creative ways to market your novel

Short and sweet article that may spark some marketing ideas for you novelists out there.

Back to BEA in chunks:

People asked me what I thought about the Their Eyes Were Reading Smut panel featuring Nick Chiles, Nikki Turner, Benilde Little and Malaika Adero. Well my first response is: I'm tired of the conversation, period. Why are we discussing street fiction versus literary fiction anyway? Why aren't we talking about getting people reading in general? Why aren't we talking about ways to reach our young people? Why are we gripping about a certain subsection of our literature?

I have/had my own views on street fiction, but I've gotten over myself to look at the bigger picture: We need to work on forming a culture of readers.

And instead of complaining about not enough "literary" writers getting shine, guess what Felicia did? She started a website called BackList where she can highlight whoever she wants. My question is: what are some us doing to change the landscape beyond complaining? Malaika Adero is starting a literary festival in Harlem that will help promote literary writers. Sometimes actions do speak louder than words.

During the conversation it was brought up that "literary writers" can learn promotion from street writers. AMEN. The more and more I talk to writers who don't write street fiction, it is amazing to me how many really aren't interested in promoting their book and more disappointing really aren't interested in connecting with the community for which they write. But they have time to complain about the growth of street fiction. Here's an idea: take some of that energy and invest it into yourself, into reaching the community, and into promoting reading.

I think one of the best comments came from Lee McDonald at Karibu Bookstores. She talked about the responsibility of bookstores to inform customers about the breadth of books available. It isn't about picking one genre over the other, it is about promoting the array of African American literature out there and encouraging a culture of reading across the spectrum.