Your networks within the academic community are a powerful tool for promoting your book. Here are some tips on how you can make the most of them to get the word out.
Five 5-minute promotional activities
- Add a link to your book to your email signature
COMING SOON: “My New Book”
Pre-order now: [address of your book’s webpage]
2. Tell your librarian
Let them that you have a new book out and ask them to buy a print or digital copy for your institution. Ask colleagues to do the same. The ‘Recommend to Library’ link on your book’s web page makes it easy.
3. List it in your publications
Put a link to your book on your faculty web page and list it under publications on academia.edu or LinkedIn.
4. Post on your social media accounts
Not sure what to post about? Here are a few ideas:
- Post your book jacket artwork
- Do a countdown to publication: “One month to go!”, “It’s almost here…”
- Share a photo of you with your newly-arrived author copies
- Share your author friends-and-family discount code: “Save 35% on my new book with web code BB135, only at boydellandbrewer.com”
5. Contact alumni associations and academic message boards
Drop a line to your alumni association to let them know about your new book. Post a link to your book on message boards and listservs.
Write a blog or author Q&A
We invite all authors to write for our blog Proofed about some aspect of their book or their research journey. If you are writing on Medieval studies or African studies we might also ask to interview you for our newsletters the Medieval Herald and African Griot. All articles are shared by email and social media and get a temporary extra discount!
If you belong to a learned organisation that has a newsletter, blog or podcast, let them know about your book and ask if they would be interested in an article discussing some aspect of your research. We could even license a short excerpt of the book for them. Some blogs will accept ‘reblogged’ articles – that is ones that have already been posted on a different site – but if you do find that several outlets are interested, it is best to have an original piece for each.
Keep us up to date
Share your speaking schedule: if you are speaking at a conference or panel event, let us know. Usually, we can only send books to events we are already attending but we can highlight your session on our social channels and share a discount code for your book.
Alert us to new reviews: most journals do not automatically send copies of book reviews to the publisher. If you spot a review of your book, please let us know so we can request access to the text to quote on our website and in promotional materials.