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ALL the old-school staples of book promotion — the book festival, the tour, the glowing newspaper review — Kelly Corrigan got none of them to promote The Middle Place. What was a new author to do? She cobbled together a trailer for her 2008 memoir on her home computer, using iMovie software, downloading a free tune off the Web for background music, and stuck it on her website. Her agent helped get her on one network television morning show. About 20 friends hosted book parties during a self-funded, three-week blitz, selling books out of the trunk of her car. At one party a guy shot video of her reading, which she posted on YouTube. A year later, the book has sold about 80,000 copies in hardcover and another 2,60,000 in paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan data. It sat on the New York Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, peaking at No. 2. That homemade trailer has been viewed more than 1,00,000 times. The video of her reading has drawn 4.5 million hits. She’s visiting Washington to speak at the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Award luncheon, followed by more than a dozen paid speaking gigs nationwide in the next six weeks. "I hand-sold at least 2,000 to 3,000 copies," the 42-year-old said in an interview this week from her home in Oakland, CA, USA. "And while the hardcover was doing well, everything changed with that video from the reading." Corrigan, spending
$3,700 for the website and her tour, figured out a path through the
weird new-media maze of authors overseeing their own marketing and
promotion, using the Internet and networks of friends to get their
little-known works off the ground. "Being an author has become
much more of an ongoing relationship with your audience through the
Web, rather than just writing a book and disappearing while you write
the next one," says Liate Stehlik, publisher of William Morrow
and Avon Books. "You have to be out there in the online world,
talking and participating." — BY arrangement with LA
Times-Washington post
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