Out of the Box Promotion with Charles Yallowitz

Who said promoting your book couldn’t be fun? Thank you Charles for these fabulously funny suggestions.

A big thank you to the Jo for having me on for a guest post so soon after being part of the promotional tour for my latest book, Legends of Windemere: Tribe of the Snow Tiger. This is the 10th volume of this series and I’ve found that it’s one of the most difficult to do any promotion for. The entire story revolves around a heavy revelation of Timoran Wrath’s past and the twists that come along with it. It brings the big man into the spotlight for once, so I don’t want to spoil things by saying too much. Yet, I have to say something and I’ve come up with several methods with varying degrees of usefulness.

1. Just put one line from the book in a post behind a ‘Read More’ cut. It doesn’t matter if context is a problem, people complain about the confusion, and that you refuse to explain who Lucy is. You did a promo and got people talking. Though the conversation usually revolves around where to find torches and pitchforks at this time of night.

2. Take a tip from the government and redact until you feel comfortable. Be creative with the colors too. So what if the excerpt looks like a tired college student mistook a permanent marker for a highlighter. You’re pretty sure the essence of the scene can be captured by those 10 words that survived your paranoia.

3. Write fake excerpts that are kind of connected to the story, but never show up in the actual book. What could go wrong since people won’t know until they book and read the thing? There they go talking about torches and pitchforks again. Maybe you shouldn’t have been so open about your home address.

4. Only promote through skywriting. It’s expensive, but you can’t put long messages up there. There would be no temptation to say more than you should. People can see skywriting from everywhere in the world, right?

5. Repeatedly swear that everything on the Internet is a lie, so you can post spoilers that nobody will believe. People will think you’re pulling a gag. At least until those who read the book show up to confirm the information. Maybe you can add a ‘non-disclosure agreement’ to your book. What are the chances of a reader not signing that?

6. Buy a decent video camera, start up a YouTube channel, and promote your book through interpretive dance. You laugh, but this will get you and your books attention. People will wonder what kind of craziness is in those stories if the author is twirling around on camera with a jack o’ lantern painting on their belly. Especially since there is no indication that Halloween has anything to do with the books. Best part of this is that you can go spoiler heavy and nobody will have a clue.

7. Be as vague as possible with all promos. If you get to the point where even you aren’t sure what the book is about then mission accomplished.

Interested in a new adventure? Then grab your Kindle & dive back into the world of Windemere! Don’t forget an apple for Fizzle.

About the Author:

Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.

 

 

Blog: www.legendsofwindemere.com
Twitter: @cyallowitz
Facebook: Charles Yallowitz
Website: www.charleseyallowitz.com