Are you an academic working on or publishing a book and nervous about your book launch strategy?

Are you an academic working on or publishing a book and nervous about your book launch strategy? I've been there ...

I've published a book a year every year since 2013 (with over 30 works published), and my academic books have done very well crossing over into mainstream media and into the hands of everyday people.

I love that my academic book reach the hands of practitioners and organizations in my field. That's what I call impact and it feels good.

If you can relate, I'd like to share what I've learned and hopefully help those of you wondering how to get more traction for your book.

I've learned a lot over these last 10 years, having published so many books. And

First, get clear on what you want your book to do in the world. There are lots of reasons why you may have published your book, but let's talk about two.

One, you may have published the book in order to make you more money

Or

Two, you may have published the book to give you more credibility, and visibility

HOW TO BRING IN INCOME FROM YOUR BOOK

If you want your book to bring more income into your household Then when you publish the book, you want to do things like speaking engagements and "selling the book from the back of the room".

You should reach out to organizations in your network to buy the book in bulk.

Do a book launch event in which you get sponsors to support that event so that you are making money on your book launch event instead of taking the money out of your pocket.

HOW TO USE YOUR BOOK FOR LEVERAGE AND CREDIBILITY

For leverage and credibility, you have to appear on platforms that give you leverage and credibility in the eyes of your audience. This is going to look like high-level media coverage on places like NPR, BBC, ABC, PBS and so on and so forth.

I have had books featured and write-up articles on my books in places like The New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, Good Morning America Digital. Those platforms help you get leverage for your ideas.

If you want to double down on the work and time commitment, you can use your book to do BOTH: to make more money and to get leverage for your ideas.

Check out this blog post here with some specific tactics for book promotion strategy.

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