be done online with free downloads or can be done by emailing out the chapter or even printing it in brochure form. A free chapter shows readers what a book is like. This taste could wet the buyer’s appetite so that he or she invests in the book to find out what happens or what else is contained in it.

Giveaways are becoming increasingly popular as a tool for marketing books, since they are cheap, and people will keep them if they find them interesting and useful. People tend to buy books with titles and by authors they recognize. What better way to promote a book than putting the title of your book on a something that people will not throw away or walk by, but keep and look at often? Giveaways are a great, creative way to get noticed.

Dan Petrovic is a marketing specialist who writes articles for several blogs in his free time. He enjoys reading fiction, as well as nonfiction related to marketing and technology. He is currently working for 24 Hour Silicone Wristbands as a consultant.

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