Worst book promotion idea ever - part 2.

Well, have you ever seen the author of a cancelled book get so many opportunities to promote himself? Okay, so Fox News is off the table now. But how many times have you seen O.J. Simpson's face, and heard his voice, in the past 24 hours?

Hey, let's make a deal. Let's promise to not tell Simpson about iUniverse. The last thing we want is for that person to publish the book himself.

We know that opportunities for O.J. Simpson to promote this particular book, even if it doesn't carry its intended imprint, would be limitless. And, somehow, I don't believe his children would be the beneficiaries of book sales . . . nor do I think Ron or Nicole's other relatives would get a penny of the proceeds.

Yuck.

Worst book promotion idea ever.

Here's the worst way ever to get a publisher interested in your book and to get an unlimited amount of publicity to go along with it: murder a couple of people. We've just read a story that makes us feel even worse about the Simpson story. Click here to read about why a publisher decided to publish, and help promote, Simpson's new book.

On a personal note, I just scheduled an interview for a client on Fox News Channel for this weekend. I checked with my client first to see whether he wanted to appear on the network that's helping promote Simpson's new book. He's perfectly comfortable with it. I wish I could say the same.

Buying Book Promotion

Q. I am a self-published novelist. How can I buy the media's attention to increase book sales?

A. You can buy advertising in the various media, and that might help book sales if your self-published novel has a very targeted readership. You can also buy a small number of book reviews. The book reviews you pay for can help publishers in limited ways (for example, the small press buyer for one of the national bookstore chains insists on seeing book reviews), but they're not going to convince other media decisionmakers that they have to cover your book. Your book has to do that on its own.

Can you pay a national television or radio show host to interview you? No. Can you bribe a reviewer to review your book, or an editor to assign your book to a beat editor? Sorry.

If there's a news story behind your novel, then let the media know about it, and you'll get book promotion opportunities the old-fashioned way: by earning them. Pitch, persuade, and work, and you'll see book promotion opportunities come your way -- if your book is newsworthy. But, no, you can't "buy" book promotion opportunities. No book publicist can buy media placements, nor are book promotion specialists connected enough to cooerce major media outlets to provide media coverage of their clients' work. Books have to stand on their own and, unfortunately, there's no way to buy a guarantee of book promotion opportunities...at any price.