How to promote a self-published textbook?
March 29, 2020 8:27 AM Subscribe
What is the best way to promote a self-published medical textbook? How to get reviews, interviews, and assistance with distribution?
The book is about the intersection of medicine and technology and is written by a retirement-age older friend. He wrote a previous book published on Lulu that ended up getting picked up by universities and doing pretty well, sales-wise. But it was word of mouth, largely. The sales were sort of a fluke. Now that he's written a new book, he realizes he doesn't know how to proceed.
I've offered to help. What are the proper channels for this? Are there obvious places to send the book to get write-ups, reviews, commentary, or anywhere else that might help promote and distribute the book for him?
The book is about the intersection of medicine and technology and is written by a retirement-age older friend. He wrote a previous book published on Lulu that ended up getting picked up by universities and doing pretty well, sales-wise. But it was word of mouth, largely. The sales were sort of a fluke. Now that he's written a new book, he realizes he doesn't know how to proceed.
I've offered to help. What are the proper channels for this? Are there obvious places to send the book to get write-ups, reviews, commentary, or anywhere else that might help promote and distribute the book for him?
People are scrambling to do coursework online now so maybe teachers & professors are your audience. I would put together a list of discussion questions and then send out materials to people teaching at local schools, such as the discussion questions plus an excerpt. The goal is to get the professor to think, "oh, this will be something I can do this week while getting the rest of my materials online."
If the professor assigns a book, the book gets bought (and maybe even read). If he could put together a website with an easy solution for educators, I bet some of them would really like it. If you get a few local educators using the book then word of mouth will help it spread.
I self-published a small study guide for a state licensing exam in my field. It was 10 years ago (!!) and it's on its 3rd edition and still selling. There is nothing like having the professor assign the book to boost sales!
posted by selfmedicating at 9:39 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
If the professor assigns a book, the book gets bought (and maybe even read). If he could put together a website with an easy solution for educators, I bet some of them would really like it. If you get a few local educators using the book then word of mouth will help it spread.
I self-published a small study guide for a state licensing exam in my field. It was 10 years ago (!!) and it's on its 3rd edition and still selling. There is nothing like having the professor assign the book to boost sales!
posted by selfmedicating at 9:39 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by tmdonahue at 8:38 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]