Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Book clubs can be a powerful marketing tool for your book – if it’s chosen by the club, that is.
When you or your publisher submits your book to a book club, make sure it fits the club’s selection criteria. If you think your book might fit (but you’re not sure), it probably doesn’t. The book club selection criteria should describe your book perfectly. You don’t want acquisition or selection managers to feel you’ve wasted their time by sending a book that doesn’t exactly match the criteria for selection or consideration.
Keep in mind that book club have a long lead time. Not only do the acquisitions managers need works or months to read your galleys along with the many other books they receive, they need to negotiate a price for the acquisition of your book (book club books are often sold more cheaply than at retail). Ideally, you should send your galleys to the book clubs six to nine months before your publication date.
Book clubs are still viable options for book marketing. They might not be as ubiquitous as in the past – but they’re actually greater in number (though many are smaller in scale). They’re worth seeking out – every opportunity for getting your book known by people is worthwhile.
Another opportunity, and one that’s increasingly difficult (but not insurmountable) is a book review. In our next post, we’ll look at how you can go about trying to get your book reviewed.
