Marketing Your Book through Celebrities

Seeing your book in the hands of a celebrity on television or the internet is a fantasy of all writers.  This kind of exposure is great advertisement.  Consumers look up celebrities.  They live lives we dream about, they have global followings and most importantly they have influence.  Did you know that Rory Freedman’s popular diet book Skinny B*tch had an initial press run of 10,000 copies?  Yet eighteen months later it became a best seller in the summer of 2007.  Why?  Because one of our favorite British celebrities Victoria Beckham was seen reading it.  Instant success!

This is the story of many other authors whose books landed in the right hands at the right time.  There is however, more than one way to market your book through celebrities.  It just takes creativity and many times, patience.  During the second season of the popular television show Prison Break, I became drawn to the handsome Wentworth Miller.  I had watched a few episodes of the show prior to season two, but something changed.  I was now unemployed and had much more time on my hands.  And so my fascination began.  I read articles about Wentworth, watched his interviews on YouTube and of course tried to watch all previous episodes to bring me up to speed.

It was during this time that I truly understood the power of celebrities.  Wentworth was everywhere.  He had global exposure.  He was likeable, heck he was lovable.  He reached a broad audience online and offline and through different venues.  Apparently he had been all over the internet for quite some time and I was late in discovering this gorgeous, mild mannered and impressive actor.  I also learned a very valuable lesson about having a celebrity associated with your book.

While searching for more articles and information on Wentworth Miller, I came across a blog post.  In it, the author confessed that most of her blog’s traffic was generated from searches for Wentworth Miller.  Have you caught my drift yet?  My search for Wentworth Miller brought me to her blog.  The mere mention of his name in her post came up in my search.  If you are blogger, it will be helpful to occasionally include popular topics and celebrities in your posts.  This will draw an audience familiar with current events and those attracted to celebrities.

Of course if you know a celebrity and are able to get your book into his or her hands, then by all means take that leap.  The question is how many of us know celebrities and are in a position to just hand them our newly published book?  There are numerous other ways to market your book through Hollywood’s elite.  Being the right place at the right time can also be very beneficial.  If you live in California or New York the chances are higher that you will bump into a celebrity, but it will not increase your chances of having them promote your book.  Therefore it is important that you are able to formulate creative book marketing ideas that will market your book through celebrities.