Rik Feeney of Orlando, Florida writes:
“I need help from fellow Hounds on how to best promote my new book, the Puppy Lover’s Journal.
“It’s made up of 104 lined journal pages with pictures of cute little puppies of several different breeds on the bottom outside corner of each page. Since it’s a journal, you can write fond memories of your puppy, personal notes about your life, shopping lists for the grocery, or maybe even the next great romance novel. I am also publishing a similar book titled the Kitten Lover’s Journal.
“My problem is cash flow, so I need ideas that use more sweat-equity than cash from my wallet.”
Social media offers great ways to publicize your journal to people who are interested in animals. Start a blog and tag your entries with appropriate keywords so animal lovers can find them. Create a page in Facebook and offer a giveaway of your journal and have a cute puppy photo contest.
You could also write a press release and send it to targeted magazines for animal lovers.
Tie-in a percentage of sale to an animal charity and publicize it locally in media outlest.
Holiday gift guides are in full force and this would make a great gift for pet lovers.
Also local animal vets, pet grooming shops and other relevant places might be interested in posting a flyer.
The gift sections that Jenni referred to in the first comment above would be excellent places to publicize these books. The Gift List, a subscription service, provides contact information for gift guides and special sections that focus on consumer products that would make great gifts. You can read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/9es8y
Look at joining the Cat Writer’s Association and Dog Writers of America – lends credibility to your work. Look at marketing your books to pet sitters–the journals would make a great gift for them to give to clients for the holidays. There are national dog/cat/love your pet days–shoot out press releases near those events. Market to breeders who might give the book as a gift to people who adopt their dogs. Good luck!
The easiest thing, especially for those strapped for cash, is to work with people who are already reaching your target market. Offering the book to online retailers who target pet owners is easy to do, and there are thousands and thousands of them. Simply contact them via email with details of your product (along with how it will make money for the person you’re approaching) and offer to drop ship orders for them. They simply take a percentage and never have to touch, stock or deal with the product.
Pet stores and animal shelters also come naturally to mind. Starting out with locally owned stores where you are able to talk directly with a decision maker would be a great way to break in.
You could either sell them a few books at wholesale, or if they won’t go for that, offer them a couple copies on consignment. Once they see that the book sells well (hopefully it will), they may agree to buy some. Once you can show that the book sells from a retail location, it makes approaching larger stores much easier.
If your book has an ISDN (if not, it’s easy and important to get one) you can sell it on Amazon. Probably won’t produce a ton of cash, but every little bit helps. It also helps to lend credibility.
Good Luck!.
Derek Fisch
Seek out blogs and columnists that target their messages for single people, childless or empty-nest married couples. These demographics treat their pets like their children and would be likely to journal about them. Now they can keep a puppy book much like they kept or their friends keep baby journals.
I have a great idea if it is published,I can post it on my web site & offer as a drop ship item!
http://www.foxypaws.com
I just googled Puppy Lovers Journal, and I see that it’s been donated as a prize to rescue organizations, which is a great idea. What about donating it as a door prize at dog related events? I don’t recall door prizes at dog shows, but I’ve donated my house book at home shows. Have you checked out dog walks? We have at least one each year in our city. I’d think prizes would be welcome there. (Send out a press release about it. Have a photo of a dog and its owner to send along.)
Many areas have pet fairs where you could have a booth. There’s a little cost for the space, but it should be reasonable. If it’s still beyond your reach, see if you can get a list of participants ahead of time and check into splitting space and rental fees with another vendor. Also, as mentioned above, you could also approach participants to buy your books wholesale to sell or give away at their own booths.
Cheryl Pickett
http://www.publishinganswers.com
How about making a deal w/the major pet store chains that have adopt-a-pet days, to purchase them from you at deep discount and make it a give-a-way to each person who adopts a pet? Or to take them on consignment and hand out a coupon to each adopter for a buck (or percentage) off the book if purchased that day?