David,

Regarding avenues to explore to market your book (that cost very little
money)

My publisher has had some success with buying google ad words:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/

Essentially you pay .05 cents per keyword per click through, and you link to
a site about the book (or its listing for sale at Amazon or somewhere). For
example you buy the word "witch" and a little ad appears in the right hand
column of anyone who has the word "witch" in their google search. Right now
it looks like there are three such ads. You can buy phrases as well, like
"harry potter", I see there is only one ad attached to that phrase. Thus
someone enters harry potter in a google search and you're right at the top
of the listings, you only pay if someone actually clicks through, so you get
the word out to a lot who don't buy but see it as well.

You can select as many keywords and phrases as you want, but only pay the
nickel when someone clicks on it. The catch is the ads will not appear if
after a week you're not maintaining a 1/20 click through. They avoid clutter
this way, and ads only remain that people are using.

I had wrote a chapter on polytheism versus monotheism  in a new book on
Battlestar Galactica titled "So Say We All" and I believe my publisher used
google keywords when the book launched at the same time as the new season
aired. He had great success with google keywords and his book Taking the Red
Pill which coincided with the third Matrix movie release, google keywords
helped the book become a top ten seller on Amazon, cost him only a couple
hundred dollars in advertising, not bad.

James John Bell
SmartMeme
http://www.smartmeme.com


On 9/17/07 4:37 PM, "David Waldron" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi peoples,
> I have recently signed the contract and done all the bits and pieces for
> my first book "Sign of the Witch: Modernity and the Pagan Revival".  In
> my "Author's package" from the publisher is a form which asks for
> additional magazines and journals etc where people might be interested
> in having review copies etc.  I've of course included the journals in
> which i have published (The Pom', Nova Religio, Journal of Religion and
> Popular Culture, Inter-cultural studies, Quadrant etc) and a list of
> some others with publications like The Cauldron, Pagan Dawn etc.  The
> publisher also has its own avenues to explore but being a niche area I
> have figured any assistance is welcome in helping sales etc.
> 
> Are there any other avenues I should consider exploring that people can
> think of?  The book itself traces the rise of the modern configurations
> of the term "Witch" from its antecedents in the early modern period,
> through the Enlightenment, Romantic revolts and onto the present etc.
> It is an academic book but I have taken pains to write it in an
> accessible style.
> 
> Any suggestions are very welcome being VERY new to the whole
> publishing/author game.
> David