Effective promotional pieces will support your writing career in any number of ways. You don’t need to hire someone to produce them, or even buy special software. All you need is your regular word processing program, a good printer, and an inexpensive scanner.
Here are some of the basic promo pieces you might find useful:
Author flyer. This general flyer contains all the most important information about you and what you do and how to contact you, and projects the image you wish to convey. You’ll find many uses for it. For example, you can include it with your manuscript submissions to editors who don’t yet know you well.
Sample author flyer (PDF, 1 page)
Book flyers. You’ll need these as a quick way to convey all essential information about your books. A flyer can feature one book or many. Include scanned graphics from the book covers or interior art, and also comments from reviewers.
Sample book flyer #1 (PDF, 1 page)
Sample book flyer #2 (PDF, 2 pages)
Info docs. It’s usually quicker and easier to send someone a document of information than to try to convey detailed information over the phone or by letter. My own assortment of info docs includes “School Visits,” “Library Visits,” “Conference Appearances,” “Talks and Workshops,” “Book Sales and Ordering,” and “Fees and Expenses.”
Author profile. This is a more in-depth look than in the author flyer. Educational publications might want to publish this as an article, and teachers can use it to help prepare students for your school visit. Include personal history, a description of your writing process, and anything else that will make you come alive in the mind of the reader.
Instructional aids. Teachers may be more likely to use your book if there are classroom activities to go with it. Some authors with strong educational backgrounds prepare detailed lesson plans. For each of my own picture books, I prepare a free reader’s theater script for easy classroom dramatization.
Autographed bookmarks. Create a sheet that has several signed bookmarks on it, for photocopying and cutting into individual bookmarks. Send it ahead to schools you visit, so that even students who don’t buy books can have something to take home.
Photos. Keep a good stock of your portrait photo for sending to event organizers. You might wind up in the newspaper! A size of 4" x 6" is as large as you’ll need, and color is fine, even if the photo will be reproduced in black-and-white.
Others. No doubt you’ll think of other promo pieces suited to you and your work. Among my own are a one-page handout of my best-loved story (from a picture book now out of print), a “portrait poster” with a cartoon sketch of me by the illustrator of two of my books, and a flyer about my Web site.
For printing your pieces, a laser printer is best. Though more expensive than an inkjet and limited to black-and-white, it is much cheaper to operate and faster and produces more professional results.
Some of your pieces may be double-sided. If you have trouble running your paper through a laser printer a second time, try this trick: With your “Page Layout” options, set your word processor to print the second page upside down and backwards. Then feed the paper itself backwards into the printer.
Of course, nowadays there’s an alternative to print and paper: You can post your pieces on the Web. In fact, a Web site can have many more promo pieces and of a much greater variety than is practical or even possible in print form. Still, you’ll always need print versions of essential pieces to mail or hand out. (For a look at my own promo pieces for the Web, visit www.aaronshep.com.)
A final tip: Most promo pieces must be kept current with up-to-date information, and this can take a substantial amount of your time. So be selective and create only the pieces you need. Promotion is worthwhile, but not if it keeps you from writing!