Book Review

Grassroots  Marketing for Authors and Publishers
By Shel Horowitz
AWM Books
16 Barstow Lane
Hadley, MA 01035
413-586-2388
ISBN: 0-9614666-3-3
Copyright 2007
Writing/Publishing

If you’re serious about book promotion, this work by marketing guru Shel Horowitz is one you’ll want to add to your permanent reference shelf.

The book, which is divided into four main parts—Creating a Marketable Book, Publicity, Getting into-and out of-Bookstores and Libraries, and Advanced Marketing—covers the most important topics you’ll need to master to market your book successfully. Horowitz begins by explaining how to prepare an effective marketing plan according to the audience of your book, using actual plans as examples to demonstrate his point and make his ideas clear to the reader. He also discusses topics such as how to build a high-traffic website and the importance of branding yourself as expert by writing articles on the subject of your book.

The author devotes a whole chapter to Google and examines its services beyond the basic “Search”, as well as the use of Adwords and Adsense. Another thing I found particularly helpful in this book is that Horowitz uses specific examples of press releases to clearly demonstrate what works and what doesn’t. Other chapters deal with the importance of discussion groups, building your own newsletter, doing interviews, selling to bookstores and libraries, getting into Amazon, trade shows, book fairs, direct mail advertising, foreign rights, sub rights, etc. In sum, all the topics you need to cover in order to be able to market your book inexpensively but successfully. At the end of the book there’s an Appendix with a list of helpful resources.
 
The book is written in an engaging style and is a solid addition to other marketing books available today. I especially liked the use of specific examples in the press releases section and the fact that he devoted a whole chapter on the different uses of Google. I would have liked to see a longer list of book review sites on the resources section, and not only those publications that often ignore the small publishers and small press authors. In sum, the book is full of practical tips and advice and offers an amalgam of information you’ll be able to profit from when promoting your book. Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers comes highly recommended from this reviewer.

Reviewed by Mayra Calvani for The Dark Phantom Review