How can I promote my book
Do you have any tips on having a successful book launch and what
strategies helped you the best?
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Penelope Trunk is discussing. 
Penelope Trunk founded three startups, including Brazen Careerist. Her career advice runs in 200 newspapers. Inc. Magazine called her "the world's most influential guidance counselor." More»
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Penelope Trunk 12:20 pm on August 21, 2012 Permalink
A book is something you can offer up to an audience when you have an audience. First you need to take the content you think should be in a book and use it to create an audience.
You know how if you try to tell someone everything about yourself the first time you meet them, they will not want to know anything about you? The same is true with ideas. If you try to give someone all your ideas at once, before they know anything about your ideas, then they won’t want to read your ideas.
You need to give someone pieces of what you think like you give someone pieces of your personal history. You don’t start with a book. You start with smaller things, to get people interested in you. A blog post, a column, a short YouTube video. All those things need to add up to something, that an audience appreciates, and then you give them your book, and they are excited to get it.
A lot of people are good at writing books. But writing a book is like lecturing to someone. You have to have the conversation with them, first. To make them want to listen to you. And the conversation is much harder – you have to care a lot about the people you are talking to.
Penelope