Honey sweetens my tea, drips thickly on toast, and smells wonderful in my bath soap. Throughout winter we hoard the honey in memory of the greening spring and golden summer. Bumblebees are stirring now. They feel the sweet breath of spring encouraging them to plunge their plump bodies into early blooming Daffodils. Spring flowers are the harbinger of new beginnings and the bees and their honey are the catalysts for that beginning. Spring is a time when we can re-invent ourselves, and our books. What are your plans for this spring? What blossoms will you cultivate to re-energize your book and you?
General themes for spring are gardening, outdoor sports, Mothers Day, and Easter. How can your book fit into any of these themes? Stretch your imagination and find the connection. Perhaps your book chronicles the Mid-Eastern strife over the ages. You could include write about how people celebrated their springs in the various cultures. Or your book is about parenting children with autism. You could create a ritual and then write an article about how to celebrate spring with an autistic child. Or you have written a regional cookbook. You can cook a spring special recipe and bring samples to your local church. Then write about people’s reactions. The possibilities are endless to align your book with the themes for spring.
When you have the connection you can blog about these themes, submit articles to local newspapers, call up your favorite radio show and offer that connection to the host. You can reinvent your book with a little imagination and willingness to tie your book to current events.
Another option to reinvent your book is to research conferences or expos that fit your book. Again stretch your imagination to find a connection. A parenting book would connect with conventions of psychiatrists and social workers. A history book would appeal to a convention of teachers. A regional cookbook would appeal to history buffs. Once you have the connection and the conference there are a number of options you can follow. Call up the administrator of the conference and offer your book for sale there, with a special discount for attendees. You can go to the conference set up a booth, and network all weekend long. And if you have credentials to be a speaker you can call the director and offer yourself as a break-out workshop presenter. Participating in some way in these conferences gives you whole new audiences for your book.
The bees are humming! Their welcome tune hints that the possibilities are endless…instead of becoming overwhelmed, expand your awareness to include all around you & the din becomes a symphony.
Copyright March 2010, Mari Selby www.selbyink.comhoney