Bookseller

The Sometimes Awkward All-Consuming Art of Promoting Your Book

Oh hi!

Remember last spring when I told you I’d be sending a monthly Substack…and then I didn’t?

Yeah, I remember it too.

I plan on getting back to those monthly inbox surprises this fall, but something happened this summer I wasn’t expecting: A Surprise Book Project.

I love summer. The warm air, swimming in the ocean or at a pool, beach walks and time spent outside reading a book…I crave it all. Even before this summer started, I knew it would be different. I was smack dab between two different book projects in various stages, and then the Surprise Book Project happened. The one I can’t talk about yet, but couldn’t say no to (I am still giddy over this one and can’t wait to share what it is). But I still wanted to enjoy summer even though I was juggling three book babies.

So what did I do?

I dragged my laptop to the beach. Now, friends, I don’t actually advise this. One of these days I’m going to suck it up and buy myself a FreeWrite, but I was so desperate for salt air and seagulls that I started carting my beach chair, umbrella and laptop down to the ocean and prayed to Poseidon that I didn’t drop my MacBook on the way to the water. When I wanted to go on a plotting beach walk, I put the laptop in a bag and carried it down the beach with me. I’m not sure I advise any of this, but I did find a way to enjoy the best of summer, work on those book babies, and prepare for a book launch this fall.

I know I’ve mentioned how when my first book came out, I was so relieved that I thought my work was done. But NO, NO, NO. That’s when the real work begins, and selling a book, and promoting a book, I will admit, even after twenty years, I still find kind of awkward. In the beginning, every friend I knew wanted to come to my book events because seeing me publish was shiny and new. But now? I feel guilty asking friends to come to local book signings when they’ve done it so many times before. I hate spamming readers with post after post about a new book, sometimes several times a week. I get frustrated trying to come up with ten million ways to say the same thing over and over: I HAVE A BOOK OUT THIS TUESDAY!

But I also know making sure the world knows you have a book coming out is super important so I keep doing it. I ask my friends to show up. I make the TikToks about my books. I come up with ways to keep promoting. Because as you’ve probably heard other authors tell you: If you want to write books, you have to sell your books. And if your books sell well, and you’re really lucky, hopefully someone will want you to write another book. And another.

Authors talk a lot about how to promote a book, and I wish we could tell you we’ve come up with a foolproof way to make sure people not only know your book exists, but want to buy it too, AND come to events, but I don’t. So we all keep trying to find ways to make this book buying business interesting. Large author events! (Like the NOVL Days one above that I did ages ago with fellow Little, Brown Books for Young Readers authors) Online events! Preorder Incentives! I’ve tried it all with various results. During the pandemic, when we couldn’t have in-person events, I even tried something called Books and Baking. My friend Heather at Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA came up with the idea. We’d host a book cooking show where readers tuned in to make a recipe with me that ties into the book I’m talking about.

There was only one problem.

I can’t cook.

But I was determined to try, so when my book CURSED, the final Fairy Tale Reform School book came out, I found a local baker who helped me come up with an easy(ish) recipe—an apple bundt cake remained Ollie’s Patty Cakes, for a food item in my books. I nervously tested it a bunch of times, and then went live to show readers how to make the cake while Children’s Book World and I talked about CURSED. When the event went well, and I didn’t burn down my house in the process, we kept doing the show every few months throughout the pandemic. My kids reaped the rewards of all those snacks and I found I actually could bake when I followed a recipe closely and bought a decent standing mixer.

So apologies in advance, but if you’ve been following me online, you’ve already been spammed with my book news. I have a new book coming out this week called FAIRY GODMOTHER, and no matter how many times I’ve posted about it already, I still get comments like, “I had no idea you had a new book!” It’s the first book in a new Disney YA series called Enchanters Tales.

There will be no Books and Baking episode for this one (though I am a bit mad at myself that I didn’t think of this idea till now—Wouldn’t it be cute if I tied in Fairy Godmother’s pumpkin transformation with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins???), but I have been running a preorder incentive all summer. Readers who want a personalized signed copy of FAIRY GODMOTHER can order from my friends at Books of Wonder, where I’ll also be doing an event this week.

If a reader in the U.S. preorders from any retailer in the U.S., that’s great too! I found it worked great if they sent me a DM on social media of a screenshot of their book order. When they did, I sent them a bookmark, signed bookplate, and a sticker.

I still have book swag left so I decided I’m going to keep the deal going release week because why not? (Prepare for more posts!) Then for in-person events, I’ve also been working with Cinderella’s mice to make small fairy godmother wish dust bottles and I hired my younger cousin to make “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” friendship bracelets.

Will any of these things make a reader want to come meet me in person? I’ll report back and let you know! What I have learned after all these years, is that every book I get to publish is a gift. I’m grateful to still be publishing after twenty years in this business and whether a new book requires me to bake, make friendship bracelets, or take to TikTok to embarrass my children with my posts, I’m going to keep doing it.

But maybe I will buy myself that FreeWrite before next summer.

And now, back to work!

XO Jen